Acer Aspire One 522 10.10 Freezing Issues

[Shanfara]

I just picked up a 522 today and installed Ubuntu 10.10 desktop to get rid of Windows 7 starter. After getting past the installation issues (have to install from live cd with thumbdrive, won't do it directly from the boot list) I got the Radeon drivers installed (watermark included, will fix later)and then ran into a massive issue. Within five minutes of EVERY reboot, the kernel (I am assuming) crashes completely. It is always within 5 minutes. I have checked the smiles and frowns thread as well as the phoronix forum with no luck. This is extremely frustrating and the word on the street is that the wireless driver is the culprit. Question to the more experienced Ubuntuites out there- What are my options and how can I fix this?

I have tried running off wireless and wired connections. The system won't stay stable long enough to update. I am basically screwed.

[md80hb-iuh]

Got about the same issue at the begining. I was not able to run the update it was freezing up at random. I've tried 9.10 and 10.10. I've messed around so much that I've to start a clean install with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.10. and I was able to perform the updates. Before this it was dropping network (wifi at random) and wired port was inop.

I've fixed the waterwark by loading the new 11.2 driver from ATI available here http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...eon_linux.aspx . To install save the file, do a chmod +x file_name and run it. Take all default answers. However performance full screen for video is bad compared to the previous driver (do not recall the one I had before).

So far things working are:
-Skype = Works, used a Pro9000 webcam. Integrated webcam works fine too.
-Empathy = Works

So far things not working are:
-Can't get out of sleep mode.
-Random freeze after login. It will freeze within 2 minutes. Passed that will it run forever.
-Headphones: If you plug the headphones in , the speaker is still working.

Things to be checked:
- Card reader.

Suspicious:
- Hard disk LED drive sometimes always active, but if I reboot in windows 7, she's always lit too. This is recent, was not doing it 1 week ago. Seems related to the way I've rebooted the machine when she was freezing.

[5tj]

Same freezing here on acer aspire one 522.

Installed Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 for amd64 from alternate installer DVD using a USB DVD drive without a problem.

Do not remember if there was a freeze after installation in this phase (800x600 screen resolution).

Activated fglrx driver from Ubuntu archives (with "unsupported hardware" watermark) - Random freezes.

Updated fglrx driver to latest available on ATI website (no more watermark) - random freezes.

Completely deinstalled all fglrx packages and deleted /etc/X11/xorg.conf (back to 800x600) - random freezes

Upgraded memory - now 4GB. Random freezes.

Upgraded Ubuntu to 11.04. Surprisingly, the update process ran without a single freeze - until I tried to shut down after the upgrade was finished.

Freezes got even worse after that.

Tried to install fglrx driver in 11.04, but it won't compile for the kernel in 11.04 (neither the one in Ubuntu nor the latest from ATI).

The worst: The netbook froze while still in grub, editing the kernel command line to delete the "quiet splash". So the freezes are not even linux related? However, Windows 7 starter has not frozen even once.

Another observation: Netbook gets very hot under the VGA connector while linux runs. Not so in windows.

[andi666]

Same problem here. 10.10 32 bit.

Tried kernel 2.6.35, 2.6.37 and 2.6.38-rc8 (with patch for frglx to compile)

Strage thing is that I could use a full battery charge before ubuntu first froze. Now I barely come past the gdm login screen.

I also noted that battery life is far worse than in windows.

This really really sucks. I bought this for ubuntu. My systems normally are 100% pure ubuntu. Now for the first time in my life I am forced to use windows. ugh.

[5tj]

More data: The freeze in grub occurs in command line editing mode when pressing ctrl+k.

There are different kinds of freezes in linux. Sometimes only screen & keyboard freezes, but the computer remains accessible via ssh and can be shut down this way. Sometimes, also the network is inaccessible.

I tried removing more drivers. I completely removed the radeon driver and the ath9k wireless driver by removing all corresponding kernel modules from /lib/modules and from the initrd filesystem. The system is still freezing regularly.

Summary: This netbook is not usable with linux.

[manticoretrader]

The laptop is very usable with Linux, you are welcome to follow my guide: http://www.manticore-projects.com/co.../aspire522.htm

However there are three issues: it freezes when shutting down the wired network (e.g. "ifconfig eth0 down" --> freeze), which seems to be related to the network driver. Also I could not make the internal mic working, neither bluetooth.

Best regards!

[andi666]

Do you have any idea why it freezes for us?

It could be possible that you have an earlier hw revision. Mine was sold beginning of march and manufactured in January 2011. There are versions with broadcom wlan chips, maybe some other revisions with more changes. I dont know.

The only difference I see judging from your howto is that you use the free display drivers.

Thanks for your HOWTO anyway. I will follow it and see what happens.