Successful install of NBR 9.04 on a ZG5

My Windows XP had a problem installing the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, after following Microsoft instruction, I end up corrupting the OS to the point that it would require to much time to fix it manually. So I decided to re-install, or should I say, I installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 on my Aspire ONE ZG5 (8GB SDD version)

Community Documentation is pretty good, so I will refer to it as much as possible, thank you to all the people that took the time writing them, the only thing missing is a step by step approach, so here are my steps:

During installation.

I manually configure my partition: 100MB for the boot partition and the remaining for the root partition.
I use ext2 file system and didn't allocate a swap partition to optimize performance of the SDD, i.e. minimize writes. I think there is a way to have a swap partition only for hibernate but since I never hibernate I didn't look at how to do this. I will read a little bit later on ext3 and 4 to see the difference and if they are good for SDD.

After installation:

First, I optimize the SDD Performance:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne#OPTIMIZING SSD PERFORMANCE:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne#REDUCING SSD WEAR:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne#DISABLE SCROLLKEEPER:

Then I install all the latest update, when it ask if you want to modify the /boot/grub/menu.lst, say yes, made the mistake to say no, it's not hard to fix later on but I would have like to avoid the extra steps.

Second: FireFox Optimization for SDD Netbook:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne110L#Speed up Firefox

Since I use Firefox most of the time, I added /usr/bin/firefox to the Startup Applications using the GUI under Preferences.

Third: activating Wireless LED

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AA1/Fixes#WiFi LED

Fourth: Reducing the FAN Noise

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AA1/Fixes#Fan Control

Fifth: Unlock Keyring

I set to automatic login during installation, it asked my password to unlock the default keyring for the Network Manager Applet everytime I boot.

So I blank the password by going to Applications/Passwords and Encryption Keys, than Password Tabs, right click on Passwords: login, select Change Password.

"Interesting reply from T5Dave bellow, tested and it work, Thanks for the tip."

Sixth: Fix Audio Recording

Didn't work with cheese, so I followed the instruction @

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne#line-43

Still didn't work, I figure out that if I reduced the recording resolution to 320x240, it works but there is sound noise and the images are choppy. I will need to do more test. Suggestion are welcome?

Seventh: Installed the different codecs using Add/Remove Application

GStreamer ffmpeg video plugin
GStreamer extra plugins
GStreamer plugins for mms, wavpack, quicktime, musepack

Tested an XVID MPEG-4 624 x 352, work very well, sometime there are artefact like lines on the screen.
Tested an H.264 / AVC 1280 x 720, as expected, it was choppy, Tested some 480p video on Apple Web Site, work well.

Eight: Activate Card Readers when cards are not present at boot time.

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AA1/Fixes#Card Reader(s)

It added 5 seconds to the boot time, but I can't say if it use some CPU cycle during usage.

So far so good: The Nebook is operationnal and I'm happy with the performance, 45 seconds for cold boot with Firefox loaded, impressive!

If you have any suggestion to improve my installation, let me know.

Cheers,

HVL

note: for some reason url with space, space get replaced by %20, sorry if you need to cut and paste

 

I've got a slightly more trick way of speeding up firefox - basically, instead of having firefox dump it's cache in the temp directory, I've mounted the firefox profile directory as a ramdisk (tmpfs), and I found a script on the net that packs and unpacks that directory to a file to allow firefox to correctly maintain cookies etc.

Basically, to start off with - get your profile name. cd to the .mozilla/firefox directory and note down the directory name (abc123.default or whatever it is)

make a backup of everything that's in there to start off with, and copy it to your home directory for safe keeping (tar cpf packed.tar abc123.default && cp packed.tar $HOME/packed.tar)

Close firefox if it's running and delete everything in the profile directory, but keep the directory name (abc123.default or whatever yours is)

edit /etc/fstab to mount the firefox profile directory on tmpfs (so a line something like firefox /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/abc123.default tmpfs size=128M,noauto,user,exec,uid=1000,gid=100 0 0)

make a file in your home directory called .pack_ffox.sh (the period is to hide it) with the following contents:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

PROFILE="your profile directory goes here"

cd ${HOME}/.mozilla/firefox

if test -z "$(mount | grep -F "${HOME}/.mozilla/firefox/${PROFILE}" )"
then
mount "${HOME}/.mozilla/firefox/${PROFILE}"
fi

if test ! -f "${PROFILE}/.unpacked"
then
tar xpf packed.tar &&\
touch "${PROFILE}/.unpacked"
else
tar --exclude '.unpacked' -cpf packed.tmp.tar "$PROFILE" && \
test -f packed.tar && mv packed.tar packed.tar.old && \
mv packed.tmp.tar packed.tar
fi

Use correct indentation though

then, chmod +x the .pack_ffox.sh script, and cd to /etc/gdm/PreSession - sudo gedit the Default file and add the line

Code:

"${HOME}/.pack_ffox.sh"

above the line saying exit 0. Do the same for the Default file in the /etc/gdm/PostSession directory too.

This will run the shell script when the session begins to untar the package into the correct area, and it will run the script when the session ends to tarball it all back up for safe keeping while the system is off.

Firefox now hardly writes at all to the SSD while it's in use, which makes for a happier SSD and a quicker browser!

 

As for Network Manager, simply right click on it, select "Edit Connections", click your Wireless one, click Edit, authorise the session, click the check box next to "Available to all users" and bingo - no more network manager needs to unlock the keyring on startup

 

Found an issue today, I have Kingston SD Elite Pro 2GB 50X

And the card is not detected. Any solution?

Thanks,

Huy