# Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG

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Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG is a 14-inch laptop that packs in an Intel Core i5-430M processor and dedicated ATI Radeon HD 5650 graphics, making it a powerful 14-inch laptop. ArchLinux works mostly works out of box, but there are few tweaks required to make the hardware fully compatible with ArchLinux.

## Hardware

Make sure that you have BIOS_Acer_1.25_A_A.zip installed.

## PowerSmart / Battery Optimization

### Switchable Graphics

This laptop contains inbuilt Intel HD & Radeon 5650 graphics adapters. The Intel HD graphics adapter is optimized for low power consumption which Radeon 5650 consumes high power.

To use Linux kernel's "Laptop Hybrid Graphics - GPU switching support" add following to /etc/fstab

    none            /sys/kernel/debug debugfs defaults 0 0

This will enable /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

    [root@arp arp]# cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
    0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
    1:DIS: :Pwr:0000:01:00.0

IDN - denotes integrated Intel graphics. DIS - denotes discrete Radeon graphics.

To switch-off Radeon, do following -

    [root@arp arp]# echo "DIGD" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
    [root@arp arp]# echo "OFF"  > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

    [root@arp arp]# cat /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
    0:IGD:+:Pwr:0000:00:02.0
    1:DIS: :Off:0000:01:00.0

To switch-on both graphics chips, do following -

    [root@arp arp]# echo "DIGD" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
    [root@arp arp]# echo "DDIS" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

Init script for switching off the Radeon card -

Note: There is now a vgaswitcheroo systemd service which should be used instead

    [root@arp arp]# cat /etc/rc.d/radeon_off

    #!/bin/bash

    . /etc/rc.conf
    . /etc/rc.d/functions

    case "$1" in

       start)
       echo "DIGD" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
       echo "OFF"  > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
       ;;

       stop)
       echo "DIGD" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
       echo "DDIS" > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch
       ;;

       restart)
         stat_busy "Restarting radeon_off ..."
         $0 stop
         $0 start
         stat_done
       ;;

       *)
         echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
    esac

    [root@arp arp]# chmod +x /etc/rc.d/radeon_off

Switch the Radeon off while booting. Add following at the end of the file : /etc/rc.sysinit

    #Switch-off discrete graphics
    /etc/rc.d/radeon_off restart

    /bin/dmesg >| /var/log/dmesg.log

### Enable CPU Frequency Scaling

Enabled by default, see CPU frequency scaling for details.

### Power Usage

The power rating before tweak -

    Power usage (ACPI estimate): 24.1W (2.8 hours)

The power rating after "switching off the radeon graphics" and "enabling laptop-mode tools".

    Power usage (ACPI estimate): 11.1W (6.5 hours)

### Sensors

    [arp@arpc ~]$ sudo modprobe coretemp
    [arp@arpc ~]$ sensors
    acpitz-virtual-0
    Adapter: Virtual device
    temp1:        +53.0°C  (crit = +105.0°C)

    radeon-pci-0100
    Adapter: PCI adapter
    temp1:       +2147355.6°C

    coretemp-isa-0000
    Adapter: ISA adapter
    Core 0:       +49.0°C  (high = +95.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

    coretemp-isa-0002
    Adapter: ISA adapter
    Core 2:       +53.0°C  (high = +95.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

## Synaptics Touchpad

See Touchpad Synaptics.

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