Acer Aspire AS5672 and Xubuntu

Linux on this machine

Hardware info on main page.

This machine runs the i386 version of Xubuntu.

The internal sata hard drive is sliced up as follows:
slice 1 - 30 GB - Windows XP Home
slice 2 - 70 GB - a FreeBSD install (currently RELENG_7)
slice 3 - 60 GB - Xubuntu (currently 11.04)
slice 4 - 72 GB -

Worklog:
2012-02-22: today's update-manager brought a new kernel (dmesg output):
tingo@kg-home:~$ uname -a
Linux kg-home 2.6.38-13-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 24 14:27:59 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
That's all.

2012-01-28: today's update-manager brought a new kernel (dmesg output):
tingo@kg-home:~$ uname -a
Linux kg-home 2.6.38-13-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 3 13:44:52 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
thats all.

2011-10-08: today's update-manager brought a new kernel (dmesg output):
tingo@kg-home:~$ uname -a
Linux kg-home 2.6.38-11-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Mon Sep 12 21:18:14 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

2011-09-03: today's update-manager brought a new kernel (dmesg output):
tingo@kg-home:~$ uname -a
Linux kg-home 2.6.38-11-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 29 19:05:14 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

2011-08-03: slice 4 - I just noticed; /var/log/messages isn't updated anymore:
tingo@kg-home:~$ uname -a;date;ls -l /var/log/mess*
Linux kg-home 2.6.38-10-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 28 15:05:41 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
Wed Aug  3 23:14:50 CEST 2011
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm      0 2011-07-26 18:17 /var/log/messages
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 149770 2011-07-11 00:44 /var/log/messages.1
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  26070 2011-07-10 22:01 /var/log/messages.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  13255 2011-04-03 20:41 /var/log/messages.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  13752 2010-10-15 11:14 /var/log/messages.4.gz
dmesg still works:
tingo@kg-home:~$ dmesg | tail
[   51.694141] wlan0: authenticate with 00:0f:66:51:aa:41 (try 1)
[   51.696182] wlan0: authenticated
[   51.697162] wlan0: associate with 00:0f:66:51:aa:41 (try 1)
[   51.699575] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0f:66:51:aa:41 (capab=0x11 status=0 aid=9)
[   51.699579] wlan0: associated
[   51.701322] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[   61.732016] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
[ 1652.068512] audit_printk_skb: 18 callbacks suppressed
[ 1652.068517] type=1400 audit(1312404949.091:18): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" name="/usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf" pid=5291 comm="apparmor_parser"
[ 1652.069757] type=1400 audit(1312404949.091:19): apparmor="STATUS" operation="profile_replace" name="/usr/sbin/cupsd" pid=5291 comm="apparmor_parser"
I just updated via update-manager, and the machine wants a reboot, we will see if that fixes anything. Nope, it did not:
tingo@kg-home:~$ ll /var/log/mess*
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm      0 2011-07-26 18:17 /var/log/messages
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm 149770 2011-07-11 00:44 /var/log/messages.1
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  26070 2011-07-10 22:01 /var/log/messages.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  13255 2011-04-03 20:41 /var/log/messages.3.gz
-rw-r----- 1 syslog adm  13752 2010-10-15 11:14 /var/log/messages.4.gz
Ok, I found out that this change is intentional (see bug 794727). Hrmf. Perhaps the Ubuntu people haven't heard about POLA. Anyway, it can be fixed (see this thread) by editing /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf and uncommenting the following lines:
*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warn;\
        auth,authpriv.none;\
        cron,daemon.none;\
        mail,news.none          -/var/log/messages
followed by
tingo@kg-home:~$ sudo restart rsyslog
Good.

2011-07-26: today's update-manager brought a new kernel (dmesg output):
tingo@kg-home:~$ uname -a
Linux kg-home 2.6.38-10-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 28 15:05:41 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
2011-07-26: I installed VirtualBox 4.0.12 by doing the following:
adding a new line to the repository:
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian natty contrib
adding the GPG key:
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
update sources and install the software
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.0
That's it. For some reasons, the GUI methods (Synapctic, Software Center) just failed to download packages.

2011-07-11: Upgraded to Xubuntu 11.04, using update-manager / upgrade (which started up automatically). dmesg output.
tingo@kg-home:~/work/1_dmesg$ uname -a
Linux kg-home 2.6.38-8-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Mon Apr 11 03:31:50 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
tingo@kg-home:~/work/1_dmesg$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04
Codename: natty
Finished for today.
2011-07-10: Another upgrade, this time to Xubuntu 10.10 (I followed MaverickUpgrades) and used update-manager / upgrade. dmesg output.
tingo@kg-home:~/work$ uname -a
Linux kg-home 2.6.35-30-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 7 18:40:23 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
tingo@kg-home:~/work$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 10.10
Release: 10.10
Codename: maverick
Just one more upgrade to go.
2011-07-10: I upgraded, using update-manager / upgrade to Xubuntu 10.04 (10.04.2 LTS), dmesg output
tingo@kg-home:~$ uname -a
Linux kg-home 2.6.32-32-generic #62-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 20 21:54:21 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
tingo@kg-home:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS
Release: 10.04
Codename: lucid
Now, moving on.

2010-06-04: I installed the ntpq command, as follows: sudo apt-get install ntp.

