Getting Linux (Debian) Running on the Acer V3-372 Skylake Laptop

This post is being written on the Acer V3-372 laptop running Debian, so I have had some degree of success in getting it to work, but it is not perfect.

I'm documenting this as a reminder and to help anyone else who is stuck trying to get this to work.

Legacy BIOS

• I didn't try to install using UEFI, I switched the BIOS to legacy boot.
• You can get into BIOS by pressing F2 on boot
• While you are there, you can change the Touchpad setting to 'Basic'

Installation

• Installation from USB stick worked fine

Graphics crash

• First problem is hanging when switching to graphics mode. To avoid this put in the file /etc/default/grub the line:
• GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="i915.preliminary_hw_support=1 i915.modeset=1 acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor"
• run "update_grub" to apply the settings

Touchpad

• To get this to work, make sure the touchpad is set to "Basic" in the BIOS
• Then also press Fn-F7 to enable the touchpad

Backlight

• This should work if you added the options: "acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor" to the kernel options.

Wifi

• I have not yet managed to get WiFi to work.