Install Ubuntu Hardy (8.04.1) Guide

WanderingStar · Jul 17, 2008

DEPRICATED: USE https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne
This guide aims to help you install Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS on the Acer Aspire One (8gb/512MB model specifically). Many thanks to the members of this forum, as many of the steps here were suggested by others. I'm just consolidating the info I have gleaned with my personal expeciance to try and help some people get started. Here is the status of the components:

Fully functional:
Suspend / Resume
Video (with Desktop effects)
Wireless Networking
Wired Networking
Webcam
USB

Partial Function:
Card Readers (only work if card in when booting, researching fix)
Audio - there is sound, but by default it will not mute speakers when
headphones connected. Upgraded ALSA allows headphone detection but
sound lost on suspend (researching fix)

Pre-Requs:

Before you begin you will need the following:

A copy of 8.04.1 Hardy Heron. This is the latest version. If you downloaded the ISO a while ago, it may be 8.04.0. This version will not function.
A 1+ GB memory key that can be formatted.
A copy of the liveUSB DEB.
(http://ppa.launchpad.net/probono/ubuntu ... l/liveusb/).
A wired network connection.
Another computer, with network access.

Step One: Preperation

Copy the LiveUSB .deb file to a memory key (it can be the one were going to format), and remove the memory key.

Boot to the 8.04.1 Live CD on your other computer. We want the first option on the boot menu (Try Ubuntu). When you have booted to the Live CDs desktop insert the memory key with the LiveUSB .deb on it and follow the prompts to install it. Once its installed we will use the application to create a live usb device. Start it up from System -> Administration -> Install LiveUSB. Select the target device and click Execute. It will give you a warning about data loss, but continue.

Step Two: Install Ubuntu

Once that is done, shut down the other computer and remove the memory key. Shut down your Aspire One and insert the memory key that we just used. Turn on the One and tap F12 to bring up the boot menu. Choose the boot to USB option. This will boot you to the LiveUSB stick, and allow you to install Ubuntu. Install it like normal. Installation (file copy) will take a LONG time (hour +). You may also get an error about setting up a mirror. Don't worry about it, its non-fatal.

Step 3: Tweak / Fix

So now we should have an installed Ubuntu system. At this point wire your One into the network. If you use DHCP it should pick up an IP address automatically. The first thing you will want to do is updates, since the wireless driver needs to be reinstalled after every kernel update. Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal). Do the updates:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Now we need to grab the wireless driver, and the things we need to build it:

Code:

wget [url]http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz[/url]
tar xzvf madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz 
cd madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

And we build, install, and make it perminant...

Code:

make
sudo make install
sudo echo ath_pci >> /etc/modules

Everytime there is a kernel update you will need to perform the following steps to make the wireless work. Go to the directory (madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007) and run:

Code:

make clean
make
sudo make install

You may need to reboot after that.

To get headphones detected, but loose sound after suspend follow the steps here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

I'm still looking into things to make everything "just work" but this is where I'm at for now.

Hopefully this helps,
Jeff

rscutaru · Jul 17, 2008

pretty good... but suspend unfortunately is not an option for me as I store my user profiles on an SD card... so now firefox and thunderbird are not starting up

lotus49 · Jul 17, 2008

WanderingStar said:
You may also get an error about setting up a mirror. Don't worry about it, its non-fatal.

Can I just point out that it's best to do the installation on a wired connection to avoid this error. It normally results in Ubuntu commenting out the repos in /etc/apt/sources.list which will result in not being able to update properly using apt-get (which is the single coolest thing about Debian and its relatives like Ubuntu).

Fixing it afterwards is pretty easy, you just remove the # from the front of the commented-out lines in that file, but if you are connected to the internet when you install it avoids this problem which may confuse Debian/Ubuntu newbies.

baseline · Jul 17, 2008

Hi all,

I would just like to add 2 pieces of information to this excellent post.
First, don't use a file system that has journaling enabled since this imensly increases disk access and second, install preload: sudo aptitude install preload.
Even in a system with only 512 MBs it really makes a difference.

cheers

WanderingStar · Jul 17, 2008

Thanks guys for the followups. Installing on a wired connection is best. I used EXT2 as the file system, same as Linupus. Should have mentioned this. I just wanted to get something up so people stopped with the PMs. I will be doing the install again tommrow (I broke some things trying to get sound perfect). When I revise it I will also put notes on moving temp and the logs to a tempfs file system, and clean up some of the bad grammar.

