Acer Aspire One and Linux

Technocrat

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Bruce Perens

Thu Nov 27 10:17:00 -0800 2008

Open+Source+Software.

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I had my small "travel" laptop develop data-path errors just before a speaking trip, and decided to buy one of the new "small cheap" laptops, as all of the other laptops I've accumulated are larger than what I want to lug around. I picked up an Acer Aspire One, with 160GB disk and 1GB ram, for $350 at Fry's. I thought the $350 model had 120GB, but mine has 160. I've not been able to determine if it has the better camera of the more expensive unit. There is a 0.3 and a 1.2 megapixel camera.

The Acer has also been seen at Costco, but wasn't at the one I visited yesterday.

The Aspire One feels quite solid - a bit more solid, I think, than my Sony Vaio, which cost around $2000 some years ago. And it is more capable than the older unit. Small and cheap doesn't seem to mean less features, or indeed less of anything as far as I can tell - unless you are running Windows - which is more resource-hungry than Linux.

The screen is quite bright and readable, and the keyboard is fine for my big fingers. At 1024x600 and 8.9 inches wide, the screen is a bit smaller than I'm used to, but I generally configure laptops with big fonts if I'm doing extended typing or editing, so it's not going to be a problem. It came with Windows XP, and I'm still getting Debian (not the toy Linux that Acer vends) in place. Read on for discussion of what I've discovered so far.

Install a new kernel ASAP. At this writing, 2.6.27.7 still has problems with the ethernet interface, and the external memory card slots, and maybe the wifi interface. This will be cured as the in-tree kernel gets patched for this machine. Unfortunately, the folks who developed a commercial Linux for this unit didn't get their patches in the main kernel source tree but the community will make up for that.

The information at http://wiki.debian.org/DebianAcerOne was very helpful. You won't have use of the ethernet OR wifi from the latest Debian install disk, but it will be able to install the base system from a USB stick using the "netboot" version of the installation system. The Debian pre-release
installer required a reboot to load new disk partitions, this seems to be a bug that should not be expected in the released version.

You can move over a newer kernel on a USB stick after the base system is installed.

My system will hang late during the boot process while there was a memory card in the card expansion slot. Some driver is hanging. Booting in "emergency" mode works, I think because it's not running udev and loading drivers.

The work around for the ethernet driver bug is at http://stop.jerkin.us/2008/10/04/acer-aspire-one-ethernet-not-working-in-ubuntu/ It's just changing the time at which the driver loads, I suppose this means there are conflicts between two drivers. Put the work around in place after you've installed a newer kernel, as it requires that you modify the initrd.img file for whatever kernel you are running.

Other work arounds are on the net, google for "Aspire One Debian" or "Aspire One Linux" finds lots of them. I've not gotten to the point of configuring suspend or audio. X worked out of the box and then there is information to optimize it somewhat.

There are also some hardware hacks available on the net, installing internal bluetooth, upgrading drives and memory, even installing a touch screen.

Acer Aspire One and Linux

pruneau

Thu Nov 27 11:23:55 -0800 2008
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Not that I'm a special fan of 'buntu, but just for fun I installed ubutu 8.04 and upgraded to 8.10 without too much problems on my aspire one.

Feature report:
- Sounds/Ethernet are OK all the time, not sure why, since apparently I'm supposed to have problems with ethernet (?)
- Suspend/Hibernate worked as well, even if hibernate complained that it could not get to suspend on resume, even after it worked ( another ?)
- wifi being the trouble child here, never got it to work in 8.04 without proprietary drivers and command-line intervention. Ubutun 8.10 loaded some GPL drivers, but I did not have time to investigate why iwconfig did not seem to detect any wireless-enabled interface even when the module was reported as being loaded by the GUI.

note: my model is the 1Gb/120Gb/WinXP one. I bought those specs because a local retail shop was selling it a $300CAD, a real bargain.

