Linux on Acer 1410, 1810TZ and 1810T

AS OF UBUNTU 10.04, THIS INFORMATION IS OUT OF DATE. FOR CURRENT UBUNTU / LINUX MINT I RECOMMEND USING TLP

Here it comes, updated guide for Lucid.

Packard Bell / Gateway clones:
This guide has also been tested on a Packard Bell Dot M/U with bios v3303, and it should also work on the Gateway clone. If you have a 1410/1810 and something doesn't work, please report back.

What's working after a standard Ubuntu 10.04 install:

• Graphics
• Audio out, speaker mutes when pluging in headphones. Good volume.
• Networking, both wireless (intel wifi 1000) and wired (the atheros gigabit)
• FN +:
  • F4, suspends fine
  • F6, monitor goes black
  • F7, touchpad on / off
  • F8, mute
  • F9, Bloq Num
  • RePag: Home
  • AvPag: End
  • Up: increase volume
  • Down: decrease volume
  • Righ: increase brightness: skips steps.
  • Left: decrease brightness: skips steps.
  • J,K,L, etc: numeric keyboard ok.

What's not working:

• Audio in: the integrated mic doesn't work.
• FN + F5: not recognised, doesn't toogle displays

Automated Install (recommended):

I've done a script that should do it all automatically. In detail:

What the script does:

• Configure gnome-power-manager backlight dim and hard disk power saving
• Download, patch, install and setup acerhdf
• Install the power saving script
• Install the debugging script
• If laptop-mode-tools is installed, suggest uninstalling and, if you want, uninstall
• Fix the brightness hotkeys issue (jumps 2 levels on every key press)
• Disable ethernet Wake on Lan (doesn't enable when on AC)
• Disable uneeded services: cron, anacron and atd (they don't enable when on AC)

What the script doesn't:

• Add the noatime parameter to the ext2/3/4 partitions in fstab. You'll have to do it manually.

How it works:

• In a terminal, run ./InstallAcer_11.6_PowerSaving.sh --help to get a full list of options.
• If you want to install everything: ./InstallAcer_11.6_PowerSaving.sh --install

Disclaimer:

• This script comes with no warranty. Use it at your own risk. I won't be responsible for any damage this could do to your system or data.

​

Manual Install:

Power saving tips:

The Script:

By default, an ubuntu install won't take too much care of saving power, which is very important in an ultra mobile laptop. You can easily setup the system to enter some power saving modes, specifically the sata controller and the sound chip.

I've setup a script which will take care of making the devices entering the power saving mode when the laptop is on battery.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

      ## Disable unnecessary services
      service atd stop
      service cron stop
      service anacron stop
      ## Acer 11.6 brightness hotkey fix
      echo N > /sys/module/video/parameters/brightness_switch_enabled
      ## Disable wake on lan
      ethtool -s eth0 wol d

  if on_ac_power; then
  #### Go fast on AC power.  Similar to default Ubuntu settings
 
      # Remount ext3/4 filesystems to default value: every 5 seconds
      mount -o remount,commit=5, /
      mount -o remount,commit=5, /home

      ## Set swap usage back to default
      echo 60 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

      ## Disable Sata Power Saving
      for foo in /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/link_power_management_policy;
        do echo max_performance > $foo;
      done

      ## Disable Intel Wlan Power Saving
      iwconfig wlan0 power off

      ## Disable HD Audio Power Saving
      echo 0 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
      echo N > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save_controller

      ## Set kernel dirty page value back to default
      echo 20 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
      echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio
      echo 500 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs
      echo 500 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
     
  else
  #### Save power

      ## Change the ext3/4 commit times to 10 minutes.  Reduces disk activity
      mount -o remount,commit=600 /
      mount -o remount,commit=600 /home

      ## Reduce swap usage as much as possible
      echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

      ## Enable Sata Power Saving
      for foo in /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/link_power_management_policy;
        do echo min_power > $foo;
      done

      ## Enable Intel Wlan Power Saving
      iwconfig wlan0 power on

      ## Enable HD Audio Power Saving
      echo 10 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
      echo Y  > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save_controller

      ## Reduce disk activity by waiting up to 10 minutes before doing writes
      echo 90 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
      echo 25 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio
      echo 60000 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs
      echo 60000 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
     
  fi

To install this power saving script, do the following:

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/pm/power.d/15_saving
# Paste the script above into the file, save and close
sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/power.d/15_saving
sudo ln -s /etc/pm/power.d/15_saving /etc/pm/sleep.d/
sudo chown root /etc/pm/power.d/15_saving
sudo chgrp root /etc/pm/power.d/15_saving

gnome-power-manager:

Go the g-p-m preferences, under System -> Preferences -> Power management, and do the following:

• Hard drive power saving: in the battery tab tick on "Reduce hard drive revolutions when possible"
• Battery tab: tick on reduce brightness and dim display.
• AC and Battery tab: configure what to do when closing the lid and what to do on very low battery remaining.
• General tab: configure what to do when pressing the power button and sleep button (Fn+f4).
• General tab: configure when to show the battery icon.