Thanks a lot for the feedback all.

Jeff

mattylight · Jul 17, 2008

Awesome write-up...I may be doing this tomorrow if the One arrives on time...

Aubrey · Jul 17, 2008

Nice guide, WanderingStar

Re the automounting of SD cards - you might want to try commenting out the /dev/sdb1 line "/media/cdrom0......" in fstab. That fixed automounting of cards and usb devices for me.

Great tip about using ext2 rather than ext3, by the way. I hadn't thought of that. I can feel a re-install coming on.

nack · Jul 18, 2008

It used to be you could switch from ext3 to ext2 just by mounting as ext2. I'm not sure if that has changed.

nack · Jul 18, 2008

Does Ubuntu handle the backlight and brightness? I don't particularly need to have it on keyboard keys, but it would be nice to be able to control it somehow.

Aubrey · Jul 18, 2008

nack said:
It used to be you could switch from ext3 to ext2 just by mounting as ext2. I'm not sure if that has changed.

It seems that is the case for a temporary fix, but various guides suggest:

Converting from Ext3 back to Ext2

There may come a time when you want to convert back to Ext2. For directories other than the root directory or /usr, it's pretty easy. The following once again uses the example of /dev/hda10 mounted to directory /test:

umount /dev/hda10

$> tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/hda10
$> e2fsck /dev/hda10

Edit /etc/fstab to change /dev/hda10 to mount type ext2

$> mount /dev/hda10

The tune2fs command removes the journal inode, and the e2fsck command completes that removal.

For the root directory, you apparently also need to delete the .journal file.

I assume this could be done by booting from the live USB.

I'll try it and report back.

Aubrey · Jul 18, 2008

Reporting back as promised.

Permanently converting an installed ext3 filesytem to ext2 is pretty much as described above.

Doing it from my LiveUSB (Xubuntu) to the installed system meant that I had to unmount the root partition on the SDD:

Code:

sudo umount /dev/sda1

Then,as suggested:

Code:

sudo tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda1

Code:

sudo e2fsck /dev/sda1

Then create a new temporary mount point for sda1

Code:

sudo mkdir /media/temp

Edit the fstab in the running Xubuntu:

Code:

sudo mousepad /etc/fstab

And add a line for the sda1

/dev/sda1 /media/temp ext2 defaults 0 0 <enter>

Save the file

Mount sda1

Code:

sudo mount /media/temp

And then edit the fstab on that drive

Code:

cd /media/temp/etc
sudo mousepad fstab

And change the file system attribute for sda1 (/) from ext3 to ext2

Save and reboot

(I could not find the .journal file mentioned in the guides and my machine rebooted fine)

So far it seems less laggy.

baseline · Jul 18, 2008

Hi all,

Okay, try as I might, I can't get the wifi to work... The only difference that I can see is that I'm using Xubuntu and not Ubuntu, shouldn't make a difference because the freaking repositories are the same but maybe it does.
Everything shows up fine: ath0 is on interface conf file, wifi0 shown up on ifconfig, hell, even a wlan scan yelds all the hotspot around me but to no avail. I also did a rmmod of the orignal atheros drivers... Nothing seems to fix this...
The damn thing just wont get an IP. It does a dhcpdiscover but seems unable to interpret the offer. I had this exact same problem with a Gutsy Gibbon distro upate to Hardy, the only way to solve it was to completly reinstall the OS.
As anyone came across this problem?

tks in advance

glibdud · Jul 18, 2008

Nice guide, thanks for writing this up.

WanderingStar said:
A copy of 8.04.1 Hardy Heron. This is the latest version. If you downloaded the ISO a while ago, it may be 8.04.0. This version will not function.

What doesn't function with the original 8.04 release?

