Hack to get Mouse to Work Acer Aspire One 722 and Linux Mint

After dual booting my Acer Aspire One 722 netbook with Ubuntu 13.04 and Linux Mint 14, I found that my mouse did not completely work on boot up in Mint. This was problematic for me. I wanted to learn Linux Mint and after a little work on google, I found this work around work around... two terminal commands that completely fixed the problem:

      sudo modprobe -r psmouse 

      sudo modprobe psmouse proto=imps

This was a fine work around, except that I hated having to try to launch the terminal and run these commands with a half crippled mouse. Even cntr-shift-T did not launch the terminal making me believe that the keyboard might not have been fully functional either.

Acer Aspire One 722 netbook

Because of this problem, I wanted to find a workaround to this problem. I knew that if I could put these commands in a file that was run during boot, that this problem would be fixed. After several hours of Googling, I figured out that I could place these commands in the/etc/rc.local file. I found out that the commands placed in this file are run as root at the end of the boot sequence. In order to open up this file run the following command:

        sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Once this command is run (As can be seen in the below screenshot) then we can edit the file located in /etc/rc.local.



Screenshot of the Terminal opening the /etc/rc.local configuration file as root

The /etc/rc.local file after modification

My First Impressions of Ubuntu 13.04 on an Acer Aspire 722

I have been an Ubuntu fan for several years now... my first Ubuntu system was a dual booted Ubuntu 10.04/Windows 7 system. After starting to use Ubuntu, I will never forget the increase in speed that I experienced compared to using a Windows system. Ubuntu was sooooo fast!!!

Well several releases later, Ubuntu has been getting heavier... it has been getting almost too slow to run effectively on my Acer Aspire One 722 netbook. I like having a lightweight netbook to carry around. They are portable, and flexible.

Acer Aspire One 722 netbook

Because of the trend that each release is heavier than the last, I was rather hesitant to upgrade. Tonight I decided to upgrade my machine. I was very impressed with how much faster 13.04 is then 12.10. I also noticed that the icon for the nautilus file manager icon was changed to this icon:

From the older Nautilus icon:

The icon I am indifferent to, but the speed that nautilus launches is so much faster now. This is a welcomed improvement. The HUD also has a new icon.

Updating to 13.04 from Ubuntu 12.04 or 12.10

 In Ubuntu, to do this I ran this in the terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo do-release-upgrade

After running this, expect to settle in for a while. Pop a movie in or something, the system does not need to be babysat but it does not take a lot of effort or experience. Put a movie in and put the computer on your lap. You will be prompted on occasion. When done restart your computer and enjoy Ubuntu 13.04. I think my system took about 90 min before being ready to restart.

My Acer Aspire One 722 desktop just after update to Ubuntu 13.04