HCL/Laptops/Acer/Aspire5024WLMI

From openSUSE

Running openSUSE 10.2 on the Acer Aspire 5024WLMI -(in a single/dualboot setup)

The 502x / 5024WLMI (and its little brother, the 302x/ 3020) contain(s) devices which haven't always been easy to setup under Linux. A lot of companies failed to provide proper drivers or specifications for usage (and or the development of drivers) of Linux on this laptop - Also companies learn from their mistakes, and most of them realize (just like IBM/AMD-ATI/Intel, to name a few) that Linux is the future.

Thanks to the Linux / OpenSource communities you're now able to enjoy the full possibilities and power of Linux on your Acer Aspire 302x/3020 - 502x/5024WLMI.

Installing openSUSE (next to Windows?)

Getting hold on openSUSE

You can either download the DVD iso/image (to burn it to a DVD yourself) Or buy the box from novell:

Downloading it for free, means no direct support from novell: http://en.opensuse.org/Released_Version

Buy the boxed version, and get support for only 59USD!: http://www.novell.com/products/opensuse

Getting your drives and partitions ready

If you want to install OpenSUSE next to Windows, then you need to have free space on the drive available for it. By default, the OpenSUSE installer will leave your Windows partitions untouched If you haven't touched the partitions on your drive since you bought it, then all space will currently be available for the Windows partition(s). This HOWTO/FAQ wont explain you how to resize your current partitions / add partitions to install OpenSUSE on, because there's loads of sites / tutorials explaining this already, instead it will only give you some tips: If you don't want to spend money on a commercial product to get this job done (something i can imagine) then you should look at:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

here's a tutorial on how you can resize / partition your drive with GParted: http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted

My advise is, just make sure that there's about 20/25GB (minimum) of free space on the drive / unpartitioned – The installer will notice this, and propose to use this for OpenSUSE. By default – OpenSUSE will never propose to delete/overwrite your Windows partitions (as long as you dont say, 'use the whole drive') Its a very safe and good working setup program. (From a technical point of view as well, for techies... I'm very happy that it uses a VESA based setup installer, and doesn't try to load X right away to get into a setup.)

About the installation of OpenSUSE

Ok, so you have the DVD - and your HD is ready to install OpenSUSE onto it. What you should do now is simple:
Just install OpenSUSE, insert the DVD in the drive reboot and select 'Installation'

If you would like to see some of the setup screens before installing it, have a look over here http://www.debianadmin.com/opensuse-101-installation-with-screenshots.html these are screenshots from OpenSUSE 10.1, they shouldn't differ much from 10.2

For brief instructions on how to install: http://www.novell.com/products/opensuse/installation.html

For a complete step by step installation, you can follow the instructions here: http://www.opensuse.computerlanguages.org/install.php

During the setup, you'll be asked a few 'usual' things like 'In what time-zone do you live', 'Please enter the password you want to use for the administrator / (that is called the 'root' account under Linux). Its very easy, hardly anything can go wrong as long as you don't say 'Use the whole drive for OpenSUSE' (in case you want a dualboot)

This is how the welcome screen looks. As you can see on the left, there's a number of steps that need to be performed to fully install the OS.

note: If you have a USB mouse you would like to use, like i do – next to the touchpad. You should connect it – and keep it connected during the installation. So it will be detected and configured for usage.

About the 'Network' part, just agree with the default settings -> it's all ok, if you know what you're doing you can of course make any changes depending on your network situation.
If you have a network cable attached to your laptop, then you may choose to do an 'Online Update', if not – you'll need to wait till we have installed the driver for the wireless card.

extra note: If you have chosen to install OpenSUSE next to Windows, then you will be able to select what OS (Operating System) to load during the system boot.

..
..
Now you're done with most part of the installation, i hope that everything went well and that you're looking at a nice OpenSUSE desktop!

