Hybrid graphics on the 3820tg running Ubuntu 11.04 (natty)

My Acer TimeLineX 3820TG has served me pretty well over the last year.  The only complaint I have against the laptop is the fact that it has "hybrid graphics".

The concept is nice -- you use the full powered Radeon HD5650 w 1gb of ram whenever you want performance (and plugged into power) and the integrated Intel GPU whenever you want power savings.

Unfortunately it doesn't play nice with Linux.  Their are no official drivers to support it.

Some of the issues encountered are:

1. very loud fans
2. laptop runs hot 
3. unpredictable suspend 
4. VERY poor battery life
5. computer freezes at bootup (B[lack]SOD)

To fix these issues you'll have to do some tweaking to the configuration of the system. 

The first thing you will want to do is turn off the Radeon GPU. To be honest, there's no real reason to use it under Linux unless you are doing some heavy 3D gaming.  The Intel chipset is fine for normal 3d acceleration (esp., running HD video, running compiz, etc).

In order to fix issues 1-4 you need to use 'switcheroo' to switch to the chipset you want to use (i.e. the intel chipset). 

Switcheroo and Radeon blacklisting

First, open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf as root (I always use "gksu nautilus" to open the file manager as root and then navigate there). Once you have opened it with a text editor add the following line add the end:

blacklist radeon

Once you have done that, save the file and close the text editor.
Now  open /etc/rc.local (still as root) and add the following lines BEFORE  'exit 0'

modprobe radeon 

 echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

Again, save the file. Now the radeon module will be re-loaded, vgaswitcheroo will be reenabled and the ATI card will be turned off. Cooler, quieter and better battery life.

This should fix the issues, however, if you continue to have the Black Screen of Death on bootup (i.e., the system freezes on start-up) it's likely the known issue with the 2.6.38 kernel (used in natty).

In order to fix it, you can install the patched linux kernels found on this post:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/727620/comments/160

you'll need to know if you are running 32bit or 64bit Linux and choose the appropriate files. For me, I've installed the folliwing on my 64bit system (in this order):

1. linux-headers-2.6.38-11_2.6.38-11.48~lp727620v201108261554_all.deb
2. linux-headers-2.6.38-11-generic_2.6.38-11.48~lp727620v201108261554_amd64.deb
3. linux-image-2.6.38-11-generic_2.6.38-11.48~lp727620v201108261554_amd64.deb

I've used both methods described here and it's done me well. Leave your commennts if you wish to add your experience. 

References: 

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/727620

http://askubuntu.com/questions/39562/radeon-module-boot-problems

Basic configuration For the Acer TimelineX 3820TG

After upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty) there are some things you will need to do. I'll start this with the easy stuff.

1. Fix the screen brightness - unless you apply this, you will not be able to increase/decrease brightness on this computer (thus sucking battery life):

• As root navigate to (you can do this by entering "gksu nautilus") and edit : /etc/default/grub
• Change the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""    to  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux"
• save the file
• and then (in a terminal): sudo update-grub
• reboot

2. To enable vertical scrolling with the trackpad do the following:

• Navigate to /etc/modprobe.d/
• Make a file called psmouse.conf and paste this text into it:

options psmouse proto=imps

• save as root in the folder (you should already be there) /etc/modprobe.d/
• that's it. 

EDIT: I've found a touchpad driver which doesn't require any system tweaking at all. Just install this file:
http://people.canonical.com/~sforshee/alps-touchpad/psmouse-alps-0.9/psmouse-alps-dkms_0.9_all.deb

The source of the driver can be found here.

My next post on this computer will cover the switchable graphics card which will be a little bit more technical. Until we do that, you'll only have about 2.5 hours of battery life.

If you are feeling brave, you can always find this info in the Ubuntu forums. 

[Just] Install Java in Ubuntu

As an end user of Ubuntu (or any other OS for that matter) if I need to install java for an application or because the java plugin in my browser is missing, I don't want to have to choose between 5 different options and then still not have it work exactly.

The reason there are so many types of Java in Linux is that Java istelf is not really open or free. Oracle owns it and they have asserted their intellectual rights to it by suing the pants off of some of the big tech industry players (esp.,  Google). As a result there are other more open options. 

my problem is that these other options don't always work (esp., with proprietary software like Webex).

So if you want to avoid this and just install "Java" enter this line into a terminal:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

For more techy info on this go to the UbuntuGeek website where they can give you info closer to fact than I... I'm only confused by the whole Java thing :)