Install Ubuntu Hardy (8.04.1) Guide

[WanderingStar]

DEPRICATED: USE https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne
This guide aims to help you install Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS on the Acer Aspire One (8gb/512MB model specifically). Many thanks to the members of this forum, as many of the steps here were suggested by others. I'm just consolidating the info I have gleaned with my personal expeciance to try and help some people get started. Here is the status of the components:

Fully functional:
Suspend / Resume
Video (with Desktop effects)
Wireless Networking
Wired Networking
Webcam
USB

Partial Function:
Card Readers (only work if card in when booting, researching fix)
Audio - there is sound, but by default it will not mute speakers when
headphones connected. Upgraded ALSA allows headphone detection but
sound lost on suspend (researching fix)

Pre-Requs:

Before you begin you will need the following:

A copy of 8.04.1 Hardy Heron. This is the latest version. If you downloaded the ISO a while ago, it may be 8.04.0. This version will not function.
A 1+ GB memory key that can be formatted.
A copy of the liveUSB DEB.
(http://ppa.launchpad.net/probono/ubuntu ... l/liveusb/).
A wired network connection.
Another computer, with network access.

Step One: Preperation

Copy the LiveUSB .deb file to a memory key (it can be the one were going to format), and remove the memory key.

Boot to the 8.04.1 Live CD on your other computer. We want the first option on the boot menu (Try Ubuntu). When you have booted to the Live CDs desktop insert the memory key with the LiveUSB .deb on it and follow the prompts to install it. Once its installed we will use the application to create a live usb device. Start it up from System -> Administration -> Install LiveUSB. Select the target device and click Execute. It will give you a warning about data loss, but continue.

Step Two: Install Ubuntu

Once that is done, shut down the other computer and remove the memory key. Shut down your Aspire One and insert the memory key that we just used. Turn on the One and tap F12 to bring up the boot menu. Choose the boot to USB option. This will boot you to the LiveUSB stick, and allow you to install Ubuntu. Install it like normal. Installation (file copy) will take a LONG time (hour +). You may also get an error about setting up a mirror. Don't worry about it, its non-fatal.

Step 3: Tweak / Fix

So now we should have an installed Ubuntu system. At this point wire your One into the network. If you use DHCP it should pick up an IP address automatically. The first thing you will want to do is updates, since the wireless driver needs to be reinstalled after every kernel update. Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal). Do the updates:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Now we need to grab the wireless driver, and the things we need to build it:

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wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz
tar xzvf madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007.tar.gz
cd madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

And we build, install, and make it perminant...

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make
sudo make install
sudo echo ath_pci >> /etc/modules

Everytime there is a kernel update you will need to perform the following steps to make the wireless work. Go to the directory (madwifi-ng-r3366+ar5007) and run:

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make clean
make
sudo make install

You may need to reboot after that.

To get headphones detected, but loose sound after suspend follow the steps here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

I'm still looking into things to make everything "just work" but this is where I'm at for now.

Hopefully this helps,
Jeff

[rscutaru]

pretty good... but suspend unfortunately is not an option for me as I store my user profiles on an SD card... so now firefox and thunderbird are not starting up

[lotus49]

You may also get an error about setting up a mirror. Don't worry about it, its non-fatal.

Can I just point out that it's best to do the installation on a wired connection to avoid this error. It normally results in Ubuntu commenting out the repos in /etc/apt/sources.list which will result in not being able to update properly using apt-get (which is the single coolest thing about Debian and its relatives like Ubuntu).

Fixing it afterwards is pretty easy, you just remove the # from the front of the commented-out lines in that file, but if you are connected to the internet when you install it avoids this problem which may confuse Debian/Ubuntu newbies.

[baseline]

Hi all,

I would just like to add 2 pieces of information to this excellent post.
First, don't use a file system that has journaling enabled since this imensly increases disk access and second, install preload: sudo aptitude install preload.
Even in a system with only 512 MBs it really makes a difference.

cheers

[WanderingStar]

Thanks guys for the followups. Installing on a wired connection is best. I used EXT2 as the file system, same as Linupus. Should have mentioned this. I just wanted to get something up so people stopped with the PMs. I will be doing the install again tommrow (I broke some things trying to get sound perfect). When I revise it I will also put notes on moving temp and the logs to a tempfs file system, and clean up some of the bad grammar.

Thanks a lot for the feedback all.

Jeff

[mattylight]

Awesome write-up...I may be doing this tomorrow if the One arrives on time...

[Aubrey]

Nice guide, WanderingStar

Re the automounting of SD cards - you might want to try commenting out the /dev/sdb1 line "/media/cdrom0......" in fstab. That fixed automounting of cards and usb devices for me.

Great tip about using ext2 rather than ext3, by the way. I hadn't thought of that. I can feel a re-install coming on.

[nack]

It used to be you could switch from ext3 to ext2 just by mounting as ext2. I'm not sure if that has changed.

[nack]

Does Ubuntu handle the backlight and brightness? I don't particularly need to have it on keyboard keys, but it would be nice to be able to control it somehow.

[Aubrey]

It used to be you could switch from ext3 to ext2 just by mounting as ext2. I'm not sure if that has changed.

It seems that is the case for a temporary fix, but various guides suggest:

Converting from Ext3 back to Ext2

There may come a time when you want to convert back to Ext2. For directories other than the root directory or /usr, it's pretty easy. The following once again uses the example of /dev/hda10 mounted to directory /test:

umount /dev/hda10

$> tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/hda10
$> e2fsck /dev/hda10

Edit /etc/fstab to change /dev/hda10 to mount type ext2

$> mount /dev/hda10

The tune2fs command removes the journal inode, and the e2fsck command completes that removal.

For the root directory, you apparently also need to delete the .journal file.

I assume this could be done by booting from the live USB.

I'll try it and report back.