Bad OS Part I: (Yes or No?( and Part II: (What to do about i

Yeah, maybe :/ Or maybe it's just because I have all the latest updates? Don't know really. The only weird problem have on my AAO is that the network manager doesn't always re-scan when waking from standby. And I can fix that on the command line in five seconds.

Well, yes, but that's the way it's sold, isn't it? it's designed to have minimal user configuration (and therefore minimal maintenance). We can't really complain that the unit does what it it is supposed to do. That doesn't make it `bad'.

Being unreliable and twitchy would certainly make it `bad' in my view. But (for whatever reason) that's not at all my experience. Don't get me wrong -- I would swap the OS in the blink of an eye if I thought I needed to. I don't have any loyalty to Acer or to Linpus. But I haven't needed to so far.

 

Yep - that's what I meant by 'I can understand that - in other words I acknowledge that Acer don't really want the UI altered and thus I would not use *that* as a reason to label the OS as 'bad'.

Think we're done!?

 

Part 1: Yea from me.

I have had experience with Linux for the last 5/6 years constantly, and probably 10 years on/off. I think the easiest way to describe why i feel this is simply "What do you use a netbook for?"

They are aimed at simple operations with nothing particularly fancy. That's not to say you cant do that, but that's not what it's aimed at. What it is aimed at though (in my opinion) it does very well.

As for the package manager, i dont think i will ever be running the Acer Live Update thing, as i am not entirely sure what this does, and also, having installed my own programs through yum, i might as well simply use "yum upgrade" then "yum update" to update my system. This way, not only do i not break my system by using the live updater, but i also keep all of my custom installed packages up to date.

Another point is installing things. Yes, you can get problems where something wont install due to dependencies, however, this is a common issue with "RPM" based distributions, not limited to Linpus. I know there have been issues (namely "dependency hell") in Fedora, and it's predecessor Red Hat, and also Mandriva (previously Mandrake) regarding issues with RPM's and failed dependencies.

As for this on the One, i have only had this on one package that i installed. And that package was actually from a 3rd party repository (linva), however the reason for this failure was a recent exploit on the red-hat/fedora mirrors that caused them to re-generate all of the signatures. A simple

Code:

sudo yum install fedora-release

(i think it was) solved this for me.

This "Dependency hell" is something that has been around RPM based distributions since i started using linux, and as far as i can see, is something that will forever be inherent in the RPM based distributions. If you are looking into installing an alternative to avoid this problem, then you will need to look into other systems eg debian based or source based distributions.

I would like to point out that in no way am i trying to convince you, but this is merely my opinion on the One and Linpus in general.

 

[/quote:2evnl94y]

How do you change the PolicyKit to omit the password?

 

I have attached my PolicyKit.conf for your reference. This will allow the user "user" to have control over all the hardware on the device. Now you can start nm-applet and kpowersave as "user" rather than "root".

[attachment=04t9im23]PolicyKit.conf.gz[/attachment4t9im23]

 

To my mind the main problem with Linpus is that there is essentially zero support (apart from a few good souls on this forum and generic Linux support). After starting with Linpus, trying Win/XP (OK but slow) I have moved over to Ubuntu. Although as a Linux newbie it has taken a bit of time to get everything going properly I have been astounded at the amount of help available. For this reason alone I intend to stick with Ubuntu.

Acer have tried to sell this machine with hardware support only. This is possibly OK for gadgets such as mobile phones where customers have no expectation of wanting to modify software but it doesn't really work in the computer world where there is a continual evolution of software applications.

 

I think these are fair points. It should (perhaps) be clearer when you buy that the Linpus machine is really designed to run the software it comes with, and not to be user expandable. Of course you can expand it, but you're on your own apart from the goodwill of strangers.

In the UK the Linpus AA1 is very much cheaper than the Windows one, so it's rather limited compass will be a reasonable price to pay for such a cost saving. In places where there is very similar pricing, I can't see why anybody except a die-hard Linux hacker would buy the Linpus model at all.

 

Very fair points ..... so far I've been sticking with Linpus but I think it is time to make the switch ...... Ubuntu it is ..... the forums are fantastic and all the hardware issues will be resolved at some point I guess. Maybe Nov is a good time to jump as Intrepid is due for launch at the end of this month.

 

That is why I think they should have chosen a popular distribution.
They should have relied on volunteer support for Ubuntu instead of locking down the OS and making it different than regular Ubuntu.

 

cpchan, belated thank you ... I struggled with this AA1 for the last 1 month; but everything seems to be getting OK by now. Still some glitches, but I like this small gadget.

One other questions, if the policykit is changed to allow user to do SUDO things, will that crash the system when other programs interact with others? I mean not just because a user does wrong when editing or deleting files.

 

Sorry for the late reply.

No. Policykit and sudo are very different things. Policykit is used to allow/disallow different users access to certain hardware functions via hal (hardware abstraction layer). Sudo is used to execute a command as another user. The only reason why Linpus is set up to run kpowersave and nm-applet via sudo (run as root) is because policykit is set up to only allow root to access the hardware functions.

Here is a list of hardware functions managed by policykit in Linpus:

Code:

org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.ieee1394-avc
org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.ieee1394-iidc
org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.scanner
org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.camera
org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.dvb
org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.cdrom
org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.video4linux
org.freedesktop.hal.device-access.sound
org.freedesktop.hal.killswitch.wlan
org.freedesktop.hal.killswitch.bluetooth
org.freedesktop.hal.lock
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.keyboard-backlight
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.light-sensor
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.lcd-panel
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.cpufreq
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.hibernate
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.suspend
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.set-powersave
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.reboot-multiple-sessions
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.reboot
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.shutdown-multiple-sessions
org.freedesktop.hal.power-management.shutdown
org.freedesktop.hal.storage.crypto-setup-removable
org.freedesktop.hal.storage.crypto-setup-fixed
org.freedesktop.hal.storage.eject
org.freedesktop.hal.storage.unmount-others
org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-removable
org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-fixed

 

Thanks a lot for the info.

 

I love Xandros on the eee PC. Linpus is a really really shamefully bad distribution of linux. Acer make it even worse by jamming half-assed modifications in on it and the various linux applications they are stealing/using. Everyone associated with the AAO's software should be ashamed of themselves.

I still use it anyway, as I already bought my AAO. If I had money I'd smash it with a hammer.

 

Agreed. In all the years that I have been using Linux, I have never seen anything so half baked.

Hey, this is not fair. Acer does make the source available in compliant with the GPL.

You are being kind. I said they should be shoot.

Just change the distro and be done with it.

IMHO, I think Acer should rethink their Linux strategy and just go with another Linux distro. For a Netbook I suggest Puppy Linux:

http://www.puppylinux.org/

It is lean and mean.

 

Yes, but they do not credit.

 

ok, just to answer the op, haven't read the rest of the thread, though..

yeah, it is awful.

fedora 8 is outdated and this system is hard to maintenance trough the packet manager,
witch btw has the most horrid front end I've yet seen, at least there is a cli.

Ubuntu is still the best if you just want to use the computer.

Yet I don't want to change the OS before I'm totally sure,
that this beasts wifi card drivers are common enough to be easy to install/config.
Witch they are not as of now from what I've understood by browsing different forums.