Acer Timeline 3810T

[quail-linux]

2) Cannot change brightness. Like many others, it seems, I cannot adjust the backlight brightness. I haven't been able to get any of the suggested fixes that I've seen to work. The Fn+arrow keys cause Gnome's slider to change, but the actual brightness doesn't. When I try xrandr, I get

 >  xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL native
X Error of failed request:  BadRROutput (invalid Output parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  149 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  15 (RRGetOutputProperty)
  Serial number of failed request:  30
  Current serial number in output stream:  30

I did a bit of searching, and it seems that LVDS is really the only output option that'd make sense for a laptop, so I'm not sure what's going on there. I'm not familiar enough with X or how the screen works in linux to know what to do from there.

what does running this give you?

xrandr --prop

You should get an output similar to this:

$ xrandr --prop
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1366 x 768, maximum 1366 x 1366
VGA disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 310mm x 174mm
	EDID_DATA:
		00ffffffffffff0030e4010200000000
		00130103801f11780a8845955a568d28
		23505400000001010101010101010101
		010101010101561d56c6500020303020
		350036ae100000190000000000000000
		00000000000000000000000000fe004c
		4720446973706c61790a2020000000fc
		004c503134305748322d544c41310039
	PANEL_FITTING: full
		supported: center       full_aspect  full        
	BACKLIGHT_CONTROL: native
		supported: native       legacy       combination  kernel      
	BACKLIGHT: 2078 (0x0000081e) range:  (0,2078)
   1366x768       60.0*+
   1280x768       60.0  
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3  
   640x480        59.9  
TV disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
	BOTTOM: 37 (0x00000025) range:  (0,100)
	RIGHT: 46 (0x0000002e) range:  (0,100)
	TOP: 36 (0x00000024) range:  (0,100)
	LEFT: 54 (0x00000036) range:  (0,100)
	TV_FORMAT: NTSC-M
		supported: NTSC-M       NTSC-443     NTSC-J       PAL-M       
		           PAL-N        PAL

The line in bold is support backlight controls.

[miegiel]

@CptMath try a clean karmic install instead of an upgrade from jaunty. I never had any issues with the brightness Fn keys or the touchpad switch in karmic, they just worked. I think some old jaunty stuff is messing things up for you, for example I don't even have a xorg.conf file any more.

[tty]

Currently, xrandr under Ubuntu does not support the XGA resolution for the 3810T. This 1024x768 resolution is very useful for beamer presentations - there you would like to run beamer and laptop in mirror mode. So far I have succeeded as follows:

cvt 1024 768

to get the modeline

xrandr --newmode "1024x768" 63.50 1024 1072 1176 1328 768 771 775 798 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode LVDS1 1024x768
xrandr --output LVDS1 --set "scaling mode" "No scale"

What I do no understand here:

Is there a way to configure the No scale preference differently? I.e.,
I would like to put these lines into a startup script, but it seems I
have to switch to that mode to enable noscaling.

Where should I put all these lines into? /etc/gdm/Init/Default is probably the best place.

[fictivetoast]

BTW, does anyone have a 3810t with suspend working? All working reports seem to be from 4810t's.

I'm curious as well - have been running karmic on a new 3810t-6415 (dual core SU9400, intel graphics) and haven't had any luck with suspend on the 2.6.31.9.20 kernel with the latest bios (v.10). Frustrating! Does anyone with a 3810t have suspend working on x64?

Hibernate seems to take a *long* time to wake from too, and is generally not very responsive after waking.

Got wireless powersaving mode to work by installing the backports module as described here : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...31/+bug/405158

[Ashrael]

Hi all!

I bought a timeline 4810TG yesterday, today (after finally finishing the initial Vista setup) I decided to put on Jaunty....So I have the same issues with touchpad dis/enable button, suspend does not work... But more strange: I seem to have something going on that I have heard no-one talking about: my cd/dvd does not work properly..

dmesg | tail:

[ 2304.684320] ata5: link online but device misclassified, retrying
[ 2304.684325] ata5: hard resetting link
[ 2311.272040] ata5: failed to reset engine (errno=-5)
[ 2316.476259] ata5: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[ 2339.716277] ata5: softreset failed (device not ready)
[ 2339.716310] ata5: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 2339.716317] ata5: link online but device misclassified, retrying
[ 2339.716323] ata5: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
[ 2339.716327] ata5: hard resetting link
[ 2345.224120] ata5: failed to reset engine (errno=-5)

