Acer Aspire 1353

Overview
This is an article about running Gentoo on an Acer Aspire 1350 series laptop. Some of the information here comes from a 1353XC.

Laptop Specifications

 * AMD AthlonXP 2400+ Mobile CPU
 * Running at 1.80GHz
 * Powernow! Technology
 * 512kB cache
 * 256MB PC2700 DDR RAM
 * VIA KM400 Chipset
 * Integrated 64MByte S3 Unichrome Graphics
 * Integrated AC97 Audio
 * 15.4in TFT LCD Screen (Not Widescreen)
 * 20GB 4200rpm 2.5in PATA IDE Hard Disk
 * CDRW/DVDROM Combination drive
 * 4x USB ports
 * SVideo, Monitor connections for video output
 * VIA Rhine Ethernet
 * Built in 56k Modem
 * Parallel port
 * PCMCIA slot

Printout of lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge 00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge 00:07.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1410 PC card Cardbus Controller (rev 02) 00:08.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) 00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80) 00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80) 00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80) 00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82) 00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge 00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) 00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50) 00:11.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 80) 00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] Integrated Video (rev 01)

Information from :

Input Devices

 * Keyboard works fine except for function keys. Screen brightness changes work, however shortcut buttons and volume controls do not.
 * 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 VIA82CXXX IDE driver in the kernel.
 * CDRW/DVD controller works using standard kernel drivers. It has been successfully used to play DVDs, and write CDs using K3b

Graphics Chip

 * Works acceptably with vesa driver. Fullscreen video may be a bit jerky though. Much smoother although more temperamental with the 'via driver. The latter worked fine in Xorg 6.9 but in the modular Xorg 7.0 the vesa driver might be required.

Network Card

 * Works great using the via rhine driver in the kernel.

CPU Frequency Scaling

 * Works using kernel drivers for PowerNow!

Sound Chip

 * Works under alsa using the VIA 82C686A/B, 8233/8235 AC97 Controller driver in the kernel, under PCI sound cards.

Untested Devices

 * Firewire
 * Modem (It might be a WinModem)
 * integrated Bluetooth
 * integrated Wireless Networking

Sample make.conf
Acer Aspire 1353