Translation(s): none

InstallingDebianOn/Ratings

DebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owner would know how get the best out of that hardware.

The purpose is not to duplicate the Debian Official Documentation, but to document how to install Debian on some specific hardware.

Models covered
Acer Aspire One 722

Sub-models (Aspire one 722-C5Ckk) options :
- No bluetooth

Overall Status

Core Components

[ATTACH]

Boot Standard Kernel:

{OK}

LAN network card:

{OK}

Detect CD/DVD:

[-]

Detect hard drives:

{OK}

Extra Features

CPU Frequency Scaling

{OK}

Hibernation

[?]

Sleep / Suspend

{OK}

KMS

{OK}

Xorg

{OK}

- OpenGL

{OK}

- Resize-and-Rotate(randr)

[?]

Switch to External Screen

{OK}

Mouse

- Built-in (Trackpoint)

[-]

- Built-in (Touchpad)

{OK}

Modem

[-]

Wireless/Wifi

X-(

Keyboard's Hotkeys

{OK}

Legend :
{OK} = OK ; {X} Unsupported(No Driver) ; /!\ = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
{i} = Configuration Required; X-( = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Important Note

Configuration

Display

lspci lists it as: 

00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 9804

The display adapter is part of AMD Fusion APU as the CPU of this laptop is AMD C-50 and as mentioned elsewhere on the internet it's Radeon 6250 GPU.

Linux KMS only works if http://packages.debian.org/firmware-linux-nonfree is installed, otherwise the screen displays various forms of messy rainbows but the rest of the system still works, try using remote access via SSH, blindly using the keyboard and mouse, or perhaps use accessibility feature available on Debian to help yourself in controlling the laptop. Once the firmware package is installed, KMS and Xorg works with the correct resolution (1366x768).

(28/04/2012) Christophe Dupriez had a different experience: Nothing worked except a rather simple solution at [http://www.debian-fr.org/maj-drivers-ati-gros-soucis-t36564.html] provided by Marco46, 08 Déc 2011 04:10, copied here in english:

  1. Execute as root: 

apt-get install ia32-libs
apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++6 dkms libqtgui4 wget execstack libelfg0 module-assistant

  1. Download Catalyst from ATI Driver Download site (about 100 Mega): [http://support.amd.com/fr/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx]

  2. Execute the downloaded software: 

sh ./ati-driver-installer-11-11-x86.x86_64.run

The installer GUI propose two options: choose the first one "install drivers" and then "automatic"

  1. Reboot
  2. Open a terminal (as a regular user) and execute the program fglrxinfo

You should see: 

display: :0.0  screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series 
OpenGL version string: 4.1.11251 Compatibility Profile Context
  1. Finally, you can also test 3D acceleration by executing fgl_glxgears

HDMI output is not covered yet.

Audio

! (Work Needed) lspci lists it as: 

00:01.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Wrestler HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6250/6310]
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)

After installing the proprietary ATI Catalyst driver, lspci gives a different result: 

00:01.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Device 1314
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)

On the top left of alsamixer : 

Card: HDA ATI SB
Chip: Conexant CX20588

The only available mixer controls for playback are Master and Beep.

In Wheezy(i.e. Debian testing), audio works if you add the following contents to ~/.asoundrc:

Works on Squeeze too. 

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:1,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096
rate 44100
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}

ctl.dmixer {
type hw
card 0
}

Also append the following to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf: 

options snd-hda-intel model=auto

alsamixer can be started to check if those parameters are OK.

HDMI output is not covered yet.

Mouse

Built-in touchpad works without synaptics driver. By installing synaptics driver, additional features are enabled: tap to click and scrolling.

Power Management

Suspend works, most of the time.

Hibernation is not covered yet.

WiFi

lspci lists it as: 

07:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

This WiFi device is working. The proprietary Broadcom STA driver from the manufacturer is unusable since the system is instantly locked-up upon loading the module. Neither b43 nor b43legacy can be used.

The only usable option is Broadcom IEEE802.11n PCIe SoftMAC WLAN driver (module name: brcmsmac) which is still a staging driver in Linux. Connecting associating to an Access Poing with no problem at all. The only problem is most of the time the system will lock-up when disconnecting from the AP (the screen stays still and Magic SysRq doesn't work), haven't tried ad-hoc yet. This can be one hell of annoyance when WiFi is the primary network connection as the system will lock-up when suspending, rebooting, shutting down, and even logging out (if NetworkManager is used).

The module brcm80211 (provided in package firmware-brcm80211) *is* usable in wheezy and Squeeze without causing the crashes if and only if the PXE network boot option is enabled in the BIOS and comes ahead of the hard drive in the boot order.

Just follow detailed instruction in page brcm80211, reboot your computer, F2 to go in BIOS, put Network Boot as first possible source, Save and Exit BIOS configuration.

#N.B. With this solution, Lock-ups still occur if F3 is used to #deactivate/reactivate Wifi or if the system awakes from "StandBy" mode (very #annoying!). This solution will avoid lockups when awaking from suspend if you use the FLOSS video driver RADEON instead of fglrx.

Webcam

It works, just another plain webcam connected via USB. uvcvideo driver can handle this webcam.

Memory card reader

System Summary

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 14h Processor Root Complex [1022:1510]
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:9804]
00:01.1 Audio device [0403]: ATI Technologies Inc Wrestler HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6250/6310] [1002:1314]
00:11.0 SATA controller [0106]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] [1002:4391]
00:12.0 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller [1002:4397]
00:12.2 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller [1002:4396]
00:13.0 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller [1002:4397]
00:13.2 USB Controller [0c03]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller [1002:4396]
00:14.0 SMBus [0c05]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller [1002:4385] (rev 42)
00:14.2 Audio device [0403]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) [1002:4383] (rev 40)
00:14.3 ISA bridge [0601]: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC host controller [1002:439d] (rev 40)
00:14.4 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge [1002:4384] (rev 40)
00:15.0 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0) [1002:43a0]
00:15.2 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:43a2]
00:15.3 PCI bridge [0604]: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:43a3]
00:18.0 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 0 [1022:1700] (rev 43)
00:18.1 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 1 [1022:1701]
00:18.2 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 2 [1022:1702]
00:18.3 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 3 [1022:1703]
00:18.4 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 4 [1022:1704]
00:18.5 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 6 [1022:1718]
00:18.6 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 5 [1022:1716]
00:18.7 Host bridge [0600]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor Function 7 [1022:1719]
06:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet [1969:2062] (rev c1)
07:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller [14e4:4727] (rev 01)

lsusb

lsusb -v | grep -E '\<(Bus|iProduct|bDeviceClass|bDeviceProtocol)' 2>/dev/null 

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 EHCI Host Controller
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 EHCI Host Controller
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 OHCI Host Controller
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
  bDeviceClass            9 Hub
  bDeviceProtocol         0 Full speed (or root) hub
  iProduct                2 OHCI Host Controller
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 064e:d214 Suyin Corp.
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  iProduct                1 WebCam
      (Bus Powered)
  bDeviceClass          239 Miscellaneous Device
  bDeviceProtocol         1 Interface Association
  (Bus Powered)
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0bda:0138 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceProtocol         0
  iProduct                2 USB2.0-CRW
      (Bus Powered)
  bDeviceClass            0 (Defined at Interface level)
  bDeviceProtocol         0
  (Bus Powered)

USB Host controllers entries (without OHCI, UHCI, EHCI) are removed too.

Resources

Attachments

Some configuration files and sample outputs.

Credits

CategoryLaptopComputer