I dropped by my wholesaler the other day and they had a great deal on the Acer Aspire One I am typing this entry from. It’s the 751h: 11.6″ screen, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD and so on. It came with Windows XP installed and I have no reason to keep that around since everything I do for a living and most of my fun computer time is spent in Linux. So I set off to get the beta of Karmic Koala installed. While this snappy little netbook doesn’t have the fastest processor I am not looking to play Warcraft or anything and I know the proc will handle just about anything I need to do but the graphics chipset is another issue entirely. The 751h has the most common chipset in netbooks at the moment: the GMA500. The problem with this is that IBM doesn’t have good Linux support. I won’t go into the details here because they don’t really matter but I will say that if you are looking for a netbook running Linux and aren’t looking to tinker (I was) then order one that comes with Linux already as there are plenty of them out there. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty and wanted something to tinker with so I grabbed the deal because it was there and it was good.
Simply put it wasn’t exactly easy to get Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 running exactly right. It wasn’t hard either. The problem is that the information is not all in one place. So I decided that I would aggregate the work for anyone else. I didn’t come up with a single one of the solutions I present below. All I can take credit for is providing the instructions in a single place and a logical order. I hope I don’t miss anyone who deserves credit as there are quite a few. I will attempt to put a name with each piece of the puzzle but I forget anyone let me know and I will gladly add their name where it belongs. Due to the length of this entry I am going make you click to see the rest of it…
The first step is to get you a copy of the lpia Karmic Koala Netbook Remix. You can use the i386 version if you like but it won’t be as responsive. The i386 is usable it’s just got some annoying lag here and there and I am not about all that. Since t9.10 is in beta and the download links will change you will have sort out where to find to the lpia image on your own since any link I here might not be good tomorrow. So get you an image and create a bootable USB key. Those two steps shouldn’t need directions and if they do then the steps below may be a little more involved than your skill set. I am not trying to insult anyone but this is not a beginner’s guide.
Once you install the UNR base and boot up there really aren’t that many steps to getting the graphics to the right resolution. The first step is to run the updates. If you don’t you won’t have any sound and a couple of other things might be wonky. Remember this is still a beta. Next download the kernel packages by lucazades as linked in this post on the Ubuntu Forums. Follow these instrutcions (hat tip to Marko Helenius for his post):
Edit /etc/apt/sources.list using your favorite editor (using sudo of course) and add the following lines:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/albertomilone/poulsbo-graphics/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/albertomilone/poulsbo-graphics/ubuntu jaunty mainAdd the keys for the repos you just added:
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys C6598A30
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 99C0198FUpdate apt and install dkms, fakeroot, libdrm-poulsbo1, poulsbo-driver-2d, poulsbo-driver-3d, and psb-firmware using the following commands:
apt-get update
apt-get install dkms fakeroot libdrm-poulsbo1 poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d psb-firmwareInstall the kernel packages you downloaded earlier:
dpkg -i psb-kernel-*Open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf using sudo and your favorite editor and add the following line to the end of the file:
blacklist i915Update your initramfs:
update-initramfs -uSince Karmic doesn’t come with an xorg.conf you will want to create one now. Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf in your favorite editor (if you don’t know to use sudo by now you are hopeless) and add the following content (DontZap makes troubleshooting easier you can take it out later):
Section "Device"
Identifier "GMA500"
Option "AccelMethod" "UXA"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "IgnoreACPI" "yes"
Driver "psb"
EndSection
Section "Server Flags"
Option "DontZap" "false"
EndSection
Edit /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/20-video-quirk-pm-acer.fdi with your favorite editor and add the following before the last <match> (hat tip to pacoros for this post):
<match key="system.hardware.product" string="AO751h">
<merge key="power_management.quirk.dpms_on" type="bool">true</merge>
<merge key="power_management.quirk.vbemode_restore" type="bool">true</merge>
<merge key="power_management.quirk.vbestate_restore" type="bool">true</merge>
</match>That’s it. It’s not hard but it wasn’t quick or easy to track down all of the posts. My work has simply been putting what worked for me in a single place. Better men than me did the hard work of figuring out what worked. I know I didn’t get everyone but it is what it is. The caveats thus far are as follows:
- Compiz doesn’t work yet. There are some instructions in this thread particularly this post
- Suspend does work but as usual it isn’t quick. Be patient.
- Kernel updates MAY require you to use dpkg to reinstall the kernel packages you installed earlier.
- There, at the time of this writing, won’t be any official support for the psb drivers in Karmic.
I hope someone finds this useful. I’ll try to answer any questions and help where I can but I bet you will find more help in the threads I linked before each section in the instructions.
Comments
CubicleGangsta on 10.10.2009
thank you for this.
i am on the verge of snapping one of these up, but have no intention of running windows (pfft).
In my travels across the tubez I found a lot of “oh, gma500…you can’t do that”. I say “YOU can’t do that, but don’t lump me in with you, asshole!”.
I also ran across the very spread out “can-do’s”. Again, thanks for putting this all in once place. page bookmarked.
You did it your way. Sid would be proud.
Jean on 11.02.2009
Hi, thank you for your help. However I have a problem when I get to dpkg -i psb-kernel-*
It doesn’t work. It says arror proscessing dpkg -i psb-kernel-* no such file or directory.
What can I do?
I have an Acer Apsire One 751h and the latest version of Karmic.
Thank you for your help!
jean
gary on 11.02.2009
Hey Romeo Sid Vicious! I upgraded from Jaunty to Karmic on my 751h last week. The i386 wasn’t horrible — I’m running 2GB. When Karmic finally appeared on my screen, I noticed an increase in lag. I decided to install UNR (a flavor I hadn’t previously tried) — a clean install and began scouring the web for the various updates to get things working smoothly again. I was disappointed to find an overwhelming number of seemingly professional web sites encouraging improper (and ultimately damaging) techniques. I think well-intentioned users copy-and-paste bad information that might work on some netbooks, ignoring the fact that the hardware configurations do vary significantly among them.
And then this morning I found your web site. I’m downloading the lpia iso right now, and I’ll report back how the install went. I’m crossing my fingers. This is certainly the only place that seems to have all of the details for the 751h in one place, so thank you in advance!
Romeo Sid Vicious on 11.02.2009
@Jean
First please accept my apologies for not getting back to you sooner! I have been ill as well as slammed at work and not paying enough attention to the ol’ blog.
It looks like, from what you posted, that you aren’t in the directory where you downloaded those files to. I should have been a little more clear. Change to that dir then run the command.
Again I am sooo sorry I didn’t respond sooner!