Running Puppy on Acer Aspire One

[michaeljking]

Its actually listed as 4.05 at the moment,

I can't confirm the webcam at the moment as I cannot get amsn to run(its also not connecting in Ubuntu either,,,)

I deleted Limpus and installed Ubuntu(webcam works, microphone doesnt, a little slow)
If I can get audacity added i will check the microphone.

[Patient0]

Its actually listed as 4.05 at the moment,

You don't happen to have a link do you? I can't seem to find anything higher than 4.0 on any of the download pages on puppylinux.com and puppylinux.org

[timothyli]

I figured how to get SD card working under Puppy 3.01 or Pupeee.

Go to boot manager and add the following modules to be loaded at boot time:

mmc_core
mmc_block
sdhci

Both SD card slots should now be recognized.

There is one more challenge left. I could not get Puppy to recognize the 8G internal SSD. It shows up as a VFAT formated drive even though it is a Ext2, and when I mount it, it shows nothing. Any ideas?

[raffy]

Patient0:

You don't happen to have a link do you?

The 4.06 (alpha release) should be in the "test" folder of the Puppy ibiblio site.

[timothyli]

Tried version Puppy 4.06 on the Aspire One. Did not work.

Using irqpoll as a kernel boot parameter, I got as far as "loading kernel...optical mouse and keyboard", then it got stuck.

Also tried acpi=off without success.

On the issue regarding pmount not able to read the internal SSD drive properly... I tried mounting the drive manually on a command line:

mount /dev/hdc2 /mnt/hdc2

It worked! Didn't know why.

[Patient0]

On the issue regarding pmount not able to read the internal SSD drive properly... I tried mounting the drive manually on a command line:

mount /dev/hdc2 /mnt/hdc2

If puppy linux is seeing the internal SSD drive as hdc then it's probably using the standard IDE driver rather than the correct SATA driver. It should be seen as sda if the right drivers loaded.

This might explain why the drive isn't correctly mounted automatically if /etc/fstab points to sda rather then hdc, and you won't the performance benefits the SATA interface offers if the correct drivers not loaded.

[BillK]

This is great work!! Congratulations!

The new Dell netbook, the Inspiron 910, is due out on Friday 22 Aug with prices starting at 299 USD. It runs Ubuntu Remix.

This market is going to be huge. Puppy could be running on millions of netbooks with a bit of publicity.

[Kallethen]

I also tried the latest alpha without success on the AA1. Same trouble as timothyli stated, it got stuck, though I didn't try irqpoll like he did. I think the point where it got stuck for me was "Disabling IRQ#11".

A couple of nights previous I had tried 4.0 Puppy on it, it booted up fine with acpi. Of course xorg didn't work but xvesa did, abeit not at the correct 1024 by 600, but at 1024 by 768 squished into the former. Figured it might help to know to compare and contrast the stable and testing ISOs.

EDIT: Also should note, I booted stable off CD, and testing on USB (just got a USB key). Maybe I should try both vice versa...

[timothyli]

Patient0,

You are right, although I can mount it as hdc1, the performance of the SSD is very poor.

How do I get Puppy to recognize the SSD drive as a SATA drive?

I am really disappointed by the poor performance of the AA1 SSD. I should have waited and gone for the XP/HD model with just a little bit more money.

[Kallethen]

Before I left on my business trip (which is the big reason I got he AA1, light for travel ), I tried putting Puppy 4.0 on my USB key. It did the same thing as the alpha, which makes me think I'm having a problem with UNetBootin instead of the alpha having a problem. When I get back home I'll burn the alpha onto CD and try booting off that.

timothyli:

Yeah, it seems that the AA1 came out with two different models of SSDs, one of them being slow for an SSD. At least that's what I've been reading on a AA1 user forum (aspireoneuser.com).

[Kallethen]

I noticed the ISO for the alpha 6 is lacking a zdrv_XXX.sfs file. Could this be what's keeping it from booting?

[raffy]

The drivers are already in the pup_4xx.sfs file. For alpha6, the parameter "nosmp" tells the kernel not to use multiprocessor setting. If you are using pre-alpha6, then try using the boot parameter "puppy nosmp".

There is an alternative, conservative kernel for alpha6, so you can try that too.

