AsusA8M

Current Issues

Gutsy (7.10) Fixes

UPDATE See Notes section below:

All the following issues have fixes detailed in the Notes section below:

  • HUGE problem with the 2.6.22.14 kernel image, that prevented me from booting. Boot process would stop without any real errors but seemed to have problems accessing the ATA drives. Fixed using notes below.

Feisty (7.04) Fixes

All the following issues have fixes detailed in the Notes section below:

  • Sound = added option to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base and restarted my computer.

Edgy (6.10) Fixes

No known outstanding problems. All the following issues have fixes detailed in the Notes section below:

  • Sound = unmute Smile :)

  • Wifi = compile and install latest madwifi driver
  • Nvidia Drivers = compile and install latest nvidia driver. Used the Envy script.
  • USB Devices - Problems with USB Mouse = reload driver on bootup
  • Synaptics Touchpad Driver = configure xorg.conf
  • Built-in Webcam = compile and install latest gspca driver

Hardware details

in Feisty (7.04)?

in Edgy (6.10)?

Installation works?

Installation not tested, upgraded from Edgy

Yes

Hardware Information

Screen & Monitors

Device

Works?

Bug #

in Feisty (7.04)?

in Edgy (6.10)?

Screen

Untested

Yes

Correct resolution?

Untested

1024x768 was the highest resolution available by default. I changed xorg.conf to enable 1280x800.

Correct refresh rate?

Untested

Yes

3D Acceleration

Untested

Yes (after install of nvidia drivers, details below)

External monitor works?

Untested

Untested

External monitor - mirrors

Untested

Untested

External monitor - extend desktop

Untested

Untested

Power Management

Battery detected?

Untested

Yes

Hibernates?

Untested

Yes

Sleep

Untested

Untested

Dim monitor on battery

Untested

Untested

Blank monitor on inactivity

Untested

Yes

Lid Close

Untested

Yes (tested blank screen)

Cpu frequency scaling

Untested

Untested

Sound

Sound works?

Yes (requires option in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base, detailed below)

Yes (after switching "External Amplifier" off, details below.)

Correct volume?

Untested

Yes

Hardware volume switch

None

None

Headphone jack

Untested

Yes

Mic jack

Untested

Yes

Internal Mic

Untested

Yes

Networking

Wired NIC

Untested

Yes

Wireless NIC (Wifi)

Untested

Yes (Atheros AR5006EG chipset. Requires compile of madwifi drivers, details below.)

PCMCIA NIC

Untested

Untested

Firewire

Untested

Untested

Modem

Untested

Untested

Infrared

Untested

Untested

Touchpad & Mice

Touchpad

Untested

Yes

Touchpad - Doubletap = double click

Untested

Yes

Touchpad - Scroll down side

Untested

Yes, using Synaptic Touchpad driver, detailed below

External mouse - USB

Untested

Yes (problems with USB 1.1, solution detailed below)

#63651 (but workaround detailed below)

External mouse - Serial

Untested

Untested

Docking Station/Port Replicator

AC through replicator

Untested

Untested

USB

Untested

Yes

Serial

Untested

Untested

Parallel

Untested

Untested

External Monitor - VGA

Untested

Untested

External Monitor - DVI

Untested

Untested

Modem

Untested

Untested

NIC

Untested

Untested

PS/2

Untested

Untested

Additional Hardware

Fingerprint reader

None

None

CD/DVD drive

Untested

Yes

PCMCIA cards

Untested

Untested

Card reader(s)

Untested

SD Card Reader Works Fine

Built-in Webcam

Untested

Yes, using gspca driver, detailed below

Function and other keys

Fn key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

in Feisty (7.04)?

in Edgy (6.10)?

+ F1

Sleep

Untested

Untested

+ F2

Wireless On/Off

Untested

Untested

+ F5

LCD Brightness Down

Untested

Untested

+ F6

LCD Brightness Up

Untested

Untested

+ F7

LCD On/Off

Untested

Yes

+ F8

Tonggle External Monitor

Untested

Untested

+ F10

Mute

Untested

Yes

+ F11

Volume -

Untested

Yes

+ F12

Volume +

Untested

Yes

+ Ins

Num Lock

Untested

Yes

+ Del

Scroll Lock

Untested

Yes

+ .

Numpad .

Untested

Yes

+ M

Numpad 0

Untested

Yes

+ J

Numpad 1

Untested

Yes

+ K

Numpad 2

Untested

Yes

+ L

Numpad 3

Untested

Yes

+ U

Numpad 4

Untested

Yes

+ I

Numpad 5

Untested

Yes

+ O

Numpad 6

Untested

Yes

+ 7

Numpad 7

Untested

Yes

+ 8

Numpad 8

Untested

Yes

+ 9

Numpad 9

Untested

Yes

+ ;

Numpad +

Untested

Yes

+ P

Numpad -

Untested

Yes

+ 0

Numpad *

Untested

Yes

+ /

Numpad /

Untested

Yes

+ Return

Numpad Enter

Untested

Yes

Other special keys

Key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

in Feisty (7.04)?

in Edgy (6.10)?

