New Live for my ZG5 (aka 110L) but...

I had Moblin installed on my ZG5 (8gb slow SSD) for a year, and was happy with how fast it boot.

Except, in my building there are over 20 wireless networks, the 2.4GHz started to be crowded.

So I was thinking to buy a new 10" Netbook with Dual Core Atom and NVidia ION when they become available, hopping they will come with 5Ghz network card also.

But I found on ebay an Intel 4965 AGN wireless card and third antenna for a few buck, I decided to give it a try.

Installing the wireless card is pretty easy, the third antenna, although probably not needed, took a bit more time, I put it just bellow the web cam, I needed to cut the shield to make it fit, if you look at the stock antennas you will understand what I mean.

Reassemble the netbook, I tought I had lost one screw on the ground, but end up with an extra screw. LOL.

Boot the machine, everything work exept that I got a kernel panic message at the beginning. Couldn't find any fix on the internet.

So I decided to try a more recent Linux Release, I had pretty bad experience with Ubuntu 9.10, which I found very slow.

Hesitate between MeeGo and try again Ubuntu NBR. I decided to go with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, mainly because I had it already on a USB key and because of the Long Term Support.

Installed stock, with all the default except a small tweek for the fan control.

So far so good, I'm please, a bit slower than Moblin but really stable, wireless connection look better and I haven't even upgrade yet my router to support 5Ghz bands.

Any mod I should do to get better performance?

[11/10/2010] I found that after boot, there is about a 30sec to 1 minute disk I/O which pretty mush freeze the computer, any idea?

[12/10/2010] Follow the instruction on the post viewtopic.php?f=28&t=19702&start=30#p115740 to fix the internal mic, SD cards and graphics.

Follow the instruction on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne/110L#SSD Performance, although not sure it still applicable to Ubuntu 10.04:

Cheers,

HVL

 

I chrono the real time it take before the computer is usable.

at 30 seconds desktop appears.
at 50 seconds desktop is frozen.
at 2:02 minutes desktop is usable.

It's far from Moblin boot time.

Really annoying,

Any idea how to find out why it's doing this?

Regards,

HVL

 

Just Installed Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop Edition with all default setings

Did the fix for the fan control.

57 seconds to boot to desktop and no freeze after.

Mush better, but still far from Moblin.

But I guess I will stick with it mainly because of the large Software Repository.

Cheers,

HVL

 

Have a read of the Macles blog - via google - as he explains why you get a lock up: it is all down to the speed of the SSD. There are a couple of new pata SSDs out there now that are far far better because of better controllers.

I too have an ZG5 with the SSD but ended up buying a D250 to use for work. The difference is like night and day in terms of faster boot time etc. I then upgraded the D250 to an SSD and 2GB of RAM which also made a step change improvement.

Unsurprisingly, my ZG5 doesn't get much use any more!

 

Hi HVL, when did you start and stop timing the boot for Ubuntu 10.10? When I upgraded I found my boot time increased massively, I'm sure it's over a minute now. I've added a slow SSD in the left card slot which I mount via fstab, I'm not sure if this would make the boot time longer though.

 

I start the timing when I press the power button. (Therefore it does include BIOS load time)
I stop timing when the desktop appear and the disk i/o led turn off.
I don't have SD card in my reader.

Still have 52 seconds boot time, which is not great compare to moblin, but it's ok until Santa pass by. ;-)

Cheers,

HVL

 

Yes, the stock SSD of the AA1 is slow, but with a light OS like Moblin, it's not bad.

Would be nice if Ubuntu really optimize the netbook remix.

Cheers,

HVL

 

Other stuff for performance:
For me, login->desktop is under 5 seconds (AOA150).
But, I use IceWM. I get the impression that UNR has a sluggish window manager, though I don't have proof. LXDE or a plain WM will run faster (maximum speed would be pwm/twm, but those offer virtually no functionality except allowing the use of multiple programs on one screen).
http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11/script-t ... lines.html
describes a script that doe speed things up some.
Also, check whether the mtrr cleanup stuff is needed on your computer--at least on some A1s, adjusting the mtrr settings improves graphics/reduces freezes. More info should be in the forum, I did it so long ago that I don't remember the method.