Best Linux distro ?

Hello,

Ok, so i got myself an Acer Aspire one AOA150-1570 - it comes with windows. I hate windows, the only reason i bought it with it, was because i didn't like the linux version coming with 512 of ram, but i found out you can add a 1 gb stick, too bad for me

Anywho ... i have ubuntu remix installed, it is working fine - after 1 week of changing things around. but, today i finally (almost) fixed the sound, it works but when plug in the headphones, the speakers still work, before i did this . microphone works fine.

Now after suspend, sound works fine! but network doesnt work anymore.

Anyways, is there a better distro to use? Doesn't the other acer machines come with Linpus but if i install it, will everything work fine ?

thanks

 

I bought the Linpus machine and decided to replace it as it was too limited as it came and the changes to reduce the limitations were more trouble than I wanted to be involved with. I tried Ubuntu but found it needed more work than it was worth at that time. Then I found Onelinux (a customized Ubuntu) and almost everything worked out of the box as they say. The problem with Onelinux is it died as the owner quit working on it and with drew it from av availability. Then I tried Mandriva 2009 Gnome and almost every thing worked out of the box. I had to add a couple lines to a couple files to get the right SD card reader to work consistently and to make the speakers turn off when the headset is plugged in. Then there were a couple of configuration setting I had to find and use via the GUI (Graphical User Interface) to set things as I want them (of course you would need to do that with any OS), but I now have everything working except for suspend which I don't like or use. The only thing to remember is that the SD readers must have a card in it when booting to get it to work. I use the left side with an SDHC of 16Gb as my home partition and the 8Gb SSD as both root and swap. Also worth a mention is I use the Backup Script Rbil made to keep a backup of everything in case I do something stupid and mess up my system which I have done and been saved by Rbil's script.

 

I would think that by installing Linpus on an XP-preloaded Aspire One it would work well. These machines were designed for Linux originally, right?

I broke down and got an Aspire with a spinning platter hard drive - because it has more storage. I have an EEE PC, yet find the SSD to be terribly slow. Yet my AAO's platter drive runs faster than the EEE. What's the deal yo! :?

Why did you get the solid state drive over the HDD?

(FYI the EEE PC's case feels really cheap, and the screen is uncomfortably tiny. I mean... I don't get it. The screen could go much bigger. There's at least an inch on all sides!! It's like driving an SUV with a window that's fit for a Mini Cooper. )

Dan

 

Dan, IMO this post should have it's own thread.

 

For now the best one is Mandriva 2009 ONE - GNOME ..... only the right side slot has issues on setup, BUT is very easy to fix after setup. Everything else just plain works. Webcam, sound, sd slots, sleep.... the works.

 

I just picked up my AA1 yesterday. I used Ubuntu for years and years now but what I've read kept me away from installing it. Instead I just did this viewtopic.php?f=39&t=a4310#p28777, that gets rid off that "lite" screen and you end up with the xfce desktop. It's not as appealing as Ubuntu ( for me)) but costumizable and does the trick, and not to mention card readers and sound works! D))

 

You say everything works - does that include the xD card reading capabilities of the right side slot? This is my only issue with Fedora, Ubuntu, and all the derivatives. Thus far, only Linpus Lite makes the xD card reader work for me.

 

Yes, the right SD card slot works... not out of the box. But with a minor tweak you can do after the install process of Mandriva.

 

I had my SO install Mandriva for me (he likes playing around with linux) but I find it terribly slow. Bootup takes easily 90 seconds, general use has delays everywhere (opening menus and things like that), it doesn't have a suspend/hibernate option and I can't open files over the network with their designated programs (like a simple odt file).

I'm looking for a new linux distro I can install myself that'll boot up faster and ... well, fixes above issues altogether So I just hope this thread will fill up with useful tips on which one to get. I also read some team is working on a distro that's specifically designed for the AAO, kukie or something. Hopefully that will work out fine.

Maybe someone with a lot of time on their hands wants to draw up a comparison sheet with stuff like battery usage, boot up times stuff that needs tweaking after install and all that?

 

Did he install Mandriva on EXT2 filesystem? I'll assume you have the SSD version. On SSD, the best way for Mandriva 2009 to perform well is to use the GNOME ISO, install in EXT2, and have at least 1gb RAM. Suspend works btw, at least on mine it does. So does network sharing. Looks like your SO didnt do a good job in setting up ur Mandriva...... Bootup is the only downside I can see. I got mine down to 1m15sec..... but it's still slow, but I can live with that. As long as everything else works.

 

I only have 512MB RAM, maybe that's why.

