Install Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex on the Acer Aspire One
Hello
to all my readers, I have recently purchased an Acer Aspire One netbook
PC. The netbook came with Windows XP pre-installed, but I took
care of that by installing the new Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. I
chose Intrepid over Hardy as it has better hardware support for the new
model Atheros wireless card.
This tutorial will assume that you
know how to install Ubuntu. Since there is no CD drive you will
need to use Intrepid Live CD to create a bootable USB drive.
Simply use the .iso you downloaded to create the disc. When
booting up the Aspire One presss F12 with the flash drive installed and
install Intrpid as you see fit.
The rest of this tutorial will help you get the wireless and SD card readers functioning.
Things that function OOB are as follows:
- Video including Compiz
- Wired ethernet
- Touchpad
- Chipset
- Webcan with install of Lucview
Things that need tweaking
- Wireless
- SD card readers
We
will focus on getting the wireless and SD card readers working, so off
we go. This information was gotten from the Ubuntu Community
Documentation on the Aspire One.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne
Wireless
The
Acer Aspire One has a new model Atheros wireless card. First
thing you need to do is to deactivate the Atheros driver that Intrepid
installs as it does not work. To do this go to
System--->Administration--->Hardware Drivers and deactivate the
Atheros driver.
Next
we will need to load some new kernel
modules to get that wireless card working. Be sure to enable the
backport repositories in System--->Administration--->Software
Sources. Go to the Updates tab and check the intrepid-backports
option. To install the backport kernel modules open a
terminal and type the following:
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic
Once
the drivers load up you will need to reboot the machine. Once
rebooted go back to the Hardware drivers section in
SYstem--->Administration and you will see a new entry.
Activate the new Atheros driver and your wireless will work.
Next we need to make sure that kernel module gets loaded each
boot so we will need to install
ath5k
at
the end of your /etc/modules file. Unfortunately the wireless
LEDs don't work using the ath5k driver but they do work using the
ath_pci madwifi driver listed below.
It
has come to my attention that the ath5k driver has issues and problems
connecting. I have devised a script that will automate the
install of the madwifi drivers on your Intrepid box. You will
first need to disable all the Atheros drivers in the Hardware Drivers
section and remove the ath5k load in the /etc/modules file. Next
do the following in a terminal:
cd ~
wget http://www.stchman.com/tools/aspire_one/aspire_one_wifi.sh
chmod 755 ~/aspire_one_wifi.sh
sudo ~/aspire_one_wifi.sh
The
script will install the madwifi drivers into the kernel and also enable
the wifi LEDs. Remember though when Ubuntu updates ther kernel
this module will have to be reinstalled. I personally use the
Madwifi drivers over the backports and it is a more stable solution.
SD Card Readers
The
Acer Aspire One has two SD card readers on the left and right side.
As it sits now you can only get those card readers to work if
they have a card inserted during booting. We will take care of
that.
First make a file called aspireone in your /etc/modprobe.d directory.
gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/aspireone
After that inser the following text into the file:
####################################################################
# Module options for the Acer AspireOne
#
# Enable USB card reader
options pciehp pciehp_force=1
install sdhci for i in 2381 2382 2383 2384; do /usr/bin/setpci -d 197b:$i AE=47; done; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install sdhci
Taking
care to make sure there are just two lines of code after the comments.
Save and exit. Now you will need to add
pciehp
to the end of your /etc/modules file. Reboot and your SD card will function.
I hope this helps.