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Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G
Introduction
This is a compatibility guide to running Linux with the Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G laptop. If you have the Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G and are running Linux on it please consider editing this page or adding a comment below with your compatibility details. By contributing you will help other people running this laptop or trying to make a decision on whether to buy it or not.
This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G page on LapWik.
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Specifications
For full specifications see the Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G specifications page.
| Name | Acer Aspire Ethos 8951G |
| Processor | Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Processor 2.2GHz with Turbo Boost technology up to 3.1GHz |
| Screen | 18.4” 1920×1080 Widescreen |
| RAM | Up to 16GB |
| HDD | up to 500GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW Blu-ray |
| Graphics | NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Ethernet IEEE 802.11 a/g/n |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Works | and speed 'on demand' as well |
| Screen | Works | |
| HDD | Works | up to 2x 1To |
| Optical Drive | Works | |
| Graphics Chip | Works | |
| VGA Out | Works | Tested ok with differents screens 1024×768 up to 1920×1200 |
| HDMI Out | Works | |
| Sound | Works | |
| Bulti-in Microphone | Works | |
| Headphone Jack | Works | |
| Ethernet | Works | |
| Wireless | Works | |
| Bluetooth | Works | |
| Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Works | |
| ESATA | Not Tested | |
| Firewire | Not Tested | |
| Card Reader | Semi Works | |
| Fingerprint Reader | Not Working | |
| Webcam | Works | Resolution is very good |
| Touch Pad | Works | but softkeys(video, audio) aren't recognised properly, volume works |
| Suspend/Resume | Works |
Notes
The main problem is the double graphic capability (Intel on the main board, + GeForce GT555M-1Go board) which is not
handeld correctly with the standard pilot. Apparently ubuntu always uses the intel chipset and we loose the good performance of the GT555M.
I've tried to stop the nvidia chipset (to reduce the current drain) no success.
Even nvidia pilot doesn't handle the card correctly (and you need to reboot repair your config to get the x output)
Nvidia released recently 2012-08 (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-304.30) and haven't tried it yet. If you had any success, let us know.
Author(s)
Apicus
Ubuntu 12.04_x86_64 (after 11.04, 11.10, Mint 12)
Summary
Overall, this laptop is usable on Linux. I am currently running Ubuntu 12.04. However their are a few things that I wish worked better, such as the fingerprint reader which doesn't work at all.
Discussion
brightness adjustment fix
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
Edit two lines to read as follows:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor”
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=“acpi_osi=Linux”
sudo update-grub
reboot
ok work brightness control :)
This doesn't seem to be working for me. :/
problem with nvidia original driver
http://www.nvidia.it/object/unix-it.html
with bumblebee 3
http://bumblebee-project.org/
ok GeForce GT555M
example: optirun openshot (ok, good)
nvidia-current 304.64
hibernate acpi - not working!
only suspend in ram (ok resume from suspend)
problem with brightness adjustment
brightness controls not working!
Webcam OK
Wireless OK (proprietary driver)
Bluetooth OK
Fingerprint Reader NO
test on:
Open Suse 12.2
Ubuntu 12.04
Ubuntu 12.10
Linux Mint 13
Linux Mint 14
Debian 6.06
Kubuntu 12.04
Ubuntu Studio 12.04
this is most likely not the right forum to be asking for tech help but i have an acer laptop that has dolby surround sound on it and the volume control on the phys keyboard is heat sensitive. laptop heats up volume fluxes all of the time from highest to lowest making it impossible to listen to music or watch a 30 second youtube video. any idea if there is a plugin for this feature in some sort of settings that i can disable? or anything else that will work?
Another option to play with the graphic cards is to use the bumblebee package. In that case you can even run specific X software trhough the Nvidia card. Unfortunately I could not check because the nvidia-current package is needed, and it still isn't ready for quantal in ubuntu-x-swat.
But at least my computer starts with the Nvidia card in OFF status
It seems I could turn off the NVIDIA card:
root@caos:/sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo# more switch
0:DIS: :Pwr:0000:01:00.0
1:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
root@caos:/sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo# echo OFF > switch
root@caos:/sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo# more switch
0:DIS: :Off:0000:01:00.0
1:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
What about brightness control?
I am not able to change brightness from maximum
Well, that was an easy one, change in /etc/default/grub
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor pciehp.pciehp_force=1”
Las option is supposed to activate the SD reader… I did not check
Of course, one last thing…
update-grub
:)
Everything basically works except:
Fingerprint reader
Card reader semi works
Graphics works, but not greatly
I haven't tested:
Firewire
ESATA
Modem
I wish the graphics card worked better in linux. Under system settings, Ubuntu does not know what type card I have.