Ubuntu 9.04 for Netbooks

-All I do on the AA1 is web surfing, watching videos, photos, listening to music, typing my essays and holding the kind of data a Palmtop does. That's why XP might eventually be redundant for me. However, I still have to find a way to make my Lexmark network printer work under Ubuntu. They can't be bothered making a driver for Linux...

-about the swap partition: I am aware that it is big, but my physical RAM amount to 1.5gb and I read that the swap must be at least the size of the RAM. Also that I should make it as big as I can afford to if i want to use the suspend and hibernate features.

-you're right, luck might not have much to do with it: I spent an entire afternoon surfing the web looking for answers, guides and tips before I even started to install UNR. I am an information professional, so I always carefully research before I attempt to do anything...

 

> No - you're just willing to read and learn...

Willing is only part of it. You've also got to have the technical acumen and the time. 95% of PC users won't fall into that category where the three intersect. That's why Linux is not ready to displace Windows. Don't get me wrong, I'm pulling for Ubuntu, but the pundits (dvorak) that keep saying that desktop Linux is ready need to consider that.

 

I fully agree with you. That's why I have Linux installed but still using Windows as there is less problems with system it self. I have very good feelings about Linux but this system may be full replacement for M$ Windows in the next let's say 10 years... Maybe...

 

i agree with both of you too. Linux is more exciting for geeks like us who are up to a few challenges, and I might get rid of XP on my AA1, but there is no way I am going to run Ubuntu as an only operating system on my main PC (to give just one of many reasons: my excellent all-in-one wireless printer would be just an expensive paperweight)
I don't think Linux will ever be as up to scratch as Windows unless it becomes charged for and nearly as expensive, which would kind of defeat the original idea...

 

I haven't installed the final version, but I can tell you that I have no problem with my wireless with the UNR 9.04 RC. I have a WPA2 PSK-protected network using AES.

 

I'v the final version isntalled now and everything works great ( the normal stuff)
Installed it in 45min trough sd card

 

Wow, I may have to eat my words - despite my reservations I took the plunge and installed "the remix" about 4 hours ago. I'm blown away! I love this UI! The problems I was seeing with my wireless connection disappeared once I installed on HDD instead of running from the stick. It successfully browses to my windows server share, detected the HP printer shared off my Windows XP workstation, Rythembox automatically detected my DAAP share (and prompted to install the correct codecs), and the KeepassX (available as an addon app) password vault recognizes the files created by my Windows client (Blackbox password manager)! I've struggled with previous versions of Ubuntu in my "mixed" environment but not this time. Unbelievable. Great work Canonical.

Good thing, too, because I don't believe in dual-booting lol...yes, I always choose "use my WHOLE hard drive"...

 

Regarding swap files; Given how slow the SSD is, I didn't think it was worth the hassle, so I've been running with 1.5Gb of RAM and no swap for about a year now (from 8.04 upwards). I've not had any problem bar not being able to suspend to disc (hibernate).

9.04UNR is working perfectly so far, except that attempting a hibernation did a good job of corrupting my disks. It's a bit slower than the custom sickboy kernel (but that doesn't support my wireless), but overall noticeably quicker than 8.10.


@bgriggs - My wireless card started off not connecting properly with exactly the symptoms you describe, from there it went to not detecting any networks at all, and finally just stopped working. I think it might have overheated... I picked up a cheap Intel card off ebay which has been working fine and even better, works out of the box with every OS I've tried so far.

 

I also run without swap. I'm still waiting for my 16GB SDHC-card to put in the Storage Expansion slot, and as soon as I get it I'm reinstalling UNR 9.04 to make use of the extra space. The only place Linpus owns UNR is the aufs dynamic storage expansion.

 

Someone has already asked these but is there any step-by-step guide for newbie's for all the fixes (for version 9)? A lot of these fixes are for version 8 and I cant work out if they are still needed for version 9.

- is there a reliable workaround for the SD card issue ?
- what are the pros and cons of ext4 vs ext2 on an SSD ?
- what is the best way of implementing fan control ?

I added the line "modprobe pciehp" to the rc.local. Is this the SD card fix?
I formatted my SSD as ext4, but now I'm reading maybe I should have gone with ext2. Which is better for SSD?
For the fan issue, I found somewhere to add the line "/usr/local/bin/acerfand" to the rc.local but it didnt do anything. I take I need to create this acerfand file first?

Another tweak was:
wifi led> install linux backport package
How?
I tried another led fix by adding the following to the rc.local as suggested elsewhere. Did nothing.
sysctl -w dev.wifi0.ledpin=3
sysctl -w dev.wifi0.softled=1

Any help appreciated. Please remember, I'm a newbie so keep it step-by-step instruction like you'd have to show your granny.

Sin

 

Hi sin,

NO CLI TWEAKS NEEDED FOR WIFI LED.. I struggled same same way you did before I figured this out. make that you update eveything, then go to Synaptic Package Manger.... search for linux-backports-modules-jaunty ...then click mark for installation.. and then reboot... so simple... actually I only used command line when I installed the slingbox player..

ps.. when you click this package at least 3 more packages will be installed automatically..

 

Thanks! That worked a treat. Only CPU fan trick to hunt down (assuming my ext4 format is not rubbish compared with ext2 ofcourse).

Sin

 

With the backports-modules loaded I only have 12 available WiFi channels, but in Germany there should be 13 channels. in the standard configuration of 9.04 there are 14 available channels, which is also not o.k. for Germany.

Please check with:
iwlist wlan0 channel

 

Tried 9.04 last night managed all except Skype

Could not get any sound (played or recorded).
Anyone else got this prob or an answer?

 

I had the same problem, but it was fixed tweaking manually the audio control preferences in Skype properties. I don't remeber exactly which, but it was not hard at all.

 

I got my 16GB SDHC-card the other day and installed UNR 9.04.

I have a 6GB / partition and 2GB swap on the SSD, and a 16GB /home partition on the SDHC (the two data-partitions are formated as ext4).

I decided to test the SDHC corruption issue. Suspending the machine works fine, hibernation does not. Trying to hibernate the machine will corrupt the journal and that means the partition is lost.

So if you have a SDHC card in the Storage Expansion slot and you use ext4 (and I suspect ext3 will have this issue too), make sure you don't set any of the Power Management settings to Hibernate.

 

Don't have that problem as I can't get my AA1 to notice either SD card reader exists.

 

Even if you insert the card before booting the computer?
The card should be available at /dev/mmcblk0p1, so you should be able to mount from there.

Just for the record, what model AAO do you have and what version of UNR do you have? Have you tried Linpus Lite to see if the cardreader works there?

 

A150LB. The readers worked in Linpus and in Intrepid Ibex. They haven't worked in Jaunty with the Netbook Remix.
I'm new to Linux and don't understand :

 

Agreed. I have just done a clean install of 9.04UNR on my 8G SSD AA1 and both SD cards are available if present at boot (otherwise not).

I have read that this problem can be solved by adding parameters (I don't recall exactly what) to the kernel boot line in /boot/grub/menu.lst. Can anybody who has done this confirm ?