Page 1 of Acer Aspire One Thread

OK have two of these lil beauties for Father Christmas to leave under the tree, having just almost finished configuring my daughters pink one, I am about to start on the son`s blue unit.

First thing I notice with this slightly older unit (120Gb) is it has a blue leatherette pouch in the top lid of the box, which the pink (160Gb) unit doesn`t have. Before I complain to Play, can anyone confirm the existance of this accessory on the newer pink\blue models or has it been dropped?. ***Update from Acer - It`s been dropped from later models***

Acer Aspire One Setup

As a Linux newbie, who has seen his interest in various flavours wax & wane as problems are encountered, despite working in desktop support for a number of years if I'm having trouble following it, what chance do friends\family\kids etc have with it.

Having scoured the net "howdoyoudothat" for the AA1 solutions, doing things that broke the build & having to re-image via a USB stick, the following guide is a compilation of what I found on the web for the AA1 that worked, material gathered from The Register (Top Ten Tweaks\Customising the GUI), aspireoneuser.com (desktop), kengell.blogspot.com (RDP), Jorge Grandon (FF3), macles (VLC) & others, where the solutions were presented in a clear way.

Apologies to any source I missed.

It may help to do this with the AA1 beside the main PC as you read this or do this with it connected to a spare keyboard\mouse & external monitor [Fn][F5] handy for cutting & pasting commands into terminal.

Also everything is case sensitive ie AcerBlue.png is not the same as acerblue.png

If your reading this on Christmas morning with your impatient child beside you, forget any thoughts of going down the pub.

Allow 5 minutes for initial customisation, go to the settings menu (directly under My Pictures icon), deselect English (US-International) leaving English UK as default (Do Not Reboot when prompted) & then run Live Update.

Start downloading patches, with the older model it took about 1hr 5mins so at this point you could nip off for a swift pint.

The newer 160Gb unit did not require updating at time of writing.

Time for this between 5 mins or 1hr 10.

Enable the Advanced Menu

Acer`s AA1 desktop doesn`t display all the apps and options available to you. To get them all, you need the Advanced Menu.
Press Alt-F2 on the keyboard, type xterm and hit Run.
xfce-setting-show.
Desktop - Behaviour tab. Check the `Show Desktop on Right Click` then close.

Change Desktop

I chose to use coloured desktops to match the case colour from here:

Assuming you`ve downloaded the file to your main Downloads folder type open up a terminal & type exactly:
sudo cp /home/user/Downloads/*.png /usr/share/pixmaps/*.png
Where *.png is the name of the file you`ve downloaded. This puts the new image in a handy place and makes sure it has the correct ownership to display correctly.

Return to the desktop configuration (last section) & navigate to the desired desktop file.

Uninstall Acer Search Bar & Install GIMP & Wine

Advanced Menu - Add/Remove Software. Select it then, when asked, enter the password you chose when you first started the AA1. Download and install the GNU Image Manipulation Program, Wine & uninstall Acer Search Bar at the same time.






I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

When fishermen catch dolphin-friendly tuna, how do they know which tuna are being friendly to dolphins?

This item was edited on Friday, 26th December 2008, 13:26

Install Skype

Download the release for Fedora 7 release VoIP app.

In the Downloads folder & double-click on the skype-2.0.0.72-fc5.i586.rpm icon, when it`s installed, Skype will appear in the Advanced Menu, part of the Network sub-menu.

To add Skype to the Desktop Connect group, follows later.

Install (tsclient) and Remote Desktop (rdesktop)

Useful for connecting to remote systems, ie school servers for on-line homework

Install rdesktop using yum

sudo yum install rdesktop

tsclient won`t install using yum, download the rpm

http://rpmfind.net//linux/RPM/fedora/8/i386/tsclient-0.150-5.fc8.i386.html

Open downloads folder, you can open a new terminal in this folder

sudo rpm -vhi --nodeps tsclient-0.150-5.fc8.i386.rpm

We will add this to the desktop group later.


