Installing Gentoo on Acer Aspire 4736z

Last updated: 12 December 2009

General Hardware Specifications of Acer Aspire 4736z:

Hardware Components	Status under Linux	Notes
Pentium Dual-Core CPU T4200 @ 2.00GHz	Works	No special procedure required during installation.
14" Acer CineCrystal TFT Display	Works	No special configuration required
Intel Mobile 4 Graphics Controller	Works	xf86-video-intel with i915 DRM module (no Kernel Mode Setting). UPDATE: works fine with KMS.
3GB DDR RAM	Works	No special configuration required
2.5" 250GB 5400RPM SATA HDD	Works	Uses ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller. Deselect ATA/RLL/MFM support, select only new libata driver, then CONFIG_SATA_AHCI
Built-in Intel HD Audio	Works	select snd-hda-intel, build as a module. Add 'model=acer' to modprobe options. Built-in mic does not work, external mic works when selected in alsamixer. UPDATE: after upgrading bios to latest, built-in mic works
Atheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter	Works	select ATH9K, build as module. Also select cfg80211 and mac80211, both as modules, and do NOT select lib80211. Configured using wicd, wpa_supplicant
Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 PCI-E Ethernet Controller	Works	select ATL1E as a module, not built-in, under 1000mbit Ethernet section of network drivers
CD/DVD Drive - CDDVDW TS-L633B	Works	No special procedure required during installation
Touchpad Mouse	Works	uses xf86-input-evdev, and generic PS/2 mouse driver. Should build 'psmouse' as a module, not built-in, and change 'proto=imps' in modprobe configuration
Acer CrystalEye Webcam	Works	Find USB_VIDEO_CLASS in the kernel, build as module. Module should be 'uvcvideo'. Shows in lsusb as "04f2:b044 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd". Works in Cheese, Skype, and Kopete

This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.32-zen3

It has been tested with the following kernel versions:

UPDATE: works fine with 2.6.36, 2.6.37, and 2.6.38 zen kernels
2.6.32-zen1 (zen-sources-9999 stable) - works, see kernel config
2.6.31-zen9 - works, but unstable
2.6.31-gentoo-r6 (gentoo-sources) - works, same stability issues as 2.6.31-zen9. Hard lockups requiring hard power-off.
2.6.31-gentoo-r3 - works, but wireless is unstable under load. Seems to be mostly resolved in the .32 kernels
2.6.30-zen10 - mostly works, but wireless is unstable under load; disassociates and reassociates regularly
2.6.30-gentoo-r4 - works
2.6.30-gentoo-r6 - works

Basic Installation of Gentoo:

Follow the Gentoo Handbook verbatim
Avoid Genkernel
Avoid Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) when configuring a kernel. UPDATE: KMS seems stable now, as of roughly 2.6.36
xorg 1.6 should be used. 1.7 is still spotty: UPDATE: Using xorg-1.10, works fine,
make sure 'hal' and 'dbus' are in USE flags from the get-go. Make sure 'hald' and 'dbus' are added to default runlevel. UPDATE: Xorg now uses udev. Add 'udev' to USE flag, and remove hal. Works fine with udev
an xorg.conf is not strictly necessary, though mine can be found here

Unresolved issues

Built-in mic does not work. Seems Many others have encountered this. I have not tested with Windows, so no idea if it's a hardware issue - FIXED: bios upgrade did it
Many KDE features seem to refuse to work without HAL. Workaround: use HAL, even though it's rubbish - FIXED: works as of KDE-4.6.2

Configuration Files

Pertinent configuration files can be found here: http://whitehathouston.com/hardware/Laptop/Acer Aspire 4736z/