Installing drivers for the graphics adapter - ATI X700

You can download the driver from the following location, it can be used for both 32/64bit – but we mainly focus on 32bit: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.35.5-x86.x86_64.run

(if the above link isn't working, then please use http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html )

After you've downloaded this file to your desktop, rightclick on the file, click on “properties” then on the tab “permissions”, mark “is exectuable” and click on "ok". Now we can start the installer from a console..

Click on the lizard in your taskbar, then “Applications” > “System” scroll down till you see “Terminal” This will open a so called “Console” in which you can enter commands. I wont go into detail on how to work/operate in the console. Type over the following commands:

cd ~/Desktop
sudo ./ati-driver-installer-8.35.5-x86.x86_64.run

This will start the driver installation for our ATI X700, and shows you a message with the type of platform you're running OpenSUSE on. Press enter to continue. You'll be asked to 'Please pick a product to install' -> select option 1. “ Install Driver 8.35.5 on X.Org 7.1.x”

Continue trough the installation, to finish it. [editor's note: should be extended a bit more?]

Additionally you can check: http://en.opensuse.org/Howto/ATI_Driver for a far more detailed explanation.

Installing the Broadcom 4318 wireless adapter

The NdisWrapper application, best described by its makers > quote:"This project implements Windows kernel API and NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) API within Linux kernel." (http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net) It doesn't matter if you don't understand this technotalk -> what you can do with NdisWrapper is simple, it allows you to use most Windows Wireless LAN driver under Linux.

With the Broadcom 4318 network adapter, we have two choices. Either use the original (Windows) driver from the manufacturer, in combination with NdisWrapper. Or use a opensource driver built by the bcm43xx team. (http://bcm43xx.berlios.de) I've tested a lot of bcm43xx builds against various kernels, progress is really noticeable - currently (as of writing) the 4318 still has connection problems according to the bcm43xx website (http://bcm43xx.berlios.de/?go=devices) I haven't noticed any problems with the bcm43xx driver.

Its up to you to decide to either use ndiswrapper or bcm43xx, i describe the installation of both in the following paragraphs.

[editor-notes]could you guys please mention some of the pro's/con's, all i can come up is A. bcm43xx says that there are problems with the device > B. ndiswrapper has proven to be very stable, always worked.[/editor-notes]

Installing “acerhk” or “acer_acpi” (a requirement for wlan)

Before you can use the wireless adapter, we need to make sure that its turned on. (trough some ACPI functionality) There are two software packages available to achieve this, one is called “acerhk” the other “acer_acpi” first named (is available in the OS repository) allowing you to make use of the extra media keys (next to the power button, and also the wlan/bluetooth buttons). Last named can be used on both 32 and 64-bit OpenSUSE releases, but it doesnt have any support for the media keys.

Installing and using the acerhk driver is a fairly simple process:

1. Make sure that you have the right (normal 10.2 OS/NONOSS) repositories available for the Yast package installer, copy paste them from here http://en.opensuse.org/Package_Repositories (if you dont know what this is about, its a good idea to read up here http://en.opensuse.org/Add_Package_Repositories_to_YaST )
2. Install the "acerhk" package via the Yast "Software Mangement" application, the package is available in the OS repository (32bit)
3. Now you've got "acerhk" installed, its a good idea to edit "/etc/modules.conf.local" and add the following lines:

blacklist bcm43xx
options acerhk usedritek=1 autowlan=1

Now the last two things we need to do to get the module loaded, lookup the variable MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT="" in "/etc/sysconfi/kernel" and make it look like this

MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT="acerhk"

Edit "/etc/init.d/boot.local" and add the following line to it:

echo "on" > /proc/driver/acerhk/wirelessled

By doing this, we disable the bcm43xx driver which we wont use (the driver is having problems with our 4318 device, as described on the Berlios project page).We enable the "acerhk" module to load during the system boot. And finally we turn on the device so it can be used.

