Acer TimelineX
Hardware is a 4820TG/5820TG, but should be similar for all these laptops.
| Hardware | PCI/USB ID | Working? |
|---|---|---|
| GPU (Intel) | Yes | |
| GPU (ATi) | Yes | |
| Bluetooth | Yes | |
| Ethernet | Yes | |
| Wireless | Yes | |
| Audio | Yes | |
| Webcam | Yes | |
| Card Reader | Yes |
ACPI
ACPI works with BIOS v1.18 and higher.
BIOS v1.19 for 4820tg[dead link 2022-09-17 ⓘ]
BIOS v1.19 for 3820tg[dead link 2022-09-17 ⓘ]
If you do not have Windows installed, you can flash with a FreeDOS thumb drive.
Bluetooth
On some machines, Bluetooth cannot turn on because of Fn+F3 switching only WLAN. Fixed DSDT table seems to solve the problem.
On the 3820TG, Bluetooth might not work even if Fn+F3 is used to turn it on. (Symptoms include "usb disconnect" messages in dmesg, and the adapter not showing up in hcitool dev.)
In this case, copying /lib/firmware/ath3k-2.fw to /lib/firmware/ath3k-1.fw helps, see this mailing list thread. If it does not work for you, please change this note!
For some models of 4820TG, Bluetooth can be turned on with acer_wmi driver. To check that the driver is installed:
lsmod | grep acer_wmi
To check bluetooth state (1 is on, 0 is off):
cat /sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi/rfkill/rfkill2/{name,state}
acer-bluetooth 0
To turn on bluetooth:
echo -n 1 > /sys/devices/platform/acer-wmi/rfkill/rfkill2/state
Wireless (TimelineX 5820)
Wi-Fi driver needs to be installed. Open source brcm80211 driver causes kernel panics; the proprietary broadcom-wl driver works fine.
Wireless (TimelineX 4820TG)
Wi-Fi driver does not work by default. You need to install broadcom-wl and . See Broadcom wireless for details.
Display brightness control
Sometimes brightness control for integrated card does not work (at least with the 2.6.36.2-1 kernel). You may add to the kernel line in the GRUB config to fix this.