How to: Karmic Koala on Acer 1410 / 1810T/ 1810TZ

[PatrickVogeli]

Just for reference:

Hi there all,

I start this thread hoping to help everyone who uses ubuntu in setting up their little timeline to work as good as possible and optimize battery life. I run ubuntu 9.10 64 bits nearly trouble free.

This guide was first started at Notebook Review Forums. There are a lot of Acer 1410/1810T/1810TZ users over there.

Packard Bell / Gateway clones:
This guide has also been tested on a Packard Bell Dot M/U with bios v3303, and it should also work on the Gateway clone. If you have a 1410/1810 and something doesn't work, please report back.

Working after a standard Ubuntu 9.10 install:

- Graphics
- Audio out, speaker mutes when pluging in headphones. Good volume.
- Networking, both wireless (intel wifi 1000) and wired (the atheros gigabit)
- FN +:
· F4, suspends fine
· F6, monitor goes black
· F7, touchpad on / off
· F8, mute
· F9, Bloq Num
· RePag: Home
· AvPag: End
· Up: increase volume
· Down: decrease volume
· Righ: increase brightness: skips steps.
· Left: decrease brightness: skips steps.
· J,K,L, etc: numeric keyboard ok.

What's not working:

- Audio in: the integrated mic doesn't work.
- FN + F5: not recognised, doesn't toogle displays
- Wireless power saving
- Hibernate / suspend: won't resume properly.

Power saving tips:

By default, an ubuntu install won't take too much care of saving power, which is very important in an ultra mobile laptop. You can easily setup the system to enter some power saving modes, specifically the sata controller and the sound chip.

I've setup a script which will take care of making the devices entering the power saving mode when the laptop is on battery.

#!/bin/sh
  # Make sure brightness switch enabled stays on N, even on resume.
  echo N > /sys/module/video/parameters/brightness_switch_enabled
  # Disable wake on lan
  ethtool -s eth0 wol d

# Go fast on AC power.  Similar to default Ubuntu settings
if on_ac_power; then
  # Remount ext3 filesystems so the journal commit only happens every 60
  # seconds. This reduces disk activity.
  mount -o remount,commit=5,atime,diratime /
  mount -o remount,commit=5,atime,diratime /home

  # Set SATA back to normal operation
  for foo in /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/link_power_management_policy;
    do echo max_performance > $foo;
  done

  # Manually set the wifi driver to no power savings.
  # broken in 2.6.31 kernel
  # iwconfig wlan0 power off

  # Set kernel dirty page value back to default
  echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
  echo 5 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio
  echo 600 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs 

  # Disable Intel HD audio power saving:
  echo 0 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

else # Save power
  
  # Change the ext3 commit times to 10 minutes.  Reduces disk activity
  # disable disk writes when reading
  mount -o remount,commit=600,noatime,nodiratime /
  mount -o remount,commit=600,noatime,nodiratime /home
  
  # Set SATA to save power
  for foo in /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/link_power_management_policy;
    do echo min_power > $foo;
  done

  # Manually set the iwl3945 driver to power savings.
  # broken in 2.6.31 kernel
  # iwconfig wlan0 power on

  # Reduce disk activity by waiting up to 10 minutes before doing writes
  echo 90 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
  echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio
  echo 60000 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs

  # Enable Intel HD audio power saving:
  echo 10 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
fi

To install this power saving script, do the following:

gksudo gedit /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving
# Paste the script above into the file, save and close
sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving
sudo ln -s /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving /etc/pm/power.d/

Next, let's configure gnome-power-manager, under System -> Preferences -> Power management:

- Hard drive power saving: in the battery tab tick on "Reduce hard drive revolutions when possible"
- Battery tab: tick on reduce brightness and dim display.
- AC and Battery tab: configure what to do when closing the lid and what to do on very low battery remaining.
- General tab: configure what to do when pressing the power button and sleep button (Fn+f4).
- General tab: configure when to show the battery icon.

Lm-profiler:
Last, but not least, we'll run lm-profiler to start / stop services when running on battery. To do that, disconnect from the mains and open a terminal (Aplications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and run sudo lm-profiler. It will run for 10 minutes and, when finished, it will ask what services to disable / enabled. You can safely disable cron, anacron and atd, if you don't use them. If you don't know what those are, you can dissabled them. If you never use a printer, or you only use it when connected to the mains, you can also disable cups. If in doubt, don't disable and ask here.

