Acer Aspire 5745PG

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Same laptop as the Acer Aspire 5745G, but this one has an integrated (USB-connected) touch screen. Everything seems to work fine except for:

Brightness increasing-decreasing: In gnome-shell one strike of the keys increases/decreases two levels of brightness. One corresponds to the Operating System responding to the key, while the other is because of the BIOS responding as well. This can be solved by disabling GnomeShell brightness controls or following this guide here.

Or you can try some of these steps to find a solution.

Hardware

Processor: Intel Core i5-450M 2.4GHz

Video: Intel Integrated Graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M switchable (Second Generation)

Audio: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 05)

Wired NIC: Atheros Communications AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)

Wireless NIC: Broadcom Corporation BCM43225 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)

$ lspci -nn

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller [8086:0044] (rev 18)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port [8086:0045] (rev 18)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 18)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller [8086:3b64] (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller [8086:3b3c] (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio [8086:3b56] (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:3b42] (rev 05)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 [8086:3b4c] (rev 05)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller [8086:3b34] (rev 05)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge [8086:2448] (rev a5)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller [8086:3b09] (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller [8086:3b29] (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller [8086:3b30] (rev 05)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem [8086:3b32] (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 330M] [10de:0a29] (rev a2)
01:00.1 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation High Definition Audio Controller [10de:0be2] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Atheros Communications AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet [1969:1073] (rev c0)
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002e] (rev 01)
3f:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers [8086:2c62] (rev 05)
3f:00.1 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder [8086:2d01] (rev 05)
3f:02.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 [8086:2d10] (rev 05)
3f:02.1 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 [8086:2d11] (rev 05)
3f:02.2 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved [8086:2d12] (rev 05)
3f:02.3 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved [8086:2d13] (rev 05)

Graphics

For X to start add the i915 module to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf. Then rebuild the initial ramdisk with:

# mkinitcpio -p linux

In recent installations it seems that the snd-hda-intel module is conflicting with the X server. This is easily observable by executing lspci until the output takes a delay of around a minute to show. Short after, the system will start to complain about an azx_get_response timeout. To solve this there are two possible options:

Blacklist the snd-hda-intel module. Not recommendable since it provides sound.
Disable HDMI audio, the main problem. Create this file:

/etc/modprobe.d/hda_intel.conf

options snd-hda-intel enable=1,0

which will enable the main sound card and disable the secondary, nvidia one that is used for HDMI output. You will not get HDMI sound, though. Reference: here

Starting from BIOS version 1.15, enabling discrete graphics (nVidia) through the BIOS Setup Menu is impossible, since the option is disabled. This makes the nVidia card to behave like the ones with Optimus Techonology do, and though optimus is not supported in linux, there is a way to make use of the card, and that is by installing and configuring Bumblebee, which will transfer render orders to the card and direct the output to the screen thorugh VirtualGL.

Using FN+Left when in intel graphics and VGA connected changes between screen modes (clone, right-of, etc.)

Networking

Wi-Fi and Ethernet connection work just fine, though you will have to set wi-fi up. Start by loading the new atheros module:

# modprobe ath9k

See Wireless network configuration for more info.

Battery issues

Battery problems we are fixed when BIOS version v1.15 was released. Before that, one could not see the amount of battery left in the device nor any kind of information related to it.

TouchScreen

The touchscreen used is an eGalax one:

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=0eef Product=7253 Version=0210
N: Name="eGalax Inc. USB TouchController"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.3/input0
S: Sysfs=/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/input/input7
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse0 event7 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=1b
B: KEY=421 30001 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=1000000003f
B: MSC=10

I: Bus=0006 Vendor=0eef Product=0020 Version=0001
N: Name="eGalaxTouch Virtual Device for Multi"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input20
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse3 event20 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=b
B: KEY=400 0 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=660800001000003

I: Bus=0006 Vendor=0eef Product=0010 Version=0001
N: Name="eGalaxTouch Virtual Device for Single"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input21
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=mouse4 event21 js0 
B: PROP=0
B: EV=b
B: KEY=30000 0 0 0 0
B: ABS=1000003

The driver can be obtained from xf86-input-egalax^AUR.

If you have trouble making it work, take a look at this thread: [1]

To edit some of the touchscreenn's properties you can use xinput like this:

$ xinput watch-props "eGalax Inc. USB TouchController"

to see all available properties.

$ xinput set-int-prop "eGalax Inc. USB TouchController" "Evdev Axis Inversion" 8 0 1

to rotate the touchscreen axis' if you, for example, have rotated the screen with xrandr before and now the axis are inverted.

Brightness

To increase/decrease the brightness without any keystroke you can use the files located in /sys/class/backlight/ (use cat and echo).