AA1 Linux distribution guide with links - LONG

So many threads come up about the various Linux distributions (which distro? etc) that I decided to post my experiences. I am an A+ certified computer technician, have been a systems and/or network admin professionally since 1996, and have been using GNU/Linux on and off since 1998. But I'm old and lazy, and I want what most new users probably want: a distribution that supports the hardware well and doesn't take much tweaking to run fast and stable.

Here's what I think about the distributions I've tried on 8GB SSD model:

1. Ubuntu Netbook Remix 1.01 (as described on this thread).
Even with a custom kernel, boot is fairly slow. Custom kernels must be built using ICC due to lpia. Resume issues. I did not experience any problems but cardreader issues have been reported. Power consumption unimpressively high for lpia -- I'd think it would do better on battery life. Based on Hardy (8.04), which may or may not suit you -- it is an LTS version, but I assume most of us consider the web to be "support."
EDIT: Also, the image wipes your SSD and makes an ext3 filesystem by default. Most people recommend an ext2 filesystem on an SSD as it doesn't write a journal periodically -- better for performance, fewer writes, but you trade off some reliability. An ext2 filesystem is much more easily corrupted. There are guides up on converting the filesystem to ext2 after an install. As far as I know this is the only distro which does not allow you to partition your own drive and choose your own filesystem. Thanks for the reminder, zaphod.

2. Ubuntu Intrepid UMPC (as described here).
Based on 8.10, a plus as far as I'm concerned. I ran this with sickboy's custom kernel, but get his .config and you can build a kernel to your own desire without much difficulty. I have a guide up about fixing compile issues with his headers (which are not his fault but due to a Debian bug).

This is a light, fast-booting solution that can be made to consume almost as little power as Linpus. Several tweaks are required but they are well-documented. I was able to get it down to 8.7 watts at idle. Linpus runs about 8.3w. With madwifi-hal instead of ath5k, I believe power consumption could be reduced even more. Very light on the SSD as ubuntu-desktop is not installed. This is a big plus, as removing ubuntu-desktop from distros which include it will remove half the system -- EVERY package seems to depend on ubuntu-desktop, even though they really don't.

This is my current recommended setup for those who dislike Linpus and prefer Ubuntu and/or its derivatives. You can install the UNR packages easily if you like that interface.

3. Ubuntu Intrepid.
See #2 above, everything is the same with the exception that ubuntu-desktop takes up much more space on the SSD. Seems to be just as fast to boot and run applications as UMPC. The dependency issues of ubuntu-desktop make it much harder to lighten the package load to save SSD space.

If you use Windows, think of Intrepid as a full install and UMPC as an n-lited install.

4. Linux4one.
A lot of people seem to like this. Good software pre-load. My main issue with it is that it boots very slow even with a custom kernel installed for some reason. Also, 8.04 based, which may or may not affect your decision. Personally, I had wifi issues, but I seem to be in the minority. Ubuntu-desktop is installed.

From what I've read, this is worth a try for new users. You may pay in battery life for this choice despite tweaking.

6. CrunchBang Linux cruncheee.
I liked this distro very well, although I never did put it on the SSD. Light footprint and low power consumption (8.7w) out of the box. Ubuntu-based. Custom kernel not necessary, but you'll want one to get your wifi lights working. Use sickboy's or compile your own.

The only reason I can't recommend this for new users is openbox. If you can get used to openbox (I'm an old fan of blackbox), this should really be your first choice rather than UMPC. Openbox is ten times lighter than Gnome. Cruncheee make it easy to learn; keyboard shortcuts are already mapped and are shown on the desktop via conky. If you haven't checked out conky, you should try it, no matter your distro choice. It is really cool.

7. Foresight Mobile (as described here).
I had some kernel module issues with this distro. Probably not good for a newbie; wifi takes a little fiddling. Ubuntu-desktop on it -- aargh.

