Acer ASPIRE R13-R7-371T-55Q1

DaDr

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Before installing, it is necessary to disable secure boot. Press F2 (actually Fn-F2 on this laptop) as soon as it goes on. In the BIOS, you need to first set an administrator password, without that it is not possible to disable secure boot. Leave UEFI mode enabled (switching to legacy seems to make booting impossible, and apparently if one OS is installed in UEFI, all others should be too (I wanted to have dual boot, and Windows 8 is installed in UEFI). Then change booting order as needed. Installation is smooth, I let the OpenSuse installer do it's thing…not much to do here, installed in under 15 min from USB pen drive. Once everything has been installed, the system reboots, and that's where it gets a little tricky… Here is the problem: when rebooting, the new entry in the EFI partition was not recognized. Meaning, Grub is not loaded, and the laptop keeps booting into Windows, as if nothing had changed. If you have this problem too (keeps booting into Windows without giving any access to Grub), you need to:

1) get a UEFI Shell on a USB pen drive. Archlinux has a nice page with a lot of useful info: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#UEFI_Shell

2) boot into that shell: first enable boot manager in the BIOS, reboot and press F12 (well, Fn-F12) as soon as it powers on. You should see two options, Windows Boot Manager, and a second one that describes your USB pen drive.

3) add the needed entry for your linux partition, using the bcfg tool, as described in the two previous pages; i.e (taken from Archlinux, you need to adapt to your case):

dump a list of current boot entries:

Shell> bcfg boot dump -v

add a boot menu entry for OpenSuse as 4th (numbering starts at zero) option in the boot menu:

Shell> bcfg boot add 3 fs0:\EFI\opensuse\grubx64.efi "opensuse"

where fs0: is the mapping corresponding to the EFI System Partition and fs0:\EFI\opensuse grubx64.efi is the file to be launched.

Once this was done, I changed booting order with the same bcfg tool, and all was good !!!

A few comments on the rest:

• for some reason, the touchpad doesn't work anymore after a resume (it works fine after reboot), probably a kernel related issue. I found a workaround (although deemed an “ugly” one) that did the trick for me : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1393079/comments/7

• Screen rotation works (through manual toggle in settings), but the digitizer is (sometimes) not rotated; I use this script to toggle between portrait and landscape orientation (rotates both the screen and the digitizer):

#!/bin/bash

if [[ `xrandr | grep "eDP1 connected primary 1080x1920+0+0 right"` ]]; then
xrandr --output eDP1 --rotate normal
xinput set-prop "SYNAPTICS Synaptics Touch Digitizer V04 Pen" "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1
else
xrandr --output eDP1 --rotate right
xinput set-prop "SYNAPTICS Synaptics Touch Digitizer V04 Pen" "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" 0 1 0 -1 0 1 0 0 1
fi

more info on this here: https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/53472/touchscreen-rotation-and-pointer-orientation/

• Automatic rotation doesn't work (the accelerometer is somewhat recognised, see cat /proc/bus/input/devices, hereunder)

• The click pad only recognises left clicks by default; however, this is easy to change with the help of synclient (see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchpad_Synaptics#Synclient)

1) create /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80synaptics 2) edit and insert following content (tweak to your needs)