If you want to use acer_acpi, this requires a bit more work and skill

To install the acer_acpi driver, you need to have the kernel sources package "kernel-source" , and the "gcc" compiler package installed. assuming that you downloaded the latest version http://aceracpi.googlecode.com/files/acer_acpi-0.4.tar.gz from http://code.google.com/p/aceracpi/

cd ~/Desktop
tar -xvf acer_acpi-0.4.tar.gz
make
sudo make install

After completing this, you can add the follow line to your "/etc/modules.local.conf"

blacklist bcm43xx

To get the module loaded, lookup the variable MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT="" in "/etc/sysconfi/kernel" and make it look like this

MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT="acer_acpi"

This is not enough to automaticly enable the device, you need to add the following line to "/etc/init.d/boot.local"

echo "enabled:1" > /proc/acer/acpi/wireless

I hope that you went trough either of the above stages without problems, if this is the case then your wireless adapter will be available for use (with ndiswrapper)

Installing the Broadcom Windows driver with NdisWrapper

First install the 'ndiswrapper' package via the Yasta 'Software Manangement' application, when you're done, download the following file to your desktop, ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5020/driver/xp/80211g.zip

Open a console windows, and perform the following commands:

cd ~/Desktop
unzip 80211g.zip
cd 80211g
ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

The following messages indicate a successful installation:

installing bcmwl5 ...
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2
forcing parameter IBSSGMode from 0 to 2

The last step we need to perform, makes sure that NdisWrapper gets loaded when the system boots.

ndiswrapper -m

The device will be ready for use, but it needs to be controlled by either the traditional "ifup" or the "knetworkmanager". This can be a matter of "taste", im personally using ifup, its fairly simple to setup [to be continued]

http://en.opensuse.org/Ndiswrapper#Configuring_your_card_in_YaST

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/WPA

Installing the 4318 firmware, setup the bcm43xx driver

If you used NdisWrapper before, make sure that the bcm43xx module is not blacklisted anymore. (during the system boot it will automatically load)
Open the Yast Software Management application and install the 'bcm43xx-fwcutter', grab ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_5020/driver/xp/80211g.zip and extract the file bcmwl5.sys from archive, to a newly created folder. Now open up a console, perform the following commands:

cd ~/user/80211gfw
bcm43xx-fwcutter bcmwl5.sys

This will extract a number of files from the bcmwl5.sys file. Now we need to move all the extracted .fw files into the systems /lib/firware folder

sudo cp *.fw /lib/firmware

The bcm43xx driver will automatically load these files when it initializes, a little difference with this driver opposed to the ndis/windows driver is that the light of the wirelesslan (WLAN) button blinks during data transfers (rx/tx) i personally like to focus on the stuff I'm doing on the screen so a continually blinking light can be highly annoying, to solve this you can add the following to "/etc/modprobe.conf.local"

options bcm43xx noleds=1

You should of course make sure that you have WLAN fully working before you turn the led off (else you might dont have a proper indicator)

If everything went well the device should be fully working, you can check whether the module loaded with:

lsmod|grep bcm43xx

user@osuse:/> lsmod|grep bcm
bcm43xx               423296  0
ieee80211softmac       36224  1 bcm43xx
ieee80211              34632  2 bcm43xx,ieee80211softmac

firmware_class         14080  2 bcm43xx,pcmcia

Don't forget that you still need to make sure that a connection is setup with ifup/wpa_supplicant or with knetworkmanager.

Installing a fixed DSDT table to make ACPI work better on your system

This is complicated matter, in short (to the best of my knowledge) >

DSDT tables specify how certain hardware behaves / it configures parts of your system. OEM' computer manufacturers need to write sourcecode which defines this configuration. There wouldn't be a problem if they all used the Intel ASL compiler, but a lot of them (also) use the Microsoft ASL compiler. Last named causes a lot of problems, as it allows OEM's to compile DSDT tables with bugs in it, Microsoft's compiler outputs binary code while it contains faults/ bugs, this is then used by the manufacturers (ends up in your BIOS), Windows forgives, Linux does not.