8. EasyPeasy.
Many people dislike the name. I had an issue with Xorg, which is odd as the eee and AAO share the same chipset. The problem showed up as crazy color changes at boot and periodic corruption of onscreen graphics. This distro is built on Ubuntu Jaunty, so it should have fresh packages. With sickboy's kernel, I still saw long boot times compared to Ubuntu UMPC and cruncheee, but a tad better than linux4one.

9. Moblin v2 Alpha
This is an Atom-optimized distribution financed by Intel. Lightning fast, but currently no app availability -- this definitely will develop into something wonderful. I'm sure many posts will go up when a beta or more complete alpha appears. Some people are running it already, but it's still XFCE based, so Linpus is probably just as good for now.

In addition, there is pretty good documentation on running the following (although I have not tried them personally):
1. Fedora -- reports are that it runs pretty well, might be a good step for new users as Linpus is Fedora based, so most of what you've learned will transfer directly. Graphical package updater reportedly very slow, so use yum I guess. More here.

2. ArchLinux -- I've been meaning to try this. Rolling release means up-to-date packages. Several AA1-specific custom kernels available for those who don't want to build their own. But may not be the best for new users. The pacman package manager is reportedly very nice.

3. Slackware -- installation is extremely complex, not recommended for those who aren't already familiar with Slackware. This is one of the oldest distributions still in development. Software installation can be tough for new users. Reportedly very fast. Should be able to get power consumption as low as Linpus.

4. Gentoo -- highly recommended for pure speed, but not easy for a new user to get up and running. I haven't installed it due to issues with the installation media and the fact that it would probably take a week to get everything built on my pokey Intel SSD.
EDIT: another good point, the constant building of software would create many writes to your SSD, which may reduce its life as it has a limited number of writes. The limited writes aren't disputed, but the reduction in life is -- regardless, writing to SSD is the slowest operation that can be performed on your AA1. Thanks badmuddahumpa.

5. Debian -- I personally don't see why you'd want it, with all the Ubuntu derivatives available, but if you like it, you're probably already using it anyway. Different philosophy than Ubuntu, more true to the FSF/GPL ideal. Not a lot of reports of people running this.

6. OpenSUSE -- I personally avoid Novell due to their Microsoft deal, but OpenSUSE is not directly involved with all that. So, avoid SUSE enterprise if you disagree with their attempt to seize the corporate Linux market through fear, uncertainty, and doubt. I avoid this not just for personal bias against Novell (the aforementioned marketshare grab and I have hated Netware since the DOS days), but because boot time is excruciating. The longest boot time of any distribution. However, 3d is reported to work very well "out of the box." Glxgears at 700-1000fps out of the box, compare Linpus at ~400fps.

7. Mandriva -- I used to use PCLinuxOS quite a bit, very nice, easy distro. It was based on Mandriva, which I have never tried directly, but reports are good. The only reason I avoided this one was reportedly long boot times. I'm sure if you built a custom kernel (I have not seen reports that anyone has done one, but again, grab a .config and build your own), this would be pretty good. One of the few KDE distros, although on this forum people have been recommending the Gnome version. This would be a good distro for new users, as almost everything is done in the GUI.

There are also some AA1-specific Puppy Linux derivatives; these should be lightweight and fast, I haven't tried them but they look promising. Probably good to have one on a USB stick for fiddling with a broken installation of something else.

Finally, I wrote part of this guide as a response to a why do you stick with Linpus post. I think Linpus bears mention. I use it with the normal XFCE desktop, and like it pretty well. Software installation is kind of painful, but well-documented here and on the macles blog. What I like most is that it stays stable even after multiple sleep/resume sessions. And it gets the best battery life of any distro mentioned, due to extensive optimizations in power consumption. Just keep a current backup at all times; I use partimage from the system rescue cd. You can run it from a USB stick.

Hopefully this guide has helped you understand what's available and maybe even choose a distribution. These are just my observations and opinions; I welcome disagreement. I tried to be balanced here, but I may have slighted your favorite distro (SUSE) or even left it off the list (Mint).

