Asus 1201N How To Lucid 10.04 -- Solved (Mostly)

[EtoIxPi]

Ok, guys. I've got an asus 1201n. It's a great machine and ubuntu 10.04 is a great os but they just don't work well together by default. So I have decided to put up a thread to help who I can.

What works:
Nvidia display
Custom keys
Suspend/hibernate
Sound
Wireless
Wired NIC

What has not been tested:
Webcam
Mic
HDMI
Multi-touch
Trackpad disable


Most of the stuff listed in the "what works" section works out of the box. Here's how to get the rest of it.

Suspend/Hibernate
If this doesn't work it's a real killer for anyone who's serious about using a laptop. If you have to shutdown every time you close the lid you might as well just stick with the desktops.

As of this writing kernel version 2.6.32-24 does not support the acpi functions necessary to properly suspend this laptop. With this kernel it will suspend once, but not twice. This is repeatable. To fix this you will have to install a newer kernel. I personally have tested 2.6.34 and 2.6.35. Both work fine. Here are the directions for that.

1) Go to: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

2) Select a 2.6.34 or 2.6.35 kernel for lucid

3) Download both the i386 debs and the "kernel headers all" deb

4) Save them to a directory then run "sudo dpkg -i *.deb"

5) Reboot and select the appropriate kernel in GRUB.

After this suspend/hibernate should work.



Wireless Card
You will probably have trouble with your wireless card after the kernel update. The drivers aren't compiled into most kernels by default. You need to compile the driver from source and install it as a module. Here are the directions for that.

1) Get the source here: http://launchpadlibrarian.net/366886...11.2009.tar.gz

2) "tar -xzvf package.tar.gz"

2.1) "cd package"

2.2) "make"

2.3) "sudo make install" (don't worry if this part fails)

3) move <build directory>/firmware/RTL8192SE to /lib/firmware

4) move <build directory>/HAL/rtl8192/r8192se_pci.ko to /lib/modules/<your kernel>/kernel/drivers/net/wireless

5) "sudo depmod -a"

6) "sudo modprobe r8192se_pci"

7) Enjoy wireless.




Bios Reset & Built in Hotkeys
Last but not least you may have trouble with built in hot keys and your bios resetting every time you reboot. Here's how to fix that.

1) "cd /etc/default"

2) "sudo gedit grub"

3) change the line that says "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"" to read "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet acpi_osi=Linux acpi_brightness=vendor splash"" instead.

4) Save and then "sudo update-grub2"

5) Reboot.




Enjoy!
This isn't everything, but I think it covers the basics. Feel free to copy/paste and add to this guide as necessary!

[Lancellor]

I did the functions key fix, but they still don't work..

[jamesey]

is the hdmi out working? how's performance when playing an intense mkv at 1080p?

[emoguitarist06]

is the hdmi out working? how's performance when playing an intense mkv at 1080p?

I've never had a problem running HDMI or 1080- mkv files

Webcam works out of the box

Mic! Anyone has a solutions for this?

[Drewvt]

Mic! Anyone has a solutions for this?

Have you tried the following?
http://jr0cket.blogspot.com/2010/07/...ntu-linux.html

Enabling the internal Microphone
The internal microphone is muted by default and you are not able to unmute that microphone without manually configuring using the amixer command line. I prefer to install the tool pavucontrol, which is an advanced graphical mixer.

sudo aptitude install pavucontrol

Run pavucontrol and on the Input Devices tab, unmute the microphone. You will then need to go to the normal sound control panel and unmute the microphone.

I am also planning to purchase the 1201N, so I was looking around for tweaks.

[emoguitarist06]

I am also planning to purchase the 1201N, so I was looking around for tweaks.

Why not just get the 1215N? I really want to upgrade to that one.

[Deut316]

Hi,

Thanks for your help on preventing Bios from resetting itself... it was frustration.

My computer however still won hybernate and suspend itself unless I put it to sleep with fn+f2 keys.

You provided these instructions (below)to help with suspend and hybernate. Can you give specific steps especially concerning grub as Iḿ not a programmer. Also note that Iḿ using 10.10.
Thanks
B
Suspend/Hibernate
If this doesn't work it's a real killer for anyone who's serious about using a laptop. If you have to shutdown every time you close the lid you might as well just stick with the desktops.

As of this writing kernel version 2.6.32-24 does not support the acpi functions necessary to properly suspend this laptop. With this kernel it will suspend once, but not twice. This is repeatable. To fix this you will have to install a newer kernel. I personally have tested 2.6.34 and 2.6.35. Both work fine. Here are the directions for that.

1) Go to: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

2) Select a 2.6.34 or 2.6.35 kernel for lucid

3) Download both the i386 debs and the "kernel headers all" deb

4) Save them to a directory then run "sudo dpkg -i *.deb"

5) Reboot and select the appropriate kernel in GRUB.

After this suspend/hibernate should work.

[Drewvt]

If you are running 10.10 then you should have kernel 2.6.35 already. The above instructions to replace the kernel are therefore pointless.

To hibernate you will need to create a swap file, that's all. The official FAQ on swap explains everything, it is quite simple.

[Nburnes]

If you are running 10.10 then you should have kernel 2.6.35 already. The above instructions to replace the kernel are therefore pointless.

To hibernate you will need to create a swap file, that's all. The official FAQ on swap explains everything, it is quite simple.

But I don't have a problem with hibernate, I have a problem with sleep. It goes to sleep, then I press the power button or press a key and I can see the screen light up and the fans/hard drive spins up, but nothing comes onto the screen.

[Drewvt]

But I don't have a problem with hibernate, I have a problem with sleep. It goes to sleep, then I press the power button or press a key and I can see the screen light up and the fans/hard drive spins up, but nothing comes onto the screen.

Ah. Suffice to say that I have never encountered anything like that. I can't get it to stop asking for my password when coming out of sleep, despite following the guides to disable that, but otherwise sleep works just fine.

The permanent fix for the load cycle bug (by editing the etc/conf file) has taken care of that problem, too.