Acer Aspire One 722 Ubuntu 11.04 fixes

[emilywind]

Sadly, it seems I was just being hopeful for those wanting to use Ubuntu. I am not sure what it is in Ubuntu 12.04 but I tried Kubuntu 12.04 and it ran with similar issues as to what it used to have. That is, more heat production than normal and only 5 steps of brightness compared to the proper 10.

In Fedora I do not get these issues, which likely has to do with versions of mesa and Xorg, along with kernel versions and/or patches. Whatever it is, Fedora runs better on it due to those issues.

That said, using KDE over Gnome 3 is an obvious confound in the comparison, although in fairness I was using KDE with no effects on verus Gnome 3 standard (which always has effects). Thus I am not sure if KDE was still the culprit of the power consumption issue or something in Ubuntu 12.04.

As for the networking, the freezing decided to show its ugly head when I connected to a network using enterprise security requiring a login. However, it did and does not freeze while connecting to my home network. I have re-enabled the bios work-around for now which does work on my particular Aspire One, but hopefully this is sorted in the future.

That said, this will all depend on what comes in your Aspire One 722. You could try Fedora 16 and see how that goes since my results have been best with it, but then again you may have different hardware since you bought it much later than I. ;x

[abhz]

@emilywind: Thanks for the update. Yes, wishful thinking is all that keeps me at Ubuntu, also.

For reference: My AO 722 has a "MFG Date: 2012/01/02" and uses a WLAN chip from Broadcom. It was preconfigured with "Linpus Linux" (which directly boots into a root shell, and did not support "startx", and came without any usage instructions related to running Linux on the device).

Distributon hopping is not an option for me anymore, I did that for years, starting in the 90s; always one thing works better, but at least another thing works worse. I made my decision for Debian a long time ago, and the only possible alternatives for me would be LMDE, Mint, or Debian "testing" (which do not work better on the AO 722, for obvious reasons).

[nardis_Miles1]

Many thanks for the post. Much of this works for 11.10 as well as 11.04. One problem is that the internal microphone fix doesn't seem to work. I get a lot of these errors:

snd-hda-codec-analog.ko:
Running module version sanity check.

Module has been obsoleted due to being included
in kernel 2.6.99. We will avoid installing
for future kernels above 2.6.99.
You may override by specifying --force.

So, did you --force?

[r_howie]

I have updated the guide https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne522 in the following ways:

• added a table summarizing which features work out of the box, which ones require some fixes, which ones don't work (inspired from here)
• major rewrite of some parts to be more compact - please complete the missing parts
• added a "Recommended tweaks" section with the fixes that are easy to implement, not dangerous and certainly useful for the average user (zzarko's fixes at the beginning of this thread to improve power management, setting correct volume for Skype, CapsLock indicator etc.)
• the more advanced hacking stuff (unofficial BIOS, etc.), only for the experienced users, are now grouped in the section "Advanced tweaks" in the bottom

[zzarko]

I'm testing 12.04 beta 64-bit with all current updates on my 722 with C50 CPU and following hardware:
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Wrestler [Radeon HD 6250]
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet (rev c1)
07:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

I didn't installed any additional software or drivers, except Jupiter and KeyLock indicator (64bit version for Oneric works just fine). Here is list of what works for me:
WiFi: OK
Bluetooth: OK, after several tries (indicator can show that BT is enabled, when, in fact, it isn't - it took a little time fiddling with Fn+F3 and BT indicator)
Internal microphone: almost OK (it is recokgnised, but the volume is too low, even when maxed-out)
Headphones turn off internal speakers: OK

Next, I'll try booting without network boot in BIOS, and I want to see if Catalyst drivers are working (Jockey gave an error after the installation, but the same happened on my desktop). Touchpad rotation, for now, isn't available for 12.04.

EDIT:
Sleep mode with open-source radeon drivers: OK

EDIT2:
Booting without BIOS network boot: OK, but after logging in, WiFi didn't work. I just disable and enable it again, and now it works.
Sleep with Catalyst drivers: NOT working (and probably never will, as AMD guys obviously aren't interested in that)

But, so far, so good

Cheers,
Zarko

P.S. If someone wants some other tests, please tell me. If I can, I'll try to make them and I'll post results.

[jazz.h]

But, so far, so good

Excellent finding zzarko, thank you. Please, report on the temperature situation as well as the hdd clicking (load_cycle_counts increasing, hdparm settings).

[ard213]

Excellent finding zzarko, thank you. Please, report on the temperature situation as well as the hdd clicking (load_cycle_counts increasing, hdparm settings).

Is there a way to monitor CPU temp on the C-50/C-60 APUs? I was under the impression that this had not been figured out yet (on linux). At least on my C-60, running Catalyst 12.3, the jupiter applet fails to report CPU temp.

[xterminus]

Is there a way to monitor CPU temp on the C-50/C-60 APUs? I was under the impression that this had not been figured out yet (on linux). At least on my C-60, running Catalyst 12.3, the jupiter applet fails to report CPU temp.

Seems to work fine for me. I don't remember loading any custom modules.

$: sensors
radeon-pci-0008
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +71.0°C  

k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +71.0°C  (high = +70.0°C)
                       (crit = +115.0°C, hyst = +107.5°C)

[ard213]

Seems to work fine for me. I don't remember loading any custom modules.

Ah, silly me. I never got around to installing (and learning how to use) lm-sensor. Thanks!

Just installed it, and it seems to work perfectly - but jupiter still does not post any temp info. Is there a work-around for that?

[ard213]

Also, FWIW, my C-60, running 11.10 and Catalyst 12.3, seems to idle around 55-60 degrees. Seems standard for a laptop cpu.

When I upgrade to 12.04 I'll try to remember to check temps with the open-source driver and catalyst (if I go back to catalyst).

$ sensors
k10temp-pci-00c3
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +58.5°C  (high = +70.0°C)
                       (crit = +115.0°C, hyst = +107.5°C)