Aubrey · Jul 18, 2008

baseline said:
Hi all,

Okay, try as I might, I can't get the wifi to work... The only difference that I can see is that I'm using Xubuntu and not Ubuntu, shouldn't make a difference because the freaking repositories are the same but maybe it does.
Everything shows up fine: ath0 is on interface conf file, wifi0 shown up on ifconfig, hell, even a wlan scan yelds all the hotspot around me but to no avail. I also did a rmmod of the orignal atheros drivers... Nothing seems to fix this...
The damn thing just wont get an IP. It does a dhcpdiscover but seems unable to interpret the offer. I had this exact same problem with a Gutsy Gibbon distro upate to Hardy, the only way to solve it was to completly reinstall the OS.
As anyone came across this problem?

tks in advance

Strange. I assume you are using the madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007 drivers cited in the original post. Did you "turn off" (ie uncheck) the restricted drivers that Ubuntu so kindly loads before you installed madwifi?

I have also seen posts elsewhere about people successfully using ndiswrapper. I'd only do that if all else fails.

Good luck.

What doesn't function with the original 8.04 release?

It would not boot for me - modprobe error. Even if it did work, it would probably be quicker to download 8.04.1 rather than go through the massive update process.

brentashley · Jul 18, 2008

Aubrey said:
Nice guide, WanderingStar
Great tip about using ext2 rather than ext3, by the way. I hadn't thought of that. I can feel a re-install coming on.

No need to reinstall. I installed with ext3 and then converted to ext2.

I booted onto the Ubuntu liveCD I used to install onto the One, opened a terminal and...:

sudo su -
/sbin/tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda1
/sbin/e2fsck -y /dev/sda1
mkdir tmpmnt
mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 tmpmnt
cd tmpmnt
rm -f .journal

then you need to edit etc/fstab with vi or whatever and change /dev/sda1 from ext3 to ext2 so it mounts properly on boot

reboot and you now have an ext2 root partition.

WanderingStar · Jul 18, 2008

One more, with feeling:
Changes - writing cleanup, fixed wireless instructions, added tmpfs logging and phantom fstab CD-Rom correction.

Install Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04.1) on the Acer Aspire One 512mb/1GB model.

Fully functional:
Suspend / Resume
Video (with desktop effects)
Wireless Networking (WPA tested)
Wired Networking
Webcam
USB

Partial Function:
Card Readers (only work if card in when booting, researching fix)
Audio - there is sound, but by default it will not mute speakers when
headphones connected. Upgraded ALSA allows headphone detection but
sound lost on suspend (researching fix)

Pre-Requs:

Before you begin you will need the following:

A copy of 8.04.1 Hardy Heron. This is the latest version. If you downloaded the ISO a while ago, it may be 8.04.0. The original 8.04.0 release will not even boot.
A 1+ GB memory key that can be formatted.
A copy of the liveUSB DEB.
(Website: http://klik.atekon.de/liveusb and the DEB: http://ppa.launchpad.net/probono/ubuntu ... u1_all.deb).
A wired network connection.
Another computer, with network access.

Step One: Preperation

So the first thing we need to do is create a bootable copy of the Ubuntu LiveCD. This will be our install media for the Aspire One. Its actually pretty simmilar to creating recovery media for Linpus Lite (the included version of Linux).

Download and copy the LiveUSB .deb file from the link above to a memory key (you can use the same one we we are going to format to create the install media, we only need this file once), and remove the memory key. The LiveUSB software should only be installed when booted off the LiveCD environment, so we do that next.

Boot to the 8.04.1 Live CD on your other computer, and choose the first option off the boot menu (Try Ubuntu). When you reach the desktop insert the memory key with the LiveUSB software one it and double click. Follow the prompts to install it. Now we can create our bootable USB key. Start the LiveUSB application from System -> Administration -> Install LiveUSB. Select the target device (my two keys were listed by a human readable name, so it was easy to find) and click Execute. It will give you a warning about data loss, so double check that you selected the correct device and continue.

