Ubuntu 10.04 LTS: The Lucid Lynx

I couldn't find a post re Lucid Lynx, so I thought I would start one.

After using Windows XP on my netbook for the last 6 months or so, I decided to install Ubuntu 9.10. netbook remix. It is near enough my first expedition into using a Linux based OS as a desktop (linpus lite does not count). My only other experience is setting up a server again Ubuntu 9.10 with the aid of a step by step guide. Linux is definitely a steep learning curve.

After many many re-installs and attempts at fixing stuff. fighting with dodgy Wifi, memory card slots that wont damn well work unless I leave a card in on boot. even though I flashed the bios to the latest version which is supposed to fix it.... I finally, after upgrading it to a alpha 2 release of ubuntu - Lucid Lynx, have a near enough fully functional netbook. (AOA150ZG5). most importantly wifi appears to be solid.

I have tested the "Wi-Fi by downloading a 2GB movie from a local FTP server, and up loading it again several times. it has not dropped or stalled once. Also, network speeds are better than what I had under windows.

To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.10 on a desktop system, press Alt+F2 and type in "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box. Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release '10.04' is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

or you can download an iso from

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-2/lucid-netbook-i386.iso

or the torrent from

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid/alpha-2/lucid-netbook-i386.iso.torrent


As I find fixes and tweaks for the aspire one I will add them to this post.

 

one of the things that really annoys me is the way every time you open a new window or app, it opens it maximized... why? who decided this was a good option to set?

Anyway, if you want to make windows open without maximizing them :-

Press Alt + F2,
enter gconf-editor
navigate to: /apps/maximus/no_maximize and check the box

this will set Ubuntu to not automatically maximize newly opened windows.

yay....

now to tackle the damn fan......

 

OK, so the fan is annoying, constantly switched on... there is no need, its a computer, not a icebox...

its the same fix as it is for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala...

I found this fix on launchpad.net... a big shout out to ullix

create a configuration file in '/etc/modprobe.d/' called 'acerhdf.conf' using the following command in a terminal.

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf

then add the following lines to the file.

Code:

# fan control for acer aspire one fan
# according to: [url]http://piie.net/files/acerhdf_README.txt[/url]
# check status with: dmesg|grep acerhdf
# read temperature with: cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp
options acerhdf interval=5 fanon=60000 fanoff=55000 kernelmode=1

The commands 'fanon' and 'fanoff' can be adjusted to your own needs. i personally wouldn't have 'fanon' set to anything higher than 65 and 'fanoff' should be set no less than 5 deg lower than 'fanon'

once the file is saved, restart your netbook and the fan will go quiet....

ahhhhh nice and quiet !!!

*edit*

some bright sparck decided to change the way the tempriture is read. it now goes up in thousands of a degree!!! for hevens sake why??

anyway, for the fan to work properly, 60 deg is now 60000 and 55 deg is 55000

let the quiet begin again...

 

what about fanon=65 and fanoff=60???
Is there okay?

 

So far - so good. I also installed Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx - I am liking it more and more. Generally I am an OSX user, so this feels kinda natural (although W7 works quite nicely too, got it on dual boot).

One question, though:
My wifi drops often, at least at the office - at home it seems to be fine. I read somewhere that it's better to use WICD as a network connection manager. I did install it, but I have not removed the original network manager that LL came with. Is that a mistake? Should i do something and remove it? I think now I've got two network managers running simultaneously. And, although it was suggested that WICD will work better, my AAO still drops the wifi connection quite often. Is this a typical Ubuntu problem?

I hope someone has some ideas.
If you do - please, be as exhaustive as possible in your suggestions, since I am new to Linux and don't fare well with Terminal.

Thanks

 

I installed with just WICD, but wireless was still flaky. I've concluded that the problem is ath5k (the default wireless driver). Madwifi-hal works much more consistently, though the signal is weaker. Try running "jockey-gtk" to switch drivers (will present madwifi as an option).

Ibidem

 

the temp is entirely up to you.... personally i like it a little cooler, with nothing running in the background, i can watch a movie on vlc without the fan kicking in if it is set to 60.. keeps the missus happy at 2am lol...

 

i have all sorts of issues with the wifi dropping on me under heavy load. it gets on my nerves a bit, but its not a massive issue. If i want to download anything or move large files, i just plug in to the wired network...

I belive the issue is with the ath5k drivers. I have been trying to install the latest madwifi drivers, but it is giving me no end of a headache

I did find a page somewhere with a guide to a particular branch of the madwifi drivers for the acer aspire one, but damnnit, i didnt book markit, and now i have time i cant find it

 

OK, some version of the AA1 does come with Linpuss, right? Can't we use the driver they have installed there? Or is it just as flaky? And if it is, how come they have not been plagued by lawsuits

 

I belivethe linpus has been put together for the aoa150 it is impossible to extract the driver.

it does however work fine with linpus and the windows driver works fine.

i have it under advisement that fedora 12 works out the box with stable networking.. i think i will be taking a look in the near future...

marty.

