Are these 10 tweaks safe

Hi,

I was going to perform these ten tweaks to my new Acer Aspire One - but just wanted to make sure they are safe and won't break anything as I'm no expert with Linux to fix it.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/05 ... _one_tips/

The one that looks particulary painful is the upgrade to Fire Fox version 3 as disables componants attached to version 2.

Do the tweaks look okay and should I use the Fire Fox on the Acer website instead, (or is that version 2)

Cheers

 

I've done them but I've also added other customisations.

The FF3 update is not a replacement if you follow the Macles way and certainly works for me.
I can run either FF3 or FF2 so both are installed. The FF2 parts are required unless you really know how to crack and repoint the bits in Linpus. (I dont!).

 

Which is the Macles way - I'm a newby here )

 

http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/inst ... e-one.html

hope this helps you out

 

Thanks for the pointer to the 10 Tweaks site. Suddenly, I'm much less frustrated by this thing.

 

I tried to follow the directions installing vlc and discovered that the person writing the directions has no clue.
The instructions say that the vlc website will tell you to install livna respository. It does nothing of the kind!
Has anyone actually gone and looked at the page? There are downloads for different versions of fedora, none of which show up in a search for linpus lite.

Without knowing which version we are suppose to install, there is no way to discover which livna repository or anything else that is suppose to be installed.

99% of people who profess to know how to make instructions are incapable of explaining how to do elementary things. Without knowing how this person supposedly was told to download this or that... no one else can follow the directions. The more logical conclusion is that they selected something or did something on the website and that they didn't specify what exactly they did. If we are suppose to download a livna repository... is it for fedora 6 or fedora 7? Where does it say on the website which one is for linpus lite?

Come one people! If you write directions at least know how to do that properly or don't bother!

 

The Livna repository has been replaced by the fusion repository. See - http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6749&hilit=livna.

This is fairly recent change and well after the original article was written. It is always helpful to try a search on this forum.

 

Re: Are these 10 tweaks safe....NO!

I wouldn't trust the 10 tweaks as being safe. Although I had no problems installing skype and adding the extra right click menu... most of the instructions I have read conflict with each other.
For example... we are told to somehow find a particular fedora version (good luck trying to do that) and install it...doesn't work. Now we are told to use a fusion version... Why the change? Didn't the first instructions work with the fedora version? :roll:

 

IT HAS NOW BEEN A WEEK AND I AM STILL TRYING TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO WRITE ACCURATE DIRECTIONS ON INSTALLING VLC AND OTHER PROGRAMS. SO FAR NO ONE HAS BEEN UP TO THE TASK. I AM NOW TRYING TO FIX MISTAKES AGAIN ON POSTINGS ABOUT HOW TO INSTALL VLC. SO FAR I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO GET THE FIRST STEP COMPLETED BECAUSE OF DEFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONS.

SO DON'T TRY USING THESE 10 TWEAKS BECAUSE YOU WILL HAVE A LOT OF FIXING TO DO FROM FAULTY DIRECTIONS BY PEOPLE WHO CANNOT EVEN EXPLAIN SIMPLE THINGS IN ENGLISH. SO MUCH FOR A WASTED EDUCATION! JUST LOOK AT THE POSTINGS YOURSELF AND SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HAVING PROBLEMS FOLLOWING BAD INSTRUCTIONS!

BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE IS TO STOP LISTENING TO PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN THINGS RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. MAYBE THERE SHOULD BE A SECTION ON HERE TO HELP THESE PEOPLE LEARN HOW TO WRITE INSTRUCTIONS.

i'LL SUGGEST THE TOPIC... ANYONE WANT TO SECOND THE MOTION?

 

As an aside, in case anyone didn't know, VLC is available as an "official" download for the AAO on Acer's Update site:

http://www.acer.com/aspireone/support/files/fun.html

When I see tweaks and hacks that are complicated I tend to avoid them, as I am far too much of a Linux noob to be certain of not bricking my AAO!

 

I consider 1, 2, 3, 9 to be mandatory. FF3, Gimp, Skype, and VLC are all available from the Acer software support site. In addition, you should create a backup USB (8gb flash drive should work fine). http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/12/acer ... ackup.html. Once you have both a recovery USB to take your AA1 back to its "as-delivered" state, and a full backup from its current state, you can feel safe to try almost anything with the knowledge that you can always undo any mistakes with a restore.

I was quite comfortable with editing XML, so I also enthusiastically applied tweak #6 in order to re-arrange things to my tastes. If you decide to tackle editing group-app.xml, make a backup copy before you make any changes. XML isn't rocket science, but as with most things of that sort, a "trivial" error can have catastrophic consequences.

I'm of the "learn by doing" school (which occasionally is "learn by breaking"). Over the years, I've probably learned more from my mistakes than from reading documentation or formal instruction.

 

That's a good attitude to have. I also avoid changing stuff on the OS if its not a necessity. Why not give yourself time to enjoy learning the OS before you start changing things?

I tried acer's update site. Save yourself a lot of trouble and don't bother with that version. The codecs (code-decode) sections are not installed. I couldn't even get that vlc version to play avi files that mplayer could play. Fortunately, there are directions on how to remove the abortion of an install. Even if you don't need to uninstall, read the directions so you know how to remove bad installations or stuff that just doesn't work as well as you'd hoped for. Thereafter I went to the Macles site and copied and pasted the instructions into a terminal window and it took ages to download all the necessary stuff while installing. I would recommend the removal instructions on that website so you get a clean install of vlc as some people have reported issues between vlc and the default media player. Why waste precious SSD space having programs that do the same things?
The one issue that resulted from the installation was that on the desktop, the first location was blank in the Fun section and VLC was way down the list. Further down the list is an easy fix to change the current position of VLC from the last spot in the Fun section to the first spot so it fills in the empty spot left by removing the default Media Player. Be very careful editing the group.app. However... a safer alternative to reordering the icons is....

People have also been saying you can drag and drop icons in the groups so as to re-arrange their order. I could not get this to work because I was trying to drag and drop the icon in the space between the icons like you might do in OSX. To drag/drop in Linux you must drag an icon and drop it on top of another icon to move its position up or down in the list of the desktop programs.

Since this VLC installation changes a lot of stuff on your system, copy and pasting is a good idea for avoiding typos. In OSX you use ALT-C to copy and ALT-V to paste. Linux uses Control C or Control V instead of ALT C or ALT V. Linux hates typos... and can do bad stuff if you type something wrong.

 

The ten tweaks guide says don't go past step 5 if you haven't made a backup. I see no point in installing firefox 3 and risking the chance that programs might get broken. So I would suggest leaving that step out because firefox 2 works just fine. You can still get add-on for the older firefox version from the firefox website.

Search for macles via google. The VLC version 9 does install a fully working VLC player even though there is stuff missing from the directions which could cause issues. If it asks if this is OK, press y and enter. Worked for me. Give yourself a bunch of time because its a long installation process. Use copy and paste to avoid making typos in the terminal window.