​

The “noatime” parameter:

In linux, and in ubuntu it's on by default, the filesystem has 3 types of date information: when the file was created, when the file was modified and when the file was last accessed. This last access information means that everytime a file is accessed (everytime you read a file), it does a file system write, to update the information. In My Honest Opinion, this is not necessary, and I would disable the last access information. How? Editing fstab and adding the noatime paramenter to all ext2/3/4 mounted partitions. You can edit fstab by doing gksudo gedit /etc/fstab and, there, add the parameter noatime to all the ext2/3/4 lines. Example on how the relevant fstab lines look in my machine:

Code:

UUID=VERY-LONG-NUMBER  /       ext4  errors=remount-ro,noatime   0       1
UUID=VERY-LONG-NUMBER  /home   ext4  defaults,noatime            0       2

There may be people who may find the atime parameter interesting, I don't. Hard drives are already the biggest bottlenecks in computers, and doing extra writes won't improves things, so I prefer to avoid them.​

Issues:

Fan:

Issue: the fan is controlled by the BIOS, and is running too loud and too often.
Solution: the solution is installing an update acerhdf module. Download the laster version from here. There's a great chance that it will work without any additional work, skip the next lines and go ahead on to how to install acerhdf.
If after installing acerhdf it doesn't work, you'll have to patch it adding your BIOS version. Open the acerhdf.c file and add the following code above this line: '/* pewpew-terminator */':

Code:

/* Acer 1410 */
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3119", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v1.3204", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
/* Acer 1810T(Z) */
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
/* Packard Bell clone */
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3119", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v1.3204", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },

Save and close. Let's go on into compiling it:

Code:

cd /to/the/acerhdf/folder
make
sudo make install

To make sure the module gets loaded and the fan control is enabled, do the following:

Code:

echo "acerhdf" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf
echo "options acerhdf kernelmode=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf
sudo modprobe acerhdf

That will take care of loading the module when starting the laptop and automatically enable the fan control. After doing that, you should already be enjoying silent fan operation. You can also add, to the /etc/modprobe.d/acerfhdf.conf the values fanon= and fanoff=, followed by a value. For example: fanon=60000 fanoff=52000 will turn the fan on when it reaches 60ºC and will shut it down when it reaches 52ºC.
​

Brightness:

Issue: when changing the brightness using the FN+arrow keys, it will jump 2 levels instead of one.
Solution: add the following into /etc/rc.local, before exit 0 and without quotes: "echo N > /sys/module/video/parameters/brightness_switch_enabled".
​

Integrated mic:

Issue: the internal microphone is not working. Playing with alsamixer doesn't solve this, all you can hear is noise.
Solution: None at the moment. There's a thing you can try for Skype, though. Do the following, after installing skype from skype.com:

Code:

sudo touch /usr/local/bin/skype
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/skype
gksudo gedit /usr/local/bin/skype

There, paste the following, save and close:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

/bin/sh -c "PULSE_SERVER=127.10.10.1 /usr/bin/skype"

After that, you can play a bit with the mic settings under alsamixer and try skype. It shoud kind of work, but there's still some static noise.
​

Debugging:

One of the attached files contains CheckPowerSaving.sh . This script should help you debugging and will show you what values are being applied. To run it: cd to the folder where the unzipped file is and then sudo ./CheckPowerSaving.sh. If you need help you can attach the output here.​

Next to be done:

• Enable undervolting (nothing until Lucid comes out AND the phc repos are running for lucid).

Changelog

• 20/04/2010: added automated install script.
• 16/04/2010: updated for Lucid.
• 29/12/2009: updated version of acerhdf, added blacklist acer-wmi to blacklist (thanks to all who reported)
• 05/12/2009: acerhdf version 0.5.21 now includes BIOS definitions for acer 1410/1810T(Z) and Packard Bell Dot M/U in v3303 and 3120. Audio alternative solution is now the recommended solution (thanks to iiamjon for trying and reporting)
• 02/12/2009: added more acerhdf bios definitions and changed acerhdf enabling. Thanks to teprrr.
• 29/11/2009: added internal microphone fix and BIOS v3303 to acerhdf fix. Also added 1410/1810 clones notice and the Packard Bell Dot M/U definitions to acerhdf fix section.
• 19/11/2009: added noatime,nodirtime to remount filesystem. This should lower disk write access: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5528491&postcount=7. Thanks to tdavis.
• 15/11/2009: Initial post

Thanks

• tdavis, for the wake on lan tip and adding the 11,6" acer series into acerhdf
• teprrr, for the acerhdf modprobe tip and bios definitions
• laramichaels1978, from ubuntuforums, for detecting some errors and suggesting to add the dirty_expire_centiseconds option

 

ORIGINAL POST, JAUNTY:

Hi there all,

I start this thread hoping to help everyone who uses linux in setting up their little timeline to work as good as possible and optimize battery life. I run ubuntu 9.10 64 bits nearly trouble free.