This could this be a hardware problem, but I am not sure.

uname -r:

2.6.28-15-generic

lshw:

ubuntu-timeline-h
    description: Computer
    product: Aspire 4810T
    vendor: Acer
    version: V1.20
    serial: LXPE10X2189252EB******
    width: 32 bits
    capabilities: smbios-2.6 dmi-2.6
    configuration: boot=normal uuid=914C72C0-6162-11DE-B1DD-C61EFAC9111B
  *-core
       description: Motherboard
       product: Aspire 4810T
       vendor: Acer
       physical id: 0
       version: Base Board Version
       serial: LXPE10X2189252EB******
       slot: Base Board Chassis Location
     *-firmware
          description: BIOS
          vendor: INSYDE
          physical id: 0
          version: V1.20 (06/15/2009)
          size: 1MiB
          capacity: 1984KiB
          capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int9keyboard int10video acpi usb
     *-memory
          description: System Memory
          physical id: 16
          slot: System board or motherboard
          size: 4GiB
        *-bank:0
             description: SODIMM Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2 ns)
             product: M471B5673EH1-CF8
             vendor: 80CE
             physical id: 0
             serial: 84C11770
             slot: DIMM0
             size: 2GiB
             clock: 800MHz (1.2ns)
        *-bank:1
             description: SODIMM Synchronous 800 MHz (1.2 ns)
             product: M471B5673EH1-CF8
             vendor: 80CE
             physical id: 1
             serial: 84C11755
             slot: DIMM2
             size: 2GiB
             clock: 800MHz (1.2ns)
     *-cpu
          description: CPU
          product: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Solo CPU    U3500  @ 1.40GHz
          vendor: Intel Corp.
          physical id: 1e
          bus info: cpu@0
          version: 6.7.10
          serial: 0001-067A-0000-0000-0000-0000
          slot: CPU
          size: 1400MHz
          capacity: 1400MHz
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 800MHz
          capabilities: fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe nx x86-64 constant_tsc up arch_perfmon pebs bts pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority cpufreq
        *-cache:0
             description: L2 cache
             physical id: 1f
             slot: Unknown
             size: 3MiB
             capacity: 3MiB
             capabilities: synchronous internal write-back unified
        *-cache:1
             description: L1 cache
             physical id: 21
             slot: Unknown
             size: 32KiB
             capacity: 32KiB
             capabilities: synchronous internal write-back data
     *-cache
          description: L1 cache
          physical id: 20
          slot: Unknown
          size: 32KiB
          capacity: 32KiB
          capabilities: synchronous internal write-back instruction
     *-pci
          description: Host bridge
          product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub
          vendor: Intel Corporation
          physical id: 100
          bus info: pci@0000:00:00.0
          version: 07
          width: 32 bits
          clock: 33MHz
          configuration: driver=agpgart-intel module=intel_agp
        *-pci:0
             description: PCI bridge
             product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Graphics Port
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
             version: 07
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport-driver
           *-display UNCLAIMED
                description: VGA compatible controller
                product: M92 LP [Mobility Radeon HD 4300 Series]
                vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
                version: 00
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm pciexpress msi cap_list
                configuration: latency=0
           *-multimedia
                description: Audio device
                product: R700 Audio Device [Radeon HD 4000 Series]
                vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
                physical id: 0.1
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
                version: 00
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list
                configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0 module=snd_hda_intel
        *-display UNCLAIMED
             description: VGA compatible controller
             product: Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
             version: 07
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list
             configuration: latency=0
        *-usb:0
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1a
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.0
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 module=uhci_hcd
        *-usb:1
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1a.1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.1
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 module=uhci_hcd
        *-usb:2
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1a.7
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1a.7
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm debug bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0 module=ehci_hcd
        *-multimedia
             description: Audio device
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1b
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0
             version: 03
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0 module=snd_hda_intel
        *-pci:1
             description: PCI bridge
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1c
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.0
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport-driver
           *-network UNCLAIMED
                description: Ethernet controller
                product: Attansic Technology Corp.
                vendor: Attansic Technology Corp.
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
                version: c0
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list
                configuration: latency=0
        *-pci:2
             description: PCI bridge
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1c.1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1c.1
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci pciexpress msi pm bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=pcieport-driver
           *-network
                description: Wireless interface
                product: Wireless WiFi Link 5100
                vendor: Intel Corporation
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
                logical name: wmaster0
                version: 00
                serial: 00:22:fb:52:**:**
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
                configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlagn ip=10.0.0.191 latency=0 module=iwlagn multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