 

I have no issues with Wifi performance. You might try Wicd as an alternative network manager. It works pretty well.

 

And by the way,
Lucid has now been released.

 

Hallo guys, i'm posting to confirm the wifi problem. I have an aoa150 (zg5) an i've been having these problems since 9.04. I've tried wicd and madwifi but nothing. (With madwifi though fewer problems). Also i tried fedora 12 and didn't have any problems at all. The thing is i like ubuntu too much to change it. If anyone finds something please post. Thank you. (Now i've installed 10.04 and will see).

 

Wifi's been rock-solid for me on my AOD250. Ram's upped to 2GB, but I don't think that's much of an issue.

The whole system feels generally more polished and stable -- even faster, too, than 9.10. Battery life is FAR improved (I actually get about two hours again! Slight step below Windows, but tolerable enough.) as well, and I learned it's already down to 80% of a full charge. I haven't tried some of the more intensive stuff I want to do (emulation) yet, but I doubt that'll be much an improvement. (Hell, N64 emulation on my dual 2.1ghz / 512kb L2 cache laptop is even a bit slowish, but that still runs 9.10 right now)

My only major gripe (at least, thus far) is the buttons being seemingly firmly cemented to the left. In the default theme, it really gives an OS X-esque feel (which I love), but I like my themes darker (e.g. LaGaDesk dark blue)... and the buttons just look awkward in the top left corner.

I'd advise anyone using an older version to upgrade - especially 9.10 users. I think they've really got it right this time to the point where I'll actually use it. I just hope it doesn't fall apart as easily as 9.10.

 

Hope 10.04 is working for you. If not, I do recommend Fedora. I've got the AOA-150 (zg5), so we should have the same wireless unit. Both Fedora (Rawhide and the F13-devel) and Ubuntu (10.04) are installed, although the Ubuntu installation hasn't been updated in about two weeks. I'm using the LXDE desktop, and am currently having no problems connecting with NetworkManager. By the time I'm done customizing my desktops, the only way I can tell I'm using Fedora and not Ubuntu is the yumex icon In my Fedora panel. Obviously, YMMV. In the past, however, I've found that sometimes I could connect wirelessly with Fedora but not Ubuntu, and sometimes it was the other way around. My current kernels are:
Fedora-13: 2.6.33.2-57.fc13.i686
Fedora Rawhide: 2.6.34-0.38.rc5.git0.fc14.i686
Ubuntu 10.04: 2.6.32-9-generic

 

Thanks rockdoctor. The thing about fedora isn't about the looks but the overall ease of use. Ubuntu is much better since is aiming to become the alternative desktop. I'm intrested in promoting linux through my job (computer technisian in a small store in Kalamata, Hellas (Greece)). I'tried a lot of distro's and ubuntu is the best for this according to my opinion. Well i did something wrong to solve my issue: Tried again ndiswrapper and till now it works fine. I couldn't use it with 9.04 or 9.10 but now is working again. But the only thing was a kernel panic. I will keep testing and report here.

 

My first post here, because I got so much help from this forum
I just installed 10.04 on my ZG5 and had two issues: the wifi dropouts and the battery icon not showing remaining time>

For the wifi: give up on ath5k, it doesn't work now, ndiswrapper takes a long time to associate to any AP, so you need madwifi, but this is the only snapshot that I've tried that actually works: http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/ma ... 324.tar.gz
install it just as the other 73284723847238972384 guides on google say

And for the battery, replaced gnome-power-manager with this one: https://launchpad.net/~thjaeger/+archiv ... ld/1589348

Now everything's perfect

 

i got 10.04 put onto my apsire one 110 (this is the very first one they put out, 8gig SSD, 512 ram etc) and i like it a lot. everything works, including the wifi.... to an extent. while the wifi module is indeed enabled. i cant get it to connect to my router. my router is one of those ones you get free with virginmedia, so i cant access it. instead it comes with a pre set wifi key thats the same for both WEP and WPA. but i cant get my Aspire One to actually connect to my router, just keeps telling me to check the password. its definately entered correctly.

driver problems? i might try mint 8 see how that is, but i realy like how ubuntu looks and feels.

 

Interesting: for me, that version of madwifi didn't even compile (anything to do with me downloading that same day? don't know); I've been using the previous one. Do you mean "works better"?

Battery-- I just used the indicator built into IceWM. (I haven't tried UNR, and probably won't)

@otispunkmeyer:
I found that WEP worked, but WPA didn't--and had the exact same issues you mention.
(Same thing with b43 on broadcom also)

 

my router must be WPA then, i only get the option of WPA in the drop down menu on my Aspire. Odd then that virgin give both WEP and WPA passwords on the bottom of the router, yet they are exactly the same.

oh well, i may try mint.