Acer Aspire 5024WLMi Problems

[Regulus]

Hi aster,

An update for you ... yum installed ndiswrapper .... got the xp driver from acer. Basically did as you suggested and got the same result! (Good ?!)

Then tried to access the wlan via the network configuration application (the GUI one!) but I can't see the WLAN / driver..
It appears that we need a ifcfg-wlan0 file under /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ but I've no idea what this should look like for our particular set-up.

Do you happen to know what steps come next / or if creating ifcfg-wlan0 will actually help in anyway?

PS Re: touchpad - I downloaded synaptics-0.14.3 driver and followed the INSTALL file information... As you've already done, the 'noapic' is required but then it works fine! Save the slight twitchyness when the systems been running a while! But as I said previously, reckon tweaking the settings AND/OR sorting out ACPI may make a difference here - ACPI as I'm pretty sure things won't get so hot on long runs with this working properly!(?)

Hasta.

[Regulus]

Hi Aster,
Not sure if you saw my latest follow up but I did eventually work out the final few steps to getting FC4 to see the wlan hardware!
So, using WiFi manager everything appears to be there and working but it fails to see networks that I know WinXP can see!

Any ideas? I've been screwing around with this for days now and I'm running out of patience & ideas...
Googling only reveals that most people, with an idea of what they're doing, do get wlan working (on 64bit arch.) with ndiswrapper so I'm at a loss as to what now!?
Also on typing 'iwlist wlan0 scan' I get the complaint "Warning: Driver for device wlan0 recommend version 18 of wireless extension, but has been compiled with version 17, therefore some driver features may not be available..."
This has made me wonder if this is the issue but I've no idea what driver it's refering to - ie ndiswrapper is fully up-to-date according to 'yum update' and I'm sure I got the latest acer driver for the WLAN!
DAZED AND CONFUSED!!!

FYI. Still no acpi !

Cheers,
Reg.

[aster]

Hi Regulus,

I suspect that the radio is not enabled; only the hardware is detected. I think that this is due to the software-controlled nature of the Broadcom WiFi card. I didn't manage to find a way to enable the radio yet. Not to mention the LED. Therefore, setting an ESSID is out of the question, since the card is not actually working (transmitting or receiving). At the time I'm trying to find a way to turn on the radio and LED. If you have any success please let me know.

On typing 'iwlist wlan0 scan' I get the same message as you do. I don't know what it is supposed to mean.

No support for battery either yet. I'll keep trying...

[scscottc]

First off thanks Aster for the post for getting the ATI drivers working.. they worked flawlessly for me as well where other posts failed. I have the Acer Ferrari 4000 notebook. Now that 3D is working all I need to address is the WLAN as has been discussed and two other minor issues. The first is sound or the lack there of, and the second is this message that shows up constantly in dmesg and on the console:

ACPI-1138: *** Error: Method execution failed [\_SB_.BAT1._BST] (Node ffff810037ff9e40), AE_NOT_FOUND
    ACPI-0352: *** Error: Looking up [Z00I] in namespace, AE_NOT_FOUND
search_node ffff810037ffff80 start_node ffff810037ffff80 return_node 0000000000000000
    ACPI-1138: *** Error: Method execution failed [\_SB_.BAT1._BST] (Node ffff810037ff9e40), AE_NOT_FOUND

Does anyone have a clue how to stop that? I understand it is ACPI related however I am not exactly sure what it is failing on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott

[Michelasso]

second is this message that shows up constantly in dmesg and on the console:

ACPI-1138: *** Error: Method execution failed [\_SB_.BAT1._BST] (Node ffff810037ff9e40), AE_NOT_FOUND
    ACPI-0352: *** Error: Looking up [Z00I] in namespace, AE_NOT_FOUND
search_node ffff810037ffff80 start_node ffff810037ffff80 return_node 0000000000000000
    ACPI-1138: *** Error: Method execution failed [\_SB_.BAT1._BST] (Node ffff810037ff9e40), AE_NOT_FOUND

Does anyone have a clue how to stop that? I understand it is ACPI related however I am not exactly sure what it is failing on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott

Hello, I am not using Fedora. but this problem should be solved (at least it has been for me with debian) with last 2.6.12 kernel sources and acpi patches available here:
http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern...6.12.patch.bz2

For the wifi problem, I also haven't found any solution till now.
Bye.

[aster]

Hi all,

To get the battery working, just update to the 2.6.12-1.1447_FC4 version of the kernel.

To get the WLAN working go here . My Acer Aspire 5024WLMi is properly working.

[asbak]

Hello Aster & all

Thank you so much for the ATI instructions, will try it out now. Just managed to get WLAN working (sort of) but still have to figure out best solution for the fast clock.

BTW, a solution to the touchpad not working from linuxquestions.org was this, seems to work for me.

echo -n "psmouse" > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio3/drvctl

This will turn on the Synaptic. You could stick this in your rc.local file so everything works once booted.

[asbak]

Sorry to ask a dumb question, but despite efforts to the contrary I cannot seem to increase my video resolution above 1024*768.

No matter what I change in the xorg.conf nothing allows me to select a higher resolution.

Anyone know a workaround?

[aster]

Hi asbak,

that is for sure not a dumb question. In the instructions I urge you to download the ati-fglrx-8.14.13.1-0.lvn.5.4.x86_64.rpm. Although, I suppose that you have the newer version, namely ati-fglrx-8.16.20.1-0.lvn.1.4.x86_64.rpm. If so, then I suppos that this newer version does not support the 1280x800 resolution.

I've tried it my self and I had no luck. The solution is to download and install the ati-fglrx-8.14.13.1-0.lvn.5.4.x86_64.rpm.

