This page summarizes my efforts made to install Fedora, a GNU/Linux distribution, on an Acer Aspire AS5720Z notebook. First I tried Fedora Core 6, but this version did, among other issues, not provide full support for the screen. Hence, I decided to give the most recent Fedora version available at that time a try: Fedora 8.
The following table provides an overview of the hardware and shows which components work out-of-the-box and which don't.
| Component | Works? | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Bare system (Pentium dual-core T2310, 2 GB DDR2) | No user actions required | dmesg often reports "APIC error on CPU0: 40(40)" |
| 15.4" WXGA 1280x800 Acer CrystalBrite Screen | No user actions required | |
| Graphics: Mobile Intel GM965/GL960 Express w/ GMA X3100 Accelerator | Not fully supported | e.g., Compiz-fusion does not work |
| Keyboard | No user actions required | |
| Touchpad | No user actions required | |
| DVD-Super Multi double layer recorder | No user actions required | Reading works, writing not (yet) tested |
| USB | No user actions required | |
| Sound: Intel High-Definition Audio | Easy to fix | See Sound |
| VGA output | Works, but not via function key | Use the system-config-display tool instead |
| Wired LAN (RJ-45) | No user actions required | |
| Wireless LAN (Atheros AR5BXB63) | Quite some effort required | See Wireless |
| Special keys | Some user actions required | Some still don't work; see Special Keys |
| Suspend | No user actions required | Works only once, probably a software problem |
| Crystal Eye Webcam | Easy to fix | See Webcam |
| Card reader | No user actions required | But: it seems that a MemoryStick PRO card does not work |
| Modem (RJ-11) | Untested | |
| IR | Untested | |
| FireWire | Untested | (all I can say is that the component is reported by lspci) |
The lspci command produces the following output:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03) 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03) 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03) 05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02) 06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01) 07:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05) 07:00.1 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22) 07:00.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Unknown device 0843 (rev 12) 07:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12) 07:00.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev ff)
The installation went rather smooth. I downloaded the Fedora 8 x86-32 DVD ISO and booted the installer directly from my harddisk (pretty easy as Grub was already installed due to a previous Fedora Core 6 install). In about an hour, Fedora 8 was running.
This notebook comes with Micro$oft tax added Windows Vista preinstalled. The Fedora installer reported 4 primary NTFS partitions, probably a system recovery partition (10.5 GB), an empty data partition (120 GB), a Windows system partition (120 GB) and another obscure partition (518 MB) that I can't explain. Initially, I expected the 3rd partition to be the data partition, so I decided to pick that one for my Fedora installation. Apparently I was wrong, because when I accidentally booted the supposed Windows partition afterwards, it was only reporting errors and refused to boot an actual OS. For me this is not a problem, but if you want to have a dual boot setup with the original Windows Vista installation, you should first find out which partition is safe to contain your Fedora install.
Make sure you install the basic development tools (make, gcc, ...) and libraries during the installation, because some compilation work is needed to make the remaining hardware components work.
Sound did not work immediately after the installation. However, it is very easy to fix this. Open the file /etc/modprobe.conf in your favourite text editor and locate the following line:
Append model=acer to this line, reboot, and your sound should work.
There is another issue with sound in Fedora 8, but this seems to be related to the new PulseAudio sound system. When you launch KDE, sometimes a message will popup with the error message: "Error while initializing the sound driver: device: default can't be opened for playback (Permission denied) The sound server will continue, using the null output device". If this is the case, open up a terminal and enter the following commands to get your sound back again:
This is the most challenging part of the process. There are several options available; I decided to go for the NdisWrapper approach. Basically speaking, NdisWrapper allows you to use a proprietary MS Windows driver under the Linux kernel.
You will need the following:
Put the kernel .bz2 file into /usr/src and unpack it using
Make a copy of your original configuration file and use it to configure the kernel we are going to compile:
Choose "load alternative configuration file" and choose the file your just copied. Then go to "kernel hacking" and make sure the option "Use 4Kb for kernel stacks instead of 8Kb" is switched OFF. Save your configuration and enter "make" to build the kernel. Once this is done, enter "make modules_install" and finally enter "make install". Now you're ready to reboot. Check /boot/grub/grub.conf to make sure the new kernel is listed before rebooting; you might want to set this new kernel as default. Reboot and choose your freshly compiled kernel in the boot menu.
If everything went well, you are now running your freshly compiled kernel. Now we only have to configure the ndiswrapper module and load it. So unzip your Windows XP driver, and cd into the directory containing the .inf and .sys files (probably net5211.inf and ar5211.sys). Now enter the following commands:
If everything went well, then you should be able to view the wireless networks available in your area (using the command "iwlist scan" for example). If you forgot to turn off the 4KSTACKS kernel configuration option, it is likely that you get a kernel panic after issuing the modprobe command. Now use something like NetworkManager in order to connect to a wireless network.
Note: I still have some problems with certain wireless network protocols; it seems I still can't connect to WPA-PSK protected networks. Furthermore, the "toggle wireless" button and wireless LEDs also don't work.
Most special function keys (accessible by holding the Fn key and pressing another key) work. Some of these special function keys already have an action assigned; these are: NumLk, ScrLk, brightness controls, suspend, screen on/off, touchpad on/off. If no action is assigned, then a key event is generated for the other special function keys. You can assign an action to these keys yourself. For example, the volume wheel on the left side of the notebook generates XF86AudioLowerVolume/XF86AudioRaiseVolume events. If you are running KDE, you can set them as global shortcuts for controlling the audio volume using KMix.
There are some more special keys on this notebook, between the power button and the loudspeakers. These are intended for launching a web browser, an email client etc. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them to work, since X apparently does not recognize these keys.
This notebook comes with an integrated Crystal Eye webcam. It is reported by lsusb as "Bus 002 Device 003: ID 5986:0102".
Getting the webcam to work is relatively easy. All you need is the uvclinux module. Get the source code from linux-uvc.berlios.de, "make" it and "make install" it. After a "modprobe uvclinux" command, you can directly access the webcam, using the Kopete instant messenger program, for example.
It is definitely possible to get Fedora 8 running on this laptop. However, in order to get the wireless network interface working, some serious effort is required. Hence, some basic experience with the GNU/Linux platform is really recommended. Also keep in mind that some minor things (some special keys, part of the card reader) still don't work. However, these are not essential for a decent working environment.
The information on this page is provided for informational purposes only. I do not take any responsibility if something goes wrong. Always make sure that you know exactly what you are doing before executing commands as root user.
If you have any questions or suggestions, then you can always contact me. Also, if you know how to fix the remaining issues, I'll be glad to hear that!
Sven van Haastregt - Last update: 27 April, 2008.