Acer Aspire One 722 Ubuntu 11.04 fixes

[frojnd]

hi, is anybody is aware of issue with Turbo Core on amd c60.
powernow-k2 module indicate only 2 pstates 1000 and 800.
Turbo Core should provide preformance boosting up to 1333 Mhz.
Please see my cpufreqd-info below

# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: powernow-k8
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 1000 ns.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1000 MHz
available frequency steps: 1000 MHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 800 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).
cpufreq stats: 1000 MHz:0.49%, 800 MHz:99.51% (1)
analyzing CPU 1:
driver: powernow-k8
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
maximum transition latency: 1000 ns.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1000 MHz
available frequency steps: 1000 MHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 800 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).
cpufreq stats: 1000 MHz:0.49%, 800 MHz:99.51% (1)

I have ao722 with Ubuntu 12.04, kernlel 3.2.0.24-generic-poe, bios 1.08

I have just installed ubuntu 12.4 on this netbook (ao722) and I also have the same cpu-freq-info Have you found the solution? I have default installation everything worked out of the box for now. (I haven't tested bluetooth and SD card reader) But running on only 1000Mhz or 800Mhz is slow. Also I have noticed that ubuntu 12.4 is slooooow. At least default installation. Maybe because of the fact that I can't have 1333Mhz ?

Any ideas suggestions and workarounds? The performace is really por on ubuntu 12.4 in compare to Windows 7. I can't belive this I'd install Archlinux on the netbook but it's not for me.

[antiplex]

hello!

regarding the cpu-frequency of 'only 800-1000 mhz' i just posted a quick explanation in this other thread dealing with the same issue.
oh, and i really have a hard time imagining that running windows7 on the acer 722 makes it any faster
what exactly feels faster when running windows7? did you e.g. encode some video or compile a bigger piece of software?

regards,
anti

[frojnd]

Hi antiplex,

It's slower when opening applications. Eg. I click on a left menu and try to click on a let say software center and it needs a couple of seconds to opened. That's for every application. As in Windows 7 Professionals (I can't belive it either) when I click on a file browser it openes instantly. It's A LOT more responsive. Actually I suggestted my gf to use Windows 7 untill I don't resolve this issue.

I've also noticed that when using open source ati drivers(default ones) youtube is doing fine only on 420p but not in full screen mode. I can't use it on 720p or 1080p. And I can't even use full screen with 420p or above...

I haven't done any compiling. The biggest application I tried was skye and wasn't able to configure internal microphone so it would work. I've followed this wiki: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne522#Sound

Unfortuantelly I can't paste the screenshot of alsamixer but maybe someone else can post it here and I can e-mail it to my gf.

Help much appriciated.

[LewisTM]

Hi antiplex,

It's slower when opening applications. Eg. I click on a left menu and try to click on a let say software center and it needs a couple of seconds to opened. That's for every application. As in Windows 7 Professionals (I can't belive it either) when I click on a file browser it openes instantly. It's A LOT more responsive. Actually I suggestted my gf to use Windows 7 untill I don't resolve this issue.

I've also noticed that when using open source ati drivers(default ones) youtube is doing fine only on 420p but not in full screen mode. I can't use it on 720p or 1080p. And I can't even use full screen with 420p or above...

I haven't done any compiling. The biggest application I tried was skye and wasn't able to configure internal microphone so it would work. I've followed this wiki: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne522#Sound

Unfortuantelly I can't paste the screenshot of alsamixer but maybe someone else can post it here and I can e-mail it to my gf.

Help much appriciated.

You really can't compare Ubuntu Software Center, which is probably the slowest app to start, to a Windows File browser, which is already loaded in memory. At least compare an instance of Nautilus.
I assume you are running stock Ubuntu. On this machine I'd recommend running a non-3D desktop environment like Unity 2D or Xfce. The machine is extremely responsive under Xubuntu.
Here's a link to fixes for the microphone under 12.04, and another more specific to Xubuntu.
As for video, see post #91. Umplayer helps tremendously for me. Some have managed to set up mplayer to play flash videos in the browser but I haven't tried that yet. Also don't forget to install Jupiter and set it to the highest performance whenever you need to view high-res video.

Cheers!

