Acer TravelMate B115

The Acer TravelMate B115 is a great device, however its newer hardware has a few quirks that need to be addressed for ideal functionality.

Installation

While the B115 does support "legacy" mode in the BIOS, I have found this mode to be quite unstable. Therefore, we will want to install in UEFI mode. To prepare the system for install, follow these steps:

1. Press the power button and immediately press F2 repeatedly, until the configuration screen appears.
2. Press the right arrow to select "Main", then down arrow to select "F12 Boot Menu", press Enter and choose "Enabled".
3. Press the down arrow to select "Touchpad" (if you have the option), press Enter and choose "Basic".
4. Press the right arrow on the keyboard until "Security" at the top is highlighted.
5. Press Enter on "Set Supervisor Password" and set the password to something simple.
6. Press the right arrow again to select "Boot" and down arrow to "Secure Boot". Press Enter, and select "Disabled".
7. (Optional, but recommended) Press the left arrow to return to "Security", then set the supervisor password back to blank.

You are now ready to install. Insert an ubermix 2.12 or greater install key in a USB port, right arrow to "Exit", and select "Exit Saving Changes". On reboot, press the F12 key immediately and select the USB key to install.

When prompted whether you want a uefi install or not, be sure to choose uefi. If you do not see a prompt (probably because you installed once already before reading this), return to the main menu and choose option 5 - Expert options, then option 4 - Reset disk to reset your disk. Once reset, proceed with the install process to get going again.

Post-install Configuration

Before you begin, be sure to boot your device in "generic" mode, so that all of the changes made stick in the event of a reset. For details on booting in generic mode, see the first six steps under "Rebuilding the base image" on the Customization page.

Brightness Controls

The Intel HD Graphics in the device is a newer breed that may not respond to the default brightness controls in the stock Ubuntu configuration. To make them work, we need to create a configuration file. First, open a terminal (ctrl-alt-t) and type:

sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

When the page appears, copy and paste the following into it:

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Backlight fix"
        Driver      "intel"
        Option      "Backlight"  "intel_backlight"
EndSection

Save the file and brightness controls will work on reboot.