Thumbs-up for Ubunutu Eee Netbook Remix

Thanks for the suggestion. How did you make your LivUSB?

I've made LivUSB for the Ubuntu-eee on a windows machine using Unetbootin with no problem. eeeBuntu has been really troublesome ..... the LivUSB hangs on boot up with read error messages.

I've repeated this on a linux box trying different file formats ext2 and ext3 and cannot make a LivUSB that will boot up.

Very frustrating and all this just to get a microphone working ......there must be an easier way?

 

Like half the people in this forum, I too am searching for a Linux distro that works properly but every one I try almost works except for a some critical problem, usually to do with sound.

The closest I have got is stock intrepid ibex with a few very minor tweaks but it's not close enough to switch away from Linpus. I don't like Linpus but it is quick and supports ALL the hardware.

There are a lot of reports that "everything works" but these really mean "everything I've tried works" which, while perfectly reasonable, is not the same thing.

So can I ask a favour of those who have installed eeebuntu? Can you let us know which of the following you have tested and which work please? If you have only tested some things, that's fine, I can try to aggregate the responses. Meanwhile, I shall be digging out my third large USB drive and I'll have a go myself.

Sound

Sound playback (at a sensible volume) through speakers and headphone socket
Internal mic (particularly with Skype)
External mic

Card readers

Left hand card reader booted up with SDHC card
Right hand card reader with or without card present at boot, mounted properly, multiple card types

Network

Wired network
Wireless network
Wireless kill switch
Wireless indicator light

Power saving modes

Hibernate (with cards and USB drives mounted)
Suspend (with cards and USB drives mounted)

This list is not complete (no webcam for instance, but that always seems to work) but these are what I consider to be "everything" so it would be great if we got this far with any Debian-based distro. Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

I'm interested in knowing if the mic works. And which version of Ubuntu Remix is better in the end?

Isn't there a way to make/build/install the default one from Canonical?
http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/nbr



eks

 

How do you add additional keyboard setting and have it displayed in the task bar with remix?

 

Great idea ..... we need some co-ordination on this one.
I'd love to ditch Linpus and put a Debian-based distro BUT one that has all the hardware support outlined above.

I'll certainly contribute if I can get eeebuntu runing from a live USB.
I'm particularly keen to know whether the internal mic works with Skype .... and the rest of the sound system.

If anyone can contribute to this thread on experiences (of eeebuntu)...... that would be fantastic ... go on .... help out us Newbies (me personally) that love the Acer One but feel we can get much more out of the OS!

 

I am using Hardy Ubuntu Remix and i am loving it......

 

Hey everyone,

Can you give me impressions on bootup times and battery life for those who have the 3 or 6 cell. Thanks.

 

So are you saying the everything works (see above)? I have enjoyed Hardy Ubuntu Remix, but according to my experience and the community docs (that describe the install process), not everything works. We need more that 'i love it' or 'it works for me'.

I can say this about Intrepid (ubuntu 8.10 no ume launcher*).....

Sound
Speakers and headphone jack - functional
Internal Mic/Skype - functional
External Mic - not tested

Card Readers
Left card reader; Have it set to be my home directory rather than an Logical Volume tied to the SSD. - functional
Right card reader; Mounts SDHC at boot and post boot. - functional

Network

Wired network - functional
Wireless network - Works at boot and for approximately 20 minutes thereafter. After it stops working, you need to shutdown, pull battery and/or power cord to reset the device. - partial function.
Wireless kill switch - NOT functional
Wireless indicator light - NOT functional


Power saving modes

Hibernate (with cards and USB drives mounted) - Not tested.
Suspend (with cards and USB drives mounted) - Not tested

I do know that the machine does not sleep on Battery. I have it set to 11 minutes and have never seen it in sleep or hibernate mode.

* UME Launcher won't install on 8.10. There is an extremely lengthy and complex workaround on the Acer Aspire One page of the Ubuntu Community Docs. The Netbook Remix Team is not ready to release a version for Intrepid 8.10. From what I gather, there is no particular time frame for a release. All the required packages are still at Hardy except for two.

