Asus 1215n
The Asus 1215n is a small laptop with a 12" glossy screen, a Intel Atom D525 1.8 GHz (64 bits, 2 cores with hyper threading), two graphic cards (discrete intel + nvidia ION2), 250 GiB of hard disk space and a battery life of 4-7 hours. It has a Broadcom wireless card (with wifi N) and a wired network card. It was first sold in September 2010 at about 500-600$.
This article isn't intend to give all the information yet. It's only a first draft.
Contents |
[edit] Hardware
[edit] BIOS
By default revision 503 will be present, by updating it to 701 you will be able to run more then 2.7 GB. When running on revision 503 the maximum amount will be 4 GB that you can install and 2.7 GB you will be able to use even on a 64 bit system. By flashing to revision 701 you will be able to install and use up to 8 GB (as tested so far).
[edit] CPU
There are 4 declared cpu, so only the first is shown here for brevity :
| Code: /proc/cpuinfo |
processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 28 model name : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU D525 @ 1.80GHz stepping : 10 cpu MHz : 1804.287 cache size : 512 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 4 core id : 0 cpu cores : 2 apicid : 0 initial apicid : 0 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm bogomips : 3608.57 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: |
Note: The Intel Atom D serie cannot adjust its frequency. Cpufreq is useless at the moment with this cpu. But it is possible to use CPU throttling with laptop-mode and p4_clockmod kernel module.
[edit] PCI
| Code: lspci |
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation N10 Family DMI Bridge (rev 02) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) 00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation NM10 Family LPC Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02) 01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications AR8152 v2.0 Fast Ethernet (rev c1) 02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01) 04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0a76 (rev a2) |
[edit] USB
| Code: lsusb |
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 13d3:3315 IMC Networks Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 001 Device 002: ID 13d3:5702 IMC Networks Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub |
[edit] Kernel
This section has to be fulled.
[edit] Graphic cards
At the moment we didn't find a way to use the nvidia card as the graphic renderer. The solution to increase the autonomy is to shutdown the nvidia and use the discrete intel. To do so we have to use acpi_call with a special patch found here: [1]. You have to download it, insert into the kernel as module (insmod) and use the shell script to enable or disable the nvidia card. When the nvidia is shutdown, you gain an extra +30% of autonomy and the laptop doesn't warm anymore.
[edit] Disable Nvidia Card
To save battery power we can turn off discrete graphics card.
| Code: before |
# grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state present rate: 1237 mA |
| Code: after |
# grep rate /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state present rate: 807 mA |
| Code: to-do |
# git clone http://github.com/peberlein/acpi_call.git # cd acpi_call # make # insmod acpi_call.ko # ./asus1215n.sh off # ln -s acpi_call.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/acpi/acpi_call.ko # depmod -a # echo "acpi_call" >> /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 |
Now you can add asus1215n.sh to autostart of your graphic environment
[edit] Frame Buffer
You can use the Intel frame buffer through KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) by enabling CONFIG_DRM_I915_KMS in the kernel. It gives you the native frame buffer which allows to switch between Xorg and Console without break.
[edit] Networking
There are two network cards: The wired Atheros and the wireless Broadcom.
[edit] Wired
You should use a kernel >= 2.6.36 because the previous drivers weren't made for the chipset (AR8152) of this laptop. We had some issues on previous kernels using SSH. The corresponding driver is atl1c (CONFGI_ATL1C).
Or:
| Code: Wired |
[http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1505697.html link title] [http://linuxwireless.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/ link tittle] [http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download link title] |
| Code: Wired |
1. sudo apt-get update update 2. sudo apt-get install build-essential 3. cd ~/Desktop 4. tar -xjvf compat-wireless-2.6.tar.bz2 5. cd compat-wireless* 6. scripts/driver-select atl1c 7.make 8.sudo make install 9.Then reboot. Hopefully your ethernet will work automatically after reboot; if not, run: 10.sudo modprobe atl1c |
[edit] Wireless
NOTE: Since kernel 3.0+ the Broadcom Wifi card is supported by opensource driver. Enable it from Device Drivers > Staging drivers > Broadcom IEEE802.11n PCIe SoftMAC WLAN driver (CONFIG_BRCMSMAC), you need also firmware for brcm80211 from sys-kernel/linux-firmware.
Closed-source broadcom-sta driver :
[edit] Sound
The sound card is a standard Intel HDA which is fully supported by the kernel. Note that on 2.6.35 you have to set snd-hda-intel model=auto in your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf. You can even enable the headset detection. If You have no sound on your speakers, try to set snd-hda-intel model=eeepc-p901
[edit] Webcam
works with uvcvideo module
| Linux Kernel Configuration: |
Device Drivers --->
Multimedia devices --->
[*] Video capture adapters --->
[*] V4L USB device --->
<*> USB Video Class (UVC)
[*] UVC input events device support
|
[edit] Special keys
To be able to use the special keys like up/down volume you have to enable in the kernel eeepc_wmi.
| Linux Kernel Configuration: |
Bus options (PCI etc.) --->
<*> Support for PCI Hotplug --->
Device Drivers --->
[*] X86 Platform Specific Device Drivers --->
<*> ASUS WMI Driver
<*> Eee PC WMI Driver
<*> WMI
|
[edit] Xorg
At the moment since we cannot use the nvidia card, there is no need for a xorg.conf or policy for hald. The intel card is used by default.