Power4Gear

Switch Power Managment Profiles

Untested

Untested

Mail

Launch email client

Untested

Untested

Browser

Launch Web Browser

Untested

Untested

Mouse

Toggle Touchpad On/Off

Untested

Untested

CD

Starts Media Player

Untested

Untested

Notes

GUTSY FIXES (7.10)

2.6.22.14 Kernel set nosmp noapic

UPDATE I have now found kernel boot parameters that will allow ACPI to run. Instead of setting acpi=off to disable all ACPI (which previously was the only way of booting my A8M), I now use nosmp and noapic which allows some ACPI functionality and a good boot

Add to the end of defoptions and the end of the current kernel in /boot/grub/menu.lst

nosmp noapic

Hi again,

Actually this is only semi-solved... switching the ACPI on again and now I'm suffering the notorious lock/hang bug. Sigh.... :confused: Sad :( It looks like I'll be going back to acpi=off...

I'll try various fixes I've picked p in a couple of threads and report back if I can get ACPI working without the horror hang!

Slade.

Note: I had some problems after that with my nvidia drivers, which I had to re-install. This then caused my kernel to switch from the previous "generic" to "386", which in turn broke my sound and built-in web cam. I fixed all this by install the "generic" linux-restricted package and uninstalling the "linux-restricted...-386" package. Then everything worked fine.

Really annoying and complicated and I wish I could find out why the linux-image is broken, perhaps it's some sort of regression.

FEISTY FIXES (7.04)

Sound

nForce Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2) = snd-hda-intel

The following fixes the sound problem:

I added the following to the end of '/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base' and restarted my computer:

Code:

# Added according to tips from launchpad.net.

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

EDGY FIXES (6.10)

Sound

nForce Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2) = snd-hda-intel

Use the Volume Control applet to modify the ALSA Mixer:

  • Mixer Switch: "External Amplifier" switch OFF

Wifi

As at 2007-02-12, Atheros AR5006EG not supported out of the box with Edgy. You need to install the latest madwifi drivers from www.madwifi.org

WPA works fine.

Nvidia Drivers

As at 2007-02-12, nvidia Ge Force Go 6100 not supported out of the box with Edgy. I used the great Envy script to install the latest nvidia drivers (thanks Albert!).

http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

USB Devices - Problems with USB Mouse

I experienced problems with the legacy USB 1.1 drivers and a USB mouse not working. dmesg gives the following error: ohci_hcd 0000:00:0b.0: USB HC takeover failed! (BIOS/SMM bug)

There is a workaround

Thanks to reech and especially http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/materiel/liste_portables/packard_bell/easynote_w51101

To add the options ohci-hcd no_handshake=1 to bootup:

  • Create /etc/init.d/usbfix.sh add the following lines:

sudo rmmod ohci_hcd
sudo modprobe ohci-hcd no_handshake=1
  • Now, add usbfix.sh to the bootup process:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/usbfix.sh
cd /etc/rc5.d
sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/usbfix.sh S99usbfix

Seems to fix the problem..

Synaptics TouchPad Driver

Make sure that the Synaptics TouchPad driver for X.Org server is installed. Open a terminal and type:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Backup xorg.conf first

Now you just have to add the following lines to xorg.conf (sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf) Code:

# Add Synaptics Touchpad driver
Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
  Driver          "synaptics"
  Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
  Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
  Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
  Option          "HorizScrollDelta"      "0"
  Option          "SHMConfig"             "on"
EndSection

Put the above under the section about the mouse. And then further down, where it says Section "ServerLayout", again under the "Configured Mouse", add:

InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"

Now close all windows, and press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, to restart X, or alternatively just reboot. All ready.

A very nice application to configure your touchpad, is gsynaptic:

sudo apt-get install gsynaptic

Then look under System-Preferences-Touchpad

Built-in Webcam

Webcam: Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. idProduct 0x0321 Vimicro Corp. USB2.0 Web Camera

http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca5xx.html Driver: gspcav1

Download the source: http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca50x/Download/gspcav1-20070110.tar.gz

The following is from: http://southernvaleslug.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=25&forum=2&post_id=27#forumpost27

Go to the folder where the source file is and uncompress it:

tar zxvf gspcav1-20070110.tar.gz

Compile and Install the drivers:

cd gspcav1-20070110
make
sudo make install

My webcam works OK with camorama, but the image have a blue colour to it in Ekiga and does not look natural. To tune the image colour:

Tune the gspca module loading

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options

Add the following to the file:

options gspca force_rgb=1

Save and Close.

Now to load the module:

sudo modprobe gspca

Check that the device node is created:

ls /dev/video*

Now you are all done, and you can test the cam with something like camorama


CategoryHardware CategoryLaptop

LaptopTestingTeam/Old/AsusA8M (last edited 2010-02-24 14:45:27 by host58-172-dynamic)