synclient LeftEdge=48
synclient RightEdge=1175
synclient TopEdge=36
synclient BottomEdge=648
synclient FingerLow=25
synclient FingerHigh=30
synclient MaxTapTime=180
synclient MaxTapMove=61
synclient MaxDoubleTapTime=180
synclient SingleTapTimeout=180
synclient ClickTime=100
synclient EmulateMidButtonTime=75
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinZ=282
synclient EmulateTwoFingerMinW=7
synclient VertScrollDelta=-15
synclient HorizScrollDelta=-15
synclient VertEdgeScroll=0
synclient HorizEdgeScroll=0
synclient CornerCoasting=0
synclient VertTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient HorizTwoFingerScroll=1
synclient MinSpeed=1
synclient MaxSpeed=1.75
synclient AccelFactor=0.1428
synclient TouchpadOff=0
synclient LockedDrags=0
synclient LockedDragTimeout=550
synclient RTCornerButton=3
synclient RBCornerButton=0
synclient LTCornerButton=1
synclient LBCornerButton=0
synclient TapButton1=1
synclient TapButton2=3
synclient TapButton3=2
synclient ClickFinger1=1
synclient ClickFinger2=3
synclient ClickFinger3=2
synclient CircularScrolling=0
synclient CircScrollDelta=0.100007
synclient CircScrollTrigger=0
synclient CircularPad=0
synclient PalmDetect=0
synclient PalmMinWidth=10
synclient PalmMinZ=200
synclient CoastingSpeed=20
synclient CoastingFriction=50
synclient PressureMotionMinZ=30
synclient PressureMotionMaxZ=160
synclient PressureMotionMinFactor=1
synclient PressureMotionMaxFactor=1
synclient GrabEventDevice=0
synclient TapAndDragGesture=1
synclient AreaLeftEdge=0
synclient AreaRightEdge=0
synclient AreaTopEdge=0
synclient AreaBottomEdge=0
synclient HorizHysteresis=7
synclient VertHysteresis=7
synclient ClickPad=1
synclient RightButtonAreaLeft=564
synclient RightButtonAreaRight=0
synclient RightButtonAreaTop=0
synclient RightButtonAreaBottom=0
synclient MiddleButtonAreaLeft=0
synclient MiddleButtonAreaRight=0
synclient MiddleButtonAreaTop=0
synclient MiddleButtonAreaBottom=0

• Clickpad gestures can be somewhat managed with fusuma ( see https://github.com/iberianpig/fusuma ). I had mixed results (swiping works, pinch-to-zoom not that well)

Once the initial UEFI problem was sorted out, I must say I was very impressed with the quality of OpenSuse (which I had never tried before). The fact that (almost) all function keys were recognised out of the box really surprised my in a very positive way (Not sure if Gnome is to be thanked for that too ?)! After a couple of days use, I can say this distribution feels just right on the Aspire R13. Regarding battery life, I haven't really tested it in Windows, but according to various tests, it should be between six and seven hours, which is about the same I have noticed under Linux (maybe I get about an hour less). One thing is for sure, the laptop runs very quietly, and doesn't heat up, just as reported under Windows. Gnome runs smoothly thanks to the SSD and sufficient RAM (1GB taken, with Firefox (3 tabs), gnome-shell, light note application and Claws-mail open). All in all and so far, a great laptop and a great Linux experience !

P.S. For those interested in the R13, here is an extensive test: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-R13-R7-371T-779K-Convertible-Review.132523.0.html

cat /proc/bus/input/devices
I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0001 Product=0001 Version=ab83
N: Name="AT Translated Set 2 keyboard"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio0/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/inaput0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=sysrq kbd event0 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=120013
B: KEY=10000 c020000000000 0 0 700f02000003 3802078f870f401
febfffdfffefffff fffffffffffffffe B: MSC=10
B: LED=7

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button"
P: Phys=PNP0C0C/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0C:00/input/input1
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event1 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=10000000000000 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0003 Version=0000
N: Name="Sleep Button"
P: Phys=PNP0C0E/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0E:00/input/input2
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event2 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=4000 0 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0005 Version=0000
N: Name="Lid Switch"
P: Phys=PNP0C0D/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0D:00/input/input3
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event3 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=1

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0001 Version=0000
N: Name="Power Button"
P: Phys=LNXPWRBN/button/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXPWRBN:00/input/input4
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event4 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=10000000000000 0

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0006 Version=0000
N: Name="Video Bus"
P: Phys=LNXVIDEO/video/input0
S:
Sysfs=/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input5
U: Uniq= H: Handlers=kbd event5 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=3e000b00000000 0 0 0

I: Bus=0010 Vendor=001f Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="PC Speaker"
P: Phys=isa0061/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/pcspkr/input/input6
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event6 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=40001
B: SND=6

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=04f2 Product=b474 Version=2860
N: Name="HD WebCam"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:14.0-7/button
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-7/2-7:1.0/input/input10
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event9 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=3
B: KEY=100000 0 0 0

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="HDA Intel HDMI HDMI/DP,pcm=3"
P: Phys=ALSA
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/sound/card0/input11
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event10 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=140

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="HDA Intel HDMI HDMI/DP,pcm=7"
P: Phys=ALSA
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/sound/card0/input12
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event11 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=140