        *-usb:3
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.0
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 module=uhci_hcd
        *-usb:4
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d.1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.1
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 module=uhci_hcd
        *-usb:5
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.2
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 module=uhci_hcd
        *-usb:6
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d.3
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.3
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=uhci_hcd latency=0 module=uhci_hcd
        *-usb:7
             description: USB Controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1d.7
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1d.7
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm debug bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=ehci_hcd latency=0 module=ehci_hcd
        *-pci:3
             description: PCI bridge
             product: 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1e
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1e.0
             version: 93
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pci bus_master cap_list
        *-isa
             description: ISA bridge
             product: ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.0
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: isa bus_master cap_list
             configuration: latency=0
        *-storage
             description: SATA controller
             product: ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f.2
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.2
             logical name: scsi1
             logical name: scsi4
             version: 03
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 66MHz
             capabilities: storage msi pm bus_master cap_list emulated
             configuration: driver=ahci latency=0 module=ahci
           *-disk
                description: ATA Disk
                product: WDC WD3200BEVT-2
                vendor: Western Digital
                physical id: 0
                bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
                logical name: /dev/sda
                version: 11.0
                serial: WD-WX50A599****
                size: 298GiB (320GB)
                capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
                configuration: ansiversion=5 signature=463530c0
              *-volume:0
                   description: Windows FAT volume
                   vendor: MSDOS5.0
                   physical id: 1
                   bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0,1
                   logical name: /dev/sda1
                   version: FAT32
                   serial: eaee-eb49
                   size: 9998MiB
                   capacity: 10000MiB
                   capabilities: primary fat initialized
                   configuration: FATs=2 filesystem=fat
              *-volume:1
                   description: Windows NTFS volume
                   physical id: 2
                   bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0,2
                   logical name: /dev/sda2
                   version: 3.1
                   serial: 82f283a7-3316-3042-ab72-ad0c557647f4
                   size: 190GiB
                   capacity: 190GiB
                   capabilities: primary bootable ntfs initialized
                   configuration: clustersize=4096 created=2009-09-08 16:17:54 filesystem=ntfs label=ACER state=clean
              *-volume:2
                   description: EXT3 volume
                   vendor: Linux
                   physical id: 3
                   bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0,3
                   logical name: /dev/sda3
                   logical name: /
                   version: 1.0
                   serial: ded43a6f-50dc-41e5-adce-5820a71305ee
                   size: 19GiB
                   capacity: 19GiB
                   capabilities: primary journaled extended_attributes large_files recover ext3 ext2 initialized
                   configuration: created=2009-09-08 15:57:07 filesystem=ext3 modified=2009-09-08 14:35:02 mount.fstype=ext3 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered mounted=2009-09-08 14:35:02 state=mounted
              *-volume:3
                   description: Extended partition
                   physical id: 4
                   bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0,4
                   logical name: /dev/sda4
                   size: 78GiB
                   capacity: 78GiB
                   capabilities: primary extended partitioned partitioned:extended
                 *-logicalvolume:0
                      description: Linux swap / Solaris partition
                      physical id: 5
                      logical name: /dev/sda5
                      capacity: 4094MiB
                      capabilities: nofs
                 *-logicalvolume:1
                      description: Linux filesystem partition
                      physical id: 6
                      logical name: /dev/sda6
                      logical name: /home
                      capacity: 74GiB
                      configuration: mount.fstype=ext3 mount.options=rw,relatime,errors=continue,data=ordered state=mounted
           *-cdrom
                description: DVD-RAM writer
                product: DVD-RAM UJ862AS
                vendor: MATSHITA
                physical id: 1
                bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0
                logical name: /dev/cdrom
                logical name: /dev/cdrw
                logical name: /dev/dvd
                logical name: /dev/dvdrw
                logical name: /dev/scd0
                logical name: /dev/sr0
                version: 1.00
                capabilities: removable audio cd-r cd-rw dvd dvd-r dvd-ram
                configuration: ansiversion=5 status=nodisc
        *-serial UNCLAIMED
             description: SMBus
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f.3
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.3
             version: 03
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             configuration: latency=0
        *-generic UNCLAIMED
             description: Signal processing controller
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) Thermal Subsystem
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1f.6
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1f.6
             version: 03
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm cap_list
             configuration: latency=0
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: pan0
       serial: 92:ee:98:3d:3e:d0
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A link=yes multicast=yes

Anyone have an idea?