Network works, just an .doc or .odt won't open with open office. It's okay though, I've been reading up on kuki and that looks really cool. It's not my primary pc (not even my secundary, hehe) so I can wait until that works well.

 

Without having to tweak anything, I believe Linpus (the preinstalled Linux OS for the AAO) is the way to go for now. Not everything works out of the box with Mandriva and Ubuntu etc. So if you're new to Linux try Linpus and get to know about Linux the easy way. If you can wait a little, "Kuki" (which is supposed to specifically cater to the AAO's hardware) is the next big thing for the AAO I'm sure.

 

I agree.

 

I know everyone says Mandriva 2009 Gnome but I have had perfect luck besides wireless with Ubuntu 8.10. I have the 120GB Blue Acer One that came with Windows (repainted it though) and I dual boot Ubuntu with 0 issues. The wireless was simply fixed with this:
*
disable ath_pci( use ath5k )
System->HardwareDrivers-> ( disable Atheros 802.11 wireless lan cards )
sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic <
>
*
System->HardwareDrivers-> ( enable 5xxx series of Atheros 802.11 wireless lan cards )
sudo modprobe ath5k

SD cards work, Webcam works, everything. Just as a sub option.

I personally just use linux to learn it though. I have no issue with Win XP

 

On the 8GB SSD, I tend to agree with using Linpus, at least so far. I'm not big on bootup speed, but it does work well for what it's supposed to do--I added fluxbox as WM and it was quite snappy, while a bit slow on other distributions.

On the 120 or 160 GB versions, I would defintely go with another distribution.

Anything with a 2.6.27 kernel will work with the wireless, though not the LED's. I've run (in many cases, I only tested wireless and sound) Fedora, Ubuntu (both Hardy and Intrepid) GOS, Kuki, CentOS (takes a bit of work to install, see the CentOS wiki) SimplyMepis and Mandriva (from USB only).

Depending upon your experience and willingness to possibly break something, most Linux distributions should run on the hard drive versions. With many, possibly still most, of them you will have to use the MadWifi drivers for the wireless, but that's relatively trivial and even the newcomer can find various pages with easy to follow instructions, including my own.

 

I have tried.... my machine has 1.5gb ram, 8gb ssd
ubuntu- worked but with some tweaking, didn't like the slow boots
Fedora (8,9,10) - same as above
mandriva (2008.1, 2009) - almost everything works, the best so far for linux distros other than linpus
pc-bsd- wireless actually worked but boot times are horrible and no webcam card readers etc...
xp- works great as long as you sont mind some system "pauses" every once in a while
vista- works good but eats up 8gb too fast, even after being vlited
foresight linux- never could get it to install for some reason
Puppy- works ok with some tweaking, but not all hardware

And the BEST distro for the AA1 right now...... LINPUS! I find myself comming back to linpus everytime. Why? because of the extremely fast boot times and everything works with no tweaking, sure i have the fan hack memorized now, as well as how to edit the menu but thats just personal preference stuff. I only use my AA1 for browsing the internet, checking email, and word docs. Linpus does all of that with ease.

But I will try Kuki when it comes out, and if it has the same stability that linpus has given me and has 15 sec boot times I will use that, remember the AA1 is a netbook and not much more....


*edit* Oh and on linpus FF2 > FF3 :mrgreen:

 

I don't understand this, although I've seen it written by several people - usually after they have described how the Aspire One can do just about anything any other laptop can. It has a higher specification than my old laptop, apart from the screen size. I can use it for anything from DTP (Scribus) to picture editing (Gimp), web design (Quanta), word processing and spreadsheets (OpenOffice), running virtual machines (Virtualbox). I can plug SD cards into it for file transfers (where my old laptop's SD card slot failed for lack of Linux drivers), greatly easing the process of getting pictures off my camera (ready for editing) and into the vast acreage of storage space (I've got the 120GB hard disk version).

So far, using Mandriva 2009 Powerpack edition (not an advert, but it can't hurt to encourage them) I have had no major problems doing anything I have set out to do with this 'netbook' - which is considerably more than browsing the internet. In fact I wouldn't have forked out 250 quid for a device that was only good for buying things off Amazon.

 

And aside for running virtual machines I can do all of that on my Nokia n810... which only has a TI 400mhz processor... I said I only use it for web browsing etc. I didn't say that's all it was good for, I said linpus was a good fit for me becuase it does all the things that I wanted it to do.

 

I know you said that, but you also said:

And that was what I was questioning.

 

Not everything works with Linpus either. I can't get the microphone to work under any distro except with Skype.