Tuning OpenSuse 11.2 on AOA150

Having installed from a net install boot CD the following tweaks are needed to fine tune the box.
They are mostly documented in http://en.opensuse.org/Acer_Aspire_One.

1. Use YAST, software manager to download acerfand. This stops the fan below a threshold temperature. Otherwise it runs constantly at low speed.
2. Download powertop and implement any recommendations it gives to reduce cpu wakeups.
3.wifi works 'out of the box' but see the above link if you want the leds to show connection/activity as the default is no leds to save power, just a popup message when connecting/disconnecting.
4. SD card readers need a /etc/modprobe.d/pciehp.conf file as documented in the link. Once the file is created they do not auto-install, but you open then file manager which then runs a discovery and mounts them - saves power not constantly looking I guess.
5. There is an Acer Aspire configuration file not automatically down-loaded as part of the install process.

The leanest desktop is LXDE and should give a resting current consumption of about 7.3 watts.



It is then a very well behaved box,

 

Rather than start a new thread, I'll just summarize my experiences with openSUSE 11.3 on an AA1 D150. I have previously installed Ubuntu 9.04, 9.10, 10.04 and Mint 9 from both optical discs and USB flash drives to HDD, SSD, 8gb SDHC memory card, and 8gb USB flash drive without significant issues.

After four unsatisfactory installations (each taking 75-90 minutes) I threw in the towel on openSUSE 11.3.
1) KDE installation; couldn't make encrypted connection to Apple Airport.
2) Gnome installation. Errors when attempting to run initial software updates
3) Repeat #2 with different error messages
4) Attempt to install Live Gnome wasn't even this successful; it wouldn't even complete the boot sequence.

I'm sticking with Ubuntu, which has been rock solid, and runs extremely fast on a SSD.