[antiplex]

It's slower when opening applications. Eg. I click on a left menu and try to click on a let say software center and it needs a couple of seconds to opened.
...
I've also noticed that when using open source ati drivers(default ones) youtube is doing fine only on 420p but not in full screen mode. I can't use it on 720p or 1080p. And I can't even use full screen with 420p or above...

hi frojnd,

i agree that in therms of responsiveness, recent ubuntu-versions feel rather sluggish on small machines such as the aspire one 722.
as lewis pointed out, the software center is one of the worst, others follow. this is something that was well improved on windows7 and should improved on ubuntu as well. but in my view this is not likely to be related to the turbo-mode but i different user experience that one might need to get used to.

flash-video performance under linux was never great and probably never will be, lets hope flash dies quickly and e.g. webm finds its way to the masses.
one firefox-extension that made the youtube-experience a lot better (altough still not perfect) on the ao722 is FlashVideoReplacer. using this addon leads to a initial delay/refresh of the page but allows you to either open webm-versions of videos in an external player (i successfully use vlc which performes very nice) or internally (html5).

i agree with lewistm that 3d desktops are not recommended on netbooks and for right now go with unity2d but might change back to good old gnome in the future since unity2d fights with its own deamons...

regards,
anti

[brub2]

Interested by Catalyst with suspend and resume? Really, it seems possible to get a workaround. See my post on this subject here:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopi...f=191&t=104875

Even if I'm actually testing LMDE (based on debian), I'm pretty sure the same trick could be applied in recent ubuntus. If you find a way to improve the trick, please post!

[biodojo]

I am still struggling with wireless on the BCM4313 card models of the Acer Asipre One 722. We have 200 of them running 12.04 using the brcmsmac driver. They connect and can browse fine for awhile. However, when a decent load is put on the card (some video, a few webpages loading at once) the netbook can no longer ping anything. Network manager doesn't report disconnect and if I wait a minute, network traffic can resume. Does anyone have an Acer Aspire One with the BCM4313 card working reliably?

[emilywind]

As LewisTM mentioned, this netbook runs much better with Xubuntu rather than Ubuntu. For a while I was skeptical about how much better it would run, but I decided to give Xubuntu a shot.

The difference in responsiveness is night and day compared to Ubuntu and it even runs noticeably faster than Windows 7. Installing gnome Do also makes the whole desktop not only snappy but allows for a super efficient workflow as well.

I also timed boot times with a stop watch on this netbook. The booting was timed from selecting the option on GRUB to making it to a completely loaded login screen (skipped the desktop as those should vary most between Ubuntu and Xubuntu). Ordered from slowest to fastest.

Ubuntu - 65 seconds
Windows 7 - 46 seconds
Xubuntu - 20 seconds

As a note, I am still using the stock hard drive. I thought that Xubuntu felt like it booted faster as well as ran faster, but I was not sure. How much faster it turned out booting shocked me though, especially since it runs on the same base system as Ubuntu and both use lightdm for the login screen.

Nonetheless, Xubuntu won by a landslide. So if you want to use a *buntu on here and get notably better rather than worse performance than Windows 7, try Xubuntu.

P.S. To fix the brightness stepping bug with seems to plague all of the *ubuntus (the one where you get like 3 levels of brightness), check out https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/802276 .

Specifically,

echo 0 > /sys/module/video/parameters/brightness_switch_enabled

fixed it for me. Can add that to /etc/rc.local to make it persistent across boots.

[LewisTM]

Thank you Emilywind for these numbers. Xubuntu being my distro of choice, I never bothered to compare.

From these results I do pity the ones running stock Ubuntu

One last note: in order to keep GNOME dependencies at bay, I suggest you replace GNOME Do with Synapse. You won't be disappointed.

Cheers!

[brub2]

Following post#166 on suspend/wake with catalyst:
As I said, I can manually get this laptop to wake on Mint Debian xfce. Basically, the idea is to do a manual suspend from a tty and type "sudo vbetool post" (in blind) after a wake.
I tried the trick on Xubuntu 12.04. The "vbetool post" command restores the backlight but all I get is a blinking cursor or flashing red blocks and vertical lines...

To biodojo (post #167): maybe you could try the proprietary driver. I don't know why but it has been activated automatically by Xubuntu on my AO722. I removed it and wifi still works but with strange numbers in connection speed (1 Mb/s). Since I focus on the catalyst problem, I didn't test wifi so much.