What is this patch for?

This patch provides better ACPI Support on the ASUS W5A (aka W5000, W5655 etc.) and ASUS W6A under Linux. e.g. You can enable/disable BlueTouth and also WLan via Software.

Patch for kernel 2.6.13
Patch for kernel 2.6.14
Patch for kernel 2.6.15

How to use this patch?

Take a vanilla kernel. Change to the kernel sources

# cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.13

Apply the patch (assuming the patch has been downloaded to /tmp)

# patch -p1 < /tmp/asus_w5a.kernel.patch_2.6.13

Enable the ASUS-ACPI Support in the kernel, (re)compile the modules, and install them

# make modules; make modules_install

Load the asus_acpi module

# modprobe asus_acpi

Now your W5A Notebook should be recognized by ACPI

# cat /proc/acpi/asus/info 
Asus Laptop ACPI Extras Driver 0.29
Model reference    : Wxx
SFUN value         : 0x8177
DSDT length        : 32795
DSDT checksum      : 152
DSDT revision      : 1
OEM id             : 0AAAA
OEM table id       : 0AAAA000
OEM revision       : 0x0
ASL comp vendor id : INTL
ASL comp revision  : 0x2002026

Now You can enable BlueTooth

# echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/bled

Your BlueTooth Led should be on and the BlueTooth device should be activated now. To turn BlueTooth off use

# echo 0 > /proc/acpi/asus/bled

Be aware that this patch only activates/deactivates the Devices physicaly. In order to use BlueTooth you have to enable other modules in the kernel and use the Linux BlueTooth stack - but this is not the scope of this document.

WLAN is enabled by default on the ASUS W5A - by switching the HW-switch to on - but if it is initially turned off during boot, the only way to reenable WLAN is by using following sequence

# echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/wled

Also make sure the the HW-switch is switched to on.

This patch is based on the code found on here but does include minor changes to work with the vanilla kernel instead of the acpi4asus sourceforge-project!

Have Fun! - although I do not guarantee that this patch will not turn You ASUS Notebook into an explosive device :)