Opensuse on the Acer Aspire 1551

English Hardware
1

Opensuse works quite well on this laptop. I’ll use this thread to document what works from the hardware and how to get around the problems since the Hardware Compatability List page in the Opensuse wiki is a formatting disaster.

What works
Everything tested so far

Not tested yet
Webcam
HDMI Output

Steps needed to get hardware working

Wireless:

  1. Open a konsole and run
uname -r

This will tell you the name of the kernel, either -default or -desktop.

  1. Open Yast->Software Management and install broadcom-wl and either broadcom-wl-kmp-desktop or broadcom-wl-kmp-default (Add the Packman repository using Yast->Software Repositories->Add->Community Repositories if it can’t find those packages)
  2. Open a console and run
su
blacklist acer_wmi >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf
  1. Reboot the laptop
2

Thanks for the update!

Reference the web cam, according to this: Acer Aspire 1551 - Gentoo Linux Wiki the webcam is UVC compatible which is good news as there is good GNU/Linux support (and hence good openSUSE support) for UVC compatible webcams.

Your webcam should ‘just work’.

The command “lsusb” in a terminal, will give you detailed information on your webcam that can then be checked here openSUSE webcam HCL and then for UVC here: List of UVC compatible webcams but given the Gentoo article I think you should be ok with your webcam.

3

oops, just realised that the command in step 3 should be:

su
echo "blacklist acer_wmi" >> /etc/modprobe.d/50-broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf
4

I just confirmed that the webcam works with Skype (out of the box, no configuration required).

5

Just confirmed that HDMI output works out of the box, however you do need to use pavucontrol (PulseAudio Volume Control) to redirect the sound output to the HDMI-connected device (eg. the TV).

I’ve created this general wiki page about connecting to a TV with Opensuse that has the necessary instructions: SDB:Connecting to TV Monitor - openSUSE

6

Just confirmed that Suspend and Hibernate work flawlessly out of the box, even with encrypted root, home and swap partitions.

I am using the default radeon driver that comes with the kernel - I haven’t installed the ATI proprietary drivers and don’t intend to at this stage since the machine works perfectly. However this does mean limited 3D support.

7

More updates:

  • Everything works flawlessly with the AMD proprietary drivers too. The advantages of the proprietary drivers over the open source radeon are that it supports better resolutions on the HDMI output and provides better 3D performance.
  • I’ve discovered that the broadcom-wl driver only supports wifi channels 1-11. People who live in areas (such as the EU) where channels 12 and 13 are legal will not be able to connect to wifi routers on those channels. You need to set your wifi router to one of the channels 1-11