The trusty Dell decided that enough was enough, and expired on the weekend. I ran out to pick up a replacement and am now in possession of an Asus M50VM-A1!
Since it comes preloaded with Vista, the natural thing to do is to install Ubuntu on it. The following is a list of problems I encountered and how I fixed them:
- Installation – a small nightmare. I finally discovered that I had to use the Ubuntu Alternate CD to avoid getting SQUASHFS errors from gparted. Also, it helps to remove the FAT32 Recovery Partition at the very front of the disk.
- Video – Install envyng-gtk or envyng-qt. It works flawlessly.
- Wireless – this machine comes with an Atheros wireless card (AR928x). Follow the steps here. Worked perfectly.
- Screen brightness keys do not work (original instructions here):
Open a terminal:$sudo su
#echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/asus_laptop/ls_switch
So far so good. Pending fixes:
- Sound does not work.
- Webcam does not work.
- Pidgin Blinklight to light up LEDs upon message receipt…but I think we have to wait for upstream to commit to the Universe for this one (Intrepid might be out sooner and apparently fixes a lot of the issues stated in this post).
- Touchpad alternate mode does not work.
- Fingerprint reader integration…I’d like to have it log me in or sign emails with my fingerprint activating the correct gpg modules.
Good luck!
VR
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