This is a compatibility guide to running Linux with the Asus UL80Vt laptop.
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For full specifications see the Asus UL80Vt specifications page.
| Name | Asus UL80Vt |
| Processor | Intel Core2 Duo Processor SU9400/SU7300 : 1.4 GHz - 1.3 GHz, Intel Celeron Processor SU2300 : 1.2 GHz |
| Screen | 14” HD (1366×768) Color-Shine (Glare-type) |
| Graphics | Hybrid Graphics, Intel 4500MHD and NVIDIA GeForce G 210M |
| RAM | Up to 4GB |
| HDD | 250GB to 500GB - 5400rpm |
| Optical Drive | DVD Super Multi |
| Network | Atheros AR81xx 10/100/1000 MBit Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100 ABGN Intel WiMAX/WiFi Link 5150 |
| Additional Features | ExpressGate 12h Battery live |
| Device | Compatibility | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Works | |
| Screen | Works | |
| HDD | Works | (500 GB Version), approximately 12G occupied by Expressgate partition (includes win7 recovery) |
| Optical Drive | Works | (Read&Write) |
| Graphics | Works partially | works with nv drivers, to enable nvidia proprietary drivers follow steps found here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9216876&postcount=34 |
| Sound | Works | Intel HD audio |
| Ethernet | Does not work | Driver is atl1c (atl1e?) Atheros AR81xx see comments |
| Wireless | Works | |
| Bluetooth | Not Tested | Should work |
| USB | Works | |
| Card Reader | Works | |
| Webcam | Not Tested | Should work with UVC |
| Suspend | Works partially | No suspend to mem, hibernate works |
Tested with Ubuntu Karmic 9.10
Tested with Sabayon Linux 5.1.3 (gentoo based)
Booting Sabayon install was a pain, graphical problems. For beginners, installing might seem impossible.
The ethernet (Atheros Driver: atl1c) supplied in the linux kernel 2.6.30+ works with flaws, LAN (eth0) is detected and dhcp works, but when one attempts to transfer any data (http, rsync tested), it does not transfer anything. Supprisingly ping'ing other hosts works. Additionally, there are no errors at all, so no clues, what is going on.
Using the driver supplied by Atheros (http://partner.atheros.com/Drivers.aspx) and going trough the pain of finding the right kernel version, one gets the same problems. So one can consider ethernet as not working.
The hybrid graphics is not supported in linux kernel prior to 2.6.34, but afaik there is currently only preliminary support present. Because of that, the laptop uses the (energy consuming) nvidia graphics, resulting in a reduced battery life (ca. 5.75 h; idle system, full display brightness) and no hardware accelerated desktop (which should work with the Intel GMA).
The “Fn Keys” are not working at all, I think that they are activated by a special driver or software (which is windows-based of cource). There seems to be no hope to support these on linux, thus you get full screen brightness (that is not bright at all), no Turbo33 (dynamic overclocking the cpu to 1.7GHz), can't switch wlan off, can't disable the touchpad, can't work with external screens, and so on.
Suspend to ram is not even advertised in /sys/power/state, so no STR support.
Suspend to disk (aka hibernate) works with flaws, the system does not power off, but resuming works. This feature was only tested though some extent.
This notebook might be considered as not suited for running Linux on it.
Discussion
My favorite trick for changing screen brightness is to open a terminal and type:
setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=XXwhere XX is a number from 0 to 100. It's not perfect because you have to type it each time, but there are other fixes. This is a post (http://forum.notebookreview.com/5665108-post1246.html) using Ubuntu 9.10, but hopefully the tricks there can translate to Fedora.
Check out http://debianul80vt.blogspot.com/ for running Debian on the UL80VT.
Mandriva 2010.1 One Beta1 loads and works OK “out of the box”. If you try to enable the Nvidia driver, it will fail, however if you enable the Intel proprietary driver it works OK, with that driver you can use the hardware accelerated desktop effects.
i install Nvidia proprietary driver and my GUI is not working how to uninstall this driver i am able to get root shell
The same happens to me with Mandriva 2010.0. I also had the “waiting for devide sdaX” problem, and, once I finally fixed it, it doesn't launch the GUI (black screen). After installing Fedora 12 instead, this second problem was off but all was working very (VERY) slowly. I guess it's either due to the dual GPUs or to something related with the nvidia/nv drivers.
I tryed to install mandriva 2010 on my ASUS UL80VT, but it didn't load. On boot of the OS there is a legend on screen saying “Waiting for sda1 to appear (timeout 1 minute)” then it waits for the other partitions on the disks, but nothing happens.
However Ubuntu installed and booted fine.