I installed Ubuntu 12.04.1 via the alternate install CD...
NOTE: Press F2 at boot to get into the BIOS.
- Set SATA to AHCI in the BIOS (you don't want that fake "RAID" option).
- Enable the Boot Menu in the BIOS so you can press F12 at boot to select which device to boot from.
- When the installer asks if you want to detect software RAID select, "no". If you select, "yes" it won't detect the drives properly.
- You can partition your drives however you like at this point but I deleted all existing partitions (who needs Windows?) and created a RAID 1 (striped set) with two paritions: One 5GB for swap and the rest went to / (ext4).
After booting up the first time into 12.04.1 you'll want to add 'acpi_backlight=vendor' to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable in /etc/default/grub so that Linux can control the backlight (LCD brightness).
You'll also want to install some things:
Code:
sudo apt-get install laptop-mode-tools cpufreqd build-essential powertop
Also add the Intel video PPA (has a newer version than what's in Quantal):
Code:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:glasen/intel-driver
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
...and enable SNA acceleration by creating the following /etc/X11/xorg.conf (seemed to make the system slightly snappier):
Code:
# Really, this is all you need in the entire file
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0″
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
EndSection
Then copy the following script to a file: /etc/laptop-mode/batt-start/acer_aspire_s5.sh
Code:
#!/bin/bash
#
# Author: Dan McDougall <YouKnowWho@YouKnowWhat.com>
#
# Description: Enables every power saving feature I know of when on battery
#
# Enable Intel HD Audio power saving
echo 10 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
echo Y > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save_controller
echo 1 > /dev/dsp # Have to make a sound to turn it on
# The following has been commented because it doesn't appear to be working. Still have to run it by hand as your own user after boot it seems.
#pkill pulseaudio
# Enable WiFi power management
/sbin/iwconfig wlan0 power on
# Enable USB autosuspend for all USB devices
for i in /sys/bus/usb/devices/*; do echo 1 > $i/power/autosuspend; done
for i in /sys/bus/usb/devices/*; do echo auto > $i/power/level; done
Don't forget to set it to be executable:
Code:
sudo chmod 755 /etc/laptop-mode/batt-start/*.sh
NOTE: There's really no point to creating a script in /etc/laptop-mode/batt-stop/
Now for some tips...
If you upgrade to 12.10 (Quantal) you'll get video corruption after booting. This can be quickly remedied by putting the laptop to sleep (I just close the lid) and waking it back up. No idea what causes this but I've filed a bug report:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...l/+bug/1082234
(make sure you add a comment saying this problem is also affecting you!)
If 'powertop' shows a realtek sound card at 100% utilization just mute your microphone and it'll go away. If you have the same problem with the intel audio just execute 'pkill pulseaudio' as your user (it will automatically start itself back up) and that should take care of it. For some reason I have to do this as my own user every time I go on battery... Not sure what the deal is with that but I'll see if I can figure it out.
I'm currently investigating ways to fix the "video is corrupt on boot" problem. I know that there's a patch out there that fixes it but I don't think it will apply cleanly to the kernel in 12.10 (we'll see). I might also try the 3.7-rc* kernel line since Intel added tons of i915 and HD 3000/4000 improvements... Hopefully one of those improvements will fix that S5 video problem.
Another tip: If you want to be able to use the touchpad with additional gestures (like a Mac touchpad) you'll need to install Touchegg from source. If you install the touchegg package in the Ubuntu repos it will crash so there's no point. There's instructions on doing this here:
https://code.google.com/p/touchegg/w...pileSourceCode
Just copy & paste the commands as instructed. I also installed the Touchegg GUI to configure it from here:
https://github.com/Raffarti/Touchegg-gce
I have KDE controlling the two and three-finger stuff so I could only get Touchegg to work with four-finger gestures. I assigned the four-finger swipe left/right gestures as Alt-left and Alt-right, respectively (to go forwards and back in the browser). Works great.
How to disable the touchpad while typing: Start up syndaemon. I have the following script in ~/.kde/Autostart (sorry Unity users, no idea how to configure that to start syndaemon on login):
Code:
#!/bin/bash
syndaemon -k -i 1 -t &
Just make sure to run 'pkill syndaemon' before you start up some first-person shooter or you won't be able to move and look with the mouse at the same time
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