This guide is also posted at the Ubuntu forums.

Packard Bell / Gateway clones:
This guide has also been tested on a Packard Bell Dot M/U with bios v3303, and it should also work on the Gateway clone. If you have a 1410/1810 and something doesn't work, please report back.

Working after a standard Ubuntu 9.10 install:

- Graphics
- Hibernate / suspend
- Audio out, speaker mutes when pluging in headphones. Good volume.
- Networking, both wireless (intel wifi 1000) and wired (the atheros gigabit)
- FN +:
· F4, suspends fine
· F6, monitor goes black
· F7, touchpad on / off
· F8, mute
· F9, Bloq Num
· RePag: Home
· AvPag: End
· Up: increase volume
· Down: decrease volume
· Righ: increase brightness: skips steps.
· Left: decrease brightness: skips steps.
· J,K,L, etc: numeric keyboard ok.

​

What's not working:

- Audio in: the integrated mic doesn't work.
- FN + F5: not recognised, doesn't toogle displays
- Wireless power saving

​

Power saving tips:

By default, an ubuntu install won't take too much care of saving power, which is very important in an ultra mobile laptop. You can easily setup the system to enter some power saving modes, specifically the sata controller and the sound chip.

I've setup a script which will take care of making the devices entering the power saving mode when the laptop is on battery.

Code:

#!/bin/sh
  # Make sure brightness switch enabled stays on N, even on resume.
  echo N > /sys/module/video/parameters/brightness_switch_enabled
  # Disable wake on lan
  ethtool -s eth0 wol d

# Go fast on AC power.  Similar to default Ubuntu settings
if on_ac_power; then
  # Remount ext3 filesystems so the journal commit only happens every 60
  # seconds. This reduces disk activity.
  mount -o remount,commit=5,atime,diratime /
  mount -o remount,commit=5,atime,diratime /home

  # Set SATA back to normal operation
  for foo in /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/link_power_management_policy;
    do echo max_performance > $foo;
  done

  # Manually set the wifi driver to no power savings.
  # broken in 2.6.31 kernel
  # iwconfig wlan0 power off

  # Set kernel dirty page value back to default
  echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
  echo 5 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio
  echo 600 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs

  # Disable Intel HD audio power saving:
  echo 0 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

else # Save power
 
  # Change the ext3 commit times to 10 minutes.  Reduces disk activity
  # disable disk writes when reading
  mount -o remount,commit=600,noatime,nodiratime /
  mount -o remount,commit=600,noatime,nodiratime /home
 
  # Set SATA to save power
  for foo in /sys/class/scsi_host/host*/link_power_management_policy;
    do echo min_power > $foo;
  done

  # Manually set the iwl3945 driver to power savings.
  # broken in 2.6.31 kernel
  # iwconfig wlan0 power on

  # Reduce disk activity by waiting up to 10 minutes before doing writes
  echo 90 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio
  echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio
  echo 60000 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs

  # Enable Intel HD audio power saving:
  echo 10 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
fi

To install this power saving script, do the following:

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving
# Paste the script above into the file, save and close
sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving
sudo ln -s /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving /etc/pm/power.d/

Next, let's configure gnome-power-manager, under System -> Preferences -> Power management:

- Hard drive power saving: in the battery tab tick on "Reduce hard drive revolutions when possible"
- Battery tab: tick on reduce brightness and dim display.
- AC and Battery tab: configure what to do when closing the lid and what to do on very low battery remaining.
- General tab: configure what to do when pressing the power button and sleep button (Fn+f4).
- General tab: configure when to show the battery icon.

Lm-profiler:
Last, but not least, we'll run lm-profiler to start / stop services when running on battery. To do that, disconnect from the mains and open a terminal (Aplications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and run sudo lm-profiler. It will run for 10 minutes and, when finished, it will ask what services to disable / enabled. You can safely disable cron, anacron and atd, if you don't use them. If you don't know what those are, you can dissabled them. If you never use a printer, or you only use it when connected to the mains, you can also disable cups. If in doubt, don't disable and ask here.

