Video Driver

Applies To: Acer Aspire 9300 Laptop
The Laptop has an nVidia GeForce Go 6100 video card.

Manual Install

The driver was downloaded from this link:
nVidia website

The problem with the manual install is that you manually have to reinstall each time you update the kernel. If you update the kernel with yum and you have installed the video driver with yum, yum will install the driver in the new kernel for you.

Using Yum

Make sure to configure yum with freshrpms repository.

You can run the following command to see which packages are available:

yum list | grep nvidia

This is what it gave me:

nvidia-x11-drv.x86_64 1.0.9746-1 freshrpms

To install, run the following:

yum install nvidia-x11-drv

Laptop Specs and Linux Status

Model: Acer Aspire 9300

Acer Website Specs

I have installed Fedora Core 6, and below are the things I have working so far.

Component	Specs	Working In Linux
Screen	17" WXGA	Works great at 1440x900@50hz
Video Card	nVidia GeForce Go 6100	Works by installing nvidia driver rpm from freshrpms repository; had one small problem with Beryl and NVidia combination. Installing Nvidia Driver
DVD/CD	DVD & CD Burner	CD works fine -- burned both CD and DVD from K3b
Touchpad		"Scroll wheel" does not work, but the touchpad works fine as a regular mouse.
Camera		Not Sure
Modem	Not Sure	Haven't tried to use it
Ethernet	nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller	Works fine
Wireless	Atheros AR5005G 802.11abg	Works by installing madwifi rpm from freshrpms repository
Audio	nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio	Works fine -- had a little hickup with a kernel upgrade. Forced change to Alsa drivers and had to adjust volume for Alsa.
Card Reader	Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader	Not Sure; never used it.

lspci listing:

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2) 00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 (rev a2) 00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 (rev a2) 00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 (rev a2) 00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 (rev a2) 00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge (rev a2) 00:00.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 3 (rev a2) 00:00.7 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 2 (rev a2) 00:02.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1) 00:03.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1) 00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a1) 00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51 PCI Express Bridge (rev a2) 00:09.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Host Bridge (rev a2) 00:0a.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 LPC Bridge (rev a3) 00:0a.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP51 SMBus (rev a3) 00:0a.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PMU (rev a3) 00:0b.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3) 00:0b.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP51 USB Controller (rev a3) 00:0d.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP51 IDE (rev f1) 00:10.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 PCI Bridge (rev a2) 00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2) 00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3) 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control 04:05.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5005G 802.11abg NIC (rev 01) 04:06.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller 04:06.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)