Issues:

Hibernate/resume:

Issue: after hibernating or suspending, the computer won't wake up properly.
Solution: gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf to edit the file and add the following (without quotes): "blacklist acer-wmi"

Fan:

Issue: the fan is controlled by the BIOS, and is running too loud and too often.
Solution: the solution is installing an update acerhdf module. Download the laster version from here (0.5.22). If you are using BIOS version 3120 or 3303, you can skip patching the module and can directly go on how to install and activate. If you have a BIOS different from that, you'll have to patch it adding your BIOS version. Unpack and look for the acerhdf.c file. In this file, look for the acer 1410 section:

/* Acer 1410 */
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3120", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },

We have to add definitions for the Acer 1810T(Z), and also will add some more BIOS versions for the 1410:

{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
/* Acer 1810T */
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
/* Acer 1810TZ */
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
/* Packard Bell clone */
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },

Save and close. Let's go on into compiling it:

cd /to/the/acerhdf/folder
make
sudo make install

To make sure the module gets loaded and the fan control is enabled, do the following:

echo "acerhdf" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf
echo "options acerhdf kernelmode=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf
sudo modprobe acerhdf

That will take care of loading the module when starting the laptop and automatically enable the fan control. After doing that, you should already be enjoying silent fan operation.

Brightness:

Issue: when changing the brightness using the FN+arrow keys, it will jump 2 levels instead of one.
Solution: add the following into /etc/rc.local, before exit 0 and without quotes: "echo N > /sys/module/video/parameters/brightness_switch_enabled".

Wireless power saving:

Issue: in kernels from the 2.6.31 series, wireless power saving in intel wireless drivers was dissabled.
Solution: (please, first look at the Alternative Solution below) install updated drivers. the method I used, is compiling and installing the latest intel wireless drivers from the 2.6.32.2 kernel. To do this, download the latest wireless backports drivers from here (compat-wireless-2.6.32.2.tar.bz2, updated). Unpack them and, to compile and install:

cd /to/compat/wireless/folder
scripts/driver-select iwlwifi
make
sudo make install
sudo make unload
sudo modprobe iwlagn

Alternative solution: not tested by me. Install the linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic package and reboot. If it doesn't work, uninstall all linux-backports-modules-wireless packages using Synaptic and reboot.

Now you'll be using the newest available intel wireless driver, where power saving works again. You can enable power saving by doing "sudo iwconfig wlan0 power" on or disable doing "sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off".

Now you can also uncomment the power saving lines in /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving script, so that the wireless enters power saving automatically when on battery and exits when pluging in the laptop again.

Integrated mic:

Issue: the internal microphone is not working. Playing with alsamixer doesn't solve this, all you can hear is noise.
Solution: Install the linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic packages. This package should include the fix too, but I don't know exactly which alsa version it provides. Using this solution, when a new kernel appears, it will also take care of reinstalling the newer alsa modules. Should it not work and/or you want to revert changes, uninstall all the linux-backports-modules-alsa packages using synaptic and reboot.
Alternative solution: download, compile and install a newer Alsa driver. Using this solution, everytime a new kernel is installed, you'll have to repeat this for the new kernel. Go to the Alsa project webpage and download the lastest available alsa-driver. At the time of writing (29/11/09), that's 1.0.21. Once you have it, uncompress it and do the following:

cd /to/alsa/driver/folder
./configure --with-cards=hda-intel --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

After rebooting, your internal microphone should be working. I've tried it with the sound recorder program under Aplications -> Sound & Video menu. Quality doesn't seem to be great, maybe playing with settings will help. If someone has some tested tips (same fix, same machine), I'll add them. Thanks.

Next to be done:
- Enable undervolting

Changelog
29/12/2009: updated version of acerhdf, added blacklist acer-wmi to blacklist (thanks to all who reported)
05/12/2009: acerhdf version 0.5.21 now includes BIOS definitions for acer 1410/1810T(Z) and Packard Bell Dot M/U in v3303 and 3120. Audio alternative solution is now the recommended solution (thanks to iiamjon at notebook review forums, who tried and reported it as working)
02/12/2009: added more acerhdf bios definitions and changed acerhdf enabling. Thanks to teprrr.
29/11/2009: Initial post

Thanks
tdavis, from Notebook Review Forums, for the wake on lan tip and adding the 11,6" acer series into acerhdf
teprrr, from Notebook Review Forums, for the acerhdf modprobe tip and bios definitions

[baleks]

Is there a way to reduce CPU Mhz ? When fan is off in a room (~25-28Celsius) core temp (shown by acerhdf) is ~58C on almost idle and up to 70C on load (at 67C i start the fan to not overheat cpu)

Question about idle states - when i reading something from notebook, it is still very hot (~58C), and even with fan (53C and more)

I trying do this via gnome-panel applet (like i do on my home big computer) but applet can't do anything...

