Andika Triwidada
Experiment to install Debian Lenny on Acer Aspire 4540
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| Name | Acer Aspire 4540 |
| Processor | AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core M300, 2GHz, 1MB L2 cache |
| Screen | 14.0” WXGA 1366×768 |
| RAM | 1 GB, up to 4 GB |
| HDD | 320 GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD RW |
| Graphics | ATI Radeon HD4200 |
| Network | Ethernet Atheros Attansic L1 Gigabit, WiFi Atheros 802.11n, Bluetooth Broadcom |
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | Need proprietary driver from AMD |
| Sound | Yes | |
| Ethernet | Yes | Need kernel 2.6.32 from Debian Sid |
| Wireless | Yes | Need kernel 2.6.32 from Debian Sid |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Card Reader | Not Tested | |
| Camera | Not Tested | |
| Touchpad | Yes |
| Feature | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness Control | Yes | |
| Suspend | Yes | From text mode, need option –quirk-s3-bios, but no quirk from graphics mode with AMD proprietary driver |
| Hibernate | Yes | (idem) |
| Special Keys | Partial | Mostly works |
I suggest you use other distro with most recent kernel version to avoid problem on ethernet/wifi. Tried to use Debian Lenny's fglrx and radeonhd, and Debian Sid's one for VGA driver, with no success. Partial success with Lenny's VESA driver, but can't get maximum resolution. Fortunately AMD's proprietary driver works.
Aaron M.
Using Ubuntu 9.10 & 10.04 on Acer Aspire 4540
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| Name | Acer Aspire 4540 |
| Processor | AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core M300, 2GHz, 1MB L2 cache |
| Screen | 14.0” WXGA 1366×768 |
| RAM | 4 GB |
| HDD | 320 GB |
| Optical Drive | DVD RW Multi Recorder |
| Graphics | ATI Radeon HD4200 |
| Network | Ethernet Atheros Attansic L1 Gigabit, WiFi Atheros 802.11n, |
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Yes | |
| Screen | Yes | |
| HDD | Yes | |
| Optical Drive | Yes | |
| Graphics | Yes | Need proprietary driver from AMD |
| Sound | Yes | Need minor tweaking of alsa-base.conf |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | ath9k driver works perfectly, monitor mode works also |
| Bluetooth | Not Installed | |
| 56K Modem | Not Tested | |
| USB | Yes | |
| Card Reader | Yes | SD & MS-PRO Tested to Work |
| Camera | Yes | guvcview works with it (great quality also) |
| Touchpad | Yes | Lock Touchpad button works also |
| Feature | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness Control | Yes | |
| Suspend | Yes | |
| Hibernate | Yes | |
| Special Keys | Partial | All but AltGr & Euro Symbol |
I installed Ubuntu 9.10 originally and had very few problems except for FGLRX (Install proprietary driver from ATI then enable the driver in System > Administration > Hardware Drivers [Works great with Compiz-Fusion]) and the sound (Codec is ALC888 [See Note At Bottom]) but eventually got both working perfectly the only thing I have yet to get working is the microphone & I think if you tinker with the ALSA settings you'd get it to work.
there are a few other knick-knack things that I had trouble with but cant remember, if you want help feal free to email me at theanonbutinf(at)gmail(dot)com
[Getting ALSA Working]
Tutorial
edit your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and put 'options snd-hda-intel model=acer-aspire-4930g' at the bottom
now hopefully your sound should mute when you plugin headphones, if not put in some headphones then restart with them in and your speakers shouldnt work unless headphones are plugged in. restart and try again. (dunno why this fixes it) Also i havent gotten ALSA to cooperate with VLC & Firefox at the same time yet… so you can only hear one program at a time.
Long story short: this laptop works with some tinkering, but dont expect out of the box & ready to go.
[Update Arch Linux]
Moved to Arch linux with this laptop and everything works out of the box so long as you install the drivers. Only thing i had to do was edit my rate in alsa.conf but that was to support line-in loopback. Arch works with both the proprietary ati driver or the community one. The proprietary one is much faster and clean with compiz whereas the community one supports the hdmi/vga out.
Discussion
i use aspire 4540, i like it