Acer Aspire 1362 LMI

Last Update: April 27th, 2005 at 08.00 am

Current OS: Ubuntu Hoary Hedgehog 5.04

I have installed Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary) on my Acer Aspire 1362 LMI, there are no big problems! The Installation was easy and the most common periphericals works !

This laptop is operating under Kernel 2.6.10.

Resolved :

• Dual DVD-RW drive :
  After the install of the multimedia packages, but when I play DVD playback. The transfers is slower than it should be then I enable DMA transfer for the DVD drive by editing the file:
  /etc/hdparm.conf
  I add the following lines in this file :
  
  /dev/hdc {

  dma = on
  interrupt_unmask = on
  io32_support = 0

  }
  
  After this, reboot the laptop.

• NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 :
  For the basic functions, the graphics card work. But if you want use the full 3D acceleration; you must install the nVidia binary driver. The procedure is explained in that page : Ubuntu wiki - Binary drivers howto.

• Integrated wireless 802.11b/g network card :
  For use the wlan, you need to install ndiswrapper. That's the procedure :

  • install the package ndiswrapper-utils package (Hoary cd) with the Synaptic manager.
  • download the windows driver on the Acer website (referenced "Acer IPN2220 Wireless LAN Card NDIS Miniport Driver 2.10.03.2004").
  • unzip the driver (file 80211g.zip) and open a terminal
  • With the terminal, copy the folder in /opt :
    sudo -cp -Rf ~/Desktop/80211g/ /opt/
  • Then, load the driver with ndiswrapper :
    sudo ndiswrapper -i /opt/80211g/Win2k/neti2220.inf
  • Create the module for the linux kernel :
    sudo ndiswrapper -m
  • Test with the following line (after this, check in the Network manager if the wlan0 is present) :
    sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
  • If works, add the ndiswrapper module at boot time;
    modify the file /etc/modules and add the following line at the end of the file :
    ndiswrapper

• Fn+X keys :
  For use the Fn keys, you must assign keycode to scancode. That's the procedure :

  • Edit the file /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh with the following command in a terminal :
    sudo gedit /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh
  • Add this lines at the end of the file (before the line : exit 0 :
    # Assign new keycodes for Fn+X
    setkeycodes 0xa5 129
    setkeycodes 0xa6 130
    setkeycodes 0xa7 131
    setkeycodes 0xf2 132
  • Then save the file and reboot the laptop.
  • Under X, you can now assign the command for Fn+X keys in the Shortcuts manager (Menu System > Preferences > Shortcuts or anything approach; not sure for the locale)
  • In this application, you can assign the Fn+X keys to the right functions.
  Remark : the keys Fn+F5 and Fn+F6 are hardware touch. You can't assign an action to them.
  

Problems in progress:

• Launch manager keys :
  It seems that the launch manager keys send a constant signal of "key pressed". So, the Shortcuts manager have problems. Coming soon...

Links:

• Ubuntu Linux www.ubuntulinux.org

• laptop manufacturer http://global.acer.com/

Please send the feedback and Ideas to ostaquet [at] gmail.com, Thanks.

visit www.ubuntulinux.org

Best regards, Olivier Staquet