Installing Firefox 3

Log on as root

wget http://rpms.famillecollet.com/remi-release-8.rpm
rpm -Uvh remi-release-8.rpm

Edit file remi.repo

mousepad /etc/yum.repos.d/remi.repo

Set enabled to 1 under [remi] and NOT [remi-test], then save & exit mousepad.

Remove Firefox without dependencies & install Firefox 3

rpm -e --nodeps firefox

yum install firefox

Now this is where it gets nasty, don`t cut any corners like wot I did when reading the instructions, cause it creates all sorts of different problems. After completing the install, e-mail & RSS feeds get broken, we need some FF2 libraries.

Listen to my instructions very carefully, I shall zay thees only once.

Go to this site, then cut & paste the commands into terminal to create the
recover_firefox_libraries.sh file. Save & ensure the file has saved, in the event it doesn`t save to a SD card then copy it back to Downloads, then

cd /home/user/Downloads

cut & paste the last two commands

chmod +x recover_firefox_libraries.sh
./recover_firefox_libraries.sh

You can then change the icon to the official Firefox icon thus.

sudo sed `/Icon/ s/acs_//` -i /usr/share/applications/linpus-web.desktop

Install VLC

To play AVI & a wider range of media files.

Quote:
sudo rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
sudo yum install vlc

Yum will automatically install the required libs, if still problematic\worked initially but threw up the errors seen on 26-12-08 below, which was then resolved by

su -
rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum install vlc
yum install mozilla-vlc

Update 26-12-08 son broke the build & reinstalling from scratch presented this error:

Error: Missing Dependency: libpulse.so.0(PULSE_0) is needed by package vlc
Error: Missing Dependency: libopendaap.so.0 is needed by package vlc-core
Error: Missing Dependency: libdvdnav.so.4 is needed by package vlc-core

I had seen it before, but thought the second step had resolved it, not so today alas. It`s not a fault with the instructions, but the result of a new signing key, the default repositories on the AA1 are not updated anymore.

So instead use the following

sudo yum install fedora-release
sudo yum install vlc
yum install mozilla-vlc
sudo sed s/%U// -i /usr/share/applications/livna-vlc.desktop

VLC`s.desktop file is pulled down as livna-vlc.desktop. You change this to vlc.desktop using the command line for both vlc & wine thus:

cd /usr/share/applications

sudo mv livna-vlc.desktop vlc.desktop
sudo mv fedora-wine.desktop Wine.desktop

We will add all this to the desktop next.




I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

When fishermen catch dolphin-friendly tuna, how do they know which tuna are being friendly to dolphins?

This item was edited on Friday, 26th December 2008, 21:35

Add Desktop Icons For Applications

It`s all very well having the Advanced Menu, but for some apps you need quick access provided by the AA1 desktop.

Open up terminal & at the command line

sudo mousepad /home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/group-app.xml

Scroll through to Section <id>5</id> AKA Connect group

Skype`s present, but set for the desktop to ignore it, remove the !-- at the start of the line & the -- at the end. You`ll also need to change the app sequence= number - set it to 8.

Other apps are kept in the AA1`s /usr/share/applications folder as desktop file, add these to the desktop UI by editing the group-app.xml file as required.

Section <id>5</id> = Connect
<app sequence="*">/usr/share/applications/tsclient.desktop</app>

Section <id>6</id> = Work

Section <id>7</id> = Fun
<app sequence="*">/usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop</app>
<app sequence="*">/usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop</app>
<app sequence="*">/usr/share/applications/wine.desktop</app>

Section <id>8</id> = Files

Copying the lines & paste it into any of the four sections as per the above example, change the name of the app to be loaded & assign it a unused number. Numerical order is not important & the numbers get updated as you organise the desktop.

If you have followed all the steps for all the above apps cutting & pasting the following will save a lot of typing.

