1. A6Tc-AP014H under GNU/Linux
    1. What I haven't tested
    2. The kernel
    3. Hard disk
    4. ACPI
      1. 2 very dangerous bugs
      2. What doesn't work
      3. acpid & hotkeys
      4. Suspend to disk
      5. Yet another bug ?
    5. Display and TV out
    6. The BIOS
    7. Links

A6Tc-AP014H under GNU/Linux

And more precisely: under Debian/Sid/x86_64.
There is already a great wiki on A6T laptops at  http://gentoo-wiki.com/Asus_A6T and you won't find here what is already over there.

What I haven't tested

  • DVI output
  • PCMCIA
  • FireWire
  • Bluetooth
  • Modem
  • Webcam
  • 3D acceleration

The kernel

2.6.27 is currently the best Linux version for this laptop. Do not use an older one or you'll get various problems.
my config file: source:a6tc/linux/config

Hard disk

The hard disk in my laptop is a  Seagate Momentus 5400.2. No Automatic Acoustic Management :(
The first thing to do is to install hdparm in order to set a less aggressive value for power management: I use 200 (hdparm -B). I want to know who is stupid enough to set it to a few seconds. When I realized that, the disk already spinned down more than 3000 times.
Apart from that, the hard disk easily exceeds 55°C when the fan is off most of the time. Maximum temperature ever reached: 66°C.

ACPI

Among what I have tested, this is the only thing that doesn't work well. ACPI (the BIOS?) is completely buggy, the DSDT contains many errors.

2 very dangerous bugs

The words 'grave' or 'critical' are too weak to characterise them! It's not about software but physical safety.

  • The first one is about standy mode: the fan is forgotten. That means it remains in the state it is when you put the laptop in this mode: always on or always off. The problem is when it is off: the CPU warms and warms, probably until death (or fire?). I haven't tested above 70°C.
  • The second bug is a mystery. One day, mid-november 2006, I suspended it to disk, unplugged the AC adapter, the battery was full and 30 minutes later (the time to catch my train), I took it (in the train) and realized it was very hot. So I turned it on immediately: it boots and resumes normally, but both the CPU and the motherboard was at more than 90° (and the battery was under 70%)!! Arghh... What happened??
    Hopefully, the laptop is still ok, and the bug never happened again. I often try to remember what happened this day and how the laptop was configured. When I turn it off, I usually check if everything is normal: for example, if the battery is full, I verify it is still full one minute later.
    This bug may be the one that BIOS 0802 fixed ("Remove usb device s4 wake up support").

What doesn't work

  • Suspend-to-ram: according to the Gentoo wiki, it is supposed to work with 2.6.19, but on mine, the system still freezes on resuming (with a black LCD).
  • Standby mode, because of the fan. There are also problems after resuming.
  • In most cases, the fan keeps running as long as the CPU has never exceeded 60°C since boot. This can be fixed with a custom DSDT.

acpid & hotkeys

My /etc/acpi/actions/hotkey.sh might help you.

Suspend to disk

That works! Phew! With  TuxOnIce (I haven't tested anything else). I have the feeling it's better to unload the USB drivers. Concerning the 'PowerdownMethod' parameter, I've always used 0 (ACPI bypassed and machine shut off completely).

Yet another bug ?

ACPI Exception (exoparg2-0442): AE_AML_PACKAGE_LIMIT, Index (0FFFFFFFE) is beyond end of object [20060707]
ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_TZ_.STRP] (Node ffff81003ff9af30), AE_AML_PACKAGE_LIMIT
ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_GPE._L02] (Node ffff81003ff9a430), AE_AML_PACKAGE_LIMIT
ACPI Exception (evgpe-0576): AE_AML_PACKAGE_LIMIT, While evaluating GPE method [_L02] [20060707]

Display and TV out

Both the free (nv) and proprietary (nvidia 100.14.09) drivers work, even with TuxOnIce. However:

  • For a 1280x800 console, there is 'nvidiafb', but it doesn't work with 'nvidia'.
  • The TV out only works with 'nvidia'. With other drivers, you can't configure anything and there is nothing at all with 'nv'. With 'vesa', there is something (NTSC signal) but this driver is so slow.

Warning: nvidia >= 100.14.11 has serious stability issues.

The BIOS

My laptop was shipped with the 0602 version. I've updated it to 0807. Note that the BIOS can start DOS from an USB key.
The BIOS is available at  http://support.asus.com/download/download_item.aspx?model=A6Tc&product=3&type=BIOS&SLanguage=en-us

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