Ubuntu Wiki

• Contact: FrodeHatlevik

• Brand: ASUS

• Make : A3Hf

• Model: SA017H

• Website: Homepage on ASUS site

• Community website: Linux Laptop Wiki : Asus A3H

• S/N: N/A

Current Issues

Trying install of Kubuntu Linux Edgy Knot 1 on this laptop.

This is the story of my progress. I'll mark things with timestamps as I go.

2006-08-19

Last night I downloaded and roasted a CD from edgy-desktop-i386.iso. I started the download at 2006-08-18 08:46:22, just for the reference.

First off, you'll have to hit the [ESC] button on the ASUS boot screen to be able to boot from a CD or DVD. Having figured that one out, there were more problems to come.

There seems to be a BIOS bug on my computer; the boot process hangs after a while and the CD spins down. This happens right after the Configuring keyboard and Configuring X messages on the screen. The screen goes blank with a blinking cursor in the top left corner, and everything stops. I tried pressing [CTRL] + [ALT] + [F1] to show the system console, and it displayed the following error code:

[17179571.964000]: PCI: BIOS Bug: MCFG area is not E820 reserved
[17179571.964000]: PCI: Not using MMCONFIG

The boot process would not continue until I pressed [CTRL] + [ALT] + [F3]. Then the computer were spewing out a lot of error messages about cd: No such file or directory. Next time I booted I thought of switching back to the system console straight after reactivating the boot process by pressing [CTRL] + [ALT] + [F1], [CTRL] + [ALT] + [F3], wait for the CD to spin up again, and then [CTRL] + [ALT] + [F1] to switch back to the system console (I might have pressed the F1 twice, but I'm not quite sure if that is needed). This seemed to do the trick, and now my laptop booted nicely into the standard GNOME Install desktop. It took a while, though, and the CD player was quite noisy. I recall reading something about poor performance for the DVD player unit somewhere on the web, but I don't remember where right now.

I was unable to get the wireless networking up and going without ndiswrapper installed (c.f. community website), and thus could not check the things listed later on in this template. I'll hook up wired ethernet now, and see where that takes me. I will also put a tarball with the log files in it somwhere, but I can't figure out where right now.

System Info

bios-version:A3HFAS.201
system-manufacturer:ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
system-product-name:A3HF
system-version:1.0

2006-08-20

I tried flashing the BIOS. Now this was a bit hard, since the WinFlash utility for WinXP that came with the computer refused to perform the flash unless it could back up the old BIOS. I must have moved some directory or something (obvious, isn't it, that you should move the files off the D: partition prior to repartitioning and formating the area it occupies), and couldn't figure out how to fix things. I had to use the flash utility built into the BIOS itself (press [F4] on ASUS boot screen), and this worked fine, only it did not correct the E820 issue. Someone will just have to complain to ASUSTek, or figure out a way to keep the Ubuntu boot from hanging ...

System info after BIOS flash

bios-version:A3HFAS.203
system-manufacturer:ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
system-product-name:A3HF
system-version:1.0

Late at night

I will try the actual install now. I am writing this from WinXP, and later on I will write from Ubuntu. I just need to remember how to boot GRUB from the XP boot loader. I'll Google it once I get the install system up and running.

Early morning 2006-08-21

Yesterday I went off trying to get WLAN working, and this got me off on the wrong track, effectively ruining my install system an wasting a lot of time. I'll just leave that for the installer to figure out, or fix it later.

Another bug I found was that the Install system was unable to shut down or reboot the machine. It would take it down nicely, but when it comes to do the actual poweroff thing, nothing happens. [CTRL] + [ALT] + [DEL] does not work, the screen is blank with the cursor in the top left corner like on the boot. If I switch to the system console, then there is a message prompting me to press [Enter] after removing the CD, but this does not work either. Only thing to do is pressing the power button until the computer shuts down. I'll wait and see if this is the case after performing the install too.

There are also some other error messages during the boot process; I'll put up a tarball of the system log files somewhere.
The error messages are as follows:

hw_random: RNG not detected
mount: function not implemented

Installer crashes

The installer crashes with some complaint about language settings. See Bug #57053 for details. I will try Dapper, and then maybe a fresh download of Edgy development.

2006-08-25

I installed Dapper some days ago, and it worked great, exept for somme minor issues, like the Wireless being unable to do AES encrupted connection. I'll start a fresh download of Edgy (Kubuntu version this time) and do the sumup for Dapper as I go.

Hardware details

Notes

Few ot the Fn kays are working, at least not with Norwegian layout in KDE. GNOME worked better.

CategoryLaptop