 

This is interesting because between us we have almost everything working. My sound doesn't work properly (much much too quiet) but my wireless card works perfectly.

All I did to get wireless working was to blacklist ath_pci. I presume you have tried this.

Did you have to do anything special to get sound working? I have been advised to use the pulseaudio drivers but I don't know how. I have set the top four in sound preferences to pulse but it has made no difference. Sound works but is absurdly quiet.

My last two attempts at suspending have resulted in a completely trashed SDHC card and a kernel halt so I am disinclined to try again or to attempt to hibernate. Perhaps I'll back up and try hibernating.

 

Yep and I have modprobe ath5k in /etc/rc.local. I am going to blacklist ath_hal and see if that helps.

Didn't do anything to get the sound going. I have used pulseaudio and alsa, both had reasonable volume and worked right out of the box.

Yea I can confirm now that suspend has trouble. Hibernate is working as long as I have a small swap.

If I can figure anything out about the sound, I will post back here.

 

Since I have no replies from eeebuntu users, I will add to the info about Intrepid Ibex.

I now have all the items in my post above working except the power saving modes. I haven't been able to test cards other than SD/SDHC in the right hand card reader but everything else works. Suspend doesn't work and hibernate requires two reboots to work but I strongly suspect that is just because I am currently booting from a USB stick.

The only issue I have is that sound capture is choppy in Skype, but it does work.

For the avoidance of doubt, the following work.

Sound, in and out, external and internal at reasonable volume (but as mentioned above, input is choppy in Skype)
Both card readers (only tested with SDHC and SD cards) inserted at boot time or not (only right card reader tested without card at boot)
Wired and wireless networks (haven't tested kill switch but I'd be surprised if it worked and light doesn't work)
Webcam
Volume and brightness buttons

We're getting there...

 

Brilliant ..... thanks for this .... as soon as the Ibex Ubuntu eee version is out I'll install this on my Acer One.

 

I am having intermittent problems with the wireless. My connection drops and usually I need to pull power and the battery to get it back. If there is another wireless network nearby I can sometimes connect to it and then reconnect to my AP.

Last night I got a bunch of updates for 8.10 that seem to have improved how long I can keep my connection, but it still will drop after a period of time. I haven't been able to find any information about others with the same issue. Hopefully this will clear up with the final release of 8.10.

If anyone is having the issue, please reply on this thread.

Thanks

Edit: My connection speed has also been extremely low. The system reports anywhere between 1m and 9m.

 

Couldn't wait for Ibex eee version so I've installed Hardy eee version ...... why didn't I do this sooner??? .... its a real improvement over Linpus (which was driving me mad as the wireless was very flaky). Yes the sound and sd card readers have some interesting behaviour - but I've not tried to fix these as I'll install Ibex eee version next month.

Why didn't Acer cut a deal with Ubuntu? It was fun to live with a different distro for a while, but it made me appreciate how good Ubuntu really is.

 

What's the 3g modem support like? I can get my 3g modem to work under interpid.

 

Installed it, liked the look of it, did some updates and... now it will not start - I just get a blinking cursor - suggestions?

 

Sounds like a minor grub (boot loader) problem to me. Did you install from a CD or USB stick? Whichever you used, boot from it again and check whether your partitions on the HDD/SSD are still OK and then reinstall grub.

I have no idea how much experience you have with Linux or Ubuntu but there are pages all over the interweb telling you how to do this such at this one http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351.

 

I've done that and fixed the problem.

I'm trying to convert from ext3 to ext2 - however, the first step

fdisk -l doesn't seem to do anything, so I'm unable to determine what my drive is called.

 

If the drive to which you refer is the internal SSD then it is /dev/sda and the first ie root / partition is called /dev/sda1.

You need to run fdisk as root thus:

$ sudo fdisk -l

On my One I get the following output

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 8069 MB, 8069677056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 981 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3877224c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         787     6321546   83  Linux
/dev/sda2             788         981     1558305   82  Linux swap / Solaris