Acer Travelmate 6292

Overview
This is an article about running Gentoo on an Acer TravelMate 6292 series laptop.

Laptop Specifications
Hardware specs may vary. These are the specs for the model Acer TravelMate 6292-643G25Mn:


 * Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 Mobile CPU
 * Running at 2.0GHz
 * Enhanced SpeedStep
 * 2MB cache
 * 2GB DDR2 RAM (2 slots)
 * Intel GM965 Chipset
 * Integrated GMX X3100 Graphics
 * Integrated HDA Audio
 * 12.1in TFT LCD Screen (Widescreen), 1280x800
 * 160GB 2.5in SATA Hard Disk
 * DVD-RW Drive
 * 3x USB 2.0 ports
 * S-Video, VGA output
 * Broadcom tg3 Gigabit ethernet
 * Built-in 56k Modem
 * Intel Wireless WiFi 4965AGN
 * PCMCIA slot
 * 5in1 Card Reader

Printout of lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 04) 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 04) 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 04) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 04) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 04) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 04) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 04) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 04) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 04) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 04) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 04) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f4) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 04) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 04) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04) 04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02) 05:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61) 0a:01.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01) 0a:02.0 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Memory Stick Card Reader Controller 0a:02.1 SD Host controller: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI SmartMedia / xD Card Reader Controller 0a:02.2 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc Memory Stick Card Reader Controller 0a:02.3 FLASH memory: ENE Technology Inc ENE PCI Secure Digital / MMC Card Reader Controller 0a:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)

Printout of lsusb (builtin devices, no external devices connected):

Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 004 Device 002: ID 064e:a101 Suyin Corp. Acer CrystalEye Webcam Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 003 Device 002: ID 147e:2016 Upek Biometric Touchchip/Touchstrip Fingerprint Sensor Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Information from :

Input Devices

 * Keyboard works fine. Function keys work when latest HAL is installed. Screen brightness changes work.
 * Touchpad works using standard mouse drivers. synaptics package from portage allows fine tuning of the touchpad settings and requires the event interface driver in the kernel

Drives and Storage

 * Hard Drive controller works using ahci driver in the kernel.
 * CDRW/DVD controller works using standard kernel drivers for ATAPI/IDE. It has been successfully used to play DVDs, and write CDs using K3b
 * Some (all?) models are shipped with a Matshita DVD drive which is an RPC2 model, i.e. you need to change its firmware to make it region-free. There's none available for my UJ-850S

Graphics Chip
Works great using intel driver. KBMS GEM, UXA works. 3D works, altough it's a bit slow, you can play Q3A, but nexuiz is too slow (< 20 fps)

Wlan Card
You'll also need the firmware:

Sound Chip

 * Works under alsa using the HDA driver. Codec is a Realtek ALC268.

Webcam

 * Works using uvcvideo driver. I had a problem after S3, thou.

Card Reader

 * Is a PCI device. SD Card portion works using SDHCI driver. NO DRIVERS for XD and MS.

Fingerprint reader

 * Works using libfprint-0.1.0-pre2, but I really needs a lot of practice

Untested Devices

 * Firewire (But driver loads)
 * Modem (It is a WinModem)