smoltSendProfile

We are about to send the following information to the Fedora Smolt server: UUID: 727afa5c-bf79-46ea-a530-a1ccd4b6dca3 OS: Fedora Core release 6 (Zod) defaultRunlevel: 5 language: en_US.UTF-8 platform: x86_64 bogomips: 1608.26 CPUVendor: AuthenticAMD CPUModel: AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-50 numCPUs: 2 CPUSpeed: 1600 systemMemory: 873 systemSwap: 1759 vendor: Acer system: Aspire 9300 0100 formfactor: laptop kernel: 2.6.19-1.2911.fc6 Devices ================================= (4318:760:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, C51 Memory Controller 5 (4318:761:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, C51 Memory Controller 4 (4318:583:4133:274) pci, nvidia, VIDEO, C51 PCI Express Bridge (4318:755:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, C51 Host Bridge (4318:639:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, C51 Memory Controller 3 (1204:32897:None:None) usb, usbhid, OTHER, USB HID Interface (1204:32897:None:None) usb, usbhid, OTHER, USB HID Interface (None:None:None:None) input, Unknown, None, PC Speaker (None:None:None:None) usb_device, Unknown, None, USB Raw Device Access (None:None:None:None) ide, ide-cdrom, None, IDE device (master) (None:None:None:None) ide, ide-disk, None, IDE device (master) (4318:625:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, MCP51 PMU (4318:624:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, MCP51 Host Bridge (4318:762:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, C51 Memory Controller 0 (4318:763:0:0) pci, pcieport-driver, OTHER, C51 PCI Express Bridge (4318:764:0:0) pci, pcieport-driver, OTHER, C51 PCI Express Bridge (4318:765:0:0) pci, pcieport-driver, OTHER, C51 PCI Express Bridge (4318:766:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, C51 Memory Controller 1 (4318:767:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, C51 Host Bridge (None:None:None:None) net, Unknown, NETWORK, Networking Interface (None:None:None:None) serio, Unknown, None, i8042 AUX0 port (4318:638:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, C51 Memory Controller 2 (None:None:None:None) platform, Unknown, None, Platform Device (bluetooth) (4172:32827:4133:274) pci, tifm_7xx1, OTHER, 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD) (None:None:None:None) pnp, i8042 aux, None, PnP Device (SYN0302) (None:None:None:None) input, Unknown, None, Cypress PS/2 to USB Adapter (4318:617:4133:274) pci, forcedeth, OTHER, MCP51 Ethernet Controller (4318:608:4133:274) pci, Unknown, OTHER, MCP51 LPC Bridge (4318:612:4133:274) pci, nForce2_smbus, OTHER, MCP51 SMBus (4318:613:4133:274) pci, AMD_IDE, IDE, MCP51 IDE (1026:22018:None:None) usb, Unknown, OTHER, USB Vendor Specific Interface (None:None:None:None) input, Unknown, None, SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad (None:None:None:None) usb_device, Unknown, None, USB Raw Device Access (4172:32825:4133:274) pci, yenta_cardbus, SOCKET, PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller (4318:620:4133:274) pci, HDA Intel, OTHER, MCP51 High Definition Audio (4318:621:4133:274) pci, ohci_hcd, USB, MCP51 USB Controller (4318:622:4133:274) pci, ehci_hcd, USB, MCP51 USB Controller (4318:623:0:0) pci, Unknown, OTHER, MCP51 PCI Bridge (None:None:None:None) platform, i8042, None, Platform Device (i8042) (None:None:None:None) platform, pcspkr, None, Platform Device (pcspkr) (None:None:None:None) usb_device, Unknown, None, USB Raw Device Access (None:None:None:None) usb_device, Unknown, None, USB Raw Device Access (None:None:None:None) net, Unknown, NETWORK, Networking Wireless Control Interface (None:None:None:None) serio, Unknown, None, i8042 AUX1 port (4130:4352:0:0) pci, Unknown, OTHER, K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration (4130:4353:0:0) pci, Unknown, OTHER, K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map (4130:4354:0:0) pci, k8_edac, OTHER, K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller (4130:4355:0:0) pci, k8temp, OTHER, K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control (None:None:None:None) input, Unknown, None, Cypress PS/2 to USB Adapter (None:None:None:None) net, Unknown, NETWORK, WLAN Interface (None:None:None:None) serio, Unknown, None, i8042 AUX2 port (None:None:None:None) pnp, i8042 kbd, None, IBM Enhanced (101/102-key, PS/2 mouse support) (None:None:None:None) serio, psmouse, None, i8042 AUX3 port (None:None:None:None) serio, atkbd, None, i8042 KBD port (None:None:None:None) input, Unknown, KEYBOARD, AT Translated Set 2 keyboard (None:None:None:None) platform, Unknown, None, Platform Device (vesafb.0) (None:None:None:None) platform, serial8250, None, Platform Device (serial8250) (5772:26:5224:1048) pci, ath_pci, OTHER, AR5005G 802.11abg NIC Send this information to the Smolt server? (y/n)

Returning the Laptop

If you haven't followed the story, my laptop called it quits on me, and I made the mistake of buying another HP Laptop. The HP had problems written all over it, and the best choice would be to return it to the Circuit City.

I was kind of in a rush since I had a business trip the next week. If I waited until after the business trip, it would be too late. Also, I needed a laptop for the business trip, so I had

to both return the laptop and replace it all in a matter of days.

I returned the laptop to Circuit City during a lunch break, and it took a lot longer than I expected, although most of it was driving time. I think that is why I wasn't more cautious like I should have been.

When I got to the store, the clerk told me that I had to exchange the laptop for the exact same model or pay a restocking fee. The restocking fee was quit expensive, but I was also very upset with HP. So, I opted to pay the restocking fee, and didn't have time to argue. I did ask several times if it had to be the same model and if there was any way to get around the fee since it was defective. No luck!

I called both the store and the Circuit City head quarters, but neither helped. They told me that I could have exchanged it for any laptop of equal or higher price. I would have done that had I known I didn't have to get the same model, but I had already bought one from Comp USA when they told me.

Bottom line, I will check into the restocking fee better next time I buy something. I don't think I will buy from Circuit City again either.