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Acer Aspire 5560
Introduction
A mid-range laptop with dedicated graphics capable of playing modern 3D games.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Acer Aspire 5560. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Acer Aspire 5560 page on LapWik.
Specifications
For full specifications see the Acer Aspire 5560 specifications page.
| Name | Acer Aspire 5560 |
| Processor | AMD A-Series quad-core processor A8-3500M (4 MB L2 cache, 1.50 GHz with Turbo CORE Technology up to 2.40 GHz, DDR3 1333 MHz, 35 W) AMD A-Series quad-core processor A6-3400M (4 MB L2 cache, 1.40 GHz with Turbo CORE Technology up to 2.30 GHz, DDR3 1333 MHz, 35 W) AMD A-Series dual-core processor A4-3300M (2 MB L2 cache, 1.90 GHz with Turbo CORE Technology up to 2.50 GHz, DDR3 1333 MHz, 35 W) AMD E-Series dual-core processor E2-3000M (1 MB L2 cache, 1.80 GHz with Turbo CORE Technology up to 2.40 GHz, DDR3 1333 MHz, 35 W) |
| Screen | 15.6” (1366×768) Widescreen |
| RAM | Up to 8GB |
| HDD | up to 750GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW Blu-ray |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon HD 6620G AMD Radeon HD 6520G AMD Radeon HD 6480G AMD Radeon HD 6380G AMD Radeon HD 7670M |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Ethernet Acer InviLink™ Nplify™ 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ Acer InviLink™ 802.11b/g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Works | |
| Screen | Works | |
| HDD | Works | 5400 RPM on some models |
| Optical Drive | Works | |
| Graphics | Works | Tested with open-source driver |
| Sound | Works | |
| Ethernet | Works | |
| Wireless | Works | Broadcom driver will need to be manually added |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | Not available on all models? |
| USB | Works | |
| Card Reader | Not Tested | |
| Webcam | Not Tested |
Notes
You can enter any specific notes with running Linux on the Acer Aspire 5560 here.
Summary
You can enter a summary of how well the Acer Aspire 5560 works with Linux here.
Discussion
Everything one this laptop worked out of the box for me (though I have yet to try the camera). Installed Ubuntu with no problems (had to add broadcom wireless drivers manually). My model is the:
Acer Asprire 5560-7809
The main difference with this model is an updated graphic card the AMD Radeon HD 7670M. Good laptop for price. I have written about it here.
joe, Thursday 29 of December, 2011 [00:12:32]
So far my wife's new laptop is working OK, we have not tried the the dvd or played any grahpic instensive games We are using Kubuntu 11.10 Ocelot (Amd64)
Acer Aspire 5560-SB613
Processor: AMD A-Series quad-core processor A8-3500M (4 MB L2 cache, 1.50 GHz with Turbo CORE Technology up to 2.40 GHz, DDR3 1333 MHz, 35 W)
AMD Radeon HD 6620G
Screen: 15.6 (1366×768) Widescreen
4 GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB HDD
Acer InviLink™ Nplify™ 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™
DVD+-RW
This was not a dual boot installation, we are not interested in dual boot, Ubuntu 11.10 later adding Kubuntu. I originally manually set up partitions but could not get it to boot without a Grub boot disk. Later I used the Ubuntu live cd and selected “use entire drive” which created a small 20mb fat32 partition mounted as /boot/efi (hda1), and the system booted OK. I then used Gparted to shrink the drive and add seperate partitions for /home and swap. The program called boot-repair may fix any problems you have with booting.
I needed to use the proprietary Broadcom driver contained on the Ubuntu live cd as well as the proprietary video drivers,using Jockey to install them.
There was a problem with booting to a blank screen that required adding “nomodeset” option.I learned about that fix here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11527811
I changed Grub (/etc/default/grub)
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“splash radeon.nomodeset=1”
sudo update-grub
Bottom line, not the easiest installation I ever did but it is working good now and I am glad we made the purchase, it was less than half the cost of my wife's Dell 1420N (Ubuntu pre-installed)