 

I'm a Gentoo user. Avidly. I would not recommend installing this on an SSD model. The constant building from source is very write intensive. It seems to me that this would drastically reduce the life of the SSD due tot the limited writes is has.

Just my $0.02

Great post.

 

Thanks for the nice summary. I haven't tried all the distributions in your list but I agree with your conclusion on Ubuntu UMPC:

I am running UMPC with the UNR packages and Sickboy's kernel and am more than happy with it. Another advantage over the UNR1.01 image is that it comes with a full installer which facilitates an ext2 installation on the SSD.

 

Awesome review. I have had Win 7, Win XP, Linpus, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Linpus4one, and the Remix on my 160 GB Aspire One. In between OS at the moment. Thinking about going back to Linpus for the simplicity even though of the pains working with anything past the desktop.


David

 

Thanks for posting this (Isee it is a development from a post you made on my thread). I am sure it will be useful to have a summary like this for new linux users but also for people who may have experience of linux but want to know how the various options work on the aao.

You obviously have most experience with the ubuntu variants so it would be great if people who use the other distros on the aao could put similar summarries in the thread and then have them added to the op.

 

Nice review. I haven't tried the Ubuntu variants yet but may give Kookie or Moblin a go when they are stable releases.
F10 comments i think are pretty sound. Packagekit isnt that fast, yum with yumex is better.
The XFCE spin is very similar to linpus in someways due to XFCE but has gnome parts mixed in.

Most of the distros so far have the common bit where you will need to tweak bits and pieces and thats where i hope
Kookie, Moblin and the other Aspire one focused distros can sort out soon.

 

Really great post. I'll just link to another good thread discussing some linux distributions, which also makes interesting reading.

 

Hi
Just a few additional Notes about Linux, Multiboot and the Aspire One - a great gadget!

I'm a Novell User / Admin since 3.1x days, and still think Netware is among the best as file server, and NDS / eDirectory among the best when it comes to enterprise grade Directory Services.

I've got two AA1s, one A150X (160GB Disk) and one A110L (8GB SSD), both with 1 GB RAM.

The A150X is running OpenSUSE 11.0 (Primary OS) and Windows XP Professional (Secondary OS).
The A110L is running Mac OSX 10.5.5 (Sole OS).

A150X:
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Booting using Grub, with Multi-Boot entries.
(As a emergency, there's also a configured Boot.ini, which also allows me to choose Linux or Windows, if I originally wanted Linux, but hit Windows in Grub. Here Windows is default.)

WLan on OpenSUSE works O.K., I'm using NDIS (Windows Drivers) here, but at least WPA2 (Not WPA2-PSK) works great. It doesn't work (yet) in Windows using the XP WLan selector. WLan works also well in XP, but NOT wih WPA2. WPA is O.K. though.I might try MadWiFi soon, to see if that works better.

Sidenote: Limpus will NOT work with WPA2 either. Limpus will only accept WEP, WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK.

Startip time for OpenSUSE is not too bad, between 1 and 1.5 minutes (!), depending on how fast I actually do the login...
I'm running a full blown KDE 3.5 Desktop (needed for Enterprise Apps...) with VirtualBox, VMWare Server 1.x...
Google Earth is a bit slow, compared to Windows, but that could be the OpenGL drivers.

SD cards and WebCam I haven't tried yet on OpenSUSE (I have both AA1s only three days!), but there are working drivers available for the Webcam.

With NTFS-3G, OpenSUSE allows me to r/w on the large NTFS Partition

A110L
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Pleasant surprise that MacOSX works so well on this box, only 4 caveats.
(See Post by SbM, viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10197)

The SSD is VERY slow though...

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I will, time available, try out some of the mods by TnkGrl, good work there!

Regards

Andy Wismer
Switzerland

 

Thanks for the post. I was using Windows XP on my 150X. Now I have changed to Linpus. It is fun and fast, Went through the forums and learned a lot. It does what I need.