FreeBSD on Acer Aspire One

[overmind]

I've read a project on freebsd.org about FreeBSD running on Asus EEPC. I am interested if anybody have some informations about running FreeBSD on Acer Aspire One netbook. In my opinion it is nicer than eepc.

I've installed 7.1 beta, it detected my network card (wifi not working yet but I've read somewhere that it might get to work), I have issues sometimes at boot, it hangs because of acpi module. Compact flash card is not working yet. I'll keep you informed about this topic, maybe I'll write a small article, but if you have more informations please post it here.

[Weinter]

My Previous Laptop also had Atheros 5007EG
To make it work you have to get the madwifi hal into FreeBSD atheros hal directory then recompile

The Atheros card which would normally be supported by FreeBSD's ath driver, except that the HAL in the stock driver does not support PCIe

Download this patched copy of MadWifi, which does have support for the wireless card: http://madwifi-project.org/ticket/1192

Decompress the tarball and then run the following as root:
#cd madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007/hal
#cp -R * /usr/src/sys/contrib/dev/ath/

The Reboot it should work perfectly after that

[dap]

I have issues sometimes at boot, it hangs because of acpi module.

I don't have this problem on my Aspire with 7.0 RELEASE/i386. I don't have any idea on how to get all the peripherals working, I didn't even make Xorg work yet.

[manolis@]

I bought an Aspire One recently to replace my eeePC 701 which was too slow for me ;). I opted for the harddrive (120G) model. A friend of mine who also had an eeePC got the 8G SSD model almost the same day.

Generally FreeBSD runs satisfactorily on this model. Some general notes follow:

1. You have to install 7.1-BETA2 or recent 7.1-PRERELEASE for the ethernet card to work. It will not work in 7.0-RELEASE. I did a 'make release' on my workstation and created a 7.1-PRERELEASE CDROM, but you don't have to do this, BETA2 should be sufficient

2. The hard disk model has a lot of space, you can use the standard partitioning schemes and even activate journaling if you wish (I did). For the 8GB SSD model, you may wish to create a large '/' partition rather than split the space between /var /usr /tmp and so on.

3. I got the 1Gb RAM model (which I upgraded to 1.5Gb). With this size of memory and considering the kind of applications you will run on it, you may opt to not create a swap at all. This especially true for the SSD model, where swap supposedly can limit the life span of the SSD device.

4. FreeBSD will happily install and run on an external USB disk (either hard disk or flash drive) if you wish. We installed FreeBSD on my friend's One, in an external 160GB 2.5inch disk. Runs flawlessly.

5. For the wireless network to work you will need to follow Weinter's instructions but you will also have to recompile the kernel after copying the files. So the complete set of instructions would be:

# cd madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007/hal
# cp -R * /usr/src/sys/contrib/dev/ath/
# cd /usr/src
# make buildkernel installkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC

(You don't really need to type KERNCONF=GENERIC, but if you created your own kernel configuration file, substitute GENERIC with your filename. Your kernel configuration file should be placed in /usr/src/sys/i386/conf. If in doubt of the procedure, please read the relevant section (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/kernelconfig.html) in the FreeBSD Handbook)

Bear in mind compiling a more or less default kernel in the One takes about 50 minutes (in the hard disk model, and I would expect it to take more in the SSD model). You may however compile the kernel on another machine and copy the resulting files to the One by means of a USB disk or similar. In this case I would suggest to create a temporary directory to install the kernel and then tar the files and uncompress them to the One:

# mkdir /path/to/kerneltemp
# cd /usr/src
# env DESTDIR=/path/to/kerneltemp make buildkernel installkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC

6. I have not tried anything with the camera yet (I am not really interested in it) and I believe the card readers will not work in 7.1

Hope this helps. If you need more specific help feel free to send me an email. I try to keep track of the forum, but admittedly I am much better at following mailing lists ;)

[overmind]

Hello,

Thank you for your help. I've got an aspire one with 160 hard drive, yes, lot of space, I've installed 7.1 beta (using an external USB dvd-rom), I've compiled from ports X.org and kde3 and now I compile OpenOffice 3.

Sometimes when I start it, the boot freezes before loading kernel, I think is an ACPI problem. Is thpower management module working ok on your Acer Aspire?

thank, and best regards

[manolis@]

ACPI works generally.

The battery indication works fine. There are some minor problems, like the ones you mention:

1. Sometimes during startup it freezes before the kernel is loaded
2. Sometimes the keyboard is not active during the loader menu
3. Sometime it does not power down when shutting down

I've noticed that it tends to freeze more if you press enter during the 10 second countdown in the loader. I shortened the delay to 3 seconds but I do not press enter there anymore ;)

Also sound is not muted when headphones are plugged. There might be some experimental patch for this though...

