KUbuntu 6.06
Installation
Installation didn't give me any problem. Before making the HD installation I've tried the live version to see if there were problems and after I've used the standard installation procedure. After install I suggest to change the grub loading timeout (default is 5 sec.) editing the file /boot/grub/menu.lst .
sound
The sound card works properly. I'm able to conficure the card mixer using the command alsamixer. However the headphone works if they are plugged in the (SPDIF maybe) and not in the normal place as under MS Win,
X11
One of the reasons that lead me to choose this laptop was the graphic card on board (ATI Mobility Radeon X700 PCI Express). However at that time I didn't know what's going to happen with this card because it's difficult for Xfree or Xorg to abilitate the 3D acceleration and the screen resolution higher than 1024x768. When I've tried to run Kubuntu in live mode I can't get X working and after the install the situation didn't change. However I've modified xorg.conf until the video works properly. Here's the part of xorg.conf I've modified,
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility X700 (RV410 PCIE)"
Driver "ati"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
Option "CTR2Position" "clone"
Option "monitor layout" "LVDS, AUTO"
EndSection
With this settings the video works perfectly with a resolution of 1024x768. However I didn't try to install fglrx drivers to enable Open GL.
3D acceleration
In order to abilitate the 3D acceleration I've followed this guide (link). Unfortunately the guide is in italian but the commands are cross language ;-). After enabling the 3D acceleration the system is (obviously) faster and I was able to use 1280x800 video resolution. Unfortunately I've modified the xorg.conf and now I'm able to use 1024x768 video resolution. However I'm working to solve this problem.
ACPI
ACPI support work very well. I've enabled the speedstep support using the KDE ACPI control panel and it works fine. Even the ibernate and suspend functions are available. In addition I've installed the cpufreq_userspace module and powernowd daemon.
webcam
Webcam doesn't work. I didn't found the vendor name even if under win it says that is a Bison Cam (????).
Here's my lsusb output:
Bus 005 Device 004: ID 0402:5602 ALi Corp.
Here's a link to a page that talk about Linux driver project on this device (thanks to xenon).
PCMCIA
PCMCIA should work but I haven't tested it yet.
card reader
Card reader doesn't work. However the output of lspci gives:
0000:01:01.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev b3)
0000:01:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 08)
Wan
Wireless card work properly. I didn't need to install anything to make it works. Even the bluetooth work even if I didn't tested it.
Other
The only "special" buttons that work initially were the brightness up and down and the LCD on/off button (they work by default). To use the volume controls I had to write two bash scripts and put them under the directories /etc/acpi and /etc/acpi/events. The instruction on how to write these scripts could be found at these webpages: (link1 (in italian)) (link2)
Thanks to Jhonny Mnemonic again I was able to configurate the touchpad too. Initially the touchpad work fine but some special features were disabled like the touch-scroll function. In addition to abilitate touchpad swich on/off I need to install the synaptic drivers that could be found at this link. After driver installation (It is necessary to modify the xorg.conf file) I didn't need anything more because the script named asus-touchpad.sh comes with distribution. I'm working on a way to display a warning window when the touchpad is switched on/off using zenity (for more info go to zenity homepage). However I'm working on it.