Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3820T-7459 13.3-Inch Laptop

Issues and fixes

UBVPN setup

Here are instructions for getting the UB VPN working with Ubuntu: UB_VPN_Ubuntu.pdf. Courtesy Cynthia Cornelius and Sam Guercio.

Parallel matlab fix:

some computers are having issues loading matlabpool. the fix is

distcomp.feature( 'LocalUseMpiexec', false )

You can also create a startup.m and put that command in. When you start Matlab, it'll autoload the command for you. (for me, it worked fine in the default folder.) (source: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/280841 http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/startup.html )

Screen brightness adjustment

I have successfully been able to adjust the screen brightness. There is a page for problems related to our Acers here: http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1481995

The applicable code is as follows:

   sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

In the file, change:

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

   GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux"

and save. Back in the terminal, enter

   sudo update-grub

and you should be good to go (you probably have to restart, I don't remember).

Also note that that page has some other fixes listed. The only other one I tried was for the multitouch support, which didn't seem to work for me.

Scrolling

Solution of this issue can be found here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1472195 look at the user farbird. Basically, you open the terminal, then type:

sudo rmmod psmouse

[here you may be asked for password, enter your password and hit enter. Then type]

sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps

[if proto=imps doesn't work, try proto=exps then try the touchpad and see if scrolling works. Then type]

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/options

options psmouse proto=imps

then press CTRL-X and press Y and reboot PC.

Please put new entries and updates at the top.

Touchpad not fully functional

John Ringland January 13, 2011, at 11:51 AM
Edge-scrolling does not work properly, and no Pointing Devices item in System > Preferences menu.
Bug report submitted: Bug #702512 at launchpad
May be fixed with next kernel release: see this discussion.
Work-around for now: wireless mice for all? (Logitech V450 Nano Laser Mouse, 2.4GHz)

Software

OS: Ubuntu Linux 10.10
Additional software installed: inkscape g++ gfortran scipy pylab matplotlib texlive texlive-humanities texlive-pstricks thunderbird gftp audacity gimp adobe reader 9 lyx jabref octave meld soundconverter matlab mathematica skype many audio video codecs

Computers