​

Issues:

Hibernate/resume:

Issue: after hibernating or suspending, the computer won't wake up properly.
Solution: gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf to edit the file and add the following (without quotes): "blacklist acer-wmi"​

Fan:

Issue: the fan is controlled by the BIOS, and is running too loud and too often.
Solution: the solution is installing an update acerhdf module. Download the laster version from here (0.5.22). If you are using BIOS version 3120 or 3303, you can skip patching the module and can directly go on how to install and activate. If you have a BIOS different from that, you'll have to patch it adding your BIOS version. Unpack and look for the acerhdf.c file. In this file, look for the acer 1410 section:

Code:

/* Acer 1410 */
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3120", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },

We have to add definitions for the Acer 1810T(Z), and also will add some more BIOS versions for the 1410:

Code:

{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
/* Acer 1810T */
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810T", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
/* Acer 1810TZ */
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
/* Packard Bell clone */
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
{"Packard Bell","DOTMU","v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },

Save and close. Let's go on into compiling it:

Code:

cd /to/the/acerhdf/folder
make
sudo make install

To make sure the module gets loaded and the fan control is enabled, do the following:

Code:

echo "acerhdf" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf
echo "options acerhdf kernelmode=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf
sudo modprobe acerhdf

That will take care of loading the module when starting the laptop and automatically enable the fan control. After doing that, you should already be enjoying silent fan operation.

​

Brightness:

Issue: when changing the brightness using the FN+arrow keys, it will jump 2 levels instead of one.
Solution: add the following into /etc/rc.local, before exit 0 and without quotes: "echo N > /sys/module/video/parameters/brightness_switch_enabled".

​

Wireless power saving:

Issue: in kernels from the 2.6.31 series, wireless power saving in intel wireless drivers was dissabled.
Solution: (please, first look at the Alternative Solution below) install updated drivers. the method I used, is compiling and installing the latest intel wireless drivers from the 2.6.32.2 kernel. To do this, download the latest wireless backports drivers from here (compat-wireless-2.6.32.2.tar.bz2, updated). Unpack them and, to compile and install:

Code:

cd /to/compat/wireless/folder
scripts/driver-select iwlwifi
make
sudo make install
sudo make unload
sudo modprobe iwlagn

Alternative solution: not tested by me. Install the linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic package and reboot. If it doesn't work, uninstall all linux-backports-modules-wireless packages using Synaptic and reboot.

Now you'll be using the newest available intel wireless driver, where power saving works again. You can enable power saving by doing "sudo iwconfig wlan0 power" on or disable doing "sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off".

Now you can also uncomment the power saving lines in /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving script, so that the wireless enters power saving automatically when on battery and exits when pluging in the laptop again.

​

Integrated mic:

Issue: the internal microphone is not working. Playing with alsamixer doesn't solve this, all you can hear is noise.
Solution: Install the linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic packages. Using this solution, when a new kernel appears, it will also take care of reinstalling the newer alsa modules. Should it not work and/or you want to revert changes, uninstall all the linux-backports-modules-alsa packages using synaptic and reboot.
Alternative solution: download, compile and install a newer Alsa driver. Using this solution, everytime a new kernel is installed, you'll have to repeat this for the new kernel. Go to the Alsa project webpage and download the lastest available alsa-driver. At the time of writing (29/11/09), that's 1.0.21. Once you have it, uncompress it and do the following:

Code:

cd /to/alsa/driver/folder
./configure --with-cards=hda-intel --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

After rebooting, your internal microphone should be working. I've tried it with the sound recorder program under Aplications -> Sound & Video menu. Quality doesn't seem to be great, maybe playing with settings will help. If someone has some tested tips (same fix, same machine), I'll add them. Thanks.

​

Next to be done:
- Enable undervolting

Changelog
29/12/2009: updated version of acerhdf, added blacklist acer-wmi to blacklist (thanks to all who reported)
05/12/2009: acerhdf version 0.5.21 now includes BIOS definitions for acer 1410/1810T(Z) and Packard Bell Dot M/U in v3303 and 3120. Audio alternative solution is now the recommended solution (thanks to iiamjon for trying and reporting)
02/12/2009: added more acerhdf bios definitions and changed acerhdf enabling. Thanks to teprrr.
29/11/2009: added internal microphone fix and BIOS v3303 to acerhdf fix. Also added 1410/1810 clones notice and the Packard Bell Dot M/U definitions to acerhdf fix section.
19/11/2009: added noatime,nodirtime to remount filesystem. This should lower disk write access. More info here. Thanks to tdavis
15/11/2009: Initial post

Thanks
tdavis, for the wake on lan tip and adding the 11,6" acer series into acerhdf
teprrr, for the acerhdf modprobe tip and bios definitions

 

Thanks a lot!
Added to Timeline Tweaks.

 

does ubuntu turn off atime updates by default?

If so, then doing a remount with noatime will help let the drive spin down.

Also, how about laptop_mode? (ie, /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode) What does ubuntu do with it? Fedora doesn't touch it.. ie, read Documentation/laptops/laptop-mode.txt in the kernel..

