Kubuntu on the Aspire One

With a lot of help from some of the users, I've installed Kubuntu and got it running very well with my "slow SSD" and 1.5GB of RAM A110. Since I have the slowest SSD the Aspire One has and the worst battery, I can say I'm very pleased with how Kubuntu runs and I swear, it seems like the battery pasts longer under Kubuntu?

The install is a little different from Ubuntu, but it's actually easier to create the bootable USB. Here is how you install Kubuntu on the Acer Aspire One

The WiFI LED does not work, but the WiFI works very well.
The sound works straight off, no tweaks needed. I don't have headphones, so I can't try those.
As far as I know, everything else works "out of the box".

Special thanks go out to Aubrey, WanderingStar and sbemail. Without their help, I would not have been able to install the WiFi drivers and they also helped with getting the USB working

I'm still waiting for my USB bluetooth dongle and will post results.


Cheers!

 

Cool! Which version of KDE are you running? And how much time does it take to boot? Cause I love KDE, but I really don't like to lose the 14s boot time... and everything else works fine so far.

Thanks for sharing.

 

From pressing the power button, it takes 32 seconds to boot to an online usable system. That includes, Grub loading, log in (requires password) WiFI getting a DHCP address and everything. I think that's quite acceptable for me. I'm using what ever KDE (4.1?) comes with Kubuntu 8.04.1 I did not use the alternative CD, so everything is stock install.

I did optimize a lot of the setting in Kcontrol and disabled almost all of the effects and animations. Other than that, it's a standard Kubuntu install. I am using the ext2 file system (which does seem to help).

Shutdown takes 23 second from clicking "Shutdown".

Some things I've noticed:
The WiFi LED does not work.
The battery life seems improved, but I think that's because Kubuntu uses dynamic power setting and runs the CPU at 800MHz when not under load.
Add Remove Programs is slow to load the program list. It takes 22 seconds to load the "Games" application list with unsupported and proprietary software enabled.
Everything else seems to work out of the box.

 

osdude,

The link provided does not seem to work!
Can you please check the link or provide the info in another way?

Thanks.

 

Can you say what kind of battery life you're getting?

 

I don't know how long that battery would last, because I never took it below 30%. But with a full charge, in dynamic mode, it showed a 3hr life in power management.

 

http://dawhoo.com/blog/how-to-install-k ... spire-one/

If you're in Indo or China, you won't be able to see it though

 

Guess what, I am in Holland and the site if forbidden for me too!
We do have Chinese restaurants, but that's just about as far as the Chinese connection goes...

Any chance you post your guide somewhere else?

 

http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www. ... spire-one/

Anonymouse will work. I had to block out a lot of .NL IPs because of fraudulent orders.

 

Osdude,

Thank you, I am getting in now.
Great HowTo.
Do I understand correctly that sound is working without any additional work and settings?

 

yes, sound works for me and I didn't do anything other than the guide

 

Coul you please upload some pics of the envirmoent?

 

I installed Kubuntu the other day, as a dual boot, within the windows partition, using a wubi installer, or something. Im a complete linux noob...

I wanted wireless on kubuntu, so I followed the steps in the tutorial. Everything installed etc. no problems. typed 'exit' a bunch of times, and the terminal exited.

No idea how to enable the WiFi, but I just clicked 'Restart', as the author suggested.

Kubuntu won't boot anymore! It boots into something called BusyBox or something?? I have no idea what his is O_O

ps. I installed kubuntu using a downloaded cd, with a ext.dvdburner. It worked fine before the install, internet with ethernet-adapter..

edit: Strangest thing...I'm typing this in Kubuntu...for some reason, it booted...whatever, huh?

 

OSDude-
I followed your instructions on installing Kubuntu, and they worked perfectly. I am much happier with Kubuntu on my AA1 that with the crippled Linpus. Excellent job!

The only problem I have run into is since installing Kubuntu is that when I insert either of my USB drives (one is 1GB, the other is 8GB, which is used in the install) I get the following message:
"mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sbd1, missing codepage or helper program, or other error in some cases useful info is found in syslog -try dmesg | tail or so"

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm still new to Linux, but learning fast...

Thanks,
Catbucky

 

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=119&p=1227&hilit=usb+ubuntu#p1227


sudo kate /etc/fstab

put a # at the beginning of the line that begins "/media/cdrom0......"

save and exit

Cards and usb sticks will then mount automatically on insertion.

 

Hey it worked!
Thanks for the help...
Catbucky

 

Hi, so you just followed the instructions and the OS works with all the hardware except the wlight perfectly?

what exactly did you do after installing the OS? you mentioned optimizing stuff?

i think i shall do this.

EDIT: could you not just use this method to also install normal ubuntu? and if so would it work perfectly utilizing all hardware?

 

Hey I just installed Kubuntu, thanks for the guide!

My problems are - wireless, it worked the first time, now I restarted and it won't connect again... it shows my router as a trusted connection, but just won't connect. Hardware drivers are there and enabled, nothing happening.

A weird screen problem - the bottom 4 or 5 pixels of the taskbar are at the top of the screen, while the rest of the taskbar is at the bottom?! EDIT: this is only when I set the size of the taskbar to anything other than normal, so not too big a deal.

 

Everything worked for me right out of the box except the USB drives (which worked fine after the solution posted above) and the webcam, which I can't find any application that works with it. This isn't a big deal for me, since I don't use it anyway. But if anyone can think of a way to get it working, I'd sure like to try it.

Speaking for myself, I'm very happy with my AA1 running Kubuntu. It's much better than the Linpus that was installed. The only complaint I have with it is the tiresome way every application or feature in Kubuntu is spelled with a "K". It makes for a very confusing interface when everything (and I mean everything!) starts with a "K" Kontrol, Kate, Konquer, Kaffine, Korganizer, etc.

I also think the battery seems to last longer. You can see that the proc slows down to about 800 mHZ when idle using Kubuntu. I've squeezed nearly three hours out of it using the wireless.

So far, it's been very much worth the 2 hours or so get it up and running using the directions posted here.

Catbucky

 

Don't know about USB, they worked out of the box for me.... but for the webcam, download a program called Cheese, that let me check it was working.

I was also impressed at the battery life... I'd tried Linpus for about 3.5 minutes before deciding to install something else, I was fearing the worst after what people have said about the 3-cell, but 2.5 hours+ is easily achievable.