<id>5</id>
<sequence>4</sequence>
<directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/blue-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Connect.directory</directory_file>
<background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/blue-bk-large.png</background_picture>
<app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/blue-back.desktop</app>
<app sequence="1" acs="email">/usr/share/applications/AME.desktop</app>
<app sequence="4" acs="im">/usr/share/applications/acerim.desktop</app>
<app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/linpus-web.desktop</app>
<app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/skype.desktop</app>
<!-- <app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/luvcview.desktop</app>-->
<!-- <app icon="ftp.png" name="FTP" sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/net-gftp.desktop</app>-->
<!-- <app sequence="5" acs="rss">/usr/share/applications/acerrss.desktop</app> -->
<app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/acerrss.desktop</app>
<app sequence="7">/usr/share/applications/edesktop/googlemap.desktop</app>
<app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/edesktop/wikipedia.desktop</app>
<app sequence="8">/usr/share/applications/edesktop/webmail.desktop</app>
<app sequence="9">/usr/share/applications/edesktop/acerstore.desktop</app>
<app sequence="10">/usr/share/applications/edesktop/acerregister.desktop</app>
<app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/tsclient.desktop</app>
</group>
<group>
<id>6</id>
<sequence>5</sequence>
<directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/orange-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Works.directory</directory_file>
<background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/orange-bk-large.png</background_picture>

<app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/orange-back.desktop</app>
<app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/openoffice.org-1.9-writer.desktop</app>
<app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/openoffice.org-1.9-calc.desktop</app>
<app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/openoffice.org-1.9-impress.desktop</app>
<app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/acercalendar.desktop</app>
<app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/acercontact.desktop</app>
<!--app icon="burning.png" name="CD/DVD Burning" sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/gnome-gcalctool.desktop</app>
<app sequence="6">/opt/Adobe/Reader8/Resource/Support/AdobeReader.desktop</app>-->
<app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/galculator.desktop</app>
<!--app sequence="8">/usr/share/applications/gnome-dictionary.desktop</app-->
<!-- <app icon="snapshot.png" name="Snapshot" sequence="10">/usr/share/applications/gnome-screenshot.desktop</app>-->
<app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/xpad.desktop</app>
</group>
<group>
<id>7</id>
<sequence>6</sequence>
<directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Fun.directory</directory_file>
<background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/yellow-bk-large.png</background_picture>
<app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/yellow-back.desktop</app>
<app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/pcmmvp.desktop</app>
<app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/pcmphoto.desktop</app>
<!--<app icon="games.png" name="Games" sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/tuxpuck.desktop</app>-->
<dir sequence="2" dir_id="1">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Games.directory</dir>
<app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/ucview.desktop</app>
<!--app icon="voice_recorder.png" name="Voice Recorder" sequence="9">/usr/share/applications/realplay.desktop</app-->
<app sequence="6">/usr/share/applications/kolourpaint.desktop</app>
<app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop</app>
<app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/gimp.desktop</app>
<app sequence="7">/usr/share/applications/Wine.desktop</app>
<!-- <app icon="internetradio.png" name="Internet Radio" sequence="11">/usr/share/applications/realplay.desktop</app>
<app icon="picture.png" sequence="12">/usr/share/applications/gthumb.desktop</app>-->
</group>

<group>
<id>8</id>
<sequence>7</sequence>
<directory_file exec="" tag_background="/usr/share/backgrounds/images/green-bk-title.png">/usr/share/desktop-directories/Files.directory</directory_file>
<background_picture>/usr/share/backgrounds/images/green-bk-large.png</background_picture>

<app is_arrow="1" name="" sequence="-10">/usr/share/applications/green-back.desktop</app>
<app sequence="0">/usr/share/applications/Document.desktop</app>
<app sequence="2">/usr/share/applications/Picture.desktop</app>
<app sequence="1">/usr/share/applications/Music.desktop</app>
<app sequence="3">/usr/share/applications/Video.desktop</app>
<app sequence="4">/usr/share/applications/Download.desktop</app>
<app sequence="5">/usr/share/applications/Thunar.desktop</app>
</group>






I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

When fishermen catch dolphin-friendly tuna, how do they know which tuna are being friendly to dolphins?