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="HDA Intel HDMI HDMI/DP,pcm=8"
P: Phys=ALSA
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/sound/card0/input13
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event12 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=140

I: Bus=0000 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="HDA Intel PCH Headphone"
P: Phys=ALSA
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card1/input14
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event13 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=21
B: SW=4

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="Acer WMI hotkeys"
P: Phys=wmi/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input15
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event14 rfkill 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=13
B: KEY=1c0000 0 0 0 0 1600800000c00 300000 0 0
B: MSC=10

I: Bus=0019 Vendor=0000 Product=0000 Version=0000
N: Name="Acer BMA150 accelerometer"
P: Phys=wmi/input1
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input16
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=event15 js0 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=9
B: ABS=7

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=06cb Product=767b Version=0111
N: Name="SYNAPTICS Synaptics Touch Digitizer V04"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:14.0-6/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-6/2-6:1.0/0003:06CB:767B.0001/input/input19
U: Uniq= H: Handlers=mouse0 event7 
B: PROP=2
B: EV=b
B: KEY=400 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=260800000000003

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=06cb Product=767b Version=0111
N: Name="SYNAPTICS Synaptics Touch Digitizer V04 Pen"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:14.0-6/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-6/2-6:1.0/0003:06CB:767B.0001/input/input20
U: Uniq= H: Handlers=mouse1 event8 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=1b
B: KEY=c03 1 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=1000003
B: MSC=10

I: Bus=0018 Vendor=06cb Product=2991 Version=0100
N: Name="SYN1B7B:00 06CB:2991 UNKNOWN"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/INT33C3:00/i2c-8/i2c-SYN1B7B:00/0018:06CB:2991.0003/input/input22
U: Uniq= H: Handlers=mouse2 event16 
B: PROP=1
B: EV=b
B: KEY=6420 10000 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=260800000000003

lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT DRAM Controller (rev
0b) Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0c <?>

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT
Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0b) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915 Flags: bus master, fast
devsel, latency 0, IRQ 59 Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable)
[size=4M] Memory at a0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	I/O ports at 3000 [size=64]
	Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
	Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
	Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
	Kernel driver in use: i915
	Kernel modules: i915

00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller
(rev 0b) Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 60
	Memory at b0510000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
	Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint,
MSI 00 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series USB xHCI HC (rev 04)
(prog-if 30 [XHCI]) Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 58
	Memory at b0500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 2
	Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/8 Maskable- 64bit+
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: xhci_hcd

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series HECI #0
(rev 04) Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 62
	Memory at b051b000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [8c] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
	Kernel driver in use: mei_me
	Kernel modules: mei_me

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller
(rev 04) Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 63
	Memory at b0514000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series PCI Express Root Port 4
(rev e4) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode]) Flags: bus master, fast devsel,
latency 0 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
	Memory behind bridge: b0400000-b04fffff
	Capabilities: [40] Express Root Port (Slot+), MSI 00
	Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
	Capabilities: [90] Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device
0915 Capabilities: [a0] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [100] #00
	Capabilities: [200] L1 PM Substates
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series USB EHCI #1 (rev 04)
(prog-if 20 [EHCI]) Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
	Memory at b0519000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [58] Debug port: BAR=1 offset=00a0
	Capabilities: [98] PCI Advanced Features
	Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 8 Series LPC Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
	Capabilities: [e0] Vendor Specific Information: Len=0c <?>
	Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich
	Kernel modules: lpc_ich

00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA
Controller [RAID mode] (rev 04) Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI]
Device 0915 Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 57
	I/O ports at 3088 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 3094 [size=4]
	I/O ports at 3080 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 3090 [size=4]
	I/O ports at 3060 [size=32]
	Memory at b0518000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
	Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
	Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [a8] SATA HBA v1.0
	Kernel driver in use: ahci

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 8 Series SMBus Controller (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0915
	Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 18
	Memory at b051a000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
	I/O ports at 3040 [size=32]
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801

01:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7265 (rev 48)
	Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 61
	Memory at b0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
	Capabilities: [c8] Power Management version 3
	Capabilities: [d0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
	Capabilities: [40] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
	Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
	Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number 60-57-18-ff-ff-1d-be-bf
	Capabilities: [14c] Latency Tolerance Reporting
	Capabilities: [154] L1 PM Substates
	Kernel driver in use: iwlwifi
	Kernel modules: iwlwifi