How to: Karmic Koala on Acer 1410 / 1810T/ 1810TZ

[nab]

I'm on an 1810tz with ubuntu 10.04 64bit and Skype 2.2.025-1lucid1 and Skype is working fine.

I solved my mic problems with:

I think the main problem was that my internal mono mic is recognised as a stereo mic and the default setting cancel the signal out.

I installed pavucontrol with Synaptic and started it in a terminal.
In output devices I set the front left to 90% and the front right to 10%. (This way the mic doesn't cancel the signal out) You have to play with the buttons to be allowed to change both value independently.

(I'm pretty sure I found this solution somewhere on the net, but at the moment I don't remember where ... )

[bruceliz]

I think the main problem was that my internal mono mic is recognised as a stereo mic and the default setting cancel the signal out.

I installed pavucontrol with Synaptic and started it in a terminal.
In output devices I set the front left to 90% and the front right to 10%. (This way the mic doesn't cancel the signal out) You have to play with the buttons to be allowed to change both value independently.

Yup, that works -- thanks!

One correction, however: you can set the INPUT device Left and Right channels separately after unlocking pavucontrol's linking of the two by clicking on the appropriate button. I set one channel to zero and the other to 80% and the mike seems to work decently enough (even if there's still a fair bit of background noise when using Sound Recorder). But this workaround leaves the OUTPUT settings in stereo balance -- and that's a good thing.

NOTE: if using a version of Skype whose options include a checkbox enabling Skype to take over the volume setting, make sure it's unchecked. Otherwise Skype will immediately screw up the input volume settings you've just taken the trouble to configure in pavucontrol (which, BTW, shows up as 'Pulseaudio Volume Control' in Ubuntu's Applications -> 'Sound & Video' menu).

[Alex S.]

Hi,
Has anybody made any experience with Ubuntu 11.04? Currently I'm running Ubuntu 10.10 and would like to upgrade.
Thanks!
Regards, Alex

[Gotit]

I'm not on 11.04 but I did get word from piie (Fan fix patch author) and he said his patch was merged into kernel 2.6.36. Since 11.04 is shipping with kernel 2.6.38 (last I saw) the fan problem should be gone.

[PatrickVogeli]

it depends on the bios... I have the latest one and I have to compile it. The laptop is working fine, all excepte compiz, which crashes a lot.

[carbon512]

Finally upgraded to Natty. Despite now being on kernel 2.6.38-11-generic, which should include the fan module, the fan is now running high again. So I tried to re-install acerhdf, but get this message:

xxx@xxx:~/Downloads/acerhdf_kmod$ sudo modprobe acerhdf
FATAL: Error inserting acerhdf (/lib/modules/2.6.38-11-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/acerhdf.ko): Invalid argument

so I tried to run the whole powersaving script InstallAcer_11.6_PowerSaving.sh again, but get this after the disclaimer about warranty, etc...

Unrecognised option, aborting...

    patrick.voegeli @ gmail dot com
    PatrickVogeli at ubuntuforums.org and forum.notebookreview.com

What mistake am I making here? Have I forgotten a step (or two) in the install? (very possible since I had locked down my last version of Lucid and not done anything in Ubuntu (except use it) for a long time. Or does the script simply not work for 11.04 since it shouldn't be needed?

thanks.

[Gotit]

Has anyone had trouble compiling the acerhdf module on lucid 64 bit with the latest kernel update (2.6.32-35-generic)? I get this error on make:

gotit@Ubuntu-Netbook:~/ACER Fan Control/acerhdf_kmod$ make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.32-35-generic/build  SUBDIRS=/home/gotit/ACER Fan Control/acerhdf_kmod modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-35-generic'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `Fan'.  Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-35-generic'
make: *** [default] Error 2

I'm booting to kernel 2.6.32-34 until I can get this resolved. Thanks!

[bruceliz]

Has anyone had trouble compiling the acerhdf module on lucid 64 bit with the latest kernel update (2.6.32-35-generic)? I get this error on make:

gotit@Ubuntu-Netbook:~/ACER Fan Control/acerhdf_kmod$ make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.32-35-generic/build  SUBDIRS=/home/gotit/ACER Fan Control/acerhdf_kmod modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-35-generic'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `Fan'.  Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-35-generic'
make: *** [default] Error 2

I'm booting to kernel 2.6.32-34 until I can get this resolved. Thanks!

Looks like 'make' doesn't like spaces in filenames (as in the case of your directory "ACER Fan Control". Remove those spaces!

[Gotit]

@bruceliz
Ah, yes, must remember the basics...
That was it, thanks much.

[PatrickVogeli]

Hi there all,

I just wanted to say that I no longer use or develop that script. I've recently switched to Debian Squeeze and have also started working, so I don't have much free time and I'm not planning to do any further fixing or improvements to the script.

Of course, if somebody wants to continue developing, fixing or improving it, feel free to do so, be it in this thread or starting from zero in a new one. I'll be glad if the existing one can serve as a base to do even a better one.

Patrick