On 01-May-2010 I purchased a new Acer TravelMate 13.3" notebook:
Acer TravelMate Timeline TM8371-6457 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 13.3" Wide XGA 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 320GB HDD 5400rpm Intel GMA 4500MHD
This blog is for notes about that notebook.
The last couple of times I've used sudo pm-suspend the ultimate result when powering back on has been a reboot. Looks like a little research is in order.
From /var/log/pm-suspend.log: vbetool not installed!
* sys-apps/vbetool
Latest version available: 1.1
Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]
Size of files: 178 kB
Homepage: http://www.codon.org.uk/~mjg59/vbetool/
Description: Run real-mode video BIOS code to alter hardware state (i.e. reinitialize video card)
License: GPL-2We recently had a severe thunderstorm after which a number of AC-operated devices in the apartment had to be reset or restarted. I was able to get everything up and running, but started having trouble turning on my GX280. After several days I was unable to turn it on at all; I think the power supply is toast.
At that point I plugged the keyboard and mouse I was using with the GX280 into USB ports on the TravelMate, and connected a small 1360×768 LCD monitor to the TravelMate VGA port. Bob's your uncle! Everything works.
That scenario prompted me to order an Acer EasyPort IV, a port replicator compatible with my TravelMate. The most important thing that it gives me is a DVI port, although the two extra USB ports are useful as well.
I set everything up with the keyboard and mouse plugged directly into the TravelMate, and my 23" 1920×1080 DVI monitor plugged into the EasyPort IV, along with speakers, microphone, and the webcam I had been using with the GX280.
Everything works! Skype under Linux detects both webcams and lets me select the one I want to use.
I'm thinking I'll repair the GX280, back up the hard disk, then nuke it and do a fresh install of XP, and sell it. The TravelMate is more powerful than the GX280, and the only thing I lose is the CD/DVD reader/burner. I have an external model that will do for the short run. I'm not sure that it supports double layer DVD burning, which is supported by the burner in the GX280. If necessary, I'll buy an external case for that puppy, re-install the drive it replaced in the GX280, and sell my current external drive.
I spent some time this weekend tuning the Windows installation. I expect to use it only rarely, mostly to demo things at work, but also to give Lee AOL access when we're away from home. I have a few things left to do.
OK, the Windows 7 installation seems to be in good shape. I should probably do a full disk Symantec antivirus scan, then do a full disk Malwarebytes scan, then defragment the disk, and finally save the partition to my offline backup disk.
Full disk scans revealed a single tracking cookie, which was deleted. Disk is only 1% fragmented, so I'm leaving well enough alone.
This is my first day on the Long Island Rail Road using the TravelMate as my daily driver laptop. Of course, last week it flew to Portland and back with me and acquitted itself very well, so I expect no surprises this morning.
I have the Acer AC Adapter/Charger with me and will use it as my work charger. I'm using the third party charger at home. Normally I do it the other way around, but there's a significant difference in total cord length between the two, and I need more cord at work.
I got my wireless issues straightened out yesterday and the basic Gentoo installation is now working fine. Time to do X, sound, and video. After that, fine tuning.
I'd like to take this puppy with me to the west coast next week as my working laptop.
I can boot into Gentoo Linux, but I'm still having issues with the wireless adapter. I think I have the module correctly configured and loaded, but the adapter itself seems not to be detected by the kernel on boot. Works fine under the System Rescue CD, so it's just a matter of me figuring out what's going on.
On the other hand, Windows 7 once again boots fine and everything in its world is working fine.
I backed up the existing three partitions to my external hard drive.
Next I booted the System Rescue CD from a thumb drive and used gparted to shrink sda3 to 100G. Or at least that was my intention.
I had a brain fart and what I ended up with was a 100G Win7 partition that refused to boot Win7. The Win7 repair tools were insufficient so I was able to test the on-disk recovery tool.
To start that tool one presses Alt-F10 before Windows starts to boot, at the same time one would press F2 for the system BIOS, or F12 to enter the boot menu.
The on-disk recovery process was successful.
Once again I booted the System Rescue CD from a thumb drive and ran gparted to shrink sda3. This time I was successful. I was able to boot Win7 from the smaller partition.
Next I rebooted the System Rescue CD and used fdisk to create an 8G Linux partition at the beginning of my new free space. That was successful.
Since the new partition will be my Linux /boot partition, I created an ext2 filesystem, and then installed GRUB from the thumb drive. Well, sort of. GRUB seems to really, really want to be installed on a partition that can be mounted on a root partition. So what I have now is GRUB that won't run on the MBR, and therefore no way to boot Windows 7. Not to worry, I know that Win7 is safe and sound on sda3. I'm going to go ahead and install Gentoo, doing a proper GRUB installation as part of that process. When that is done I'll be able to boot into Windows 7 again.
I love the fact that there's an actual switch (with indicator) to disable the touchpad.
The keyboard layout is fine, but so far I'm not loving the feel. Using it on the train will tell the story, I suppose.
Disk /dev/sdb: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8cdf828a
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 1567 12582912 27 Unknown
/dev/sdb2 * 1567 1580 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb3 1580 38914 299883864 7 HPFS/NTFSLooks to me like sdb1 is a recovery partition, sdb2 is a boot partition, and sdb3 is the Win7 partition.
/dev/sdb1 on /mnt/recovery type ntfs (rw)
/dev/sdb2 on /mnt/boot type ntfs (rw)
/dev/sdb3 on /mnt/windows type ntfs (rw)
/dev/sdb1 12G 7.8G 4.3G 65% /mnt/recovery
/dev/sdb2 100M 25M 76M 25% /mnt/boot
/dev/sdb3 286G 18G 269G 7% /mnt/windowsOnce I back everything up I'll shrink sdb3 to 100G, create an extended partition with sdb4, and go about install Linux.
| Operating System | Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (including a downgrade right to Windows XP Professional) |
| CPU Type | Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4GHz |
| CPU FSB | 800MHz |
| CPU L2 Cache | 3MB |
| Screen | 13.3" WXGA |
| Resolution | 1366 × 768 |
| Memory Size | 4GB DDR3 (max supported) |
| Hard Disk | 320GB |
| HDD RPM | 5400rpm |
| HDD Interface | SATA |
| Graphics Card | Intel GMA 4500MHD |
| Video Memory | Shared memory |
| LAN | 10/100/1000Mbps |
| WLAN | 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N WLAN |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| Other Features | Fingerprint reader |
| Card Reader | 5-in-1 |
| Touchpad | Yes |
| Webcam | Yes |
| Ports | 3 x USB 1 x VGA 1 x Microphone jack 1 x Headphone jack |
| Battery | 6-cell lithium ion |
| Battery Life | Up to 8 hours |
| Dimensions | 12.74" × 8.97" × 1.02" |
| Weight | 3.58 lbs. |
| Parts | 1 year limited |
| Labor | 1 year limited |