Model
Asus U5F, with Intel Core 2 Duo T5500
Distribution
Debian Etch amd64.
Summary
Video: works, with 3D and everything.
Audio: works, with a little config change.
Wireless LAN: works, with drivers from non-free.
Bluetooth: works.
Ethernet: works.
SD card reader: works.
DVD reader/burner: works.
ACPI features: various problems.
Suspend: tricky.
Installation and wireless card
To have the wireless card working you need some package from non-free that is not provided with the standard installer.
I installed using the binary 1 CD, then I fetched the following packages from unstable:
firmware-ipw3945_0.3_all.deb
ipw3945d_1.7.22-2_amd64.deb
ipw3945-modules-2.6.18-3-amd64_2.6.18+1.1.2-2_amd64.deb
linux-headers-2.6.18-3_2.6.18-8_amd64.deb
linux-image-2.6.18-3-amd64_2.6.18-8_amd64.deb
Once those packages are installed, wireless just works.
Video
Intel 945GM/GMS/940GML
It just works, with 3D and everything.
To turn on AIGLX and Compiz, just follow the HOWTO in the Debian wiki.
Audio
Intel 82801G
To make it work add:
options snd-hda-intel model=laptop-eapd
to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.
Rationale: this link gives the quick solution. Note: no need to reboot:
/etc/init.d/alsa unload
modprobe snd-hda-intel
The list of models available for the driver is in
/usr/share/doc/alsa-base/driver/ALSA-Configuration.txt.gz
A hint about the model to use can be found at the beginning of
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0.
CPU speed scaling
Just modprobe speedstep-centrino. Then the cpufreq_ondemand module works
fine.
I'm a bit disappointed that it doesn't want to go below 996Mhz (60%) and it has only 3 scaling modes: 1.66 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 996 MHz.
It used to display available scaling modes weirdly (it would repeat 1.66Ghz 6 times), then I updated the BIOS to version 304 and now it shows just those 3.
The laptop tends to get warm, this disappoints me. I hope things will improve with newer kernels.
USB
Just works.
SD card reader
Just works.
I put an SD card in and it gets mounted automatically. In the old Asus M2 the card reader was just some unsupported obscure thing.
Ethernet
RTL8111/8168B Gigabit Ethernet. I'm not sure it was working in the installer, but in the installed system it works out of the box.
Very pleasant thing: it can cross the cable if needed.
DVD reader/writer
Just works. I haven't tried burning CDs or DVDs, but k3b sees it and correctly detects the writing speed.
Bluetooth
Just works. I connected to the bluetooth GPS just fine.
ACPI
Still quirky.
Brightness control buttons don't work: before updating the BIOS I would get this reaction on syslog:
Dec 17 23:57:35 viaza kernel: ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.SBRG.EC0_._Q0E] (Node ffff81003e98bd90), AE_NOT_FOUND
Dec 17 23:57:35 viaza kernel: ACPI Error (psargs-0355): [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P2.VGA_.LCDD] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
After updating the BIOS I get this reaction instead:
Dec 21 21:17:38 viaza kernel: video device notify
Dec 21 21:17:38 viaza kernel: set_level status: 0
Dec 21 21:17:38 viaza kernel: compiz.real[4013]: segfault at 0000000000000060 rip 000000000040b3b0 rsp 00007fff6c47f4e0 error 4
compiz segfaults and I'm back to gdm, with the brightness unchanged.
The LCD on/off button works.
Controlling the LCD via software does not work:
# echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/lcd
Dec 21 22:22:45 viaza kernel: Asus ACPI: Error switching LCD
# cat /proc/acpi/asus/lcd
Dec 21 22:22:49 viaza kernel: Asus ACPI: Error reading LCD status
0
In fact, asus-acpi complains:
Dec 21 17:08:29 viaza kernel: Asus Laptop ACPI Extras version 0.30
Dec 21 17:08:29 viaza kernel: unsupported model U5F, trying default values
Dec 21 17:08:29 viaza kernel: send /proc/acpi/dsdt to the developers
Therefore, I sent the dsdt to the developers.
The wireless on/off button turns on and off the wlan and bluetooth leds, and apparently also the wireless hardware. I still don't know how to turn off bluetooth and leave wlan on.
Update: the asus_acpi developers now added support for the U5F. I pulled their
code and now I can control the screen brightness writing numbers into
/etc/acpi/asus/brn.
Suspend
Suspend to ram works, but on resume it does not turn on the LCD display. The LCD on/off button has no effect. Other things work fine, so I can blind-type a shutdown command.
I have vbetool installed, but it doesn't seem to help.
So far, suspend is still not usable.
Update: the LCD display was not off, but the laptop wakes up with some weird
brightness setting that causes the light not to turn on. Writing to
/etc/acpi/asus/brn I can now manage to turn it on again, and I hacked a
simple way of saving /etc/acpi/asus/brn on suspend and restoring it on resume.
So now I have suspend.
Modem
Not tried.