Tutorial - Installing PeppermintOS Three on an Acer Aspire One AOA110L ZG5

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Ahh .. OK, when I say "slow", I'm not necessarily saying the standard SSD is slow at booting/seeking/consecutive reads .. it seems to be "writes" (or where it's doing both) where there's a bottleneck (which may or may not be down to the SSD or kernel, or more likely both), but I'm not 100% sure where the problem lies.

"Slow" was probably the wrong term to use, and I was probably being overly general .. Since owning the AA1, I've never seen it freeze during boot, just occasionally it seems to get "busy" with I/O during normal operation

All I know is I've read the problem disappears with the Super Talent SSD's, or 1.8" HDD's

So there's definitely a bottleneck somewhere with the default SSD, but not apparently at booting .. maybe firmware .. you may find this interesting:
http://metal03326.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/samsung-p-ssd1800-firmware-update.html

DISCLAIMER - I have NOT tested that firmware update, so anyone that tries it does so AT YOUR OWN RISK .. I am just raising it as a point of interest.

[Gavmack]

FYI peppermint 3 to fully load the desktop takes 28.3 seconds 

Not wanting to rain on your parade, but my AA1 boots to a full desktop in 28.24 seconds.
That is with the original 8 gb Samsung SSD formatted to ext2 and running ArchBang.

Can't feel any rain here - when I got jaunty very optimised for the AA1 it was under 25 secs and the super talent shaved another 6 seconds off that on ext2 compared to the stock part.  Having used both SSD's in an AA1 the difference in performance is huge between the two and I can quite happily take the performance hit of journaling. Ext4 enabled on the Samsung on the other hand is quite an experience 

[mako6]

Can you write a tutorial for writing the temp and FFcache files to RAM (maybe in Linpus too, if possible). I have 1.5 meg RAM- that shouldn't be a problem,
but I have 1 minute write delays sometimes. What happens if you run the battery dead with that,
and is there a way to back it up on SSD every few minutes, if it can't find it on RAM? What is the "noatimes" (sp) option. With this crummy SSD, think shutting off journaling
is good idea (that is, like constantly saving changes or temp files?) .

Lastly, is there a way to force PM3 to integrate the left SD and SSD folders like the AA1 Linpus. Sorry, but it's important to me. Got C+D drives on laptop,  same folders on 2 external HD + 2 jumpdrives;
 FOLDERS: downloads, articles, docs, website, audio, video, music copied EVERYWHERE, so I hate searching for files- with an SSD, int. SD, ext flash.. that's
 20 folders to look for something.  Since I accidentally popped the SD while on, it acts differently, always showing the SD card, but showing all files on home folders,
even if it's really on the SD. By default, the download folder is on SD, and everything goes there even if I choose another home one.

And is there any other hardware that doesn't work in PM3? Oh, and is there a persistent boot USB burner that works in Ubuntu? Don't think my Windows is clean anymore.

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

This topic is becoming a "post anything about Peppermint on the AA1" topic .. I'd prefer to keep it on topic, which is "installation".

Can you please post your questions as separate topics of their own .. in a format that will be more friendly to future searchers, one question/issue per topic please

[carthers]

Hello Mark. I installed Peppermint 3 on my aspire one A110AB N270 1024 16GB flash in the same way as you describe but have a problem. The wireless network doesnt work. First it did find various networks and after I selected the right one asked for security password. This it didnt however accept (many attempts). If I click the network icon in the system tray I see "wireless disabled by hardware switch". Using the switch also does not help (no light showing). Yesterday when trying out Mint same problem. Back to Linpus all OK. Now with Peppermint again no wireless. Can you help?
Thanks
Chris 

[mako6]

Well, how about the things that must be done during installation? They are germane.

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

@ carthers

Try this .. I once had my wireless appear to be switched off .. first turn off the AA1, remove the battery and power lead, press the power button to discharge any capacitors .. now reattach the battery and power lead, and restart the AA1.

Now right-click the NetworkManager icon in the system tray (by the clock) and make sure "Enable Wireless" is ticked.

If that doesn't bring it back to life ..  can you explain where you saw the message "wireless disabled by hardware switch" ?

Can you also open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and send the output from:

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sudo lshw -C network

and

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ifconfig

and

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iwconfig

and

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iwlist scanning

and

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rfkill list

And just for good luck:

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dmesg | grep DMI

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

@ mako6

Well, how about the things that must be done during installation? They are germane.

Which things that need to be done during the install ? .. besides the possible use of ext2 there isn't anything (that immediately spring to mind).

I don't want to get into an argument about it, but this tutorial is what it is .. it's for people that want to follow it, and support for issues raised by following the tutorial .. ANYTHING else should be in a separate topic.

It was never my intention for this topic to be all encompassing .. just a simple tutorial.

If you want to start another topic about a more complex install .. fine .. but this isn't the place for it.

Really I should have asked a few people to have posted their questions to another topic .. I'm not picking on you in particular, I've just decided I need to draw the line now before the topic gets too messy


I'm afraid I don't speak Germane .. Canadiane .. Norwegiane .. nor even Italiane, though I am fluent in Americane, Candycane, and at a pinch Cocaine

Sorry, couldn't resist ..

[carthers]

Dear Mark
Your tip for restoring the wireless connection worked straight away. Thank you. The message I saw by the way was in the system tray, right click on network icon, message under the dividing line.   
Chris Arthers

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

You're welcome

Can't say I noticed that message when it happened to me .. but that's most likely me being unobservant

[konto]

I had the same problems with WiFi connections on my AA1. Amazingly, the old persuasive hand method worked - the battery jiggle - who would think?. I just hope I will not turn blind from that. I also wonder if  the same method will work on Linux Mint 13?

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

Hi konto, and welcome to the forum

I'm suspecting it would work with ANY distro, as completely discharching any power from the motherboard appears to bring the system back up with the wireless card enabled (which is it's default behaviour) .. I'm wondering if this is down to the BIOS version.

That said, IMHO the FULL Mint is to "heavy" for the AA1 .. unless of course you've upgraded the RAM from 512MB.

[konto]

Getting mobile connection to work

Some of 3G USB mobile devices (dongles) give a hard time while connecting to network. In my case it was modem Huawei  E220. Simply, it didnt want to connect at all. The Network Manager properly showed  the correct mobile network but failed to connect.

Apparently, Linux reads some usb modems simply as storage devices and needs some help to see it as a modem. A command usb-modeswitch will do the job. As the name indicates it switches a device from storage mode to modem mode. You also need wvdialconf and wvdial to accomplish the set up. All of them should reside in your previously downloaded on line repositories – see the installation process. You can check if you got them in Synaptic Package Manager>Search> and type in the commands. Then go to Menu and Run the following commands;

1. usb-modeswitch
2. wvdialconf
3. wvdial

It worked for me.

[CrlyWrly]

Hi Mark,

Sorry if this is a really dumb question . . .

In Stage 6: http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?topic=10313.msg76519#msg76519

If I have already installed some of these packages, eg. Firefox, Libre Office, using the Peppermint Software Manager, do I still need to include these in the "sudo apt-get install" list?

Best wishes

[Mark Greaves (PCNetSpec)]

It won't hurt if you include them in the command .. if they are already installed it will just skip them

But you can remove them from the command if you wish .. up to you.