Fortunately Linux can load a fixed DSDT table during the system boot, i have compiled a fixed DSDT table which is provided by "Phirox" http://acpi.sourceforge.net/dsdt/view.php?id=652 USE THIS ONLY WITH BIOS V1.20 He's been so kind to provide a DSDT table with "..Fixed 9 errors and 2 warnings" and "916 Optimizations", you can download it from the given URL but then you still need to compile it, i've compiled and uploaded it, openSUSE will use it if you place it in "/etc/DSDT.aml" (case sensitive)

http://www.restracks.com/mmjc/DSDT.aml

Fixing additional 'things' (multimedia keys/ mail-led-button / pcmcia cardbus / card reader setup)

Getting the multimedia keys to work (with KDE)

François Wabier has been so kind to provide a .Xmodmap keymap, so we can use all 'multi-media' keys in X / KDE, including the mail button (thank you François for your efforts), download it here (http://www.fwconsult.com/acer-install/Xmodmap), then place it in your userfolder ie. /home/username/.Xmodmap last remaining thing we need to do to get it loaded automaticly, execute the following command.. by right clicking on your desktop "Run Command..." or in (VT)console

echo -e "#\!/bin/sh\nxmodmap ~/.Xmodmap\n" > ~/.kde/Autostart/Xmodmap-autoload && chmod u+x ~/.kde/Autostart/xmodmap-autoload

[editors note]My laptop has a U.S layout, so I'm not sure whether it works with localized layouts.)[/editors note]

If you would like to use the dollar/euro symbol and or other multimedia keys in a console for some particular reason, i recommend you to visit François's website, for further information.

Using the mail-led / button to indicate new mail (with KDE)

Using the mail-led / button to indicate new mail and open up your mail-client.. You can use the mail led to indicate that there is new mail in your inbox (so it starts blinking) when the button is pressed, we can make it startup your favorite mail client.

Before you continue, make sure that you got the .Xmodmap installed in your home / user directory, so all multimedia keys on the laptop are available for use.

We can use a KDE desktop applet called “Korn” to check our mailbox, and raise an event when mail arrives. You can find this in the KDE startmenu under “Applications”->“System”->”Desktop Applet”->”Mail alert – Korn”. Open Konqueror, click on “Go” in the menu index, then on “Autostart”... now drag the “Mail alert – Korn” shortcut from the startmenu into the Autostart folder, a menu will be shown, select “Copy”. This will make sure that Korn will be started every time we start KDE/ boot our machine.

The next step is to configure Korn with your mail-account, to setup your box/account, my advise is to follow this link, its fully explained at the Novell website http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/16176.html When you're box is setup, you continue to setup the event to be raised: In the settings of your box you can specify a command to be run “On new mail”.. as shown in the following dialog [1]

A little script is needed on our system to make to make the mail-button blinking, I've placed the following script in a file called /usr/bin/mailledon.run ... To create this script, right click on your desktop “Run Command...” type “kdesu kate /usr/bin/mailledon.run” and paste the following content in it:

#!/bin/bash
echo "on" > /proc/driver/acerhk/led

Save/ close kate, now to make our script executable, right click on your desktop again “Run Command...” > type “kdesu chmod +x /usr/bin/mailledon.run”

Now you can of course specify (in the “On new mail”->”Run Command”) section of Korn, that we want to start “/usr/bin/mailledon.run” when new mail arrives.

That was the first part, you can mail to your own account to check and see if the light starts blinking!

..So we got the light blinking.. but when we press the button – our (default) mail client opens up, but the button keeps blinking. Its fairly easy to solve this problem, right click on your desktop “Run Command...” type “kdesu kate /usr/bin/mailledoff.run”

paste the following content:

#!/bin/bash
echo "off" > /proc/driver/acerhk/led
kmail

Save/ close kate, now to make our script executable, right click on your desktop again “Run Command...” > type “kdesu chmod +x /usr/bin/mailledoff.run”

(I'm using 'kontact' instead of 'kmail', which i've setup to open my inbox by default, if you dont know 'kontacts' its might be worth checking it out...)

