Linux on Acer TravelMate 353TEV

last update: 2014-07-22

distribution: debian sarge/sid
kernel: 2.6.0-test2

installation

the dual install created a partition couldn't be handled by "fips"
using the recovery CD solves problem of repartioning the hard drive

video system

well supported in XFree86 4.1.0 with acceleration enabled by default
"CyberStretch" option doesn't work
console switching doesn't work under X except for switching to console 3
2001-11-08: the console switching does work for other virtual consoles you just need to hit the key twice...

audio system

work well with "trident" sound module

touchpad

hacked gpm-1.19.3 allows using the "up" button as the middle button to do paste (see 2001-08-25,27)
added drag lock option, it's almost fully functional except for the area and pressure of the finger contact reading haven't been utilized
2001-09-02: add a page for the patch
2001-09-11: updated the patch to gpm-1.19.4
2001-09-27: the synaptics patch has been included in gpm-1.19.5
2003-07-13: upgrade to kernel 2.5.75, with driver from http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/, it works great in XFree86 4.x .

ethernet

work with "eepro100" ethernet module

modem

found no support

power management

battery status readable through "apm" module
cannot wake up after going to sleep mode
2001-11-08: system sometimes stuck when CPU is idle, to prevent it, need to disable the idle calls when compiling the kernel
2002-01-21: totally disable APM, use ACPI instead, however, no sleep support for ACPI yet...

hotplug devices

floppy works when you plug it in after booting but DVD/CDROM doesn't

other things

I found some times system will freeze when running "hwclock". This could be a BIOS bug and possibly relates to the APM freezes.

upgrade to kernel 2.5.75, synaptics support now working through the /dev/input/event1 interface with driver from here. The InputDevice section in my /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 is as follows:

	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"synaptics"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/input/event1"
	Option		"Protocol"		"event"
	Option		"SHMConfig"		"true"
	Option		"UpDownScrolling"	"false"
	Option		"AccelFactor"		"0.001"

The relevent section in the modprobe.conf is as follows:

	alias /dev/input/event1 evdev
	install evdev \
		modprobe psmouse && \
		modprobe --ignore-install evdev
	remove evdev \
		modprobe -r --ignore-remove mousedev && \
		modprobe -r psmouse

upgrade to kernel 2.5.64, ACPI now detects battery and power supply events. also, the LCD back light can now be turned off by the Fn-F6 key.

disable APM, replace it with ACPI, this seems to slove the problem of freezing with rtc access.

got a PS2 optical mouse made by INTOPIC cost less than $20. runs with "-t ps2" for gpm. however, the mouse behaves erotically when warm reboot back to Linux from Windows. Can be cured by replug the mouse then restart gpm.

upgrade to ext3 journaling filesystem. this saves a lot of time to reboot when system crashes.

upgrade kernel to 2.4.10

memory upgrade to 384MB with the addition of one SAMSUNG 256MB PC133 soDIMM memory stick from Axion Tech which cost $38.95 USD

hotplug CDROM is still no luck in 2.4.9 kernel. couldn't get the ide-probe-mod.o to rescan the bus1 after ide-mod.o is loaded. it's not an option to unload ide-mod.o when the system is up...

updated synaptics patch to support drag lock and forth button.

found some discussions in the kernel mailing list archive. it might be possible to get the hotplug CDROM working by compiling ide as a module.

hacked gpm to add wmode support to the synps2 protocol. there is very nice documentation about the Synaptics touchpad at www.synaptics.com .
the patch can be found at http://ccdw.org/~cjj/files/patch/ . you need gpm-1.19.3 which can be download from ftp://arcana.linux.it/pub/gpm/ . After compiling and installing, you need to setup gpm to run at repeater mode which is done by adding these two lines

        type=synps2
        append="-3 -R"

to /etc/gpm.conf and change the mouse section of "XF86Config" to use the gpm pipe:

        Option "Device" "/dev/gpmdata"
        Option "Protocol"  "MouseSystems"

Every thing should work as before at this moment except you might notice that you can "toss" and "catch" the pointer. (Which I found a bit annoying.) This is a feature of the original synaptics driver in gpm. You can disable it and enable the "wmode" of the Synaptics touchpad by creating the file /etc/gpm-syn.conf with the content:

        [tossing_enabled] 0
        [use_wmode] 1

and restart gpm. (In some occasions, the X server might crash when you restart the gpm. But, I can hardly reproduce it.) Now you should be able to use the "up" button as the middle button in X or in a text console. The touchpad actually can do much more, in addtion to the four buttons, it can report the pressure, the area and absolute position of the contact on the pad.

trying to get a third button so i can paste in X. however, found tpconfig but doesn't solve the problem.

my friend told me it's possible to use a key, like "windows" or "start" to emulate the third button. found out this has to do with mousekey in the XFree86. however, it's activation means the whole key pad is like a mouse. i don't have a keypad and i guess it would be painful to disable all the other keys.

found a bug in dhclient, reported to debian, see Bug#109805

fixing it, now the eth0 automatically comes up when the ethernet cable is pluggin... also shorten the lease time for dhclient so the network can be reconfigured when notebook is moved from place to place.

setup dhcpd server in my home network so i don't need to choose different configuration in the booting process

start air with dhclient, shorten the timeout of dhclient so the booting won't be delayed much when the network isn't available during boot time... however, the network won't go back up when right after the network is available again...

repartition hard drive using the recovery disk

install debian woody using network installation named my new notebook "air".

everything goes as what's said in the reports at linux-laptop.net except the CyberBlade video chipset is now well supported by XFree86 4.1.0... well not exactly, the "CyberStretch" option doesn't produce useful screen when going to smaller viewport. Also the switching to text consoles doesn't work as mentioned in the previous reports except for console 3. I wonder why didn't it get reported or it only works for 353. this is very helpful only it's also quite easy to hit the wrong combination and put the notebook into sleep mode which, as reported, is not wakable in linux.

received my notebook, setup Windows Me, timezone set to UTC

order placed with outpost.com for $1599.95 USD

Acer TravelMate 353TEV specification can be found from Acer support page.

Links from http://www.linux-laptop.net/ :

• http://www-kzsu.stanford.edu/~romain/TM/TM350te.html
• http://opac.siba.uninsubria.it/~valsasna/
• http://www.piak.de/linux/laptop/

Interfacing guide for the Synaptics touchpad