Notes on Acer Aspire One 522

[hoohoo]

@repatch

I just installed 11.1 Catalyst on OpenSuSE 11.3 and it works! CC has fewer controls than the Win7 version, but does have Powerplay and that was my only real concern.

Strange about Ubunutu 10.10. I only booted Ubuntu as a live CD, did not actually install it.

Still no wireless, and not sure about sound.

[hoohoo]

Wireless driver

On OpenSuSE 11.3.

Driver is at http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

~> make
~> make install
~> modprobe lib80211
~> modprobe wl
~> wpa_supplicant -Dwext -ieth1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
~> wpa_gui

Then scanned for APs to find my AP. Works great.

[hoohoo]

I got mine a few days ago, works GREAT under Ubuntu10.10.

...

Does the wireless work for you with Ubuntu?

[areichel]

It works great with linux

I've got the Aspire One 522 without Windows 7 and without bluetooth, but with an ram upgrade (2GByte) for 250 EUR, which is a fair price.

I installed Gentoo Linux and after some trial'n error everything works great despite the internal microphone.

Some tips:
* grab the latest development kernel (2.6.38-rc4 and apply Radeon DRM/DRI/KMS and loading of the Radeon Firmware)
* install libdrm, xf86-drivers-ati and mesa from the latest snapshots (for Gentoo you can use x11-overlay and unmask these packages)

Now you can enjoy hardware 3d support, clean suspend/resume, working mplayer vo=xv,gl2,gl and working webcam in skype.

Without this using the propietary frglx-driver I could not use mplayer and skype-webcam, no resume (screen was black), could not switch to the vt and had a lot of strange effects on the screen when logging of. Also I had big trouble with the wlan, which often froze the computer when using frglx.

The issue left over is about the sound. Using kernel alsa drivers I can hear the internal microphone but it is terrible background noise. Also I can use external head-set and mic, but internal speaker will not turned off. I could not test hdmi-out yet.

However when using the more correct Conexant configuration in alsa, then I get no micro and no external headset sound and I have a lot of strange buttons under also (Mic-B, Mic-C, Mic-E and Mic-F). I also tested alsa-drivers 1.0.24 but it is the same.

Would be great if someone has some information about this. Related to the graphic settings of course I am glad to help out as I am very happy it is working so smooth and stable now.

The best part is: even with wifi-on I get now 6 hours of usage when display is dimmed down. Great for travel!

Best regards!

BTW: the charger is but-ugly! any chance to replace it with a small and slim and nice generic charger? Any recommendations?

[areichel]

Wireless

Related to the wireless: I have definitely an Atheros-chip on-board which works great with the ath9k driver. It even creates(!) ad-hoc networks which can be connected.

So I wonder why you refer to Broadcom?

best regards1

[areichel]

Related to the graphic and sound

I've got the Aspire One 522 without Windows 7 and without bluetooth, but with a ram upgrade (2GByte) for 250 EUR, which is a fair price.

I installed Gentoo Linux and after some trial'n error everything works great despite the internal microphone.

Some tips:
* grab the latest development kernel (2.6.38-rc4 and apply Radeon DRM/DRI/KMS and loading of the Radeon Firmware)
* install libdrm, xf86-drivers-ati and mesa from the latest snapshots (for Gentoo you can use x11-overlay and unmask these packages)

Now you can enjoy hardware 3d support, clean suspend/resume, working mplayer vo=xv,gl2,gl and working webcam in skype.

Without this and using the proprietary frglx-driver I could not use mplayer and skype-webcam, no resume (screen was black), could not switch to the vt and had a lot of strange effects on the screen when logging of. Also I had big trouble with the wlan, which often froze the computer when using frglx.

The issue left over is about the sound. Using kernel alsa drivers I can hear the internal microphone but it is terrible background noise. Also I can use external head-set and mic, but internal speaker will not turned off. I could not test hdmi-out yet.

However when using the more correct Conexant configuration in alsa, then I get no micro and no external headset sound and I have a lot of strange buttons under also (Mic-B, Mic-C, Mic-E and Mic-F). I also tested alsa-drivers 1.0.24 but it is the same.

Would be great if someone has some information about this. Related to the graphic settings of course I am glad to help out as I am very happy it is working so smooth and stable now.

The best part is: even with wifi-on I get now 6 hours of usage when display is dimmed down. Great for travel!

Best regards!

BTW: the charger is but-ugly! any chance to replace it with a small and slim and nice generic charger? Any recommendations?

[repatch]

Does the wireless work for you with Ubuntu?

Yes, just had to enable the proprietary atheros driver and off I went, very seemless!

[hoohoo]

Related to the wireless: I have definitely an Atheros-chip on-board which works great with the ath9k driver. It even creates(!) ad-hoc networks which can be connected.

So I wonder why you refer to Broadcom?

best regards1

Some of the 522's have Broadcom wireless and others have Atheros wireless. Mine has Broadcom wireless.

[repatch]

Some of the 522's have Broadcom wireless and others have Atheros wireless. Mine has Broadcom wireless.

Interesting. Well, worst case, it's just a mini-pcie card, you can replace it with another card that is better supported by your distro. They go for about $30 where I'm at.

[x86Daddy]

While the support isn't flawless (the card reader does not work, no linux driver, and I can't get suspend to work) what is out there works more then well enough for me.
TTYL

I'm at the same point... got everything working awesomely now, except for Suspend (Hibernate is fine)... Hadn't tried SD slot in Linux yet. Oddly enough, I think Suspend did work before I got fglrx working. When I was doing tests of s2ram, I had it work *one* time with "s2ram -f -a 1", but it reliably failed ever after. If anyone has details of how they have Suspend to RAM working, please share.