 

Wow, great tips...
I'm waiting for your 1410 undervolting guide.

Thanks.

 

hi,

I don't know about noatime.. what does it exactly do?

As for laptop mode.. I think in ubuntu in only touches the hard drive, even though you can configure ir to do a lot of other things, but since gnome-power-manager now includes an option to reduce disk revolutions when possible, I removed the laptop mode stuff. I don't know if they did the same or not, though.

 

Every file created in a Unix style filesystem (note - msdos/vfat doesn't support this), you get 3 timestamps.

ctime ie, create time
mtime ie, modification time,
atime ie, access time.

Simply reading the contents of a file, causes a write to the filesystem to update the access time.

By default, atime updates are on. It's designed to allow a backup/hierachial storage system to move files around by access patterns (ie, from fast storage to slow storage).

Turning off atime at the mount turns off this write, which gives the hard drive a better chance of spinning down (or, in the case of a flash based device, long life by cutting writes down).

Like I posted in another thread, doing:

/bin/mount -o remount,noatime,nodiratime /

turns off the write; editing your /etc/fstab and adding the noatime,nodiratime to the filesystem mount makes it permanent.

 

I assume that, after doing

/bin/mount -o remount,noatime,nodiratime /

I can reenable atime using this one:

/bin/mount -o remount,atime,diratime /

Is this correct??

 

That is correct, it will turn it back on.

 

Hello there and thanks for the tips!

Just wanted to notify you that newer kernels may not work without "hacks" due to some changes. The BIOS is apparently broken/reports wrong information and due to a change in kernel it'll cause a kernel panic.

If there's no fix available, iommu=soft or intel_iommu=off, can be applied to kernel options to make it go away. For more details see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=533952

Btw, does/should brightness setting work with acer-wmi or the general one? See 'dmesg|grep acer' to see if it reports that it must be controlled by a generic driver, no idea if it should but at least that's what it does here...

 

Awesome thread!!

Thank you for the great OP and getting the ball rolling.

 

I'm using 2.6.31.6 with no problems... and have also used .4 and .5 without troubles.

 

It's a Fedora specific patch to the kernel.

Generic/Non-fedora kernels don't have the problem. Fedora users get to suffer first before the code causing the problem is moved into the mainline kernel.

 

In case anyone is annoyed by stupid "<" key near left shift on Canadian keyboard -- there is a fix! You can simply remap the key to work as a left shift.
Here is a script that does that:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
xmodmap -e "keycode 94 = Shift_L" # <> button near left shift = shift
xmodmap -e "add shift = Shift_L" # make the new shift key actuall do something
xset -r 94 # prevent new shift key from autorepeating
exit 0

No reason to buy US keyboard!

 

Got my 1810TZ 2 days ago. Installed Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic and all seemed to go smoothly until I rebooted and was faced with a blank screen.

After much fiddling with settings and hunting about the Internet finally came upon the solution which is to go into Bios setup (press F2 on startup) and change SATA Mode from AHCI mode to IDE mode. Its under the Main tab.

Many thanks for all the tips here. I've implemented most of them and this little marvel of a laptop is quick, quiet and battery life is amazing - I was online for over 6 hrs last night and it was still showing over 2 hrs left!

Brilliant bit of kit.

 

Anyone have any luck getting the multitouch trackpad/two-finger scrolling working? I've got gsynaptic installed, which helps with the sensitivity and such, but when I try to use two-finger scrolling, the cursor just jumps around randomly.

 

Forgot to mention, I'm using Ubuntu 9.10 x64 on my 1410 SU2300, if that helps.

 

I wonder why coretemp show ~45 C while acerhdf show ~57 C

 

Hi all,

There's now a fix for the internal microphone, and added some new definitions to add bios v3303 to the acerhdf module, as well as adding the Packard Bell clone.

 

Hello again, and thanks for the update.

I've also gathered some bioses for 1810TZ, some of them tested already by me to work. Also discovered that the MODULE_ALIAS' are too wide for other machines (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/435958), so that's why the change to them too + added 1810T/1410T. I have also delivered this patch to the acerhdf developer, time will tell when/if it's going to a release.

If you test new BIOSes and/or different devices than currently in the list, please send a patch or something to the acerhdf maintainer, so that they could be added to later releases. Attaching the patch here, if someone needs it/if the OP wants to update his/her listing. Please let me know if you test it and if it works.