[asbak]

Hi Aster, I've literally just solved the problem on my Acer 5024 WLMi + FC4 64 installation, but am uncertain exactly how....

I used your initial posts as a basis to start from but things didn't quite work out for me, presumably because I'd just installed the system, was messing around with updates and making all kinds of changes. Video worked but only up to 1024x768 instead of 1280x800.

Eventually I uninstalled the ATI rpm's and loaded the 8.16.20.1-0 ATI drivers from Livna through yum. This didn't get me past 1024x768 either. Spent hours hacking the xorg.conf file but nothing appeared to make any difference. Eventually I attempted to reinstall the Livna ati-fglrx-8.16.20.1-0.lvn.1.4 driver and kernel-module-fglrx-2.6.12-1.1447_FC4-8.16.20.1-0.lvn.1.4, reran fglrxconfig, dropped to console, did an rmmod fglrx, edited the xorg.conf again (ran fglrxconfig) and restarted X.

For whatever reason it now works in 1280x800 and I'm seeing around +- 650fps in fgl_glxgears on my Acer 5024.


Oh well, so far so good, still a few things to fix but in case others are still having problems here's a quick summary of fixes for this particular setup (Acer 5024 + Fedora 4 64bit). It should be applicable to similar Turion based systems.


************************************************** **************
FIXES WHICH WORKED FOR ME:
--------------------------------------

[1] Clock 3x problem solution:
add the entry

no_timer_check

in

/boot/grub/grub.conf

at end of the

kernel /boot/vmlinuz..... line


[2] The Broadcom WLAN fix as Aster mentioned is through use of the Acer supplied Windows X64 drivers, ndiswrapper and this fix here to turn on the radio:

http://www.archernar.co.uk/acer_acpi...acpi_main.html

I wrote an extremely lame script which activates the radio at boot time from rc3.d, alternatively one can just run it when required to turn on the radio. The reason I included modprobe acer_aspi twice is because due to some unknown bug it often fails on the first attempt to insert the module.

modprobe acer_acpi
modprobe acer_acpi
modprobe ndiswrapper
echo "enabled : 1" > /proc/aspi/acer/wireless


another lame little script to disable the wireless link:

echo "enabled : 0" > /proc/aspi/acer/wireless
rmmod ndiswrapper
rmmod acer_acpi


There should be a way to use the bluetooth and wireless buttons to map these to the above scripts or similar. This way one can theoretically turn on / off the radio by using the buttons. Haven't really investigated this yet.

Doing a tail -f on /var/log/messages will give one some clues as to what codes the buttons generate when pressed.

[3] The Synaptic Touch pad fix

echo -n "psmouse" > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio3/drvctl

(add this to rc.local)

[4] Battery Fix as mentioned by Aster:
Upgrade your Kernel.

[5] Video fix
Use yum to upgrade to Kernel 2.6.12-1.1447, install the abovementioned Livna drivers and kernel module. Run fglrxconfig to generate a xorg.conf (backup your original first), start with selecting mostly defaults, make edits by hand that are relevant to you. I added a couple of Display modes like "1400x1050" "1280x800" "1280x1024" in Subsection "Display". (Doubt this makes any difference though).

I also did an rmmod fglrx to unload the video module in console mode, then restarted X and magically it now gave me the option to select 1280x800.......
I apologise that I cannot provide a more scientific explanation.

[6] Not sure if USB ports work, anyone tried this?

[7] Not sure if cardreader works, anyone tried this?

************************************************** ************

[Brammert]

Dear all,

Got myself an Acer TM 4602WLMi laptop and installed FC4 next to XP Professional. Loaded the latest kernel and followed Aster’s instructions to get the desktop working in 1280*800 mode for ATI’s X700 interface, and it did, although lots of error messages were produced in the Xorg log file, and X startup was slow. Decided to follow an alternative path by loading the most recent ATI driver installation shell script rather than the old version RPM file (i.e. the “ati…run” file, a whopping 50+ MB, also available through the ATI web site). I now have a properly working 1280*800 desktop, plus 3 lower resolution options!

So it’s time to tackle the next challenge: getting wireless to work using ipw2200 (preferably WPA). Can’t say that FC4 supports my Acer laptop very well: there are numerous other issues such as PCMCIA, sound, battery monitoring. Keeps me quite busy…

Cheers from Holland!

[turboke]

[6] Not sure if USB ports work, anyone tried this?

[7] Not sure if cardreader works, anyone tried this?

Installed FC4 x86_64 with a 2.6.13 kernel on my Aspire 5024. USB works fine for mice, memory keys and even my Philips webcam. The cardreader however doesn't seem to work at all. Any solutions for this?

[turboke]

Can’t say that FC4 supports my Acer laptop very well: there are numerous other issues such as PCMCIA, sound, battery monitoring. Keeps me quite busy…

Can't say Acer really cares about Linux... I haven't tried PCMCIA yet, and I know battery monitoring doesn't work. But I did get sound after a normal installation without having to fiddle around. The microphone doens't work though.

For what it's worth: Knoppix 3.4 doesn't recognize the sound card, Knoppix 4.0 does.

[turboke]

In spite of what I read here and in other places, I can't get WLAN working with ndiswrapper.

[root@telstar ~]# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
Installing bcmwl5
no dev BCM43XG NTamd64
[root@telstar ~]# ndiswrapper -l
Installed ndis drivers:
bcmwl5  invalid driver!

Anybody else with this problem?

[asbak]

Turboke:

Try upgrading your Fedora Kernel, this should fix the battery monitoring problem.

NDISWrapper works like so:
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/m...p/Installation

I assume you already did this but if not, download the WinXP64 Wireless drivers from Acers Website for the 5024. It worked without problems for me. You'll also need to turn on the radio with this:

http://www.archernar.co.uk/acer_acpi...acpi_main.html