2009-10-30: I upgraded to Xubuntu 9.10, using update-manager / upgrade. dmesg output.
2009-10-30: I upgraded to Xubuntu 9.04, using update-manager / upgrade. dmesg output.

2009-03-08: I installed support for Buypass smartcard solution as follows: install libccid, pcscd, pcsc-tools, and finally wget http://www.buypass.no/support/linux/jnipcsc.tar.gz to get the buypass speciific install files. untar and follow the instructions.

2009-02-28: installed adobe-flashplugin (via synaptic),

2009-02-27: installed Citrix ICA client 10.6 (from CitrixICAClientHowTo), installed openssh-server (via synaptic).

2009-02-24: I installed OpenOffice.org 3.0.1 from these instructions.

2009-02-21: I installed acroread (from the Medibuntu repository),

2009-02-20: I installed the msttcorefonts package to get better-looking fonts in some web forums (diskusjon.no etc). Installed the Opera web browser (instructions), installed smartmontools, xfce4-sensors-plugin, added the coretemp module and an sudo sensors-detect to configure it,

2009-02-19: I installed Xubuntu 8.10 (i386) on slice 3 of the new hard drive (see main page for more info).

2008-11-22: Ok, getting the wireless working again wasn't too hard now that I knew what I was looking for. First I undid all the changes I had done when trying to get the ipw3945 driver working. Then I removed all lines from /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and restarted udev (/etc/init.d/udev restart). After that the wireless shows up as wlan0 and works. Nice!
2008-11-22: I did what I should have done when Xubuntu 8.10 first came out: I booted the Xubuntu 8.10 (i386) LiveCD (desktop). dmesg output: normal. Here the wireless network works: it hows up as wlan0. Here is the output of lshw:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo lshw -C network
  *-network              
       description: Wireless interface
       product: PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: wmaster0
       version: 02
       serial: 00:13:02:3e:d4:ce
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwl3945 ip=10.1.161.11 latency=0 module=iwl3945 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abg
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: NetLink BCM5789 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:04:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 21
       serial: 00:16:36:54:a9:ae
       capacity: 1GB/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=3.94 firmware=5789-v3.49a latency=0 link=no module=tg3 multicast=yes port=twisted pair
  *-network DISABLED
       description: Ethernet interface
       physical id: 1
       logical name: pan0
       serial: e6:1f:f4:4a:d5:58
       capabilities: ethernet physical
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=bridge driverversion=2.3 firmware=N/A link=yes multicast=yes
Now all I need to do is get it working in my upgraded installation. Sigh.

2008-11-16: I tried getting ipw3945 working with the recipe here, with this and this patch from Juergen's site. But I get this in dmesg:
root@kg-home:~# dmesg | grep 3945
[   21.864415] ipw3945: Unknown symbol escape_essid
2008-11-16: I have installed the drivers from wireless.kernel.org to see if that makes any difference. Later:  it doesn't seem to have helped. The wireless still doesn't work, and network interfaces in general act funny.
2008-11-16: upgraded to Xubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). The new iwl3945 driver isn't working properly. Ugh. But the usb mouse works again. dmesg output: normal.

2008-11-15: upgraded to Xubuntu 8.04.1 (Hardy Heron) via Update Manager. After the upgrade, the usb mouse no longer works. Wirelles works, but the wireless LED light doesn't. dmesg output: normal.

2007-11-05: upgraded to Xubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbons) via Update Manager. After the upgrade, I had to link /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.22-14-i386 to /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.22-14-generic and do sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart to get the wireless going.

2007-07-19: figured out I should test the camera (OrbiCam) again. I followed these instructions, and after installing Camorama, the camera worked. The colors are wrong though - a newer version of the gspca driver is probably needed.

2007-07-12: various info about the machine: lshw, lshw -short, hwinfo, hwinfo --short, lspci -v, lspci, lsusb -v, lsusb.

2007-07-12: added the argument pci=assign-busses to the kernel command line by editing /boot/grub/menu.lst. No change, other than the error message gone from the dmesg output.
2007-07-12: changed Ubuntu to use the SMP kernel (-generic instead of -i386). New dmesg. Had to link /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.20-16-i386 to /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.20-16-generic in order to get the wireless going. For some reason, the sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart trick is no longer necessary. Cool!

2007-??-??: updated to Xubuntu 7.04 using a CD. dmesg here.. Still needs to do sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart to get the wireless going.

2007-02-11: Today I decided to try getting my usb mouse working once more. A quick Google search found me this Howto: Synaptics touchpad and a usb mouse. I implemented the changes to xorg.conf - and now my usb mouse works! Finally!

2006-11-25: I noticed that the usbmouse module wasn't loaded, even if the usbhid module was, so I tried addingthe usbmouse module to /etc/modules. The module loaded, but the usb mouse still doesn't work. Annoying.

2006-11-24: upgraded to Xubuntu 6.10, using the apt-get method. Here is the dmesg. I still have to use sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart after boot to get the wireless working, and I still must figure out how to get the usb mouse working.

See my article Xubuntu on the Acer AS5672 laptop. In short: most things work, except the usb mouse.

After boot, I have to run sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart in order for the wireless network to work.

Here is a Xubuntu 6.06 dmesg, verbose dmesg.