Acer Iconia W500 goes to 11...well 10.10 anyway.

[lumix]

Just installed 10.10 netbook on this unit so I thought I'd share. Note that I had an unfortunate hardware failure within the first 6 hours of purchase, so I didn't get much of a chance to play around in Ubuntu. The installation was performed using the Ubuntu play-book for usb-flash installation (using the downloaded flash utility that looks very much like unetbootin).

In brief: The built-in Windows 7 O/S is significantly more than it can handle--very laggy. What little I got to try with Ubu-netbook seemed much better. The network configuration utility kept losing my mouse-click input, after which I'd have to alt-f4 out of the utility, after which mouse functionality was restored.

Overall I think it will be a keeper of a machine, once repaired or replaced.

[Lucradia]

Overall I think it will be a keeper of a machine, once repaired or replaced.

Good thing warranties are voided if you don't keep Windows :V

[Joe of loath]

Good thing warranties are voided if you don't keep Windows :V

Are they? I know Dell make you remove the hard drive if you send your laptop back for repair, most other companies should do the same.

[Lucradia]

Are they? I know Dell make you remove the hard drive if you send your laptop back for repair, most other companies should do the same.

Is that a dell laptop? Or a dell netbook?

So far, Toshiba, Gateway, pretty much everyone has the warranty voided if you remove windows (You also can't return an item to a store without the original windows.)

[Joe of loath]

Is that a dell laptop? Or a dell netbook?

So far, Toshiba, Gateway, pretty much everyone has the warranty voided if you remove windows (You also can't return an item to a store without the original windows.)

Laptop. I assumed all their procedures are the same though, considering how much attention was directed towards the section in the manual on how to remove the hard drive before sending it off. Maybe Dell just send you back a new machine with the same spec, and break the old one for parts?

[Lucradia]

Laptop. I assumed all their procedures are the same though, considering how much attention was directed towards the section in the manual on how to remove the hard drive before sending it off. Maybe Dell just send you back a new machine with the same spec, and break the old one for parts?

Dell is concerned about your privacy, they make you remove the HDD, because they have tech that can break through any security, so it would be wise for them to tell you to remove the HDD.

You can also buy HDD enclosures in case you need to get information off it early. (Windows also bypasses linux encryption (mostly) if you use these hardware enclosures. of course, you'd need ext drivers, which are read-only if I remember.)

[el_koraco]

So far, Toshiba, Gateway, pretty much everyone has the warranty voided if you remove windows (You also can't return an item to a store without the original windows.)

What do you mean? If you have a hardware failure and don't have Windows installed, that voids the warranty? For real? This is in the US?

[Lucradia]

What do you mean? If you have a hardware failure and don't have Windows installed, that voids the warranty? For real? This is in the US?

Return an item = return to store.

In the USA, computers you need serviced under the warranty must have the original hardware, OS, etc. Unless you buy third-party warranties from Geek Squad, or local shops.

[el_koraco]

That's kinda strange. I've never even considered it much. In my part of the woods, you get a warranty from the OEM itself, and they have "service centres", where you can send the machines in case of hardware component failure. I've never seen anything remotely connected to software in those warranties, and have no idea what the EU standards are, I'll have to check up on it.

This approach seems peculiar.

[Lucradia]

That's kinda strange. I've never even considered it much. In my part of the woods, you get a warranty from the OEM itself, and they have "service centres", where you can send the machines in case of hardware component failure. I've never seen anything remotely connected to software in those warranties, and have no idea what the EU standards are, I'll have to check up on it.

This approach seems peculiar.

But please note, if you use Geek Squad, they require windows, as their diagnostics system uses ActiveX.

[el_koraco]

Golly, that's restricting.

[Joe of loath]

Dell is concerned about your privacy, they make you remove the HDD, because they have tech that can break through any security, so it would be wise for them to tell you to remove the HDD.

You can also buy HDD enclosures in case you need to get information off it early. (Windows also bypasses linux encryption (mostly) if you use these hardware enclosures. of course, you'd need ext drivers, which are read-only if I remember.)

Lolwhut? Whatever you're smoking, I want some. Firstly, Dell wouldn't have a computer big enough to break the encryption on a luks or ecryptfs disk (novbody has, AFAIK). Secondly, why would they want to? They do it to simplify things, and to cover their backs against data loss.

And if you think Windows bypasses Linux encryption, I don't think you've ever tried.

[Lucradia]

And if you think Windows bypasses Linux encryption, I don't think you've ever tried.