TIA!

[Ashrael]

well... I solved it already.. I found this link:
http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?pid=2900788
And that set me on the path of fstab...

/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

changed this to:

/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

and: Oh JOY! it works... It seems that the jaunty installer made a mistake somehow...

SOLVED!

UPDATE: It seems that not all is solved...It worked for two cd's the third gave me the same dmesg output as before....

[quail-linux]

@Ashrael I noticed that you bios version is abit old, when I bought my 4810T it came with 1.26 version bios. You can download current bios from acer[1] and the current bios version looks to be 1.28. I know 1.26 Bios works fine, not sure of 1.28 not tested it.

I have just heard of people having problems with older versions of bios especially in the 3810s iirc

Upgrading your bios when not got Windows install can still be done, refer to this page[2].

[1] http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/downloads_gd.html
[2] http://www.netbooktech.com/tag/acer-...-instructions/

[jacktow]

I just purchased an Acer Timeline 8371 with discrete ATI graphics and I'm not quite liking it.

Before I start ranting, very nice thread, once I get my head around the graphics stuff, I shall start worrying about the touchpad, etc.

I was under the impression that one could choose which graphics card to use by changing a BIOS option. Turns out I was wrong. The switchable graphics option seems to keep both cards on and thus my machine runs hot and my battery, based on my estimate, would not even last 2 hours!

I'm currently using Karmic alpha 6 and by default, it loads both i915 and radeon drivers. I blacklisted radeon driver and further did the following which I thought would turn off the bus on which ATI sits:

echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/remove

NOTE: I got the device id by looking at the output of "lspci"

Doing that caused the ATI card to no longer show up on lspci and its traces vanished everywhere, and YET, no changes in the temperature nor the pathetic battery life.

I didn't keep the vista long enough to see how it worked there, but it seems like a stupid design to enable both cards at startup and let the OS decide which to shut down!

Any ideas? or else I might end up exchanging this unit with the non-discrete version (which would be very difficult, considering I've unpacked everything and pulled out all the stickers, etc. )

NOTE: I've attached the output of "lshw" and "lspci" for those who can make use of it

[Ashrael]

@quail-linux: I've upgraded the bios to 1.28, now the dmesg output has changed a bit:

[  129.725023] ata5.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:02:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 pio 16388 in
[  129.725025]          cdb 43 02 05 00 00 00 00 00  02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
[  129.725026]          res 50/00:03:00:04:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 Emask 0x12 (ATA bus error)
[  129.725030] ata5.00: status: { DRDY }
[  129.725035] ata5: hard resetting link
[  130.208306] ata5: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
[  130.212524] ata5.00: ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:a0 rejected by device (Stat=0x51 Err=0x04)
[  130.220136] ata5.00: ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:a0 rejected by device (Stat=0x51 Err=0x04)
[  130.220200] ata5.00: configured for UDMA/33
[  130.226640] ata5: EH complete

I have started vista, and it does not seem to have a problem with the dvd drive, so I guess it must be a problem with software... I have had an error like this before on my pc, there the fault was the sata cable, but since this is a laptop I guess this time it can't be that (or can it?)


TIA!

[Ashrael]

This is the dmesg output that keeps repeating (with no disc in drive)


[ 455.284148] ata5: failed to reset engine (errno=-5)
[ 459.032231] ata5: softreset failed (device not ready)
[ 459.032270] ata5: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 459.032278] ata5: link online but device misclassified, retrying
[ 459.032283] ata5: hard resetting link
[ 465.308324] ata5: failed to reset engine (errno=-5)
[ 469.076284] ata5: softreset failed (device not ready)
[ 469.076320] ata5: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[ 469.076328] ata5: link online but device misclassified, retrying
[ 469.076333] ata5: hard resetting link

Is it just me that has this problem? If so, it might be hardware after all.

About the touchpad button: It does switch the tp off, but not on, could this be worked around by a script or making a module persistent or something like that? Has anyone installed the acerhk package from repo's, and with what result?