Ubuntu Intrepid and the Acer Aspire 3050... To be more specific the model 3054WXCi. A bit of disaster if you ask me;

The wifi does not work.

I tried ndiswrapper, the "Support for series 5xxx Atheros wifi" ubuntu hardware driver, madwifi, and every conceivable other how-to and guide I could find. Most do find the hardware without complaints, but the card just doesn't detect any wifi, aamof it doesn't even initialise a wlan interface. The spring-loaded switch also doesn't do anything - absolutely nothing. (I even tried holding it pushed to the right all the time while starting the machine up, but it makes no difference)

Here's some detail:

roland@roland-nb:~$ lspci | grep Atheros
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg

roland@roland-nb:~$ modprobe -l | grep ath
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/volatile/ath_hal.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/volatile/ath_pci.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/volatile/ath_rate_amrr.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/volatile/ath_rate_minstrel.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/volatile/ath_rate_onoe.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/volatile/ath_rate_sample.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/kernel/drivers/md/dm-multipath.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/kernel/drivers/md/multipath.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/updates/ath9k.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/updates/ath5k.ko

I had ath_pci blacklisted and not - makes no difference.

The Ubuntu hardware driver is detected and installed. When I go to System | Administration | Hardware drivers it shows the module "Support for series 5xxx for Atheros 802.11 wireless LAN cards" is loaded but not in use.

The acer module, that is supposedly there to make he LEDs and switches work, is loaded by Ubuntu.

roland@roland-nb:~$ modprobe -l | grep acer
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/kernel/drivers/misc/acer-wmi.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27-14-generic/kernel/ubuntu/misc/acerhk.ko

But no LED light ever, not any wifi.

roland@roland-nb:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
pan0 no wireless extensions.

What else can I do? It worked fine under 'doze... :-(

The machines is slow, the battery doesn't last very long, but it's an entry level toy, so one shouldn't expect too much, I guess. At least the ATI graphics works ok.

I presume that for the same reason as the wifi above, the blue-tooth doesn't work either.

As an aside: The sound volume is controlled by the surround slider, obviously an incorrect mapping somewhere. Does anybody have any idea where to fix this and how to let the developer(s) know?

thanks again, all!

Is there anything in the BIOS to turn the wireless on, and keep it that way?
Have a nosey around in /proc/acpi and see if there is something you can issue a
sudo echo 1 > /proc/acpi/whatever/EnableWireless
to.

I see a little light on my portable PCs when the wireless is ON. If this light isn't lit, the wireless will not work, regardless that the module is loaded.

I'm running kubuntu 8.04. On my Sony Vaio [and my EEEPC701), there was a time when I had to set my Master Channel to "Front" for the volume control to work. That seems to be fixed now.
In KDE I R-click my volume icon and "Select Master Channel" from the long list of possibilities. No idea about gnome.

No, nothing
No luck there either.

The good news is that after I upgraded to Jaunty, the wifi works. The button works too. It's just the wifi indicator light that doesn't come on.

The wrong slider problem has been fixed in Jaunty as well.

Now it's just the bluetooth that is still playing dead.

Ok, all is resolved. The Acer Aspire 3050 does not come with built-in bluetooth. It only has a blue-tooth switch, but comes without the actual hardware. Both lspci and lsusb do not show any bluetooth hardware.

I thought I'd done this check before, but obviously I either had not, or I have just forgotten the results! Shows what one gets for thinking without making sure first!

Glad you got it all working at last, even if the wireless light doesn't work, the wireless does.

Bluetooth: No, it won't work if there's no hardware

My laptop didn't have BT either, so one weekend when I was bored, I bought a tiny usb BT adapter (5mm of plastic stub attached to the metal USB plug). It cost only £9 (US$14) and I expected it to take me most of the weekend to get it to work. I was looking forward to a linux "get it to work" project.

I plugged it in and, to my disappointment and surprise, it worked immediately (on kubuntu 8.04.2).

The name printed on it is "Advent" and lsusb identifies it thus:Anyway, thanks for the follow-up.