PCLinuxOS and Asus 1215B

[manmath]

I am back after long. Feeling at home.

Just bought Asus 1215B (AMD Fusion platform with Ontario C-50 APU). The platform is new. I am just curious if PCLOS could work out of box on this hardware.

Anybody, any experience with this hardware on pclinuxos?

Thanks in advance!

[jimwilk]

Don't know about that 121 5B model. However, this Asus Pro 59LE2 works perfectly with PCLinuxOS.
Welcome here.

Jim

[T6]

just made a search, this thing has a amd e 350 dual core at 1.6 ghz cpu and a amd radeon 6310

a report on another linux forum was very promising

if pclinux boots without problems, you need to install amd drivers for the video card, the ones on repo should be enough

[manmath]

just made a search, this thing has a amd e 350 dual core at 1.6 ghz cpu and a amd radeon 6310

Yeah Asus sells 1215B with that specs in European and US markets. But in most Asian markets it sells the same model with a cheaper APU - C-50.

Any idea when the next updated pclos iso will hit the mirrors? I am very hopeful on that. I tried that latest PCLOS (with all the updates till date) but still found some problems related to graphics (the proprietary catalyst driver on linux did not offer performance comparable to the Win drivers), also some hot keys did not work.

BTW, thanks for the prompt reply.

PS: Here are the full specs of 1215B I bought from Asus store at Nehru Place, New Delhi.

Processor

    Processor AMD Fusion C-50 / 1 GHz
    Multi-Core Technology Dual-Core 64-bit

RAM

    Installed Size 2 GB
    Technology DDR3 SDRAM
    Form Factor SO DIMM 204-pin

Storage Controller

    Storage controller type Serial ATA
    Storage Controller / Serial ATA Interface Serial ATA-300

Storage

    Hard Drive 320 GB - Serial ATA-300 - 5400 rpm

Card Reader

    Card reader type Card reader
    Supported flash memory cards SDHC Memory Card,
    SDXC Memory Card,
    SD Memory Card,
    MultiMediaCard

Display

    Display Type 12.1 in TFT active matrix
    LCD Backlight Technology LED backlight
    Max Resolution 1366 x 768 ( WXGA )
    Widescreen Display Yes

Video

    Graphics Processor / Vendor AMD Radeon HD 6250

Audio

    Audio Output Sound card
    Compliant Standards High Definition Audio
    Audio Input Microphone

Notebook Camera

    Camera Type Integrated
    Sensor Resolution 0.3 Megapixel

Input Device(s)

    Input device type Keyboard,
    Touchpad

Networking

    Networking Network adapter
    Wireless LAN Supported Yes
    Data Link Protocol Fast Ethernet,
    Ethernet,
    IEEE 802.11b,
    IEEE 802.11n,
    IEEE 802.11g
    Compliant Standards IEEE 802.11g,
    IEEE 802.11n,
    IEEE 802.11b

Expansion / Connectivity

    Expansion Slot(s) 2 Memory - SO DIMM 204-pin
    Interfaces 1 x Display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15),
    3 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type A,
    1 x Network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45,
    1 x Display / video - HDMI - 19 pin HDMI Type A,
    1 x Headphones - Output - Mini-phone 3.5 mm,
    1 x Microphone - Input - Mini-phone 3.5 mm

Power

    Power Device External
    Voltage Required AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
    Power Provided 40 Watt

Battery

    Technology 6-cell Lithium ion
    Installed Qty 1
    Capacity 56 Wh
    Run Time (Up To) 8.5 hour(s)

[T6]

"By the way, a rough idea on when the next updated pclos iso will hit the mirrors?"

that is the 64000 dollars question 

no idea

btw, very nice specs    i want one

[manmath]

btw, very nice specs    i want one

Please go with the variant having E-350 APU. Mine with C-50 is good for home computing; performance is comparable to atom n550. E-350 is much better.

[T6]

the n550 defeats easily this atom n455 i have, single core(hiperthreaded)

and it is making me happy, you wouldn't believe what i have done with this netbook 

others won't believe it either 

[manmath]

Great! C-50 is much better than n455. But E-350 beats C-50. You may consider C-50 as an underclocked E-350. Having said that, I run full office suite, photoshop, total dvdripper, web browser, attrium chat client, and at times a music player, all simultaneusly. And the C-50 Asus 1215B is quite snappier. However, I noticed some frame drops when playing some intense games. If gaming is not your stuff, C-50 is just enough. But then, E-350 does not cost that much more. But that model is not available in India. Of course, HP, Sony and MSI are selling some netbooks on that APU, but I always prefer Asus to any other brand.

[manmath]

Installed pclos and pulled in latest updates. Some good news and some bad.

good news: Fully updated pclos works like a charm on this hardware. Especially after installing ati drivers the graphics experience is superb, the glrx framerate touches 2000. System is quite responsive too.

bad news: None of the hotkeys work except for brightness controls.

i'd love to get all the hotkeys working. I went through the specs this model is not much difference from 1215n except for the apu.

anybody please suggest me how to get the hotkeys (brightness, volume, touchpad and wlan/bluetooth control) working.

[T6]

what hotkeys do you need to make work?

sometimes it is just select the right keyboard in pcc

sometimes keytouch and similar apps can help

sometimes it is just remap keys by using kde configure your desktop option

to be honest the only ones i use is sound and screen brightness and that last one is the most complicated one to make work so all i see is good news

[manmath]

what hotkeys do you need to make work?

I am fighting to get Hotkeys for WLAN/Bluetooth, Touchpad and Volume to work. No success so far.

[manmath]

Well, I can live without all other hotkeys except Wlan/Bluetooth. Anybody any idea how to make this hotkey work?

[T6]

touch pad? what parts of it, scrollwheel vertical or horizontal?

about wlan, it seems to be specific to the model of the card and the model of the laptop, sometimes it can work

bluetooth, no idea, i don't have that so can't give a single idea

about volume, you can open kmix and in the settings you can map directly the keyboard settings

[manmath]

touch pad? what parts of it, scrollwheel vertical or horizontal?

The touchpad function key is to lock/unlock the pad.
However, this not big problem. And for volume I have mapped the mixer. I am ok with the brightness. The wlan/bluetooth function key only kills the charm. Sure I can manually turn on the wlan and/or bluetooth. But I frequently change for cable ethernet to wlan, turning on or off via fn key would be great.

Some more info. The function key set of this model (1215b) is very much similar to 1215N.

[T6]

oh, no  i don't have a laptop with that button, not sure to have used one recently with it

about enable or disable the wifi, there is a command to do it via konsole

i suppose that bluetooth has it too

have you tried to map them in kde configure your desktop?