Linux AT Whoopy.it
< Author: Iacopo_I - 15 Jun 2005 >

Intro
I tried to install Linux on this laptop for about 5 months, I have found some different kinds of problem but now I can use all the functionality of this notebook this system not only with MS XP but with Linux too. I have installed some different distributions (Suse 9.1, Suse 9.2, Mandrake 9.2, FreeBSD (Impossible!!!!), Ubuntu, Fedora (the biggest problem!!!)) but every time I found some problems regarding the HW compatibility. At the end, last month, I have installed SuSe 9.3 Professional and after some manual configuration everything looks to work.

System
- Acer Aspire 1981WlCi
- Suse 9.3 Pro

Hardware Information

General Information
Manufacturer	Acer Inc.
Manufacturer Part Number	LX.A2805.010
Manufacturer Website Address	www.us.acer.com
Product Line	Aspire
Product Series	1680
Product Name	Aspire 1681WLCI Notebook
Marketing Information	The Aspire 1681WLCI multimedia notebook with Intel Centrino Mobile Technology in the new Acer Folio design meets the needs of SOHO professionals, such as architects, designers and engineers, as well as home users who want a work/entertainment system.
Mobile Technology	Intel Centrino
Software
Operating System	Windows XP Home - Native Linux
Software Included	Acer Launch Manager Acer Disk-to-Disk Recovery (uses 2GB of hard drive space) Adobe Acrobat Reader Aspire Arcade CyberLink PowerDVD* Norton AntiVirus* NTI CD-Maker* *OEM, not full-featured, version
Battery Information
Batteries	1 x 8-cell Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) Standard
Battery Life	Up to 5 Hour(s) (Main Battery) - 1,5h/2h In use
Battery Recharge Time	1.5 Hour(s) Passive (Main Battery) 3.5 Hour(s) Active (Main Battery)
Miscellaneous
Package Contents	Aspire 1681WLCI Notebook Lithium Ion Battery AC Adapter Acer System Recovery CD
Additional Information	Display and Graphics Support: Support for simultaneous display on notebook LCD and external monitor Microsoft DirectX 9.0 support LAN Feature: Wake-on-LAN ready Modem Feature: Wake-on-Ring ready
Security Features	User and administrator BIOS passwords Kensington lock slot

Linux Compatibility
 

Processor & Chipset
Processor	Intel Pentium M 715 1.50GHz	OK Completely recognized
Bus Speed	400MHz FSB
Cache	2MB L2
Chipset	Intel 855GME
Memory
Standard Memory	512MB DDR SDRAM	OK Completely recognized
Maximum Memory	2GB DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed	333MHz DDR333/PC2700
Storage
Hard Drive	80GB Ultra ATA/100 (ATA-6)	OK Completely recognized
Optical Drive	CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive Integrated
Optical Drive Speed	24x 10x 24x CD-RW/8x DVD-ROM
Display & Graphics
Display Screen	15.4" WXGA Active Matrix TFT Color LCD	OK During the installation process you need to configure manually, but it is extremely simple. Some consideration on 3D Acceleration for ATI 9700. (1)
Graphics Controller	Intel 855GME Integrated
Display Resolution	1280 x 800 @ 16.7 Million Colors (24-bit) Internal Support
Color Support	16.7 Million Colors (24-bit)
Graphic Card	ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700 - 64 MB DDR video memory
Audio
Sound Card	Stereo Integrated	OK Completely recognized
Speakers	Stereo Speakers Integrated
Network & Communication
Network	Fast Ethernet 10/100Mbps Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g 54Mbps	OK - Fast Ethernet completely recognized - Wireless completely recognized but needs some considerations (2)
Modem	V.92 56Kbps Fax Modem	Not tested yet!
Input Devices
Keyboard	88 Keys	OK Completely recognized
Keyboard Features	Hotkey controls International language support 12 function keys Four cursor keys Two Microsoft Windows keys Wireless LED button Easy-Launch Buttons: Web browser E-mail One user-programmable
Pointing Device	TouchPad
Pointing Device Features	Four-way integrated scroll button
Interfaces/Ports
Ports	1 x TV-out 1 x i.Link IEEE 1394 - FireWire 1 x IrDA Fast Infrared 1 x Headphone(s) 1 x RJ-11 Modem 1 x RJ-45 Network 1 x VGA 1 x Microphone 3 x USB 2.0 1 x DC Power Input	OK Completely recognized
Power Description
Power Management	ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) 1.0b	OK Completely recognized but only after applying some changes to the system. (3)

 

1) ATI 3D Drivers for SuSe 9.3 Pro

On SuSe there is not automatically support for ATI 3D acceleration, but this distribution offer the possibility to resolve this problem in a very simple and official way.

1- You only need to visit this link on the suse ftp tree:
        ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/supplementary/X/ATI/suse93/i386/fglrx/
2- Enter in the last release directory of fglrx drivers (the official one for ATI Graphic Cards).
3- follow the README file for instruction.

2) Linux Wireless consideration on SuSe 9.3 Pro

Probably everything work properly but in some cases I found some problem and I noticed some little things that I think is better to know:
    1- The drivers that you find with the SuSe distribution are only optimized for X86 systems. I try to recompile my kernel choosing for the processor type "Pentiun M" but the wireless card didn't work. When I executed the "dmesg | grep -i ipw" command I found this output:
        ipw2200: version magic ...
It means that that module only works with the X86 system and so you need to recompile your kernel with that system or you need to download from ipw2200.souceforge.net the latest official drivers and recompile it for your system.
    2- The other thing to consider is that the button in the front of your Laptop work on Linux System too, but the yellow light doesn't. In fact you are not able to see from that light if you Wireless card is in an up or down state, you can only executing the command iwconfig and looking at the output. If it is in a down state you will see the hardware address with all 0s. Press the button to activate the network card.
    3- In some cases I notice that there is a problem with the name of the interfaces. Some times my system put the Ethernet interface on eth0 and the Wireless on eth1, some other times after restarting the computer I found the name inverted. This is a known problem that may happen in the case that you have two Ethernet interfaces too. This is not a real problem, everything works properly but in some cases you need to fix the name.

At this link you can find a little and practical guide to use WiFi on SuSe system:
        How to use and configure WiFi with Suse

3) ACPI problem on ACER  

In the past week I have worked a lot to try to resolve some problems regarding the use of the Power Management on my laptop. Thanks to google I find a lot of useful information but I was unable to find a real definitive solution for this kind of notebook.
The problem are:
    1- This kind of laptops doesn't support APM (Advanced Power Management) but only ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface)
    2- Today many company build their BIOS only supporting Microsoft OS, so they are incompatible with some standard used by every other OS
    3- I can't find anything in the directories /proc/acpi/ac_adapter and /proc/acpi/battery so I was unable to see the status of my battery and I can't implement the functionality of ACPI on my system
    4- The DSDT (Differentiated System Description Table) resulted to be bugged, I had to correct it
    5- There is a missing ECDT (Embedded Control Description Table) on my system so I have had to patch the kernel to resolve this problem
    6- Acer Laptops uses a so called Smart Batteries that have a different way to work

To resolve this problem there is an useful guide at this link:
        How to resolve ACPI problem on Acer Laptop

Links
http://tuxmobil.org/acer.html - Linux Laptop and Notebook Survey: Acer

 

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