Download link

[Kallethen]

The reason I asked about the lack of that file is because I did get the AA1 to boot Puppy 4.0 from USB with the acpi=off parameter after using the Puppy installer to put it on the USB instead of unetbootin. I saw the instructions on the Puppy site for ugrading an existing USB drive by copying over key files from the ISO and that zdrv_XXX.sfs file was one of those listed.

[raffy]

Note that pup_4xx.sfs is much larger than pup_400.sfs because the drivers are already in it, no longer in zdrv_4xx.sfs.

[timothyli]

I found that if there is an SD card in the slot, booting 4.07 get stuck at "loading kernel...keyboard". If there is no SD card plugged in, booting is fine.

My work around is to temporary pull the card out before I boot, and reinsert after booting is completed.

[qasar.es]

Thanks for that.

It happens the same with the normal beta (4.08) version. I tried the retro version, but I have some problems with the X server. Your workaround works nicely, thanks again.

[deniros]

I do not know if this was already mentioned in another topic, but i'll post it in this one to keep information less fragmented for the acer one:

This is the info for puppy 4.1 on wifi and frequency scaling on the acer aspire one.

WIFI:
To make wifi work on the acer one it requires a non-standard variant of the MADWiFi (ath_pci) driver.

tempestuous (thanks! ), in the puppy forum, made this available for the For the ASUS Eee 700-series and 900, wich has the Atheros AR5007EG chipset. But it also works with the acer aspire one with the Atheros AR5006EG (at least that is the info i got from my wifi interface on the acer one).

It can be found here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 740#237740

small note: I couldn't make WPA2 with AES encryption work, only WPA TKIP worked.

Frequency scaling:

To use cpu frequency scaling (between 800 MHz and 1.6 GHz) on the acer one, you have to load the acpi cpufreq module. You also have to load the governors you want to use (:

this can be done by :

modprobe the following:
the main cpu frequency module:
acpi-cpufreq

and the frequency scaling governors:
cpufreq_ondemand (this is the best one to use i think)
cpufreq_userspace
cpufreq_conservative
cpufreq_powersave

to properly use them here is a small howto:
(got the info from http://www.thinkwiki.org/)

Get a list of available governors with:

# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
conservative ondemand powersave userspace performance

Note: If the governors are compiled as modules, load them first (which they are in puppy 4.1):

# modprobe cpufreq_performance cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_conservative cpufreq_powersave cpufreq_userspace

Now we set our governor: What is our current governor?

# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
userspace

Set new governor and watch if it has changed

# echo conservative > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
conservative

to use this every boot put the module loading in rc.local, plus plus the command to use the governor.

Now i would like to fully configure my acer one so that it all works. Next step for me will be maximum fan control, build in camera, and the wifi led. I also want to make some different loadable configs ( from maximum powersave to performance use).

Ill post that later
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[JB4x4]

Here is how to get the wifi LED working:

sysctl -w dev.wifi0.ledpin=3
sysctl -w dev.wifi0.softled=1

I put these commands in an executable file in the StartUp folder.


EDIT--

I also added a program for the webcam:

after installing start it with the command "luvcview -f yuv"


There was this and a lot of other good info here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne

JB

[deniros]

thanks JB4x4, wifi led works now. :p

I just came home from work, and to tired to find sdl dependency for luvcview, so i'll try that tomorrow. Thanks

[iscraigh]

Looking forward to a working variant. I have played with the linpus but it is to limiting.
I have started working on a puppy for my aspire. Not happy with any interface yet but here is my dream so far.

All hardware working out of the box
Status-
Have not tested web cam or mic,
sound will work after adding a line to modules config
eth0 works,
wlan works after changing driver,
Function keys not tested
wlan lights, have not tested above solution yet looks promising.

Software

currently testing firepup (looks very fast and stable so far)
Java
skype
games at least 10 or so
all regular puppy software but edit the menu to hide most items under an advanced section(no idea how to do this)
Wbar
Icewm (possibly stay with jwm)
battery monitor in icewm not showing up
show desktop button needed
possibly replace xine with vlc

Size is not a major consideration as this will be a hardrive install so I may even add Open Office.
speeding up boot times is important and a working suspend.

So anyone with more knowledge than me care to help out.

Craig