Notes on installation and compatibility of Ubuntu with Asus laptop computers.

Summary

Details

Asus A4709L-LH

• Nearly everything worked out of the box. WLAN, IrDA, modem, SD/MC card reader have not been tested yet.
• Sound worked out of the box.
• Computer powers off automatically when shut down.
• Don't use frame buffer - otherwise you won't able to use the display at the optimal 1280x800. The SIS chipset used is easier to get working at this resolution than the mobile Intel chipsets - which require a third party utility to enable 1280x800.

Asus A6BG16E-RWDL

• Nearly everything worked out of the box.
• IrDA is working. I used ircp in order to transmit pictures to my Sony Ericsson T68i cell phone.
• Suspend-to-ram and Suspend-to-disk are working out of the box. However, if working with a framebuffer (vga=791 in grub) suspend-to-ram doesn't wake up anymore.
• Native resolution of screen panel (1280x800) is working out of the box.
• Sound works great.
• PCMCIA and Modem haven't been tested yet.

• Integrated webcam et SD reader aren't working. A driver is being developped for the bison cam : see ALi USB2 M5603C on http://www.linux-projects.org.

• hotkeys are working perfectly out of the box : fn-hotkeys (wifi, suspend, lcd brigthness, sound) as well as run-hotkeys (mail, browser, etc.) and even audio-dj ! I'm able to control rhythmbox with the play/pause/next/previous buttons on front of the laptop.
• Of course, DVD burning is working very well.
• Wifi is working like a charm.

• In order to use the front leds (wifi, led), you've got to install mail-notification for example, and to configure "echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/mled" as the action when a mail incomes, and "echo 0 > /proc/acpi/asus/mled" when the mail box is empty. Just the same with the wifi led.

• Battery time is between 3h15 and 4h30, depending on the set lcd brigthness.

Asus M2400N

• Nearly everything worked out of the box. IrDA and Modem have not been tested yet.
• Sound worked after adding "acpi_irq_isa=7" to the boot options (not needed in Breezy). ("sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst" opens according file, edit the line "kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.8.1-3-386 root=/dev/hda4 ro quiet splash".) Volume control buttons fully functionable in Breezy.
• Also the WLAN module (centrino 2100) is installed it doesn't work.
• IPW2200 worked out of box.
• Computer doesn't power off automatically when shut down, except Breezy.

Asus M6N/e

• Most things works out of the box, even the widescreen.
• Intel 2200bg wireless works with the ipw2200.sf.net drivers. Sound,display,broadcom works out of the box

  • MattZimmerman: this driver is already part of the standard kernel, installed by default

  • Acpi working, Asus corrected the DSDT issues with the latest BIOS. For M6N it's 0214a and 0208A for M6Ne.

• For a correct shutdown please comment "CONFIt G_X86_UP_APIC" in your kernel's .config and recompile it or just add "nolapic" to your boot options in /boot/grub/menu.lst
• To make S3 (Suspend to RAM) work simply add "acpi_sleep=s3_bios" to your boot options in /boot/grub/menu.lst
• Don't use framebuffer console: it causes flickering (especially radeonfb mobule)

Asus M3N

• If you have a 1400x1050 panel on your M3N, follow the steps listed here to get it up and running.

  • download 855resolution from http://perso.wanadoo.fr/apoirier/ unpack with tar zxvf filename and build with make. (If you get a message that states that you are lacking cc, use apt or your favourite package tool (like synaptic) to install gcc.

  • Instructions for use are in the Readme. Add a little script for executing the patch at startup with appropriate options in /etc/init.d/

  • Then, to get it to actually execuate at startup, symlink this script from /etc/rc2.d - make it start before X.org stats, symlinking with a name like S15Res855 should do the trick (assuming you are root and standing in /etc/rc2.d the command you issue is like this: ln -s ../init.d/yourscriptnamehere

  • Now, either restart X.org completely or just reboot the whole system.

  • Hopefully your panel will now run in it's native resolution!

Asus W5A

• This laptop has a 1280x768 screen. To get this working, you'll need the latest 855resolution (from the webpage above), as well as X from breezy. The 855resolution package in universe is out of date, but has a useful init script. Add Option "VBERestore" to the driver section of xorg.conf to keep your text consoles available.

• Hibernate/suspend: in /etc/default/acpi-support, set SAVE_VBE_STATE=true and POST_VIDEO=true, and add resume=/dev/yourswappartition for hibernate. Suspend you need to add echo 1> /proc/acpi/asus/lcd and then change the brightness (either with fn-f5/f6 or via /proc/acpi/asus/brn). Suspend only works once per reboot.

• Bluetooth: get the patches from http://nocturno.nsk.pt/scriptpages/index.cgi?operacao=asusw5&language=english

Asus W3V

• Loading sound card (snd-hda-intel) driver hangs hotplug and prevents breezy from booting. To boot hit Ctrl+Alt+SysRq+e during hotplug initialisation

• Once the OS loads up you can make sound work by following my notes on bug #15465 (https://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=15465)

• 1280x780 screen was detected automaticaly
• Have not tried flgx drivers with breezy
• Machine does not suspend in s1 or s3 mode
• There's some stuff in dmesg about bluetooth but I don't have any devices to test this with
• CD player and volume control keys work

-- MylesByrne

Asus M6V

• Sound card (intel HDA)of this laptop doesn't work out of the box, but it can be configured by using latest ALSA drivers.
• 1400x1050 screen was detected automaticaly
• Bluetooth and Hibernate work.

• WiFi was recognoized and setup during the installation, but I haven't tesetd it.

• Haven't tested modem, IRDA.

• Some of the special keys dont work: cd controls & sound controls, I assume they can be configured.

• Battery and CPU temperature monitoring works.
• CPU frequency scaling works.

CategoryLaptop