I booted Knoppix on it without problems, as well as the live debian 4.0 , with more or less the same results, and especailly the ethernet interface worked for every attempts.

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Bruce Perens

Thu Nov 27 12:02:14 -0800 2008
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The ethernet driver I'm using emits a message to note that it's still under development. Sometimes they break a driver while porting it to new hardware and its full feature set, even though it works if you treat the new hardware as old hardware. The symptom is that every packet is indicated as a large number of dropped packets, if you load the driver at the wrong time.

Iwconfig detects my wireless interface. There is also something called wmaster0, perhaps that's a soft WAP interface.

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Michael Wagner

Thu Nov 27 15:22:05 -0800 2008
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I'm typing this on my AAO 110L refitted with Mandriva 2009. All relevant hardware is recognised just fine. I just hooked it up to the free hotel WiFi, no problem. No Madwifi tricks, just the atheros driver from the 2.6.26+ kernels.

I really like this small piece of goodness! Upgraded to 1.5 GB, 8 GB SSD + 16 GB SDHC. Works like a charm, even with the small Windows partition.

MW

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Richard Ayotte

Tue Dec 02 13:27:48 -0800 2008
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I purchased the 8G/512MB/Linpus version from FutureShop a couple of days ago for $299CAD. Will I lose any functionality if I install Intrepid? Where did you get the 1Gb/120Gb/WinXP for $300CAD, that's a much better deal.

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Michael Smith

Thu Nov 27 16:04:06 -0800 2008
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Unfortunately, the folks who developed a commercial Linux for this unit didn't get their patches in the main kernel source tree but the community will make up for that.

Customers who buy the linux version should be able to request the source code for a nominal fee. I should check to see that that offer came with my eeePC. Did you have the opportunity to buy it with linux?

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Bruce Perens

Thu Nov 27 23:20:34 -0800 2008
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No, mine came with NT, which I never logged into before clearing it off of the disk.

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Alan

Thu Nov 27 16:36:29 -0800 2008
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Found a pic:

Costs about the same as the vintage 2002 used Thinkpad I bought a year ago.

Does it have a modem?

Julian Brookes

Fri Nov 28 00:45:02 -0800 2008
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Does it have a modem?

Bruce Perens

Fri Nov 28 10:51:25 -0800 2008
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No. Once hotels commonly offered wifi and DSL, the modem was no longer de rigeur as a laptop component. I recommend using a USB modem if you need one. They are cheap, only $25 at Fry's. Make sure that the one you buy presents the USB modem profile, not anything proprietary, and doesn't need special drivers. Probably most of them do. That way it will work on anything, and you won't have to worry about OS support.

Acer Aspire One and Linux

disco

Fri Nov 28 07:40:07 -0800 2008
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I'm curious about the "toy" Linux it comes with, and why you don't like it. Googling told me it's a modified Linpus Linux Lite, which is Fedora based. Can you not drop into a shell, install Fedora packages, and configure it how you want, including the GUI?

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Bruce Perens

Fri Nov 28 10:54:55 -0800 2008
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I didn't get Linpus, my system came with XT. I'm sure it's just Linux once you get rid of their GUI, which is supposed to give the naive user a limited number of choices in an easy-to-access manner. But Linux is about control, so I want to be sure that I can maintain the OS when necessary.

Acer Aspire One and Linux

Michael Smith

Sat Nov 29 03:06:04 -0800 2008
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Control+alt+t gets me to a shell on my Asus eeePC. But after using it for six months or so I am going to put ubuntu on it. The main reason is that ubuntu has a better library of applications, and an actual upgrade path.

I think this is where Canonical will start to get more business. Software requires ongoing configuration management and integration to keep it healthy. Particularly in the current environment.

BTW I did something horrible to apt/dpkg on xandros. I put one line in sources.list pointed to debian stable. Now it says I have broken dependencies and to fix them I have to uninstall practically everything....