Linux can bypass windows encryption, and 7-zip used to bypass winzip passwords, because it didn't know how to handle them :V

So I'm sure Windows could think of something. /lolface

Not that I've ever needed to encrypt anything, ever.

[Joe of loath]

Linux can bypass windows encryption, and 7-zip used to bypass winzip passwords, because it didn't know how to handle them :V

So I'm sure Windows could think of something. /lolface

Not that I've ever needed to encrypt anything, ever.

Linux can bypass Windows encryption because it's inherently flawed (like cracking WEP. It's still encrypted, it's just rubbish). And winzip passwords are just that, passwords. The data is still there, freely available. Most clients only let you open the file if you give the right password.

[mescobal]

Please... back to topic or change subject. I came here looking for an info that has nothing to do with this.
Again:

I want to buy one (Iconia W500). Any experience with Ubuntu/Kubuntu with it?

[allix81]

I have just got hold of a Acer Iconia W500, by no means have I looked at every single application available, this is just out-of the box of what I have noticed.

Works

the login screen and lock screen with virtual keyboard

ONBOARD virtual keyboard

A improvement would be so that whenever a input box is selected the keyboard automatically appears at the bottom of the screen.

Less of a priority would be predictive text...


What does not work

Automatic screen rotation

Gestures


This device has only been on the market for a few weeks, so I don't expect a lot to just work and also the standard ubuntu Desktop distribution is not targeted at tablets.
I think a wiki page for this tablet would be a good idea.
I am happy to help out with testing.

Thanks in advance

[allix81]

https://groups.google.com/d/topic/fa.linux.kernel/g32n0JTBQlQ/discussion

That is the accelerometer that comes with Acer w500, therefore autorotation should be possible.

[Roasted]

Good thing warranties are voided if you don't keep Windows :V

This just proves how ridiculous some companies are. Anybody remember that Best Buy argument with the kid who put Ubuntu on his laptop?

But anyway, play it safe, and invest in a Clonezilla LiveCD and an external HDD to save the images to.

[NoobixCube]

On the topic of asking you to remove your hard drive, it's a suspicion thing. When I was selling phones, if a customer brought one back on warranty we had to advise them that the first thing the service center did when they got the phone was erase all content. This isn't to protect the customer, or anything like that, it's to put themselves above suspicion of stealing your data. Regardless of how impossible you think it is to steal your data, if, without exception, the workshop either doesn't take your hard drive, or wipes it before they do anything else, then without exception, the customer service reps can regurgitate company policy when someone accuses a tech of stealing their data.

[J_dillinger]

8)
The installation of Ubuntu 10.10 has been problematic. The system worked when booted to USB, but when I installed it the video driver did not register. The onboard accessibility also had to be configured to bring up the on-screen keyboard. All in all there were several kinks to work through, but the main one is why did the live boot video drivers work and the installed drivers fail miserably.

Before we get into a long discussion of voided warranties, I will tell anyone else who attempts this that it will void your warranty, and changing the partitions to add a swap drive will prevent the OS repair disk images from working as well. These are all considerations that can be fixed with work but anyone attempting to do this should research the changes carefully.

Any information about installing Ubuntu 10.x or 11.x would be greatly appreciate

[mescobal]

Bought a W500 a couple of days ago. I didn't make a backup (I have the restore DVDs). Installed Xubuntu 11.04. Everything worked OK except 3 things:

1. Emulation of right click. Solved installing easystroke
2. Multitouch: not working. I have uTouch installed but I couldn't figure out how to make it work.
3. Screen rotation: I can rotate the screen but the input coordinates remain the same.

Other workaround: for scrolling in Firefox I installed an extension called "Grab and Drag".

My impression is that Ubuntu works smoother than Windows 7.
Desktop environment: tried XFCE, KDE and Unity.
Unity: I definetely don't like it. They are missing the point. They have no clue (if they intend to make a touch-friendly environment)
XFCE: works great and smooth BUT the "new" scroll widget of GTK applications make almost impossible to... scroll using fingers.
KDE: works great, has a lot of configuration options, lots of possibilities (customization of the interface using plasmoids, etc).

[crock_11]

I installed 11.04 on my W500 on a 32gb sd card dual boot config with windows... I'll ditch windows when multitouch is supported on the W500 in ubuntu. (from what i've read a patch is in the works)

I use the included 'onboard' keyboard and it works pretty well, i'm typing on it now.

I did get the input rotation to match the screen rotation with a great program called Magick Rotation. It doesn't auto rotate with the g sensor but i don't mind so much.

