Acer Aspire One

[somedude]

OK, I've tried Ubuntu 9.04 NBR - it feels positively slow compared to Linpus, and wireless networing only worked on the first boot after installing NBR, and never again after that. Back to Linpus - it seems to be doing all I need this little machine to do - just need to follow up on a few codecs for the different media types I'm throwing at it.

...I've downloaded 9.04 so I may as well give it a shot. I've got 8.10 on one partition already but have always have networking issues with it so it rarely gets used.

I'm back to 9.04 NBR, and loving it. The networking issue appears to intermittently rear it's head after waking from sleep - and for now, a quick reboot brings it back to life.

I must have 'broke' something in that first install, it is actually pretty responsive.

 

[sn3rd]

I'm back to 9.04 NBR, and loving it. The networking issue appears to intermittently rear it's head after waking from sleep - and for now, a quick reboot brings it back to life.

I must have 'broke' something in that first install, it is actually pretty responsive.

That's a known issue:

From https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne :

Now you should create a script to restart the interface on awake from suspend mode, as it will otherwise hang.

Fix available there too:

create /etc/pm/sleep.d/00wireless:

#
# Restart WiFi interface after suspension
#

case "$1" in
        resume|thaw)
                /sbin/ifconfig wifi0 down
                /sbin/ifconfig wifi0 up
        ;;
        *)
        ;;
esac

exit $?

Don't forget to make it executable:

sudo chmod u+x /etc/pm/sleep.d/00wireless

 

[rudirautenbach]

Thanks Sn3rd , now for the real tricky question , is it a matter of getting this thing home , booting up , search for wireless network , type in password and connect ? Or is there more to it , as somebody else created my adhoc network at home between my 2 laptops .

Robass,

Some things that you need to keep in mind.

Firstly this version of Linux (Linpus Lite) does not feature networking ie. accessing shared folders on other PC's of your home/office network. You would need to install something like Konquerer or other similar Linux programs to get filesharing working. (Warning, if you are new to Linux installing a program requires advanced programming skills). Its not like Windows at all where you just browse for other PC's on the network. I am told its just this version of Linux, cannot confirm that as I admittedly know little about Linux.

If you plan on using a 3G card such as the E220, you need to download the updates available once you have started the machine. This takes quite a while. One of the updates is actually a version of Mobile Partner, the program that lets you access your 3G modem. So you will need to have internet access via a Wireless LAN before you can use a 3G modem.

Installing Skype took about an hour. Again you need advanced programming skills to do this. Just to display the Skype icon on your desktop requires editing one of the main system files, and comes with stern warnings.

I really miss Windows...

 

[robass]

Appreciate your input Rudi .

 

[d0b33]

When it comes to Linux you have to find the distro and window manager that works for you, once you have that sorted then learning becomes easy.

Luckily for me K/Ubuntu was the right choice first time, I tried other distros but came back to Ubuntu, my windowmanager of choice was KDE3 but unfortunately KDE4 is the latest and I'm stuck with gnome for now.

 

[ponder]

Robass,

Some things that you need to keep in mind.

Firstly this version of Linux (Linpus Lite) does not feature networking ie. accessing shared folders on other PC's of your home/office network. You would need to install something like Konquerer or other similar Linux programs to get filesharing working. (Warning, if you are new to Linux installing a program requires advanced programming skills). Its not like Windows at all where you just browse for other PC's on the network. I am told its just this version of Linux, cannot confirm that as I admittedly know little about Linux.

If you plan on using a 3G card such as the E220, you need to download the updates available once you have started the machine. This takes quite a while. One of the updates is actually a version of Mobile Partner, the program that lets you access your 3G modem. So you will need to have internet access via a Wireless LAN before you can use a 3G modem.

Installing Skype took about an hour. Again you need advanced programming skills to do this. Just to display the Skype icon on your desktop requires editing one of the main system files, and comes with stern warnings.

I really miss Windows...

I do not use Ubuntu but I really wish that these manufacturers pre-installed ubuntu on their products for the users sake. You get linux and then you get linux. Ubuntu has tried to make the user experience as simple as possible.

Regardless, if one is new to linux then it all looks like greek and you feel very lost. Spend some time with it however and you wonder why you liked windows so much.

I can however understand peoples frustrations.

http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download-netbook

Alternatively try the normal Ubuntu versions.

 

[sn3rd]

I have to say that I have no idea what you mean about taking "advanced programming skills".

-sigh-

Maybe I should write you guys a short script to accomplish all this stuff. Because it really isn't that bad!

And installing software isn't difficult at all. Using the package manager, it's point-and-click. Or if you know the name of the package you want to install, it's as simple as

sudo yum install <package name>

 

[sn3rd]

I do not use Ubuntu but I really wish that these manufacturers pre-installed ubuntu on their products for the users sake. You get linux and then you get linux. Ubuntu has tried to make the user experience as simple as possible.