This item was edited on Monday, 22nd December 2008, 00:47

sheesh, no wonder linux is so popular.............


(i`ll get my coat :P )

wow, looks like you`re having fun :) This could be a thread to bookmark in case I do get a netbook. handy to have all these hints and tips in one place! I``ve got various pages in Mark`s Linux thread bookmarked, from where I`ve broken something, and then later done same thing again :)

I`m sure there`ll be a lot of other ppl who stumble across this thread to, either regulars here who are tempted to try Linux on their netbooks, or "outsiders" who will arrive here via google.


edit - shutup Ogster, you go back to your mac :)

I`m backing up my PC ready for the openSUSE 11.1 update, I`m actually doing the games in XP at the mo, as missus will kill me if I accidentally install it on the wrong partition and she loses her Sims 2 and Spore stuff!

This item was edited on Sunday, 21st December 2008, 18:08

Me again - Notes not accurate at time of posting. :p





I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

When fishermen catch dolphin-friendly tuna, how do they know which tuna are being friendly to dolphins?

This item was edited on Monday, 22nd December 2008, 01:02

**Removed Dodgy Notes**

Flashing the HDD back to factory settings, hooking it up to keyboard & mouse then cutting & pasting from this page into Terminal as required.

Files are saved beforehand including remi.repo (which doesn`t always like to be saved, but can be copied across from a prior save), desktop colour schemes, downloaded files tsclient\Skype & group-apps.xml.

Update - Its taken 1Hr 33mins to get to the point where everything is working as desired, this includes updating & correcting my notes as I have gone along & the commands used cut & pasted direct from there.





I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

When fishermen catch dolphin-friendly tuna, how do they know which tuna are being friendly to dolphins?

This item was edited on Monday, 22nd December 2008, 01:05

Okay, okay, you`ve convinced me to swerve Linux. :/

Actually learnt a lot the hard way, mainly by having a dedicated hardware platform & software build, it`s been a lot easier to search for answers, rather than everyone all screaming at once that why x distro isn`t working on y machine for z function.

Most of the problems have been from my original notes, where different things were pulled from different sources, these have been tested live on a clean build & updated.

Also now I have the hang of it, its not so near as long winded as a Windows install, speaking as I recently travelled up to my sister in law`s & spent the best part of a day rebuilding her system from scratch & installing all the updates (fortunately they were stored on a USB HDD not as live downloads from Micro$ucks).



I consider myself an optimist, albeit an optimist with cynical tendencies and a dark side that Lucifer himself would find a little creepy. (Perhaps you've noticed.) You don't normally associate cynicism with an upbeat pov. But I have exactly that combination and will defend it.

When fishermen catch dolphin-friendly tuna, how do they know which tuna are being friendly to dolphins?

This item was edited on Monday, 22nd December 2008, 01:02

Now would probably be a good time top remind you to take an image :)

I used Clonezilla yesterday, and it`s good. Easy to use in a Linux old school menu driven way, i.e. no gui, text based menus :B

It breaks down the choices well though, and as long as you read it properly it`s all self explanatory, i got it all to work without reading any help :)

it`s got usual options to image an entire hard drive, or just individual partitions etc, and it detected all my hard drives, internal and external correctly and new what file system they were, so you can use it on M$ Windows or Linux OSs.

in short to me it seems to do what Acronis or Ghost would do through Hiren`s but it`s legit free :)



edit: Rassilon, this may be a dumb question, but why did you not just try downloading a different Linux and install that? Are there not as many "guarantied to work" on the Acer as there are on the Eeepc?

This item was edited on Monday, 22nd December 2008, 08:51