Acer Aspire One 722 Ubuntu 11.04 fixes

[r_howie]

Has anyone had any luck on bluetooth, the boot into windows is not an option for me since the 1st thing I did when I got mine was format and put Ubuntu on. Works great with Lubuntu 11.10, just want some bluetooth goodness....

One option is to install Windows in a Virtual Machine (e.g. VirtualBox).

Here's how I did it. Note that I didn't test it thoroughly, but I did see the Bluetooth icon pop up in my Ubuntu desktop, with my BT controller listed, so it should work. Here goes:

• install VirtualBox, create a virtual machine (I chose 20GB) with default settings and install Windows in it (in my case, Windows 7)
• in Windows 7: Control Panel -> view by icons, then Administrative Tools -> Services -> start Bluetooth (compare with this SevenForums post)
• in Windows 7: from Acer website, download and install the Bluetooth drivers. I used this: (Atheros) Bluetooth Driver for Windows 7 SP1 (200MB, 2011/04/12)
• reboot Windows 7. You should receive a message similar to The 'CIESpeechBHO Class' add-on from 'Atheros Communications Inc.' is ready for use. Click Enable
• now, hitting Fn+F3 when your mouse cursor is in the Windows VM, also enables Bluetooth in Linux

[antiplex]

One option is to install Windows in a Virtual Machine (e.g. VirtualBox).

Here's how I did it. Note that I didn't test it thoroughly, but I did see the Bluetooth icon pop up in my Ubuntu desktop, with my BT controller listed, so it should work. ...

seems i've missed the bluetooth issues since i thought that i was lucky and bt worked on my aspire one (C60) because the bluetooth symbol showed up when i cycled through the wireless settings. now that i tried to connect via bluetooth it dawned on me that this is what the posts here have been around for.
so did i get this correctly that bluetooth hast to be somewhat activated through some (proprietary) windows software before it is fully functional? can bluetooth be turned on and off afterwards without the need to go through the windows activation again?

regards,
anti

[antiplex]

something else i've just discovered:

when i was connected to a wireless lan network before hibernate, the whole system freezed after resume (no chance to switch to console by CTRL + ALT + 1). when i disabled wlan before hibernating i was able to resume but as soon as a reactivated wlan the system was freezing up.

after a bit of searching i came across this askubuntu-discussion and tried the described solution of creating a file (i named it '20_wlan-hibernate-fix' in /etc/pm/config.d with the content

SUSPEND_MODULES="$SUSPEND_MODULES iwlagn xhci-hcd"

EDIT: i first thought this would work but soon discovered that the freezing still occurs especially when the available wireless networks change in the meantime (other location).
next thing i'll try is the script described in this post and let you know how things turn out with this one...
EDIT2: unfortunately this also did not work =( same freezeup as before. basically the script unbinds and rebinds the device found at /sys/bus/pci/drivers/ehci_hcd and /sys/bus/pci/drivers/xhci_hcd but since in the ase of the AO722 there is no xhci-device but a ohci device i'll give it another shot with this one...

i wonder if anybody else came across this issue? anybody who can hibernate why connected by wireless lan without a system-freeze on resume without a fix like i just described?

regards,
anti

[oz238]

Here is a post related to the bluetooth problems:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...+Hai+bluetooth

However, it doesn't help. I also tried this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...o+find+devices

But it doesn't work for me. I have the same bt device: Foxconn / Hon Hai, 0x0489:0xe03c, Acer 722 C6Ckk, lusft0c056. I have Xubuntu 11.10. Cycling Fn+F3 enables bt but searching other bt devices finds nothing.

Here is another post (for other bt device):
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...o+find+devices

I haven't tried it yet. But I hope, the solution will be simplier than recompiling the kernel.

Here is another interesting link:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/863051

----------
I had also small problem with muting and changing volume using Fn + arrow keys. They worked but it was impossible to mute or change volume. It only changed the state of IEC958 device in mixer. The solution is: go to Settings/Settings Editor, go to xfce4-mixer and change a value of active-card to: PlaybackInternalAudioAnalogueStereoPulseAudioMixer . The value is taken from "sound-cards" list, which is below.
I hope, someone will find this small tip usefull.

