# Acer Extensa 5235

## Hardware

- Processor: Intel® Celeron™ M 900 (2.2GHz, 1MB cache)
- RAM: 1GB DDR3
- Display: 15.4” WXGA widescreen TFT LCD display 1366 x 768
- Graphics: Intel GM45
- HDD: 160GB SATA 5400RPM hard disk drive,
- Card Reader: 5-in-1 for MMC, SD, MS, MS Pro, xD
- DVD: DVD-SuperMulti (Double Layer)
- Battery: Lithium Ion 6-cell
- LAN/WLAN: Atheros Chipset
- Sound: Intel/Conexant

3x USB2.0, 1x VGA, Audio Headphone, Line In/Mic

### lspci output

    00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
    00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
    00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
    00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
    00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
    00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
    00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
    00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
    00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
    00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03)
    00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
    00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
    00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
    00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
    00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
    00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
    00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
    00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
    00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
    07:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
    09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Device 1063 (rev c0)

## Kernel

The default i686 kernel runs fine. x86_64 was not tested.

Warning: Due to a change in the ACPI code, version 2.6.34.2 or later can crash upon boot. The LTS-Kernel (currently 2.6.32) works fine; after installation, you can still upgrade to 2.6.34.1; the package is available from the Arch Rollback Machine (see Downgrade packages#Finding Your Older Version[broken link: invalid section] ). This issue has been reported to the linux-acpi developers, so hopefully it will get fixed.

## Graphics

Works fine with xf86-video-intel.

Only problem is adjusting the screen brightness. See below for further instructions.

## Touchpad

The touchpad works using the xf86-input-synaptics driver. It can be configured in `xorg.conf` or through synclient. The hardware apparently only supports one-finger operations though, so two-finger-scrolling/tapping will not work.

## Card reader

Works fine, but only tested with SD cards.

## Sound

Works out of the box, using snd-hda-intel and snd_hda_codec_conexant. No special options necessary.

## Networking

### LAN

Works out of the box.

### WLAN

Works out of the box, using ath9k module.

## Suspend to RAM

Works without problems using pm-utils.

Use acpid or some power manager to enable on lid-closing or similar. Sleep button has no effect, though. Does not seem to emit an ACPI signal, but is detected by Xorg as XF86Sleep.

## External VGA

Works without problems, can be accessed e.g. using xrandr.

## Controlling screen brightness

The only real problem when using this notebook. It seems the new intel driver with mandatory kernel modesetting does not natively support adjusting screen brightness yet. 'xrandr --props' is showing a backlight property, but changing it has no effect; same goes for xbacklight or directly writing into /sys. Currently, the only solution seems to be using setpci:

    # setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=XX

with XX ranging from 00 to ff. Note that 00 will completely turn off your backlight!

You can use the backlight-setting script from Samsung N140#Backlight Brightness. You'll have to adjust the setpci command to use the above address.

The brightness function keys are detected by Xorg as XF86MonBrightnessUp/Down, so you can bind them in your window manager (you need root permissions to use setpci, so you'll have to use sudo). Alternatively, if you also want to change brightness in the console: the keys also emit ACPI signals, so you can insert the following in /etc/acpi/handler.sh:

    video)
           if [ "$2" = "DD02" ]; then
           	case "$3" in
           		00000087) /usr/local/sbin/backlight.sh down > /dev/null ;;
           		00000086) /usr/local/sbin/backlight.sh up > /dev/null ;;
           	esac
           fi
      ;;

This assumes that you saved the backlight-setting script in /usr/local/sbin/backlight.sh. This also has the advantage that you do not need sudo for this to work.

## Controlling the fan

Another annoyance is the poor fan control of this notebook. The fan is not accessible using PWM, so fancontrol or similar will not work. Instead, you can change the fan speed by writing in some EC register. This is a bit dangerous though, since this can also depend on the BIOS version. I think it's well worth the effort if you'd like to have a quiet notebook; see http://www.randomsample.de/dru5/node/85 for details and a script.

You'll need to setup lm-sensors for this, which is working fine using the coretemp module.

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