Acer TravelMate 5740

Introduction

This is a compatibility guide to running Linux with the Acer TravelMate 5740 laptop.

This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Acer TravelMate 5740. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Acer TravelMate 5740 page on LapWik.

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Specifications

For full specifications see the Acer TravelMate 5740 specifications page.

Name	Acer TravelMate 5740
Processor	Intel Core™ i5-430M/i5-520M processor (3 MB L3 cache, 2.26/2.40 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.53/2.93/3.06 GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz, 35 W), supporting Intel® 64 architecture, Intel® Smart Cache Intel Core™ i3-330M processor (3 MB L3 cache, 2.13 GHz, DDR3 1066 MHz, 35 W), supporting Intel® 64 architecture, Intel® Smart Cache
Screen	15.6” (1366×768) Widescreen
RAM	Up to 8GB
HDD	320GB to 640GB
Optical Drive	DVD+-RW
Graphics	Intel® HD Graphics
Network	10/100/1000 Ethernet Acer InviLink™ Nplify™ 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Works
Screen	Works
HDD	Works
Optical Drive	Works
Graphics	Works
Sound	Works
Ethernet	Works
Wireless	Works
Bluetooth	Not Tested
Modem	Not Tested
USB	Works
Card Reader	Not Tested
Webcam	Works

Notes

Tested with Debian Squeeze

Installation notes for Debian Squeeze

I had to install a basic system from DVD: netinstall didn't work since the installer doesn't know the wired network device. The installation medium was “Debian GNU/Linux testing _Squeeze_ - Official Snapshot amd64 DVD Binary-1 20100809-04:27”. The tested hardware is a ACER Travelmate 5740-333G25MN.

Immediately after the installation, wired networking worked flawlessly so i was in the game. To get wireless networking, i installed the broadcom-sta package and did “module-assistant a-i broadcom-sta”.

Adding acpi_osi=“Linux” to the kernel parameters fixed the brightness control.

For two finger scrolling i had to edit the xorg.conf. My relevant section (everything works as i want it) is:

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Touchpad0”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “SHMConfig” “true”
Option “HorizEdgeScroll” “on”
Option “VertEdgeScroll” “on”
Option “VertTwoFingerScroll” “on”
Option “HorizTwoFingerScroll” “on”
Option “CornerCoasting” “on”
Option “PalmDetect” “on”
Option “CircularScrolling” “on”
Option “CircScrollTrigger” “3”
Option “EmulateTwoFingerMinZ” “10”
Option “EmulateTwoFingerMinW” “10”
EndSection

Everything else worked out of the box, including the webcam, playing openarena and waking up from standby.

Summary

The Acer TravelMate 5740 works very well with Linux. As of now, the hardware is very new and you should therefore use a very new distro. It is also a nice piece of hardware.