[PatrickVogeli]

The lowest values possible, depending on the processor you have are:

-Su3500: 800Mhz
-SU7300: 800Mhz
-SU9400: 800Mhz
-SU4100: 1200Mhz
-SU2300: 1200Mhz
-SU2700: 1200Mhz

You can't go lower than that, it's hardware limited.

[PatrickVogeli]

Hi there!

I've done a script that should make it all automatically. In detail:

What the script does:

• Configure gnome-power-manager backlight dim and hard disk power saving
• Download, patch, install and setup acerhdf
• Install the power saving script
• Install the debugging script
• If laptop-mode-tools is installed, suggest uninstalling and, if you want, uninstall
• Fix the brightness hotkeys issue (jumps 2 levels on every key press)
• Disable ethernet Wake on Lan (doesn't enable when on AC)
• Disable uneeded services: cron, anacron and atd (they don't enable when on AC)

What the script doesn't:

• Add the noatime parameter to the ext2/3/4 partitions in fstab. You'll have to do it manually.

How it works:

• In a terminal, run ./InstallAcer_11.6_PowerSaving.sh --help

Disclaimer:

• This script comes with no warranty. Use it at your own risk. I won't be responsible for any damage this could do to your system or data.

Feedback is welcome, thanks!

EDIT (2010/04/19): Script updated. Thanks to laramichaels1978 for pointing out some errors!
EDIT (2010/04/20): Script updated & removed. You'll find the most up to date script in the first post.

[laramichaels1978]

Hi Patrick,

Thank you for your excellent guide! Happily running 10.04 on my 1810TZ.

Two brief questions:

1- I noticed that you are setting

on AC

echo 40 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio

on battery

echo 90 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio

Based on this page [http://www.westnet.com/~gsmith/content/linux-pdflush.htm], I would have guess you would be increasing *both* ratios when moving form AC -> battery. However, in the script you lower dirty_background_ratio from 10 to 1 when going from AC to battery. I guess I am missing something. : )

2- The remounting of the root/home partitions with a higher commit time when on battery is no longer present in the most recent version of the script; is there a reason for that? Or can I safely include those mount -o remounte,commit=XXX commands?

thanks for clarifying these two!
~lara

[PatrickVogeli]

Hi Patrick,

Thank you for your excellent guide! Happily running 10.04 on my 1810TZ.

Two brief questions:

1- I noticed that you are setting

on AC

echo 40 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio

on battery

echo 90 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio

Based on this page [http://www.westnet.com/~gsmith/conte...x-pdflush.htm], I would have guess you would be increasing *both* ratios when moving form AC -> battery. However, in the script you lower dirty_background_ratio from 10 to 1 when going from AC to battery. I guess I am missing something. : )

2- The remounting of the root/home partitions with a higher commit time when on battery is no longer present in the most recent version of the script; is there a reason for that? Or can I safely include those mount -o remounte,commit=XXX commands?

thanks for clarifying these two!
~lara

Hi,

You aren't actually missing anything. I once saw those values in a power saving script and never actually looked for their meaning. You are absolutely right:

/proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio (default 10): Maximum percentage of active that can be filled with dirty pages before pdflush begins to write them

You are right, so I'll put 25 there once I get home and edit posts.

As for the 2nd question: my fault. In my case, I turned off the noatime parameter and then removed the remount stuff.. The correct thing would have been removing the noatime and nodiratime paramenters only, and remounting only with a higher commit.

Once I arrive home I'll fix everything and post the corrected guide and script again

Thanks a lot for pointing me in the right direction

[PatrickVogeli]

Script updated!

Thanks to laramichaels1978 for pointing out some errors!

EDIT (2010/04/20): script removed. You'll find the most up to date version in the first post.

[ohiomoto]

And thank you for starting and maintaining this topic!

[Muskoka]

Hi Patrick,

Getting an error when I try to run the new script, after installing the other one first:

sudo ./InstallAcer_11.6_PowerSaving.sh --install_all

I then enter my password, then I get this:

################################################## ################

This script comes with no warranty. Proceed under your own
responsability and risk. If unsure, abort.
It has been tested under an Acer 1810TZ, but should work with
a wide range of intel chipset machines

################################################## ################

Enter your root password:
Password OK, proceed:

Unrecognised option, aborting...

patrick.voegeli @ gmail dot com
PatrickVogeli at ubuntuforums.org and forum.notebookreview.com

It doesn't ask for my password, this screen just comes up. What might the "Unrecognized option, aborting..." be?

Thanks for any help....Glen

Acer 1810t

[ohiomoto]

You are saying that you didn't type in your password? And the script kept running?