Code:

--- acerhdf_old/acerhdf.c       2009-11-09 10:38:51.000000000 +0200
+++ acerhdf.c   2009-11-23 20:06:53.046425753 +0200
@@ -156,6 +156,14 @@ static const struct bios_settings_t bios
        {"Acer", "AOA150", "v0.3310", 0x55, 0x58, {0x20, 0x20, 0x00} },
        /* Acer 1410 */
        {"Acer", "Aspire 1410", "v0.3120", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
+       /* Acer 1810TZ */
+       /* These should work, but not tested atm
+       {"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3108", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
+       {"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3113", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} }, */
+       {"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3115", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
+       {"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3117", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
+       {"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v0.3120", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
+       {"Acer", "Aspire 1810TZ", "v1.3303", 0x55, 0x58, {0x9e, 0x9e, 0x00} },
        /* special BIOS / other */
        {"Gateway", "AOA110", "v0.3103", 0x55, 0x58, {0x21, 0x21, 0x00} },
        {"Gateway", "AOA150", "v0.3103", 0x55, 0x58, {0x20, 0x20, 0x00} },
@@ -640,9 +648,12 @@ static void __exit acerhdf_exit(void)
 MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
 MODULE_AUTHOR("Peter Feuerer");
 MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Aspire One temperature and fan driver");
-MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Acer*:*:");
-MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Gateway*:*:");
-MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Packard Bell*:*:");
+MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Acer*:pnAOA*:");
+MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Acer*:pnAspire1810T*:");
+MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Acer*:pnAspire1410T*:");
+MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Gateway*:pnAOA*:");
+MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Packard Bell*:pnAOA*:");
+MODULE_ALIAS("dmi:*:*Packard Bell*:pnDOA*:");

 module_init(acerhdf_init);
 module_exit(acerhdf_exit);

P.S. Regarding to the two-finger scroll it seems that the touchpad doesn't support multitouch, so it has to be emulated. No idea if it works correctly, but at least it appeared to be quite dodgy so I disabled it.

 

How did you flash the 3303 BIOS? I have no windows installed and the latest upgrade has no DOS flasher..

 

Hi Patrick, I saw you instructed on another thread to use do 'echo -n "enabled" > /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode' in order to activate the acerhdf. Just wanted to note you and everyone else that you can also do this automatically by appending kernelmode=1 as a parameter for module loading. What I did in my Fedora installation is that I created /etc/modprobe.d/local.conf with line 'options acerhdf kernelmode=1' so it'll be loaded automatically when starting up the computer.

@pface, I did my update on the bundled Windows 7 installation, but perhaps it's possible to do the upgrade from USB drive by copying the files to it and booting? Perhaps you need to press some key, but I don't know which one...

 

I'd like to get it working on Ubuntu, since it works so well in Windows 7.

Also, any idea if GPU-accelerated h264 video will work on Linux/Ubuntu>

 

What should I copy to an USB-drive? I have no windows installed on my computer. I used a Freedos bootdisk to flash the other BIOSes.

Edit:
The file was an 7z-self extracting file which could be extraxted with

Code:

$ 7z x ZH7_3303_x86.exe

Then all I had to do was to put f_l_a_s_h_i_t_._exe and ZH7X64.fd on my FreeDOS usb-bootdisk and flash

 

Thanks tderr!

I've updated the guide including your more elegant solution to enable kernel control of the fan and also updated the acerhdf bios definitions.

Thanks a lot!

 

I have tested the Alternative Solution to the Integrated Mic problem using:

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic-generic

After a restart, I can now record using Sound Recorder.

However the sound is rather scratchy. I recorded it as CD Quality, Lossy (.ogg type).

 

Hi I already posted this on ubuntuforums, i'm reposting here just in case someone else is experiencing same problems.
I'm using your howto on my 1810tz, everything works fine except for the "15_saving" script.
The problem is that it is not invoked wher ac power is disconnected, but it is on ac power connection. I noticed that when I plug off the cable the battery icon (and its status) change for a few second to fully charged/on ac power (ie a fully charged battery with a thunderbolt on it), then switches to discarging.
May this be an acpi related bug?

 

same post as in ubuntuforums:

For another time: please don't cross post. Keep this discussion in ubuntuforums OR here, I don't mind, but not both. I check both forums and/or thread at least once a day, but I'm can't always reply as fast as I'd like. But posting in both forums won't make things faster. Also, there's a link from ubuntuforums to here and from here to ubuntuforums, so people can check wether something got responded here or there.

Patrick

 

ok, sorry for x-posting..
using the "minimal" scritpt to check if it was run when plugging/unplugging ac adapter, I found out it was never run, but on start: if I start the nb on battery I'll just have a line stating "ON BAT.." regardless how many time I change power source, and same happens when starting on ac power.
BUT gnome-power-manager detects when I those events.. so it looks like my problem is with pm scripts.

 

Lets do the following, maybe you are missing something..

sudo apt-get install acpi acpi-support pm-utils

Also, have you tried renaming the script? Instead of 15_saving to 10_saving?

Can you do the following and post the ouput?

ls -la /etc/pm/power.d/*
ls -la /etc/pm/sleep.d/*

is your system fully updated?

Thanks!