[zzarko]

For those of you who don't like mono in Jupiter, there is now Python port. More details can be found on:
http://www.webupd8.org/2012/03/jupit...thon-gets.html

Cheers,
Zarko

[hitime]

I've been running 12.04 for about 2 weeks now and it does seem quite a bit better at this point. I'm back to basic Ubuntu, tested open and closed video drivers. Be warned if you go with AMDs, when ever you do some major Beta update it will kill the desktop (have to uninstall in shell or save yourself the hassle and uninstall it before updating). Battery life seemed better before the partial beta update yestereday, but overall battery life is better (Jupiter installed). The audio fix for the builtin mic is not working on 12.04, at this point I would rather have speed/battery then the mic. If I find more, I'll post it up...

[emilywind]

I just want to say that with the more recent graphics stack and kernel 3.2.9 found in Fedora 16, the amount of heat produced and power used by the graphics/cpu is right on with the proprietary driver in Windows. In fact, after 20min in gnome shell browsing the web and chatting it is actually running cooler than Windows would be at this point doing the same things.

The open source wireless drivers also saw a move out of the staging area in this kernel and are more stable; no longer requiring the bios work around to prevent the netbook from freezing upon wireless connect.

For those still in the Ubuntu world of things with no intention to move, this means Precise should run well without any tweaks needed on it, although the use of power management scripts is still a good idea.

Cheers.

[casainho]

Thank you emilywind

[colinmb]

Is it possible to set up the framebuffer console and/or GRUB to use the native 1366x768 panel resolution?

This page has instructions for the 751h model, but that apparently uses an Intel GPU:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne/AO751h

--Colin

[abhz]

@emilywind: Would you mind to share where this information comes from? I bought an Acer Aspire One 722 several weeks ago, and have been desperately trying to get *anything* working on this thing since.

Ubuntu 11.04 was a total nightmare, and since the first beta releases I'm "running" Ubuntu 12.04 which literally gets worse every day.

The open source wireless drivers also saw a move out of the staging area in this kernel and are more stable; no longer requiring the bios work around to prevent the netbook from freezing upon wireless connect.

I definitely can not confirm this. Without blacklisting the ethernet driver from the kernel config, the netbook freezes a couple of secords after booting, as it always did.

Also, the BIOS workaround does *not* work on all 722's; I'm beaten by such a model, so I know this for a fact. The only way to get networking on this this is to

a) either plug in a ethernet cable and use Ethernet; or
b) blacklist the ethernet driver in the kernel config and use Wireless.

So the Acer Aspire One 722 can be used *either* only with WLAN, or it always has to hang on an ethernet cable. The current beta of Ubuntu 12.04 does *not* change this.

For those still in the Ubuntu world of things with no intention to move, this means Precise should run well without any tweaks needed on it [...]

I can't confirm this, either. Since a couple of days, I lost the mouse pointer on the desktop (it sticks to the middle of the desktop and can not be moved anymore). The only way to operate this netbook is to switch to the the console screen (Ctrl+Alt+F1) and work on the shell, exactly as I did with my first Linux notebook in the mid-90s.

On this netbook, Ubuntu 12.04 is being updated to the latest updates available at the moment, multiple times per day. I have no 3rd party repositories enabled, it's running just what Ubuntu itself offers.

(Personal notice: My experience with Ubuntu on this netbook was a total catastrophy from the beginning; I planned around six weeks to set this up, and to resolve the numerous issues that Linux has with every notebook. Instead of making any progress, I've given up on using the netbook for wireless browsing the web, checking e-mails on the road, or even displaying images. If Ubuntu doesn't break this also in the next two days, I'll have to copy images from my DSLR via mc on the the. If this still works when I travel on Monday, this would be the only use this netbook would be capable of.)