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.

Page Contents Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes General Graphics Wireless Webcam Summary

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the Asus F5RL laptop.

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Specifications

Name	Asus F5RL
Processor	Intel Core Duo T2330 1.6GHz
Screen	15.4" WXGA Widescreen
RAM	1GB
HDD	160GB
Optical Drive	DVD+-RW
Graphics	ATI Mobility Radeon X1100
Network	10/100 Ethernet, Atheros AR5006EG 802.11bg

Linux Compatibility

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

Notes

General

You will need kernel version 2.6.22 or greater for proper hardware support from this laptop.

Graphics

Most recent Linux distributions support the ATI Mobility Radeon X1100 "out of the box" in 2D mode. For 3D support you will need to use the proprietary fglrx driver. See the guides here for installation details.

Wireless

Work is being done in the madwifi project to get wireless working with this laptop. However at the moment wireless doesn't work properly yet except with the ndiswrapper driver. The guides here will help in the installation with this. You can download the required Windows drivers here (get version 6 of the drivers).

Webcam

You will need to install the experimental Syntek drivers for support. I don't think any Linux distributions includes this so it will need to be installed manually.

Summary

The wireless controller is the main obstacle in the successful running of Linux on the Asus F5RL.


Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.