I'm not sure about the included video driver though, as playback is choppier than windows, but i'll reserve judgement since that could very likely be since i'm running off of a sd card.

Bottom line to me is this thing will be sweet when the W500 touch input is recognized as multitouch in linux.

[sandy8925]

@crock_11: did you install 11.04 32 bit or 64 bit? The processor is 64 bit right?

Also, afaik ubuntu 11.04 may not have opensource drivers for the radeon hd6250 and is probably using software rendering, you should probably install fglrx to get good performance (although ubuntu 11.10 may work well).

[jpmatrix972]

Bought a W500 a couple of days ago. I didn't make a backup (I have the restore DVDs). Installed Xubuntu 11.04. Everything worked OK except 3 things:

1. Emulation of right click. Solved installing easystroke


hi
would you tell me how you got easystroke emulate the right click please ? i'm unable to configure it :(

[kathleenhenri]

hi
would you tell me how you got easystroke emulate the right click please ? i'm unable to configure it :(

Easystroke is not immediately intuitive, I had problems at first as well.

Open Easystroke, under Preferences tap on Gesture Button and select Button 1. This is allows you to use your finger touch to make the stroke. I left the Timeout profile as Default - but you might want to play around with that.

Then select the Actions tab. Select Add Action. Name it whatever you want - in this case Right Click. Under Command select button. Then under Details choose button 3. if you have a mouse attached you can right click in the grey box. Now you should be able to record the stroke you want with your finger to call up the Right Click.

Under Preferences tab in the Exceptions window you can add exceptions to the gestures. I add programs such as Gimp and Xournal. To do this open the program you want to exclude, click on Add Exception button, the cursor becomes a +, then click on the open window of the program you are excepting and it will be added to the list.

[jpmatrix972]

Easystroke is not immediately intuitive, I had problems at first as well.

Open Easystroke, under Preferences tap on Gesture Button and select Button 1. This is allows you to use your finger touch to make the stroke. I left the Timeout profile as Default - but you might want to play around with that.

Then select the Actions tab. Select Add Action. Name it whatever you want - in this case Right Click. Under Command select button. Then under Details choose button 3. if you have a mouse attached you can right click in the grey box. Now you should be able to record the stroke you want with your finger to call up the Right Click.

Under Preferences tab in the Exceptions window you can add exceptions to the gestures. I add programs such as Gimp and Xournal. To do this open the program you want to exclude, click on Add Exception button, the cursor becomes a +, then click on the open window of the program you are excepting and it will be added to the list.

thank you it works !
now is it possible to emulate a right click with just touching the screen for 1 second (for example?)
how do you do that in easystroke ?

[jpmatrix972]

just switched from kde to lxde on my w500
now lubuntu is flying !
installed lxlauncher to have a tablet-style menu that rocks!

anyone has an idea for multitouch to work ?

[deaths_eclipse]

I have multitouch working on my Acer Iconia W500, will try G-Sensor and for bluetooth, we might need to find its config files because the device does not have a hardware bluetooth key or button. *peace*

[andybleaden]

Well I am glad that this works. As for testing this does it work fast enough when you tested it on a USB? Not sure whether to test 11.10 on this already with Ubuntu Unity (which I like) or try another flavour

[rburkhardt]

I go the EETI drivers installed, but I cant seem to figure out why I can't get multitouch working, any help?

[deaths_eclipse]

Just set the EETI config value of "Direction" to 2. As for bluetooth, almost got it working. Just facing errors with hciconfig.

[Kovat]

Just set the EETI config value of "Direction" to 2. As for bluetooth, almost got it working. Just facing errors with hciconfig.

Hello!

Can you write a how-to that describes the multitouch settings?

[Gerroo]

Hello, greetings from Bahrain

Got a Acer Iconia Tab W500 for free but I would not take Win7 even if I was paid.
Tested Win 8 on a VM. It's the same in a new dress.

Have Lubuntu with LXDE up and running smoothly and battery life is about 6 hours.

Kindly help with:
easystroke - It works with the mouse but does not record or work with the finger
Multitouch: the EETI driver makes the touchscreen unusable, I end up with the cursor staying in a small box to the down left

A HowTo from a clean install would be really nice.

sysinfo:
uname -rm => 3.0.0-17-generic i686
X -version +> X.Org X Server 1.10.4
xinput --list>
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ eGalax Inc. USB TouchController id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
lsusb =>
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0eef:7302 D-WAV Scientific Co., Ltd

Thanks in advance