 

Here is a little guide on how to use multiple workspaces with UNR.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8440269#post8440269

 

I have 2 problems:
as mentioned before in this thread coretemp displays a fixed value (probably the temperature value on boot since it's almost always ~23 degrees, with the exception of a resume from suspend. )

the processes gvfsd-metadata and devkit-power-daemon stop the power savings function of the hdd by hard-writing to disk every 30 seconds or so. Writeback time doesn't have any effect. I think the processes have a hardcoded fsync in them or something like that.
Can someone post their lm-profiler output, with "normal" use, do not use firefox in this period, because it writes every few seconds.

 

coretemp works fine here!

Code:

patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
31000
31000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
36000
36000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
36000
36000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
37000
37000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
37000
37000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
38000
38000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
39000
39000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
39000
39000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp
40000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
39000
39000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
47000
48000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
48000
48000
patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.*/temp1_input
48000
48000

The temperature started increasing when I opened two instances of burnMMX, so its fine here. But I'm using kernel 2.6.31.6 from kernel.org.

As for the gvfsd-metadata and devkit-power-daemon, I'll try that later and report back.

 

Ok, that's what I did:
1) check if all packages where installed > yes
2) check when scripts were fired.
It looks like there's no chance to have scripts in /etc/pm/sleep.d (power.d) executed on every power source change, don't know why.
It looks like there's something wrong with power management, because when ac is disconnected my display does not dim as it should do.
Next try, given that pm setting on gnome are per user is to create another dummy user to find out if there's something broken in my config.

 

I found out what it was! (not solved it yet btw)
pm-utils scripts are run on acpi events: pm-powersave should be run after every power source change, and should take care of running scripts in /etc/pm/sleep.d and /etc/pm/power.d

BUT

pm-powersave is started from scripts like /etc/acpi/events/battery and /etc/acpi/events/ac, which are symlinks to /etc/acpi/power.sh.
In this script there's a call to a function in /usr/share/acpi-support/policy-funcs that checks if something like gnome-power-manager is running. If it is (that's my case) acpi scripts just exits without doing nothing.

Now I'm going to bypass that function, still I'm asking how can you make your script work on your ubuntu.. Any idea?
Thanks!

edit: if you comment out /etc/acpi/power.sh like this:

it will work!

edit:
there's a bug on launchpad : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/laptop-mode-tools/+bug/387057

 

Any reports on power consumption after the power saving scripts? Any issues?

I'm finishing up a couple of courses this week and I was going to take a stab at the running the script when. Currently, I use powertop to manage power consumption. I average 10-11+ watts with WiFi on and the screen at its dimmest setting (or close to it).

 

No issues with power saving script thus far.

Using PowerTOP 1.11 I average 8w with 'Auto eth0' active and screen brightness at minimum.

With both WiFi and 'Auto eth0' active, it's around 8.5-9.2w with screen brightness at minimum.

 

Thanks for the feedback on the power script. I'll be doing that one soon.

I actually needed my microphone for a presentation so I used the solution from the OP. Works great. Thanks!

 

My results are very close to yours. That's a solid 1.5 watt reduction in power usage for me and I still have MySQL running on battery.

 

Help!!

I'm having an issue with my Remix menus. Sometimes they don't respond to mouse clicks. Sometimes it takes multiple clicks to launch an application or change menus. Other times it responds on the first click. The behavior is erratic and only applies to the menus. Once in an application or even switching applications, everything works as it should.

I believe this behavior started around the same time I applied all of the tweaks to my system last week, but it might have been before. I was doing a lot of multitasking and had very high memory usage, so I thought that was the issue, but the problems are still there.

My question is, is there anything in the script or tweaks that might be causing these issues?

I'm using 32bit UBR 9.10. I'm pretty sure I started with 9.04 and upgraded to 9.10. I'm sure I did that with my other laptop, but I'm not 100% sure on this one. I have the SU3500 and 3GB ram installed. I've had no other issues with UNR on this machine.

BTW, All of the tweaks suggested worked perfectly!

 

I can confirm the same behavior as Captive.

I replaced the script with the test script you posted earlier and it would only create an empty file when rebooting the computer and then never writes to it.

I did try renaming the script 10_saving and nothing changed.

I tried to install the acpi as directed and I already had the latest version.

Here is the output you requested:

Code:

ohiomoto@ohiomoto-laptop:~/Desktop$ ls -la /etc/pm/power.d/*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 2009-12-11 01:25 /etc/pm/power.d/15_saving -> /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving
ohiomoto@ohiomoto-laptop:~/Desktop$ ls -la /etc/pm/sleep.d/*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 210 2009-10-23 20:44 /etc/pm/sleep.d/10_grub-common
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 682 2009-07-20 07:47 /etc/pm/sleep.d/10_unattended-upgrades-hibernate
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 257 2009-12-15 14:41 /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 290 2009-12-15 14:39 /etc/pm/sleep.d/15_saving~
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  34 2009-11-02 02:10 /etc/pm/sleep.d/action_wpa -> ../../wpa_supplicant/action_wpa.sh

My system is up to date.

