Acer Aspire One with AMD C50 - no internet connection or audio available

[rizzim3]

Rich:
I do that in step 2. Does this have to be done more then once?

[Rich]

Hi rizzim3
My mistake, I read it twice and still managed to miss it.
In step 7, you mean the kernel loads them because they are OnBoot, right?

[rizzim3]

Rich:
No onboot for step 7... I just do the "Download + Load" option. Perhaps I should try OnBoot to see if it works.

Thanks!

[tinypoodle]

Umm, there is no sense in doing 'alsasound start' & 'alsactl restore' unless alsa has been loaded first.
Does not really matter if that's on boot or at any later moment.

[rizzim3]

tinypoodle:
That was the issue, it works now. Thanks! In my script I just added a line to load alsa before any other command. I still have the issue of the internal speaker still being on when the headphones are plugged in but in time hopefully this issue will be resolved too.

Rich:
My script which I run on an "as need basis" (i.e not in bootlocal.sh) is as follows;

tce-load -i /mnt/sdb1/tce/optional/alsa.tcz
sleep 2
sudo /usr/local/etc/init.d/alsasound start
sudo /usr/local/sbin/alsactl restore

Since the start of this thread the issues solved;
1) sound via terminal script
2) wireless internet access via terminal script

Issue outstanding;
1) wired internet connection
2) sound from internal speaker when headphones are plugged in

[tinypoodle]

I still have the issue of the internal speaker still being on when the headphones are plugged in but in time hopefully this issue will be resolved too.

That must be particular to your sound card or its driver then.
Also check in alsamixer if there is a way to mute speakers separately, as a potential workaround.

[Rich]

Hi rizzim3
I don't have headphones so I don't know how much I can help, though I would have thought that
plugging in headphones would disconnect the speakers.
Open a terminal and type in  alsamixer. Click on the horizontal maximize button so that the terminal
is full screen width. Use the left/right arrows on the keyboard to change which controls to adjust,
use up/down/pgup/pgdn to adjust levels. If you want something more user friendly install alsagui.tcz.

[rizzim3]

tinypoodle/Rich:
Thanks for the alsamixer tip. I tried it out but it's not really responding to commands. For example when pressing the 'm' key to mute I do see the graphical effects but it doesn't mute the sound. Can't adjust volume either and I don't even get any graphical effects. I'm assuming that I would see the two bars increase/decrease when adjusting the volume. I am using VLC so maybe they are not communicating well. I also tried Mplayer without success too.

Thanks!

[tinypoodle]

Either you are doing something wrong, or you are not describing right, or there is something wrong with alsa...
BTW you could use alsamixer without having any sound app open, if you want to be sure to exclude any (unlikely) interaction.

[rizzim3]

tinypoodle:
Maybe you're right in that I may just be doing something incorrectly. I will investigate at a later date. However, not having the speaker mute when I insert the headphones is not a pressing issue at the moment. I would like to tackle the next bigger issue of not getting wired access to the internet. I do get wireless access. Note that I get wired access when using Windows 7 Starter so the network card is working.

Could it be that all I need is to load a specific extension? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[sci_fi]

I am also having sound and wireless problems on my Acer Aspire, as well. A partial solution for sound is to add a file .asoundrc to your home directory. Contents below. This allows playback. Not sure if it works with the microphone.

I have not been able to get wireless to work on this netbook with TC 4.0. wl.tcz does not appear in the 4.0 repository. Copying from another repository did not work. Perhaps I am missing something in the 4.0 release


.asoundrc contents:

pcm.!default {
   type plug
   slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dmixer  {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1024
    slave {
      pcm "hw:1,0"
      period_time 0
      period_size 1024
      buffer_size 4096
      rate 44100
   }
   bindings {
      0 0
      1 1
   }
}

ctl.dmixer {
   type hw
   card 0
}

best regards,

sci_fi

[Juanito]

I have not been able to get wireless to work on this netbook with TC 4.0. wl.tcz does not appear in the 4.0 repository. Copying from another repository did not work.

I see broadcom have finally got around to saying this:

Problems with > 3.0 kernels
===========================

A problem has appeared with recent 3.X.X kernels where the wl.ko driver loads but is inoperable.

The issue is related to the new bcma driver which is incompatible with this driver. The bcma driver
is analogous to the old ssb driver and bcma needs to be removed and/or blacklisted before wl
can function properly:

See if any relevant drivers are loaded:
$ lsmod | grep 'b43 \| bcma \| wl'

If any of these are installed, remove them (as root):
# rmmod b43
# rmmod bcma
# rmmod wl

Now load the new wl driver:
# insmod wl.ko

wl.ko should now be functional.

To blacklist the bcma driver and prevent it from loading in the future:
# echo "blacklist bcma" > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

I'll try to to have a look at it this weekend.

In  the meantime, maybe b43 or ndiswrapper will work?

[sci_fi]

Hi juanito,

Thank you for the wireless advice. I will give it a try as soon as I can and report back.

Best regards,

sci_fi

[Juanito]

wl uploaded to 4.x repo

..I needed to blacklist b43, bcma and ssb for it to work

even the latest version is outdated - there are many newer broadcom devices not included

[sci_fi]

Hi juanito,

Thank you for uploading wl.tcz. I am making some progress.

After manually removing ssb, bcma (this one is there) and b43, I modprobe wl. At this point I activate eth1 as a wireless interface and see wireless networks. I appear to be able to connect. This driver is flaky with this kernel but I am still experimenting.

I created a file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. Contents:
blacklist bcma
blacklist ssb
blacklist b43

This file apparently doesn't work as bcma is still loading. Can you advise me on this? Perhaps, the tiny core blacklist file is located someplace else.

Also, another question. The processor on this netbook is 64 bit. The wl driver is in the 3.0.3 directory, not the 3.0.3-64 directory. It seems to work, but should a 64 bit version be used instead.

More as I get a little further.

Thanks, again.

sci_fi