[Weinter]

OMG OMG I forgot to mention RECOMPILE XD Sorry Sorry...

[overmind]

I just discovered on Acer Aspire One that it never hangs on boot if you do not press Enter when FreeBSD boot menu appears (the one with single mode, safe mode etc) but wait for the countdown and let the system to start up.

It is possible to have C4 on Aspire One ? (power management). I want that my netbook to save memory to disk when I close the lid, and go to hybernate mode.

[richardpl]

That is S4, not C4. FreeBSD currently does not support S4OS.
You could make it with S4BIOS (if your BIOS support it) but in that case you will need special partition ....

[rectangular]

I'm running 7.1-release on my aspire one. Any luck getting suspend to work? It seems like it goes into suspend, the power button LED blicks and everything. But when I try to wake it up, it just restarts :(

Anyone know of any patches yet for this laptop? It seems like some things might work better in current, I'm tempted to make the jump...

[raadu]

Thank you so much for the atheros ar5007eg howto! It works perfect on 7.1. Finally I can use FBSD on my Toshiba a200

[overmind]

Does anybody have an idea howto configure Touch Pad on Acer Aspire One to work on Xorg? Now i can use it as a mouse (touchpad is working) but tap or double tap is not working. (only moving cursor is working and touchpad buttons).

[overmind]

[SOLVED] Configuration of Synaptics TouchPad on acer aspire one.
This thread helped me: http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=1617&highlight=aspire

(don't forget to reboot, or manualy load the module)

After reboot you must get (with dmesg):

psm0: model Synaptics Touchpad, device ID 0

(instead of PS/2 mouse)

[Yasu]

I got an AOA150 today, installed 7.1-RELEASE.
It sleeps with acpiconf -s 3, logged "acpi: suspend at 20090413 xx:xx:xx" but it reboots when I hit any key...

Did anyone succeed to make aspire one sleep?

[richardpl]

On CURRENT amd64 SMP suspend works for many people, on i386 UP works but SMP doesnt.
On anything older, only i386 UP can work (if at all).

[oni-chan]

Hi,
Is there are any update to problems that manolis@ mentioned?

[Yasu]

Hi, oni-chan,

I think 7.2's loader is already fixed for the problems that manolis@ posted before.
I'm running 8.0, and it's perfect.

[oni-chan]

Hi, again.

I installed 7.2 and i can see that problems fixed, but after installation of xorg i can't configure it. Does anybody had similar problems? I looked thru forum and found that a lot of peaple just replaced xorg.conf from 7.1 and it run's great. Damn, i didn't copyed my old conf file, so i can't do that way.

i'm greatly apriciate for any help here.
Cheers.

[snashe]

hello,
it seems like some configuration issues with xorg come from the dramatic choice "hal or not hal".
My AA1 was compiled with had hal_support everywhere (xorg/xfce/..) but it gave me so much problems... I finally removed "hald_enabled="YES" and "dbus_enabled="YES" from rc.conf (i also commented moused lines) and now i may need to tweak my xorg.conf a little to have correct fonts size but at least, now, the basics things seem to be working correctly.

apart from the rc.conf changes, here is my xorg.conf . Hope it helps and please tells us ;)

P.S.: i will reinstall my whole AA1 very soon (but without hal_support), so i hope theses are really the only things which play a role

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "SynapticsMouse" "AlwaysCore"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AutoAddDevices" "False"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "extmod"
Load "record"
Load "dbe"
Load "glx"
#Load "xtrap"
Load "dri"
Load "dri2"
Load "synaptics"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "fr,fr,fr,fr"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "SynapticsMouse"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/psm0"
Option "Protocol" "psm" #"auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.09"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.18"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0015"
Option "SHMConfig" "1" #"on"
#more synaptics option can be found at
#http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Acer_Aspire_One
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
## Modeline "1024x600" 50.40 1024 1048 1184 1344 600 600 619 625
# Modeline "1024x600" 48.96 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -HSync +VSync
# DisplaySize 346 203 # 75 DPI @ 1024x600
#"DisplaySize" should be the option i will #have to tweak to have correct font size
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
VendorName "Intel Corporation"
BoardName "Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller"
Option "Clone" "true"
Option "MonitorLayout" "LVDS,VGA"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x600" #"800x600" "640x480"
# Virtual 1024 600 #1920 1800
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection



By the way, any comment or feedback on this xorg.conf is welcomed, i wish to make it speed efficient :P

Again, hope it helps
Cia

[snashe]

hw.psm.synaptics_support="1"
i forgot to say i added this to loader.conf also
and i cant edit my messages yet ;)

[manolis@]

Hi, oni-chan,

I think 7.2's loader is already fixed for the problems that manolis@ posted before.
I'm running 8.0, and it's perfect.

