Asus S6F
Created by: Bill Giannikos,Last modification on Mon 13 of Aug, 2007 [14:47 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.
Introduction
This is a guide to running Linux with the Asus S6F laptop. This is an extremely small laptop but still packs quite an impressive specification list. Linux support is great as well.Editing This Page
View our Editing GuidelinesSpecifications
| Name | Asus S6F | |
| Processor | Intel Core Duo L2400 1.66GHz | |
| Screen | 11.1" WXGA | |
| RAM | 1GB | |
| HDD | 100GB | |
| Optical Drive | DVD+-RW | |
| Graphics | Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 | |
| Network | 10/100/1000 Ethernet, Intel 3945 802.11g Wireless, Bluetooth | |
| Other | 3 x USB2.0, 1 x Firewire | |
Linux Compatibility
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | |
| Sound | Yes | Use the snd-hda-intel driver |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | Use ipw3945 driver |
| Bluetooth | Yes | |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Firewire | Not Tested | |
| SD Card Reader | Yes | |
| ExpressCard Slot | Not Tested | |
Notes
As default the native screen resolution of this notebook is 1366x768, however due to the way the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 functions this resolution would not be usable right away. To get it working you will need to install the 915resolution program and type in:915resolution 3c 1366 768
This will then allow you to use the native 1366x768 resolution. However this setting will be forgotten after each boot so you will need a way to automatically run this command at every boot. Fortunately most Linux distributions come with the 915resolution program and include a simple way of achieving this. You can view our Configuring the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 & 950 guide for more information.
Related Resources
Preparing your laptop for LinuxConfiguring the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 & 950
Configuring the ipw3945 driver for the Intel 3945ABG wireless controller
Increasing battery life
Summary
There were no problems in getting the Asus S6F working when used with an up to date Linux distribution. It is recommended to use a Linux distribution with kernel version 2.6.16 or greater, such as Fedora Core 5 or Ubuntu 6.06.Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.
Comments
Some quirks and workarounds.
Most things are autodetected by Fedora Core 6.
The ipw3985 drivers needed can be found in the livna repo.
Suspend/hibernate seems to work ok most of the times, however the r8169 driver needs to be removed and inserted again every time.
The internal card reader works great!
This also goes for bluetooth.
I still have some problems with the fan: Some times it will not start even if the cpu temperature approaches 100 degC. When it starts to burn my thigh I have to do a hibernate-resume cycle to start it again, but now it will not turn off so the thing is damn noisy! Still investigating, I haven't found a way to reproduce the problem. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. I really do not know if this has anything to do with Linux at all, I suspect this could be a BIOS bug.
Just my notes...
r.
Re: Some quirks and workarounds.
You can also follow our Configuring the ipw3945 driver for the Intel 3945ABG wireless controller for the wireless controller. We use the ATRPMS packages.
The fan problem does seem to be an ACPI issue. Are you using the latest BIOS version?
Re: Some quirks and workarounds.
I tried to upgrade the bios to v209, but it made no difference. However, upgrading to Fedora 7 does seem to help. I've been running it for a week now with no overheating problems so far.
On F7 suspend to RAM needs the s3 quirks:
pm-suspend --quirk-s3-bios --quirk-s3-mode
I've submitted the necessary changes to the hal list.
I could not get the iwl3945 driver to work properly in F7, so I'm sticking with the ipw3945 driver for the time being.