Acer Aspire One

spud17

I'm looking for suggestions from people who have actually installed and regularly use alternative Linux OSs on the Aspire One.

It's not for me, I'd keep experimenting , but a 14yr old girl, to be the first pc of her own.
It currently has Linpus Lite, but that isn't working correctly, e.g. the browser will not open, wireless doesn't want to connect.
To start with, I'm going to restore it (ther'es nothing on it) and see what happens, but I'd like a few alternatives in reserve.

Specs are 1.6GHz N270 Atom, 120Gb HD and 512 RAM. Any upgrades are out of the question.

23n1th

LinuxMint LXDE has worked for me in the past you could try Arch if you want complete control and have the time.

Figment

I have that netbook except with 2GiB RAM running Ubuntu 11.10

spud17

23n1th wrote: »

LinuxMint LXDE has worked for me in the past you could try Arch if you want complete control and have the time.

As I said it's for a 14 yr old young lady, not me. So no Arch.

As an aside Mint 12 LXDE wouldn't run on the Clevo laptop I mentioned in another thread., but Lubuntu and Xubuntu both did, and installed.

Figment wrote: »

I have that netbook except with 2GiB RAM running Ubuntu 11.10

Unfortunately no upping the memory, but I'd be looking at Lubuntu.

23n1th

As a long shot you could try SliTaz. 35mb for a full graphical desktop working entirely from 192MB of RAM. Now it might not work without so help but if it does it'll be quick. I prefer it to Puppy.

http://www.slitaz.org/en/

fwor

spud17 wrote: »

It currently has Linpus Lite

If you do decide to stick with this for a while, hopefully you've found the guides on how to enabled Advanced Mode? It seems to be badly crippled without that turned on, even for a 14 year old...

TakeThis

Figment wrote: »

I have that netbook except with 2GiB RAM running Ubuntu 11.10

2GB? I thought that 512MB is soldered to the Motherboard, so that only 1.5GB was possible.

I have the same, running XP and Ubuntu.

Runs nicely with 1.5GB RAM. Was really annoying with 512MB RAM.

I had ACER fit the extra RAM for me. Only cost me a Fiver for labour. Didn't fancy taking the thing apart myself.
Now I'm really happy with it.

Figment

TakeThis wrote: »

2GB? I thought that 512MB is soldered to the Motherboard, so that only 1.5GB was possible.

I have the same, running XP and Ubuntu.

Runs nicely with 1.5GB RAM. Was really annoying with 512MB RAM.

I had ACER fit the extra RAM for me. Only cost me a Fiver for labour. Didn't fancy taking the thing apart myself.
Now I'm really happy with it.

Bought with 1GB SODIMM, upgraded to 2GB (£24 from Crucial)



and just realised it's got 160gig HDD (not 120)

spud17

23n1th wrote: »

As a long shot you could try SliTaz. 35mb for a full graphical desktop working entirely from 192MB of RAM. Now it might not work without so help but if it does it'll be quick. I prefer it to Puppy.

http://www.slitaz.org/en/

Yup, familiar with SliTaz, it runs my thin client webserver. Not yet tried 4.0.

fwor wrote: »

If you do decide to stick with this for a while, hopefully you've found the guides on how to enabled Advanced Mode? It seems to be badly crippled without that turned on, even for a 14 year old...

Yes, also found that, giving the more familiar (to me) xfce right click menu.

The recovery media is no longer available from the Acer site.

So I took a chance and downloaded the Acer Aspire One recovery .iso from a torrent site, using a link I found on an Aspire users forum.

I've just run it and created a usb recovery, and now have a factory restored Aspire. Firefox now works properly along with the wireless, and it's currently downloading system updates.
As to the ram, things seem a bit unclear, I'm pretty sure this one is 512MB with a slot (once you dismantle the whole machine) to take another 1GB.
I know TakeThis is no fan of Crucial but they only list 1GB ram for the ZG5.

@Figment, with the ZG5 there is no access to the ram via any hatch on the bottom as in your picture, in fact the only removable cover on the underside gives access to the wireless card.

TakeThis

spud17 wrote: »

Yup, familiar with SliTaz, it runs my thin client webserver. Not yet tried 4.0.



Yes, also found that, giving the more familiar (to me) xfce right click menu.

The recovery media is no longer available from the Acer site.

So I took a chance and downloaded the Acer Aspire One recovery .iso from a torrent site, using a link I found on an Aspire users forum.

I've just run it and created a usb recovery, and now have a factory restored Aspire. Firefox now works properly along with the wireless, and it's currently downloading system updates.
As to the ram, things seem a bit unclear, I'm pretty sure this one is 512MB with a slot (once you dismantle the whole machine) to take another 1GB.
I know TakeThis is no fan of Crucial but they only list 1GB ram for the ZG5.

@Figment, with the ZG5 there is no access to the ram via any hatch on the bottom as in your picture, in fact the only removable cover on the underside gives access to the wireless card.

Didn't look at that pic....Figment has an entirely different model; the D250.

Yes, 512MB soldered to the Motherboard and the capability of slotting in another 1GB of RAM.

Dual boots XP and Ubuntu very nicely.

spud17

TakeThis wrote: »

Didn't look at that pic....Figment has an entirely different model; the D250.

Thanks, but already sussed that.