Aspire Aspire TimelineX 4830T

[davidY]

Hey anybody own this model? This is not the GT with a nvidia graphics card. My current status:

• Wireless (out of box)
• Suspend (out of box)
• Audio (kernel 3 + manual fix)
• Graphics (kernel 3 + edgers xorg)
• Brightness (acpi option in boot)
• Battery life - around 5 hours
• CPU Scaling (out of box)
• External monitor setup - manual editing

Note: I upgraded to the xorg edgers kernel version and froze it at 3.0.0-8 because everything is working. Maybe some bugs are fixed in later versions.

Audio Out:
Upgrade to kernel 3 to receive the patch for audio. Headphone jack sense not working. I manually disable the speakers with hda-verb /dev/snd/hwC0D0 0x1f SET_PIN_WIDGET_CONTROL 0
See: http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/p...misc/hda-verb/

Audio In:
Microphone does not work unless you use hda analyzer and set Node[0x23] PIN Val[0] and Val[1] to different values (i like 2,3)
See: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/HDA_Analyzer

Graphics:
Use xorg edgers, which contains a kernel 3.0 upgrade. Install kernel, new xorg, and forced a stuck package to upgrade. This makes graphics pretty snappy (I can now use blur in compiz)
See: http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ppa/ubuntu

Brightness:
Not sure, this might have worked out of box. If not try adding acpi_osi=Linux to your boot options (edit in file /etc/default/grub the line containing GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX, then run sudo update-grub)

Battery Life:
With powertop I noticed that lots of interrupts were being generated from the card reader. Disable the card reader: sudo rmmod rts_pstor.

CPU Scaling:
See: http://code.google.com/p/i7z/

External Monitor:
I have a large monitor that should be the only one on when it is plugged in. I ended up setting both my ~/.config/monitors.xml and also /etc/gnome-settings-daemon/xrandr/monitors.xml to:

<monitors version="1">
  <configuration>
      <clone>no</clone>
      <output name="LVDS1">
          <vendor>INL</vendor>
          <product>0x0017</product>
          <serial>0x00000000</serial>
      </output>
      <output name="VGA1">
      </output>
      <output name="HDMI1">
          <vendor>VSC</vendor>
          <product>0xe226</product>
          <serial>0x01010101</serial>
          <width>1920</width>
          <height>1080</height>
          <rate>60</rate>
          <x>0</x>
          <y>0</y>
          <rotation>normal</rotation>
          <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
          <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
          <primary>no</primary>
      </output>
      <output name="DP1">
      </output>
  </configuration>
</monitors>

The best way is to have both monitors on with the gnome-monitor-properties tool, and save the configuration. Then go in and delete everything except for [vendor, product, serial] for the monitor you want to keep off.

Hope this helps, I'll try to keep this thread updated if anyone finds something cool/mistakes.

Useful Links
How to decrease power usage

[ptg21]

Thanks for the information!

Have just acquired a 4830TG and this is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

[....]

You folks should add your experience and useful info to the linlap wiki: http://www.linlap.com/wiki/acer

[ptg21]

I also had great improvements in battery life when making the following changes:

1. setting the graphics to integrated in the BIOS settings
2. installing jupiter applet (this is on Ubuntu 11.04) from webupd8.org - don't forget to make a donation!
3. using the latest kernel from xorg-edgers, as mentioned above (sound works with the latest kernel out of the box)
4. setting

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux i915.i915_enable_rc6=1"

in /etc/default/grub (and then updating with sudo update-grub) [the first option enables hardware control of backlight, the second implements a workaround for Intel graphics as described here]

The latter brought the power consumption down from around 14W to 9W with all devices turned off, screen at lowest brightness setting, as reported by powertop.

I don't know if it's a good idea to put 11.04/kernel 3.0.0-11 specific info on the linlap page, but I'll update it if required...

[jim.hitch]

Hey

Really pleased to have found this page, thanks for all the work and posting.

You forgot to mention that the touchpad is now properly working.

My only gripe at the moment is that after adding the xorg edgers ppa I upgraded the packages it suggested and now desktop effects crashes and has to be disabled (though perhaps that's more related to kernal 3), anyway, it's fine for the moment, the above fixes are far more valuable to me than candy.

Sorry, another edit. I tried the headphone jack and it seems that headphone jack sense is now working (3.0.0-12) though the volume on the headphones is stuck on the lowest bar.

btw, the machine is now super quick, it's made a massive difference here.


Jim

[davidY]

Hey
My only gripe at the moment is that after adding the xorg edgers ppa I upgraded the packages it suggested and now desktop effects crashes and has to be disabled (though perhaps that's more related to kernal 3), anyway, it's fine for the moment, the above fixes are far more valuable to me than candy.

Jim - you are using the T not the GT right (the one with the intel graphics card)? For me the desktop effects seem to all work. I haven't upgraded since everything was working.
Well once 11.10 comes out hopefully everything will just work out of the box

[gustokonyan]

Hi, thank you for this. This is what i am looking for!

But i have problems trying your solution on the graphics part. I clicked the link you gave but there are lots of folders and files. I dont know which is the correct thing to download/install. Can anyone guide me please? thanks..

My laptop is a Acer 4830TG on Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit

[ptg21]

As I recall, all you need to do is

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:[COLON]xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

and the appropriate packages should be installed

Agh- does anyone know how to avoid : x coming out as a 'mad' emoticon

[gustokonyan]

As I recall, all you need to do is

and the appropriate packages should be installed

Agh- does anyone know how to avoid : x coming out as a 'mad' emoticon

i am trying this now. thanks!

[gustokonyan]

i am trying this now. thanks!

hmm, after doing this, my screen displays squary particles whenever I open / close windows (with compiz Glide1 animation)

How do i revert / uninstall the changes i just made?


thank you!