Regardless, if one is new to linux then it all looks like greek and you feel very lost. Spend some time with it however and you wonder why you liked windows so much.

I can however understand peoples frustrations.

http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/unr
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download-netbook

Alternatively try the normal Ubuntu versions.

Ubuntu will soon start shipping pre-installed on more netbooks. It just makes more sense.

 

[d0b33]

I have to say that I have no idea what you mean about taking "advanced programming skills".

I think he means getting past the windows indoctrination hurdle.

 

[sn3rd]

I think he means getting past the windows indoctrination hurdle.

I still don't get it. Unless there was some sarcasm that I missed

Installing software is dead easy with most mainstream distros.

 

[d0b33]

I still don't get it. Unless there was some sarcasm that I missed

Installing software is dead easy with most mainstream distros.

Yeah... I'm a linux noob but really don't find it harder than Windows.. and I don't miss Windows thankfully, I say good riddance except when it's time to game.

 

[ponder]

Yeah... I'm a linux noob but really don't find it harder than Windows.. and I don't miss Windows thankfully, I say good riddance except when it's time to game.

If I could get Counter Strike Source to run properly in Wine my XP partition will be gone. I would even be happy to run XP in VM that has DirectX support but that will still be a while i think.

 

[bwana]

I'm back to 9.04 NBR, and loving it. The networking issue appears to intermittently rear it's head after waking from sleep - and for now, a quick reboot brings it back to life.

I must have 'broke' something in that first install, it is actually pretty responsive.

It seems ok - [-]I'd like to reclaim the desktop somehow and then[/-] I need to figure out how to get rid of 8.10 which is still there for some reason.

 

[sn3rd]

What do you mean by "it's still there" ? Is it still showing in your bootloader (grub) ? If so, can you actually boot into it? Otherwise, is it taking up space? On your hard drive? GPartEd can very easily fix that.

 

[rudirautenbach]

I still don't get it. Unless there was some sarcasm that I missed

Installing software is dead easy with most mainstream distros.

Was just venting some excess frustration getting Skype to work

Being used to the big W, installing Skype was as easy as clicking an icon and the rest happens by itself. Having to type commands that reminds me of items on the menu of a Japanese restaurant is admittedly a little new...

I will eventually get on top of this Linux thing, just be patient with me please

If someone has an idiot's guide to getting this Linpus OS to see and talk to the rest of my network at home, I would really appreciate it.

Cheers R

 

[bwana]

What do you mean by "it's still there" ? Is it still showing in your bootloader (grub) ? If so, can you actually boot into it? Otherwise, is it taking up space? On your hard drive? GPartEd can very easily fix that.

Yeah. Its in my bootloader (two versions of the kernel) and I can boot into it. I'll have a look at GPartEd. Thanks

 

[sn3rd]

Yeah. Its in my bootloader (two versions of the kernel) and I can boot into it. I'll have a look at GPartEd. Thanks

Actually, my post was a little misleading. GPartEd will let you kill the partition that holds Ubuntu and merge the leftover space with other partitions.

Then you edit the file at

/boot/grub/menu.lst

and remove the entry that normally boots to that partition. It will look something like

title		Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-11-generic
uuid		1db2d31e-ab72-4781-956f-f7e4b8907ae4
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-11-generic root=UUID=1db2d31e-ab72-4781-956f-f7e4b8907ae4 ro splash vga=773 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-11-generic

 

[sn3rd]

Was just venting some excess frustration getting Skype to work

Being used to the big W, installing Skype was as easy as clicking an icon and the rest happens by itself. Having to type commands that reminds me of items on the menu of a Japanese restaurant is admittedly a little new...

I will eventually get on top of this Linux thing, just be patient with me please

If someone has an idiot's guide to getting this Linpus OS to see and talk to the rest of my network at home, I would really appreciate it.

Cheers R

There are plenty of guides to doing stuff on Linpus.

As I mentioned before, I might just compile all the useful information into one guide and post it here. Maybe I'll finally get my own sticky

One very simple thing you can do to get a more usable computer (for you), if you haven't already done something similar is

1) Press Alt + F2. A "Run program" dialog will open.
2) Run

xfce-setting-show

Another dialog ("Xfce Settings Manager") will open up with various options.
3) Click "Desktop". Another dialog ("Desktop Preferences") will open.
4) Click the "Behaviour" tab.
5) Select "Show desktop menu on right click".
6) Close the "Desktop Preferences" dialog.
7) Close the "Xfce Settings Manager".

Now you can right click at the default screen and get a system menu that will allow you to do much more than the default interface. One of the new possibilities is the graphical package manager:

1) Right click
2) System
3) Add/Remove Software

 

[greggpb]

I am waiting for the release of the Acer Aspire One A531 in SA..

 

[d0b33]

Was just venting some excess frustration getting Skype to work

If skype is tricky to install that's skype's fault not really the fault of Linux, you get packages for Linux that install when you double click it(just like windows), for ubuntu/debian it's a .deb package.