I reinstalled my Kubuntu-System and decided to write an installation-guide for installing Ubuntu/Kubuntu on an Acer Aspire 2012.
Last Update: 16/10/2005
Please note: Some of the things described here are only for Kubuntu, whereas most things should work with Ubuntu too.
Hardware
A few details about the hardware inside the Acer Aspire 2012:
root@paperjam:~# lspci0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Host Bridge (rev 02) 0000:00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 855GM/GME GMCH Memory I/O Control Registers (rev 02) 0000:00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 855GM/GME GMCH Configuration Process Registers (rev 02) 0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 855GME GMCH Host-to-AGP Bridge (Virtual PCI-to-PCI) (rev 02) 0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI Controller (rev 03) 0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 83) 0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 03) 0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4) Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 03) 0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03) 0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03) 0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03) 0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 [Mobility Radeon 9600 M10] 0000:02:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) 0000:02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02) 0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05) 0000:02:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
Basic Installation
The basic installation-procedure is very simple. I will comment the
necessary steps, but if you are new to Linux, I suggest reading https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Installation/I386.
- Download the CD-Image (kubuntu-5.10-install-i386.iso) from here: http://www.kubuntu.org/download.php and
burn it to a CD. - Reboot your Notebook with the CD in the drive.
- Start the installation with linux vga=792 (which avoids display problems)
- Choose your language.
- Choose your location.
- Choose a keyboard layout.
- Select the Broadcom-device (eth0) as your primary network interface. If the autoconfiguration fails, select “try again“. (You can of course configure your network manually if you need to.)
- Enter an hostname.
- Partition your disks.
- Wait
- Configure your time zone settings.
- Set up a default user.
- Install GRUB (the boot-loader): Unless you know what you are doing, just enter “/dev/hda” if you are asked where to install GRUB.
- Remove the CD when asked and press <continue>
- Now reboot and wait again until the second stage finishes.
Your system should now be up and running.
Locales
Unless you absolutely need UTF-8 support, I suggest you change your locale to something more usefull. This will also avoid problems when you share files with Windows-Systems.
dpkg-reconfigure locales
I selected en_GB ISO-8859-1 as my default locale, which is fine for most western-european countries.
Apt-sources
Replace the content of your /etc/apt/sources.list by the following lines:
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy main restricteddeb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy main restricted
## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the ## distribution. deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy-updates main restricted deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy-updates main restricted ## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'universe' ## repository. ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu ## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to ## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in ## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security ## team. deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy universe deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy universe deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy-security main restricted deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy-security main restricted deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy-security universe deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy-security universe deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ breezy multiverse deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy multiverse
Afterwards, do:
apt-get updateapt-get upgrade
Multimedia
Goto https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RestrictedFormats for more information.
These are the commands that I used:
sudo apt-get install totem-xine gstreamer0.8-plugins gstreamer0.8-plugins-multiversesudo apt-get install msttcorefonts sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree gsfonts-x11 sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libesd.so.0 /usr/lib/libesd.so.1
Kernel-Headers
Install kernel-headers as well as a few tools that you need to compile applications:
sudo suapt-get update apt-get upgrade apt-get install build-essential apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` apt-get install gcc-3.4 exit
Wireless
The version 1.0.6 of the IPW2200 wireless-drivers is installed by default with Ubuntu. I had many problems with the overall stability of the wireless connection. Thus, I decided to downgrade to 1.0.0, which worked fine for me.
Create a new directory (e.g. ipw2200) and download these files into that directory:
ipw2200-1.0.0.tgz from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ipw2200/ipw2200-1.0.0.tgz?download
ipw2200-fw-2.2.tgz from http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php?fid=4
ipw2200-1.0.6.tgz from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ipw2200/ipw2200-1.0.6.tgz?download
ieee80211-1.0.3.tgz from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/ieee80211/ieee80211-1.0.3.tgz?download
Now, uncompress the files, patch version 1.0.0 so that it can compile for kernel 2.6.12 and compile it:
tar -xzvf ipw2200-1.0.0.tgz tar -xzvf ipw2200-1.0.6.tgztar -xzvf ieee80211-1.0.3.tgz cd ipw2200-1.0.0 wget http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/patches/ieee80211-2.6.12.patch patch <ieee80211-2.6.12.patch make
Become root, unload the modules and remove them (with the scripts delivered with the newer version of the driver). Then, install version 1.0.0 of the driver:
sudo su rmmod ipw2200 rmmod ieee80211 rmmod ieee80211_crypt sh ../ipw2200-1.0.6/remove-old (Answer 'y' twice) sh ../ieee80211-1.0.3/remove-old (Answer 'y') make install
Remove the new firmware and copy the correct version for 1.0.0:
cd .. rm /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/ipw* tar -xzvf ipw2200-fw-2.2.tgz mv ipw-2.2-* /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/
The modules can now be loaded and you can quit the root-console:
modprobe ipw2200 modprobe ieee80211 modprobe ieee80211_crypt exit
Frequency scaling
By default, Ubuntu uses powernowd to dynamically change the frequency of the processor. I prefer using the cpufreq kernel-modules. You can follow these steps if you prefer this too.