Now the final step to use our created script, right click on your desktop “Run Command...” type “kcontrol”, go to “Regional & Accessibility”, then “Input Actions”, now in the mid-section open “Presets”, and click on “Launch Mail”, on the right side verify that it isn't disabled. In the “Command URL” tab we can specify that we want to execute “/usr/bin/mailledoff.run” after doing this, we can now use the the button to launch or mail client, it doesnt matter if the button isn't blinking – we can simply start it when we want, and it will indicate new mail that arrived.

You can of course use the other multimedia keys in kcontrol / to perform various things you like. This section became a little bit longer then i expected... i hope that its usefull.

What about the PCMCIA CardBus

There we're some problems with the PCMCIA bus, but currently (as of writing) its fully working, if you think that there's something wrong, insert your card - open up a console and type:

dmesg|tail -n 10

You should be able to read "pccard: CardBus card inserted into slot 0" ,between the other lines.. if this isnt the case, then your card isn't detected.

If you cant get it to work somehow, you can always try to init your kernel with the following param

pci=assign=busses

Installing a driver for the MD/SD/MS card reader

Texas Instruments refused to provide a complete data sheet - there for developers where unable to easily write a driver for the card reader. A *working* opensource driver is now available: http://developer.berlios.de/projects/tifmxx

SD and MMC cards can be used with the current driver, Support for memory sticks is not implemented yet - but i dont have the idea that it will take long (as in years) before there's a working solution.

To install the TI FlashMedia xx12/xx21 driver for our card reader, we need to download the 0.6b version from http://prdownload.berlios.de/tifmxx/tifm-0.6b.tar.bz2 (place it in a folder before extracting it) open up a console:

tar -xvf tifm-0.6b.tar.bz2
make
sudo make install

The driver will automaticly be loaded during the system boot, but there's a few more modules we need to load before the reader can be used. Add the following module entries to "/etc/sysconfig/kernel" , "mmc_core","mmc_block" and "tifm_sd" in the "MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT" variable. ie:

MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT="acerhk mmc_core mmc_block tifm_sd

After completing the compilation and installation of the kernel module, you can either reboot your system or load the following modules to make use of the card reader right away: tifm_core, tifm_7xx1, mmc_core, mmc_block, tifm_sd

Now you should be able to view the data on your SD/MMC cards, simply insert a card - and if everything is right it should get mounted for you. If you're using KDE, the automounting daemon should popup, allowing you to view the content on it right away.

WARNING: THE TIFM / TI FlashMedia xx12/xx21 DRIVER IS IN BETA STAGE, AND UNDER HEAVY DEVELOPMENT, DO NOT USE IT FOR IMPORTANT DATA YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

A word of caution: as always with new (and especially reverse engineered) drivers, data loss, 
corruption and other nasty things may happen. Proceed with care.

If you have a device/camera which uses SONY MemmoryStick's, you wont be able to read the cards with the card reader, but in most situations you can then use the included USB cable. Thats how i for example use my Cybershot P200.

How to fix Standby / “Suspend to RAM”

[editors note] People with (newer) 2.6.20+ kernels seem to have have more success, but it depends on the ATI driver as well. (as well as TIFM)[/editors note]

I recommend to use “Suspend to Disk” as long as there's not solution in sight.....

Final words

General Information

[editors-note]What is left to be said - i have no idea ;)

For real: It would be nice if some information about how to enable powerplay with X (in xorg.conf) so the laptop stays cool(er)
(i recommend mode 1, since XGL/Beryl run super with it.)
And some info about how change cpu powerstates kpowersave/gnome equivalent would be added..
info about DVD regionset info.

[/editors-note]

Contributions

(MMJC) Milco van Klingeren - The Netherlands (email: mvk AT restracks.com)

Links

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Acer_Aspire_5024
http://www.slackwiki.org/Acer_Aspire_502x_WLMi
http://www.fwconsult.com/acer-install/index.html
Extensive review(with thermal info/images): http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-5024WLMi.726.0.html