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DSEAcerLaptops

Dick Smith is currently selling Acer laptops preloaded with Ubuntu 7.10. These laptops are fairly low-end, but they are also quite cheap ($600 or thereabouts).

However, there are a few issues with them that need to be fixed before they're suitable for general use. This is a list of those issues and how to fix them, along with other information that people may find helpful.

Note that I (Reece) have just wiped mine and loaded it from the latest Ubuntu Live CD (9.10) and I don't seem to have any of the specific issues mentioned and it seems to be more responsive so that would be my recommendation for now and just leave the below here for historical purposes.

Specific Issues:

1. No swap space defined
2. The root partition (/) is ext2 format
3. Updates aren't turned on
4. Boot up gets stuck if there is a network cable plugged in

Other information:

1. Issues which could potentially be a problem
2. Checking the installed RAM for defects

No swap space defined

The laptops come with a swap partition, but it's not activated by default. To activate it, you need to format the partition, and put the UUID that it generates into the /etc/fstab file.

 $ sudo mkswap /dev/sda1

This will output a line similar to:

 ID_FS_UUID=2ba4e416-fd4f-4fd3-9160-6edce5169ed6

Copy the 2ba4...9ed6 text (yours will be different), and then edit /etc/fstab

 $ sudo gedit /etc/fstab

 # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
 proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
 # /dev/sda2
 UUID=bfff9d67-250f-4b91-a536-a87033e209e3 /               ext2  defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
 # /dev/sda1
 UUID=e6160560-3163-4e49-a6d2-6dc841ab145c none            swap    sw   0       0
 /dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0       0

Replace the e616...145c part with the text you copied above. Save the file, and when you reboot, swap should be enabled. You can verify this by typing:

 cat /proc/swaps

which should output a line describing the swapfile.

The root partition (/) is ext2 format

The root partition should be ext3, which is much more robust than ext2.

The following command will convert it to be ext3:

 sudo tune2fs -j -i 0 -C 0 /dev/sda2 

note that the -i 0 -C 0 parts turn off regular checks of the partition on startup, which are less important with ext3. If you want to be safer, you should leave them out.

Then edit the /etc/fstab:

 sudo gedit /mnt/etc/fstab

and replace ext2 with ext3 in this file. It would pay to reboot now.

Updates aren't turned on

Software updates are disabled by default. It is a good idea to turn them on. Go to System -> Administration -> Software Sources, select the Updates tab, and turn on the ones you want. At a minimum, 'security updates', but you probably also want 'recommended updates' too. Don't forget to tell it to check daily, also.

Boot up gets stuck if there is a network cable plugged in

When the laptop has just been turned on, press F2 to get to the BIOS screen. Press page-down a couple of times until you get to the Boot tab. Under boot order, change it so that CD-ROM is first, and Harddrive is second. This will speed up startup times significantly.

Issues which could potentially be a problem

One user has complained about a user account already being set up on his laptop when he got it and the details of said account not being given to him.

The laptop uses an intel 965 videocard which is known to be unstable with Xv under Compiz. Hence, it is blacklisted by default. This has the effect of not allowing advanced desktop settings to work.

To enable them you need to stop compiz checking the blacklist when it starts, and stop using Xv so most instability can be avoided. It should be noted that not all the special effects will work, though most of the most popular ones do, including accessibility options.

echo "SKIP_CHECKS=yes" > ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager

start gstreamer properties and, in the video tab, select XWindow System (no Xv) as the default output.

Then rt-click on the wallpaper, select change desktop background and in the Visual Effects tab, choose something other than none.

Also Acer include a sheet describing parts of the laptop that don't work ("due to the limitations of Linux"):

• e-key (disabled)
• wireless key (disabled - but wireless works)
• modem (disabled)
• microphone (disabled)

This is not strictly true and efforts are being to made to try and test this list.

• the special software launched by the e key exists only as a Windows .exe file. The button itself works and is trivially remapped from System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts.
• the wireless key can be made to work using the acer-acpi package included with the 2.6.25 kernels
• (not tested) Linuxant insist that the modem is supported by their hsfmodem driver in this configuration. However, it should be installed before doing any backports updates.
• despite some reports of the microphone working in similar laptops, this issue remains outstanding.

Also outstanding ACPI issues with restart, suspend and hibernate.

Checking the installed RAM for defects

This is common to all Ubuntu installs (and those of many other Linux distributions), and can be useful if you want to see how much memory your computer has and ensuring that it's all OK.

When the computer starts up, just after the brand logo disappears, a message will appear saying something like "Press ESC to enter the GRUB menu" with a two or three second countdown. If you press ESC quickly, you'll get a menu with a few options. One of these is "memtest86+". Selecting this will load a program that goes through and checks all the memory in your computer. Up the top, it gives a summary including information such as the speed of the memory and how much there is.

This program will keep running forever, when it's finished testing, it'll just start over again. A complete pass can take over half an hour, however for a quick check, usually just giving it a few minutes is sufficient. As it progresses the bar beside 'Pass' will grow. When it reaches 100%, and starts again, it means the complete set of tests has finished. At any time you can press ESC to reboot the computer and start Ubuntu.

The memtest86+ homepage contains a lot of information if you are interested in finding out more.