Yes, the One works fine with 7.2-RELEASE. If you decide to use hal/dbus with the new Xorg (you will most probably have to in the future, so it is best to get acquainted with it now), it is best to *REMOVE* or disable moused in /etc/rc.conf, i.e.:

moused_enable="NO"

or you will encounter strange effects (esp. when clicking). If you were using xorg.conf to do keyboard layout switching, you can do the same via hal now - but you will have to edit an xml (!) file.
Wireless and wired network work out of the box, and sound is now muted when the jack is plugged in.

[oni-chan]

Thanks for help.
Some problems still bothering me. Sometimes when PC going to reboot it hang's up. Anybody have such problem?

Also, after installing 7.2 i got a lot of GEOM_LABLE messageges refering to my SSD hard drive. How can i rid of them or maybe they warning me about some think wrong with my ssd?

Also i have a problem with etc/hosts. When i start xfce4 i get a message that telling me that it can't look up the internet address for .
and that i need to add to the file /etc/hosts
I don't realy understand where it found that "." and why do they need to look for an inet address for it, could somebody please help me.

Thanks in advance

[tangram]

Make sure that hosts on /etc/hosts are fully qualified. For example something in the line of:

::1 localhost localhost.freebsd.com
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.freebsd.com
192.168.1.1 mypc mypc.freebsd.org

Replacing freebsd.com and mypc with your domain and computer name respectively.

[oni-chan]

I checked /etc/hosts and it seems that everything is fine there. i don't think it is a /etc/hosts ptoblem i think xfce4 is trying to understand "." name, and to find a route. And i think that i just misstyped somewhere "." where i should't and i got such pain in my ... . So the question is: where from xfce4 trying to get this "."?

thanks.

[tangram]

Did you have a look at /etc/resolv.conf?

[oni-chan]

i did, there are search domain, and dns. Everithing typed correctly.

[aragon]

I was wondering if Aspire One FreeBSD users have found a way to control the apparently noisy fan on their netbooks?

The linux guys do this (http://n00.be/archives/758/).

[richardpl]

Depends on acpi_thermal ACx entries:

hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._ACx: 85.0C 75.0C 60.0C 50.0C -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1

[snashe]

It seems like no hw.acpi.thermal entry exists with the AA1.

Also, there is no standard entry to know the processor temperature; I had to install "coretemp" kernel driver to know it. I still miss fan-control thought.


P.S.: Sometimes I had problems with shutdown-p and the power didn't automatically turned off. As I am using Openbox WM, the shutdown process can easily be configured within .xinitrc. Since this tweak I didn't had the power down problem. Hope it's not just luck and may this tips serves.


/usr/local/bin/openbox-session
sleep 5
shutdown -p now

[Albright]

I recently picked up a new Acer Aspire One 751h, primarily to test web site designs in Windows, but if I can run FreeBSD on it it'll be useful for other things as well. I booted off a 7.2 disc in an external CD-ROM drive and installed FreeBSD on an SD card (not brave enough to put it side-by-side with the Windows installation on the hard drive yet); thankfully, FreeBSD had no problems either seeing the SD card nor booting off of it. However, a stock installation does not seem to recognize either the 802.11 card nor the ethernet card. Running ifconfig just shows lo0 (the loopback interface).

Wifi is more useful for me, so I tried loading the ath driver as this thread suggests. It didn't help, however. According to this page (http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/acer-aspire-one-751h/4507-3121_7-33676887.html?tag=mncol;psum), this model does not have an Atheros wifi card; instead an "Acer InviLink." I'm looking into whether there are any drivers for this; it's not looking good so far.

Haven't tried any X hijinks on it yet.

[Albright]

All right, it turns out the card in this thing is indeed an Atheros card; an AR5006. But the Atheros driver just can't see it. I tried various tips and trick around the net, but most of them seem very outdated and none of them worked. Notably, the ethernet card ("RTL8139/810x" from Realtek) isn't seen either. I have to sneakernet files on to this thing using a USB drive…

I'll try ndis (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/config-network-setup.html) next, but not tonight.

[SpartX]

Hey guys ..
I,m new to this FreeBSD thing and I have a netbook laying around (Acer Aspire One 8GB SSD). The thing is i need a tutorial on how to install and run FreeBSD (or FreeNAS) on my machine. and I was wondering if I could add a drobo to the mix as my main storaqe device.

any help would be deeply appreciated.

[varnie]

are there any successful stories of using FreeBSD 8.0 on Acer Aspire 3680 notebook? does it run smoothly or has any serious ACPI related/etc problems?