Asus X71A

This is a guide to running Linux with the Asus X71A laptop.

This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which modules you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required modules have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.

This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Asus X71A. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Asus X71A page on LapWik.

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For full specifications see the Asus X71A specifications page.

You can enter any specific notes with running Linux on the Asus X71A here.

Tested on Debian Lenny, rc.
Linux MyComputer 2.6.26-1-686 #1 SMP Sat Jan 10 18:29:31 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

*Audio was not working out of the box.*

I used module-assistant to compile ALSA. Then, I had to put this magick line

options snd-hda-intel model=6stack-dig

as the first line of /etc/modprobe.d/sound

This file looks therefore as follows:

options snd-hda-intel model=6stack-dig
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel

*Wireless was not working out of the box*

The driver for the wireless adapter is ath9k.

As lenny is using version 2.6.26-1 of the linux kernel, ath9k is not included in the kernel. However, the right module can be downloaded from the following address http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download#Wheretodownload]. You should follow the instructions on this web page in order to build and install ath9k. Then, simply add “ath9k” without the quotes at the end of the file /etc/modules

*I did not manage to get WEP or WPA working.*

Moreover, there seems to be a bug in the driver. Due to this bug, the network connection is sometimes lost. You can notice this by typing ”/sbin/iwconfig” in a shell. If the Access Point is lost, you should reactivate the wireless connection. For example, type

su -c 'iwconfig wlan0 essid YOUR_particular_network_SSID'

This bug is under review and will probably disappear in a near future.
See http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12373

You can enter a summary of how well the Asus X71A works with Linux here.