Vector linux in Acer Aspire one?

[kidd]

Hi,
I got an Acer Aspire one, and would like to change its OS.  Not that linpus (a fedora 8 remake) is not good, but you know... choices.

Anyone with experience with this hardware?

[caitlyn]

Just curious... what's wrong with Linpus?  I've downloaded it and intended to play with it a bit.

[nightflier]

I don't think kidd meant to say there is anything wrong with Linpus. He just wants to play with his new toy! 

[rbistolfi]

Not that linpus (a fedora 8 remake) is not good

Its pretty clear to me, or my English is too bad. Knowing kidd, I am pretty sure the default Linpus configuration in the aspire one European distribution will not fit him. I will let him to make the list of horrible stuff in Linpus

[kidd]

Just curious... what's wrong with Linpus?  I've downloaded it and intended to play with it a bit.

Well after some hours of playing with linpus I have to say it does its job pretty well.  Everything I tested so far works out of the box, but there are some things that can't be done (easily) with the default configuration. For example:

Autologin:  when you boot AAone for the first time, it asks you a password, without being informed if it's the admin (root) or your regular password. You set a password, and then discover you hardly ever need it, because you only have 1 user (named 'user', oh duh) and it usually boots automatically to the desktop (xfce with a really user friendly interface).

No menus, there are only icons in the desktop, so if you install any new app, you cannot get it (unless you use a 'trick').

When I wanted to get a terminal, I searched for an icon called "terminal" and I couldn't find it.  It's just not there. 
"Ctrl-Alt-F1 Can't fail", I thought... but it did nothing . then I tried Alt-f2 and a launcher popped up.  Then everything was straight:  Alt-f2, xterm, return.  Whoaw, at least I have a terminal there, with bash . 

Vim is there, and the usual directory tree. yum (I don't know if it's a trimmed down yum or full fledged one).  Then I had access to /etc/inittab, and I can spawn terminals at boot (to save files in /etc/ , I had to be root, so I had to sudo su , and no password was asked) .

gdm is there to manage users, but it's a bit hidden, and had to edit /etc/rc.d/rc.S changing  the xinit line to gdm (can't remember paths).

Now I get gdm, with user 'user' and expecting a pass.  So far so good.

I installed ratpoison wm using yum, and it appeared in my sessions menu (gdm), but when I entered, I discovered wireless is managed after booting into xfce... so I guess I'll have to write a script to manage wireless on 'other' wm's.

That's only my 20h experience, but I think I can make AAone fit my needs better if I have an unlocked OS to tweak.  However.  linpus does exactly what it's meant for, but I'm not a standard user I guess... compiling, ssh, perl...

I imagine AAone with WinXP will give users the chance to install new software.  There's no way to do it easily in linpus (AFAIK)

Ah, there's no /etc/shadow  there, everything is in /etc/passwd 

I'll keep you informed

[The Headacher]

I love how you are the inverse of our newbs kidd.. Every now and then we get some asking about auto login because apparently typing a password is too much hassle, and you're like "what, no passworded login?  that's not the Unix way!" and change it to add security.

Some time ago my main laptop was stolen by burglars, and I secretly wish I could've seen their faces when they first booted into Linux (that is, 'till they hit KDM). Next time I'll turn off any sort of booting except from harddisk in the BIOS and password protect that too. Of course they can still take out the harddrive and connect it to another computer and get access to it that way, but it will be much more of a hassle. Make them work for their money after all.

[stretchedthin]

You have probably tried this already, but I believe you can get the menu feature of xfce working and get to more features from there.

If you type
xfce-settings-show   in the terminal
choose 'Desktop" then 'Behaviour'  and check 'Show Desktop Menu on right click'

You can get it to show a fuller menu of it's abilities.  There is an add remove software button there that ties into the Fedora repositories.

I manage at a Staples and we are selling them.  I've used this method to add compiz, streamtuner, k3b (for people with external disk drives), skype, amarok, etc.)

I've really been impressed with the little guy.

I'll be watching this thread closely to see if you figure out a way to put Vector on it.

[rbistolfi]

I love how you are the inverse of our newbs kidd.. Every now and then we get some asking about äuto login because apparently typing a password is too much hassle, and you're like "what, no passworded login?  that's not the Unix way!" and change it to add security.