Step Two: Install Ubuntu

Once that is done, you can shut down the other computer and remove the memory key. Shut down your Aspire One and insert the memory key that we just used. Turn it on and tap F12 to bring up the boot menu. Choose the boot the USB HDD option. This will boot you to the LiveUSB stick, and allow you to install Ubuntu. Install it like normal, except for good performance, and to increase the life of the SSD use a non-journaled (I suggest EXT2) filesystem. If you have already installed with EXT3 then follow this post by Aubrey (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=164&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=10#p1177) to convert to EXT2. Installation (file copy) will take a LONG time (hour +). If your not currently connected to the internet on a wired connection, you may get an error about setting up a mirror (thanks lotus49). Don't worry about it if you do however, its non-fatal.

Step 3: Tweak / Fix

So now we should have an installed Ubuntu system. At this point wire your One into the network. If you use DHCP it should pick up an IP address automatically. The first thing you will want to do is updates, since the wireless driver needs to be reinstalled after every kernel update. Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal). Do the updates:

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

WIRELESS:

Now we need to disable the hardware drivers that Ubuntu tries to use before the ones we make will function. So go to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers and uncheck everything. It should prompt us to reboot, so lets do it now.

We need to grab the wireless driver, and the things we need to build it, from a terminal:

Code:

mkdir source
cd source
wget [url]http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz[/url]
tar xzvf madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz
cd madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

And we build, install, and make it perminant...

Code:

make
sudo make install
sudo echo ath_pci >> /etc/modules 
sudo modprobe ath_pci

You should now have working wireless. If you get a symbol mismatch when loading the driver, just reboot as that has corrected it everytime for me.

Everytime there is a kernel update you will need to perform the following steps to make the wireless work. Go to the directory (madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007) and run:

Code:

make clean
make
sudo make install

USB MOUNT:

If you insert a memory key, you may notice an error and that it cannot be mounted. This is due to the CD-ROM entry in the fstab. Since we don't have an optical drive on the One we will comment that out. From a terminal again:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

You should see a line that looks like:

Code:

/dev/sdb        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0       0

add a hash in front:

Code:

#/dev/sdb        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0       0

Reboot, and automount should work.

REDUCING SSD WEAR:

Frequent writes to the SSD will cause failure eventually. We can reduce the number of writes to the SSD my moving our logs to a temporary filesystem in RAM that gets destroyed at ever reboot. Now this means your logs will not be persistent across reboots making debuging difficult in some cases. This step is optional of course, so if you need the logs for an extended period of time do not follow these steps.

Open your fstab again, and add the following lines:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab
tmpfs      /var/log        tmpfs        defaults           0    0
tmpfs      /tmp            tmpfs        defaults           0    0
tmpfs      /var/tmp        tmpfs        defaults           0    0
tmpfs      /var/log/apt    tmpfs        defaults           0    0

AUDIO:
Oddly, my issues with audio are not apparent on the LiveCD, reinstalling now - so will report back with a fix (hopefully).

egesia · Jul 18, 2008

Thank you all for the great work.
I installed ubuntu 8.04.1 on dual boot with linpus, everything is working well, except the microphone: is alsa last driver required ? is there also a way to test the mic on linpus, is the webcam application recording sound ?

egesia

Thomas8675309 · Jul 18, 2008

egesia said:
Thank you all for the great work.
I installed ubuntu 8.04.1 on dual boot with linpus, everything is working well, except the microphone: is alsa last driver required ? is there also a way to test the mic on linpus, is the webcam application recording sound ?

Did you install 8.04.1 onto the ssd or did you use an SD card? It seems like the SSD doesn't have much room for a dual boot by itself. I'm looking for a way to have Ubuntu on the SD card and leave the SSD as is (or mostly as is). (I have a separate post on this topic in the Hardware forum.)

Thanks.

Best regards,

Tom

WanderingStar · Jul 18, 2008

Not sure about installing to an SD card - I'm not really interested in dual booting (I run Ubuntu on everything - my primary notebook, HTPC and file server). I expect if its not supported by the BIOS. You could look into adding an entry to an existing grub on the SSD that points to the SD card, if its being presented by the BIOS as a drive at all.

Jeff

egesia · Jul 18, 2008

Installed both on SSD, 500 mb free on Linpus, 1gb on Ubuntu after install. Now i'll try to reduce swap partition to 256 Mb and to mount /home to SD card.
What about the microphone on ubuntu ?