Asus A6T
Created by: Bill Giannikos,Last modification on Mon 13 of Aug, 2007 [07:11 UTC]by Bill Giannikos
This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which drivers you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required drivers have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.
Authors
Bill Giannikos (bill2 at giannikos.com.au)Introduction
This is a guide to running Linux with the Asus A6T laptop. The laptop was tested with Fedora Core 5.Editing This Page
View our Editing GuidelinesSpecifications
| Processor | AMD Turion TL52 | |
| Screen | 15.4" | |
| RAM | 1GB | |
| HDD | 100GB | |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW | |
| Graphics | nVidia Geforce Go7600 | |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Ethernet + Broadcom 802.11g Wireless + Bluetooth | |
| Other | 4 x USB2.0, Firewire | |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
| Processor | Yes | Usb smp kernel for dual core |
| Screen | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Partial | |
| Sound | Yes | Use snd-hda-intel driver |
| Ethernet | No | |
| Wireless | No | |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Firewire | Not Tested | |
| PCMCIA | Not Tested | |
Notes
The open source nv driver does not currently support the nVidia Geforce Go7600 so you will need to install the proprietary drivers from nVidia. This was not tested, but people are reporting crashed and lockups with the 3D portion of the graphics card.The wired network port does not work. There are reports that it will work with the non-smp kernel but this was not tested.
While the drivers for the wireless card load (the bcm43xx driver) it does not seem to detect the wireless controller properly. The ndiswrapper drivers were not tested.
Thanks to swisswuff for adding this:
I am currently working on setting this machine up for Suse Linux 10.1. So far, I got the network card running, and the 3D graphics, as well as xgl/compiz, the new animated 3D desktop theme. Once I got it all together, I am going to post what it all entailed, but right now it's still too early.
Thanks to karmusaus for adding this:
Ubuntu 6.06 32bit
Ethernet works "out of the box". Module r1000 (i think).
Graphics crash on 3D applications (ie glxgears) with synaptic installed nvidia drivers.
Wireless LED is on; Wireless network didn't work, bluetooth not tested.
Related Resources
Preparing your laptop for LinuxConfiguring a nVidia graphics chip
Configuring the ndiswrapper driver for wireless controllers without native Linux drivers
Increasing battery life
Summary
One of very few laptops with an AMD processor in it, but unfortunately it does not work well with Linux.Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.
Comments
(k)ubuntu 8.04 64bit
Ubuntu 7.10 32Bit
Crashes happen from time to time (less when no traffic, frequently with traffic). Consider not buying this Notebook, as this bug disallows normal usage of the notebook.
The mentioned problem is wideley known and it does not seem that there will ever be a fix for this (I'm waiting since 2.6.19 for a fix - now 2.6.23.1 is out - still does not work).
Everything else works surprisingly good. Audio is a little bit strange, but works stable. Webcam does work theoreticaly, but in practice it producec completely wrong colored pictures (using above mentioned syntek-driver).
CPU can become very hot when doing multithreaded high-load-tasks for more than 15 minutes (82°C ), but system then still works - no crashes.
Conclusion:
Really a pitty - very nice Notebook, with most hardware working, but mostly not seriously usable due to crashing of the network-driver.
Ubuntu 7.10 64bit
graphics work fine with nvidia restricted drivers.
wlan works with broadcom restricted drivers - however not very stable.
webcam is said to work with driver from http://syntekdriver.sourceforge.net - have not tested it yet.
Ubuntu 7.04 64bit
Ubuntu 6.06 32bit
Graphics crash on 3D applications (ie glxgears) with synaptic installed nvidia drivers.
Wireless LED is on; Wireless network didn't work, bluetooth not tested.
graphics card; network