Some time ago my main laptop was stolen by burglars, and I secretly wish I could've seen their faces when they first booted into Linux (that is, 'till they hit KDM). Next time I'll turn off any sort of booting except from harddisk in the BIOS and password protect that too. Of course they can still take out the harddrive and connect it to another computer and get access to it that way, but it will be much more of a hassle. Make them work for their money after all.

That is too bad, I guess is cool was not a violent thing. Some one got into my house once while I was sleeping, suddenly I woke up because of mi mom screaming and so... my head ached while a week.
You could use one of those disk encryption tools, I guess they are good for laptops. In that way they couldn't get your data even pulling the disk and plugin it in another computer. Well I am going to give it a try on mine, you made me to think about it

[kidd]

If you type
xfce-settings-show   in the terminal
choose 'Desktop" then 'Behaviour'  and check 'Show Desktop Menu on right click'

You can get it to show a fuller menu of it's abilities.  There is an add remove software button there that ties into the Fedora repositories.

Thanks for the info. I tried it and it really does enhance linpus experience IMHO.

I think first I'll try to get debian/arch working there (they already have wiki pages explaining how to do everything). and then I'll try vl.  with 120Gb HDD, I'll do a couple o f partitions, and play with one partition while having linpus in the other.

 

[wcs]

Yea, keeping the linpus one might be useful, if only for the xorg.conf and the like...

This bloke here has put Slack 12.1 on it (the SSD model).
http://www.thev.net/cgi-bin/awki.cgi/_Acer_Aspire_One_?stamp=1221614962

I really hope one doesn't need all this with vl, and it's just a matter of xorg.conf, and ethernet and wireless drivers.
(plus, I guess, the whole acpi/supend/hibernate/sleep/whatever nonsense)

Keep us informed, I'm very interested in these small laptops and, for the moment, the aspire one seems the better choice (to me).

[lighans]

You have probably tried this already, but I believe you can get the menu feature of xfce working and get to more features from there.

I've really been impressed with the little guy.

I'll be watching this thread closely to see if you figure out a way to put Vector on it.

The forum look a bit like the VL forum. Relaxed and allways explaining things. I don't mean the official forum but http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/ als macles.blogspot is a nice place.
The strange thing is the mix of Xp and linpus users. It goes quite well. Sometimes someone with a linux/XP hate, but the flame doesn't burn very long......

Also nice is presenting with a beamer. You should look at the faces of my students when they see the presentation from that little thing to that very big screen. (also showed how "hard" they were working with the webcam, nice little thing is handy to walk with. )

The nicest thing about linpus is the speed of booting. Further I don't like to change things to make things accesable (as described bij Kidd). That's like hiding the heart of linux. It also misinforms people. Newcomers in linuxland think that linux in general can't do things extra then installed.

[wcs]

That's like hiding the heart of linux. It also misinforms people. Newcomers in linuxland think that linux in general can't do things extra then installed.

Agree. Don't know about the Linpus one, but the Xandros distro on the eee hides pretty much everything by default (including synaptic) and most of the programs had their names changed.
It's very frustrating to get the hang of, if you're used to vector.
It doesn't seem set up for a multiuser environment at all: you only get a directory called /home/user, and there doesn't seem to be a way of inputting different login names on the login manager (I guess I could use useradd, or something).

[lagagnon]

Next best thing is installing Slackware on your Aspire One. Try this:
http://www.thev.net/cgi-bin/awki.cgi/_Acer_Aspire_One_?stamp=1221614962

[wcs]

Just got mine delivered now!
Very nice machine.

It took me approximately 5 minutes to break it, though.

I wanted to try a hosted vector install. Did "init 2" and got a message complaining about HAL... mmm, did "init 1" and ended up with a blank screen with the aspire logo... Doing Ctrl + Alt + F* did nothing.... Pressed the power button. Now when I boot it, I only get the bootsplash and stays there forever.

Silly....   

[wcs]

Right... after 4 or 5 reboots, it seems to have sorted itself out and starts Linpus again. 

Anyway, I was hoping to do a hosted VL install, but don't know how to get into textmode....
I might just get a USB cd drive.