Kill powernowd and remove it:
sudo su killall powernowd apt-get remove powernowd
Load the necessary kernel-modules and create a script that automatically sets the frequency-scaling to “ondemand”:
modprobe freq_table speedstep-centrino cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_powersave echo echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor > /etc/init.d/freq-scaling.sh sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/freq-scaling.sh ln -s /etc/init.d/freq-scaling.sh /etc/rc2.d/S30freq-scaling
Run the script:
/etc/init.d/freq-scaling.sh
Edit /etc/modules:
nano /etc/modules
and add the following lines:
freq_table speedstep-centrino cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_powersave
Exit the root console:
exit
Hotkeys
Load the acerhk module and add it to /etc/modules so that is loaded on the next system startup:
sudo sumodprobe acerhk nano /etc/modules (-> Add acerhk)
Install the hotkeys-application:
apt-get install hotkeys
Download these two files from my website:
Copy them to the correct locations:
cp aceraspire2012.def /usr/share/hotkeys/ cp hotkeys.conf /etc/
Create a file called ‘email’ with the following content:
echo 0 > /proc/driver/acerhk/led kmail
copy it to the /bin - directory, make it executable and exit the root console:
cp email /bin/ chmod +x /bin/email exit
Make hotkeys run automatically when you log into KDE:
echo hotkeys > ~/.kde/Autostart/hotkeys.sh chmod +x ~/.kde/Autostart/hotkeys.sh
Now, open kmail, goto “Settings” -> “Configure Notifications”. Click on “more options” and put the following into the “enter a command”-box:
echo 1 > /proc/driver/acerhk/led
Log out of KDE and log back in.
Beside the “usual” hotkeys (Volume up/down, Mute,…) the Email-LED will now be turned on when you receive an email. Pushing the “Email”-Button will turn the LED off and will bring kmail to the foreground.
ATI-Driver
To install the official ATI-driver (with 3D-acceleration), you simply have to do this:
apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx fglrx-control linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`
Then, open /etc/X11/xorg.conf in an editor:
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Now, look for Driver “ati” and replace it with Driver “fglrx”.
Push CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to restart X.org.
Hibernation
Hibernate works mostly out of the box. Here are a few tips to avoid problems:
1. If you use the ATI-driver, your notebook will hang on resume, unless you edit /etc/acpi/prepare.sh:
sudo nano /etc/acpi/prepare.sh
Look for “# And then try to save some video state” and uncomment the lines below:
if [ x$SAVE_VBE_STATE = "xtrue" ]; then VBESTATE=`tempfile` vbetool vbestate save >$VBESTATE;fi
2. If you use the acerhk-module (for the hotkeys to work), edit /etc/default/acpi-support:
sudo nano /etc/default/acpi-support
Look for the following lines and add “acerhk” to the list:
# Add modules to this list to have them removed before suspend and reloaded # on resume. An example would be MODULES="em8300 yenta_socket" # Note that network cards and USB controllers will automatically be unloaded # unless they're listed in MODULES_WHITELIST MODULES="acerhk"
MIDI
Install kmid (Midi player for KDE), timidity (Software sound renderer)
as well as freepats (Free patch set for MIDI audio synthesis):
sudo apt-get install kmid timidity freepats
Load the necessary modules and add them to /etc/modules:
sudo modprobe snd-seq-device snd-seq-midi snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event snd-seqsudo nano /etc/modules (-> Add snd-seq-device snd-seq-midi snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event and snd-seq)
Edit /etc/default/timidity:
sudo nano /etc/default/timidity
Replace #TIM_ALSASEQ=true with “TIM_ALSASEQ=true
Replace TIM_ALSASEQPARAMS=”-B2,8 -Os” with TIM_ALSASEQPARAMS=”-iA -B2,8 -Os1l -s 44100″
Edit nano /etc/init.d/timidity
sudo nano /etc/init.d/timidity
Replace TIM_ALSASEQPARAMS=”-B2,8″
with TIM_ALSASEQPARAMS=”-iA -B2,8 -Os1l -s 44100″
Kill the soundserver and start the MIDI-server:
killall artsd /etc/init.d/timidity start
Now, open kmid, goto “Settings”->”Midi Setup” and select
“TiMidity port 0″. Try to play a Midi-File with kmid.
Infrared
apt-get install irda-utils
Then, do:
/etc/init.d/irda-setup start /etc/init.d/irda-utils start
You can test if it works by doing:
sudo irdadump
If it doesn’t display anything, do a reboot and try again. It should
work.
If you want to connect a mobile phone, the easiest way to do so is
installing the obexftp:
sudo apt-get install obexftp openobex-apps
Additionaly, you can install a GUI called obextool:
wget http://www.stud.uni-karlsruhe.de/~ubq7/debian/pool/main/obextool/obextool_0.33-1_i386.deb wget http://www.stud.uni-karlsruhe.de/~ubq7/debian/pool/main/tablelist/tablelist_4.0-1_i386.deb apt-get install bwidget sudo dpkg -i tablelist_4.0-1_i386.deb sudo dpkg -i obextool_0.33-1_i386.deb
Wine
Installing Wine is easy:
sudo apt-get install wine
The best way to configure Wine is by using the “Sidenet Wine Configuration Utility” that you can find here: http://sidenet.ddo.jp/winetips/config.html. At the time of writing, version 1.8.6 was the current version.
tar -xzvf wine-config-sidenet-1.8.6.tgz
The rest is easy, I’ll just paste the content of the readme-file:
================================================== Usage: (Manual Installation) ================================================== 1. Download any of following optional packages that you want to install with this script. Then, place them in the wine-config-sidenet directory. NOTE : These are NOT REQUIRED by Internet Explorer. You can safely ignore these packages.DCOM98 (dcom98.exe) http://www.microsoft.com/com/dcom/dcom98/download.asp Windows Installer (InstMsiA.exe) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=32831 MFC 4.0 runtime (mfc40.dll) http://www.softlookup.com/download.asp?ID=10315&RID=8512225&DID=H54J58YU (You have to unzip the archive.) (NOTE: These URIs point english version. Please find localised one manually if you need.) ================================================== 2. Enter the wine-config-sidenet directory and do./setup then answer some questions. Select Manual Installation option. ================================================== 3. Let's install your favourite applications. ==================================================
