AcerAspire4520

Contact: SteveChurch

Re-edited by: Gaurang Arora

Make: ACER

Brand: ASPIRE

Model: 4520-5458

Website: http://us.acer.com/

Current Issues

(Not for Jaunty) Built-in bluetooth doesn't work, but a cheap bluetooth dongle works flawlessly. Splash screen does not display unless a video mode is specified in the kernel arguments (e.g. include vga=791 in the defoptions line in /boot/grub/menu.lst).

Sometimes machine does not power off on halt unless the user hits "Enter" or the "Power Button" after the splash screen progress bar empties and the hard drive activity light chokes out one final flash.

The 4520 is affected by the HDD cycle count issue as observed frequently in many laptops. (This is an issue afflicting Windows, too, although it's we Linux propeller heads who actually do something about it.) Long story short, frequent head parking on a laptop hard drive can decrease the life of the drive. However, infrequent head parking causes the drive to run hot, as well as making the drive less guarded against bumps. My solution to this is a crontabbed bash script. The script can be found here.

System Info

system-manufacturer: ACER

system-product-name: ASPIRE 4520

Hardware details

Screen & Monitors

Device

Works?

Bug #

in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy)

in Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty)

Screen

Pretty

Pretty

Correct resolution?

YES

YES

Correct refresh rate?

YES

YES

3D Acceleration

YES (with restricted driver installed)

YES (same)

External monitor works?

Untested

Yes

External monitor - mirrors

Untested

Yes

External monitor - extend desktop

Untested

Yes

S-Video output

Untested

Untested

Console Mode 791

YES

YES

Power Management

Battery detected?

YES

YES

Hibernates?

Untested

Yes (Special Notes Below)

Suspend

YES

Not all the time (Special Notes Below)

Dim monitor on battery

YES

YES

Blank monitor on inactivity

YES

YES

Lid Close

YES

YES

Cpu frequency scaling

YES

YES

Sound

Sound works?

YES

YES

Correct volume?

OK (open volume control and increase PCM volume to max)

YES

Hardware volume switch

YES

YES (see HOWTO for Xubuntu)

Headphone jack

YES

Yes

Mic jack

Untested

Yes

Integrated Mic

NO

YES

Networking

Wired NIC

YES

YES

Wireless NIC

Yes, with a patched madwifi

YES!!! Finally! (No LED indicator. But using ndiswrapper resolves LED issue)

Express Card/54 NIC

Untested

Untested

Firewire

Untested

Untested

Bluetooth

NO

Yes

Modem

Untested

Yes (agrsm driver. But receiving Faxes hangs the system)

Infrared

Untested

No (lirc-module does not load)

Touchpad & Mice

Touchpad

YES

YES

Touchpad - Doubletap = double click

YES

YES

Touchpad - Scroll down side

YES

YES

External mouse - USB

Untested

Yes

External mouse - Serial

Untested

Untested

Docking Station/Port Replicator

AC through replicator

Untested

Untested

USB

Untested

Untested

Serial

Untested

Untested

Parallel

Untested

Untested

External Monitor - VGA

Untested

Untested

External Monitor - DVI

Untested

Untested

Modem

Untested

Untested

NIC

Untested

Untested

PS/2

Untested

Untested

Additional Hardware

CD/DVD drive

YES

YES

Express Card/54 cards

Untested

Untested

Parallel Ports

Untested

Untested

Card reader(s)

YES

YES

LED indicators (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, e-mail, etc)

NO

YES (See Below)

Webcam

OK (see notes below)

YES

Function and other keys

Fn key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy)

in Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty)

+ F1

Help

YES

YES

+ F2

Get Pac-Man Drunk?

NO

NO

+ F3

Check your Fish Hooks?

NO

NO

+ F4

Suspend / Hibernate

YES

Yes

+ F5

Mirror to External Display?

Untested

No

+ F6

Turn LCD Backlight off?*

Yes

Yes

+ F7

Toggle Touch Pad

YES

Yes

+ F8

MUTE

YES

YES (see HOWTO for Xubuntu)

+ F11

Num Lock

YES

Yes

+ F12

Scr Lock

Untested

Yes

+ Home

Play / Pause

Untested

Yes

+ Pg Up

Stop

Untested

Yes

+ Pg Dn

Rew

Untested

Yes

+ End

FF

Untested

Yes

+ Arrows

Display Brightness

YES

YES

Other special keys

Key

Operation

Keycode

Works?

Bug #

in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy)

in Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty)

Wi-Fi

Toggle Wi-Fi Radio

none

YES (LED does not illuminate)

YES

Browser

Launch Default Web Browser

none

YES (LED does not illuminate. ndiswrapper let's illuminate)

Untested

E-mail

Launch Default E-mail Client

none

YES (LED does not illuminate)

Yes

Bluetooth

Toggle Bluetooth Radio

none

NO

Yes(LED works)

\o/

Toggle lights in a house in Germany

none

Unknown (LED does not illuminate)

Unknown (LED does not illuminate)

|

/ \

Empowering Key (big green "e")

?

159

Registers in xev

Yes (I've bound it to my Media Player)

Notes

The wireless NIC in this laptop uses an Atheros AR5007 chipset. In Hardy, the kernel misidentifies it as an AR5006. Unknown how Jaunty identifies the chipset, but wireless just works in Jaunty.

Jaunty: The greatest problem is that of Suspend and Resume. After the suspend command, once the screen goes blank and the processes sleep(look our for HDD Led to go steady), one has to keep pressing the power button until the power LED goes from constant Green to Blinking Orange. There is no fixed number of times that you need to press the power button. Sometimes it's one. The maximum I have pressed for a succesful suspend is 14.

Jaunty: Hibernation works well. (very slow, though). At times, the laptop does not power itself off completely. After the OS is halted, the screen continues to be lit, and the power LED continues to blink orange. Closing the Lid and waiting for a few seconds ensures successful hibernation. Waking up from Hibernation is usually fine most of the times. But occasionally, the boot up stops half way, just before the gui shows. Pressing any key on the keyboard a few times will revive the processes. I use one of the arrow keys.

The webcam works with Kopete and Cheese, but not Gyache or its derivatives, nor with other older apps which rely on old versions of Linux Video

CategoryLaptop CategoryLaptop

LaptopTestingTeam/Old/AcerAspire4520 (last edited 2010-02-27 13:27:30 by 94)