 

I tried this, but the test script still won't write to the test script file.

 

With some slight alterations, it worked for me.

Code:

#!/bin/sh

touch /home/YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE/Desktop/script_executed

if on_ac_power ; then

echo "ON AC - $(date)" >> /home/YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE/Desktop/script_executed

else
# Save power

echo "ON BAT - $(date)" >> /home/YOUR_USER_NAME_HERE/Desktop/script_executed

fi

But I'm still trying to figure out why '15_saving' isn't working for me.

 

Thanks! The script now writes and I can confirm that the comments to the power.sh as suggested work. I tried it with the comments and without and the script does work with the commented version.

So, I should be able to copy the power saving script back into the 15_saving file....

 

I (and many another lurker, maybe) will be interested to learn how you make out.

Meanwhile I thought I might add a couple of 1810TZ-related snippets that may prove useful:

1. suspend and hibernate were really broken for me until I blacklisted the acer_wmi module by adding the line

Code:

blacklist acer_wmi

to the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf . It doesn't seem to do anything besides borking suspend and hibernate.

2. I was wondering how to save a little extra power by permanently toggling off bluetooth until I want to use a bluetooth device. Turns out there's an undocumented pair of switches under the front left side of the 1810TZ, the leftmost of which sorta toggles off bluetooth. (After you toggle it it bounces back rather than staying switched to the right, but it seems to work).

 

The 15_saving script seems to be working. I rebooted once without it and ran powertop. I let it run for a few minutes without touching anything or using any of their suggestions and I was pulling 10.6-10.7 watts. Then I copied my .script file into 15_saving and rebooted. Under the same conditions, I was using 8.8-8.9 watts. So the script has an effect.

Edit:
powertop suggests the following:

Code:

Suggestion: Enable SATA ALPM link power management via:
  echo min_power > /sys/class/scsi_host/host0/link_power_management_policy
or press the S key.

This one seems to have little or no effect.

Code:

Suggestion: Enable USB autosuspend by pressing the U key or adding
usbcore.autosuspend=1 to the kernel command line in the grub config

This one lowers power usage by ~0.3 - 0.5w.

I'm not a guru so any ideas or suggestions? Should these be part of the script? Are they already?

 

USB autosuspend / PowerTOP

While rummaging around on the net I learned that USB autosuspend has been enabled by default in the Ubuntu kernel for some time. Doing

Code:

cat /sys/bus/usb/devices/usb1/power/level

on a freshly booted system will show "auto". There's an Ubuntu bug report about PowerTOP's misguided suggestion that it could use enabling.

Wireless power saving

I'm still not running the OP's powersaving script, but this morning I installed linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic, did

Code:

sudo iwconfig wlan0 power on

and by golly wireless powersaving seems to be working, cutting the quality of my wireless connection by only 10-15%.

In general Ubuntu's running like a top on my machine now -- I'm absolutely delighted with the thing. (1810TZ BIOS 1.3303, fully updated Ubuntu 9.10)

 

Hi there all,

I've done a little script to help debugging power management issues. In a terminal do:
chmod +x CheckPowerSaving.sh
./CheckPowerSaving.sh

If you need help, you can create a file by doing ./CheckPowerSaving.h > PowerSaving.log
Then you can attach the log file here.

Hope it helps, comments are welcome.

 

Another reply, about usb autosuspending.

I think usb autosuspend is already enabled in ubuntu, but it waits 2 seconds before putting the usb into sleep. Some time ago I played a bit with that, and added usbcore.Autosuspend=0 to grub, and then my mouse started acting weird (it would suddenly freeze, then unfreeze).

I think we shouldn't matter too much though. Doing all stuff in the script is already Ok, and modifying usb autosuspend may be a source for trouble, like my problem with the mouse or other people reported problems with usb printers. Also, how many battery time would gain? I think it would be nearly negligible.

 

I ran it on AC and on battery power -- the log for the latter is here: View attachment CheckPowerSaving_BATTERY.log.zip
and the two logs differ thus:

Code:

diff CheckPowerSaving_AC.log  CheckPowerSaving_BATTERY.log
28c28
< 	No
---
> 	Yes
32,33c32,33
< 	Adapter 0: on-line
< 	Battery 0: Full, 100%
---
> 	Adapter 0: off-line
> 	Battery 0: Discharging, 99%, 05:25:25 remaining

I'm at a loss to explain, must be overlooking something glaringly obvious.
(edit: same result with /etc/pm/sleep.d/1 5_saving and fresh link in /etc/pm/power.d/)