Let me preface this by saying this notebook is perfect, at least that's what it seemed like before I got it. I'm not saying it's not great, it is, but it did have a few issues with Linux, but the good news is, they were easily fixed. Overall, I'd still recommend this laptop, even with the extra effort needed to make it work. That aside, here is how to get Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft installed and working on an Asus F3Jm (most likely will work on any other F3 series notebook as well.)

To start off... install Ubuntu :) I did it with the alternative CD using the text-based installer, because this is what I'm used to, but you should be able to use the livecd installer too. I'll assume if you're reading this you either already know how to install Ubuntu, or you've already installed it and now you can't figure out why your wireless or sound isn't working.

After installing, I enabled all the extra repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list by removing all the single hash (#) marks to uncomment them. I then installed all the available updates, and then nvidia-glx for the graphics card, and configured X.

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

You can accept the defaults for most of the stuff. Make sure you select nvidia instead of nv for the display driver. No need to write monitor sync values to the config file, these aren't needed for the LCD monitor.

This should have installed the kernel restricted-modules, but in case you decided not to install the nvidia drivers, you will need to install them to get your wireless card working:

sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules

Reboot and your wireless should work now.

The biggest issue I had was with the sound. At first, it didn't work at all, so you must add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/options and then force modprobe to reload it.

sudo cat "options snd-hda-intel model=uniwill-m31" >> /etc/modprobe.d/options
sudo update-modules

The next problem you will find is that although your sound works on your internal speakers, the headphone output does not work. This is a problem with the alsa drivers that I fixed by updating to alsa 1.0.14rc1. Start by changing to a directory you can download and unpack some files to, then do this:

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-lib-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-utils-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf alsa-lib-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf alsa-utils-1.0.14rc1.tar.bz2
cd alsa-driver-1.0.14rc1
./configure --with-oss=yes --with-cards=hda-intel
make
sudo make install
cd ../alsa-lib-1.0.14rc1
./configure
make
sudo make install
cd ../alsa-utils-1.0.14rc1
./configure
make
sudo make install

Then run alsaconf and select your sound card. Finish up by adding a line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base:

sudo cat "options snd-hda-intel model=z71v position_fix=1" >> /etc/modeprobe.d/alsa-base
sudo update-modules

Just reboot now, and your headphone output should now work! (Be warned, your volume will be at 100% after installing alsa!)

Now... let's fix just one little minor annoyance, and that is the trackpad disable button not working :) This is very easily fixed, just open up /etc/X11/xorg.conf in your favourite editor and find the section beginning with "Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"" and add "Option "SHMConfig"" below the other options. The section should resemble this now:

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Synaptics Touchpad"
	Driver		"synaptics"
	Option		"SendCoreEvents"	"true"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/psaux"
	Option		"Protocol"		"auto-dev"
	Option		"HorizScrollDelta"	"0"
	Option          "SHMConfig"
EndSection

What this does is allow you to change the xorg config without restarting X. Of course, you have to restart X after putting this option in, so go ahead and hit Ctrl+Alt+Backspace ;) Your disable trackpad button should now work.

That's basically it... there's only one annoyance left, and that's the wireless completely dying and requiring a reboot after resuming from suspend. Still haven't found a fix for that.