Asus G1s laptop

[srsEpix]

Hi,

I'm interested in buying the Asus G1s laptop and I was wonder it anyone has this laptop and has installed Ubuntu on it. If so, what works and what doesn't. I'm especially interested in knowing if the wireless and bluetooth works.

Thanks

[ClockworkAvian]

I'm running Gutsy Tribe 5 on it currently. I had it install beautifully, without any of the SATA issues of installing Feisty.

Working out of the box:

• bluetooth
• wifi
• multimedia keys on the bottom
• nv driver at proper resolution.
• SD Card reader
• Wired ethernet
  

Not tested by me:

• CF/XD/MMS readers
• any video out
• CD/dvd/lightscribe burning (reading works great)
• ESATA port

Not working out of the box:

• flashy lights
• the display above the keyboard only says "Asus"
• sound is currently down. I don't recall if it DID work at one point, because i never actually checked, and i may have broken it (i've done that on my other system.)
• webcam

This isn't comprehensive, and the stuff that doesn't work might be easily fixed by someone who knows what they're doing. I'm planning on writing a step by step guide to getting everything running flawlessly on this, but i'm new to linux, so it may take some time. when it's done though, i'll make a post of it.

[Krischi]

The webcam does work. There are just very few programs that support v4l2 at the moment. The luvcview program from the uvcvideo project works fine, and according to reports, the svn version of kopete also may support it. OpenWengo also is adding support for v4l2 in the next release.

Other features tested by me, which work fine:

• CD writing
• eSATA
• Sound

The only thing that I have not been able to get to work as of now is the boot splash screen. I have to boot with splash set to off. If it works for you, could you please show me the contents of your /etc/usplash.conf file?

[ClockworkAvian]

I failed to mention, I'm running Kubuntu, not Ubuntu. So, there may be a difference in the splash system. Nonetheless, I've had no problems, and my /etc/usplash.conf is this:

# Usplash configuration file
xres=1024
yres=768

Thanks for the tip on the webcam! I got it working now. Here's a quick and dirty shell script that should get it up and going on any other systems.
install-webcam.sh

#!/bin/bash
# this script should get a Asus G1S webcam working. May also work on similar
# webcams, but i make no promises.
# As always, YMMV and use at your own risk.

#this installs the linux-uvc driver
cd /tmp
sudo apt-get install libsvn1
svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk
cd trunk
make && sudo make install


#This part installs luvcview
#downloads the latest version from here: http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca50x/Investigation/uvc/
wget http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca50x/Investigation/uvc/luvcview-20070512.tar.gz
gunzip -c luvc*.gz|tar -xf -
cd luvc*
make &&sudo make install


#Create a .desktop files
mkdir ~/Desktop/webcam-pictures
echo "
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=luvcview -f yuv -w
Icon=camera
Name=Webcam Viewer
Path=~/Desktop/webcam-pictures
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
Type=Application
">~/Desktop/Webcam.desktop

execute that shell with

sudo sh ./install-webcam.sh

[Krischi]

FYI: linux-uvc is part of the gutsy kernel, so it is not strictly necessary to install it from the svn repository, unless you want to make sure that you have the very latest version.

Thanks for the tip with the splash screen. I will try it out.

[9a3eedi]

I installed Fiesty 32bit on my Asus G1S. Some of the stuff mentioned here didn't really work properly:

- X11. I think I need to update the opensource nvidia drivers. But in order to make it work, you can use VESA.. (for now)
- Wireless. The Asus uses the new Intel 4965 wireless chipset which supports the new 802.11n . I don't think Ubuntu Fiesty comes bundled with those drivers. I'm guessing Gutsy does though

also, booting from the LiveCD requires special instructions, like adding a boot time parameter called "break=top" then typing (without being able to look at the screen, because it's blank)
'modprobe piix'
'exit'
and then it boots properly.

Otherwise, everything is working fine. I havent tested a lot of stuff though, like the webcam, sdcard, eSATA, CD/DVD-writing, etc.

As for the blinking lights and the small display, the drivers are windows only, and I can't seem to wine them either >_> .. there's a project in launchpad I think that is aiming to reverse engineer this and provide drivers for linux. Though nothing is really happening there. I'd go there if I had programming experience

Though imagine the possibilities if there was a linux driver for that. The ones in windows are quite... limited

[rockclimber88]

I have Gentoo installed on my G1S-A1 (which is essentially the same thing as a G1S but with an A1 added to the end of the name.

I don't know how much of this is included in debian (and therefore ubuntu's) package manager but there is an nvidia driver for the graphics card, just search google for it and everything on the computer works except all the flashy bells and whistles like the little OLED screen that just says ASUS and the blinky lights and stuff.

I haven't even bothered to try the webcam drivers because I don't know what programs I would possibly be using that it would be useful for.

Also, if you have more than 2GB of RAM, and even if you don't actually, you should install the 64 bit version of your OS just because you can. I highly recommend it.
Also, make sure your kernel is > 2.6.19 to fix problems with ALSA

Links:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics -- touchpad driver
http://intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi --wireless drivers (if you're having problems with your wireless card)

You might also find this page useful even though it's for the ASUS G1 and not G1S:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Asus_G1

[UncleZeiv]

Just found this preliminary driver for the oled display:

http://lapsus.berlios.de/asus_oled.html

seems nice!

[uqbar]

Wht about the framebuffer console?
Mine is a G1S that has a 1440x900 display, but at the best I can only get an 80x25 console (that is boot diagnostics) by disabling the splash logo.
If I keep it enabled I get a blank screen until X starts.
Well, I run KUbuntu Gutsy.

[uqbar]

For the framebuffer console and the related boot splash, please see here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=622018