Aspire One with Kubuntu

I have the ‘slow’ SSD Acer Aspire One.  It’s the SSD that’s slower and doesn’t have the write speed of the better SSD Aspire One, but I am quite happy with the performance of Kubuntu on my little Aspire One.  I did install the additional 1GB RAM, which is another process all together.  With the slower SSD and 1.5GB of RAM, I have Kubuntu running like a top and I love it!

Known issues: the WiFi led won’t light up after installing Kubuntu.

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase.  You want to install Kubuntu on your Aspire One and need a little help?  Well, I’ll help as much as I can, so here it goes…

Estimated Time for Install Kubuntu on the Acer Aspire One: 2 Hours

You will need:
Computer with Windows OS (I know)
Min 2GB USB Flash that you can erase all data on.
Kubuntu 8.04.1 ISO (Like Ubuntu, 8.04 will not work on the Aspire One)
Ubuntu8convert2.exe
Cat5 Cable with Internet connection

Creating a bootable USB with Kubuntu Live CD

1. Download the Kubuntu ISO from here http://www.kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/download and save it on your hard drive.
2. Download the Ubuntu8convert8.exe from http://www.pendrivelinux.com/downloads/Ub8convert2.exe  I know, it says Ubuntu, but it works for Kubuntu too.
3. Insert your USB drive into the Windows machine and make note of the drive letter (If the drive letter is higher than K: you’re going to have problems, so change the drive letter if needed to something below K that doesn’t conflict with other drives.
4. Run Ubuntu8convert2.exe you will be prompted to extract the contents. (I extracted to Y:) Be sure you have around 1GB free on the drive you’re going to extract to.  DO NOT EXTRACT TO THE USB!!   A new folder has been created called “Ubuntu8″
5. Copy the Kubuntu ISO into the Ubuntu8 folder.  You can just drag and drop it, but be sure you have enough room on the hard drive to accommodate the size of the ISO.  You should now have the Ubuntu8 folder on your hard drive with the Kubuntu ISO inside the Ubuntu8 folder, there will also be other files inside the Ubuntu8 folder
6. Click on fixu8.bat inside the Ubuntu8 folder (If you’re using Vista or logged in as restricted user, right click and run as administrator).  A command window will open and begin the process of copying the files and preparing the USB to be bootable.   Follow the directions of the prompts!!  You will need your USB drive letter, enter it when prompted.  This process can take a rather long time and seems to get longer with larger USB.  DO NOT STOP THE PROCESS!!

You have now created a bootable USB Live with Kubuntu 8.04.1

Installing Kubuntu on the Acer Aspire One

1. Plug the USB into your Acer Aspire One with the power turned OFF and power on the unit.
2. Press “F12″ when the machine starts to pull up the boot menus  F12 allows you to choose which device you will boot.  Choose the USB device
3. Plug in your Acer Aspire One with a Cat5 cable that has internet (this isn’t mandatory and won’t cause a problem, but it will make things easier during install)
4. Choose Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer.  Notice, it says Ubuntu and NOT Kubuntu, that’s OK and no need for alarm.  The install option may work, but it’s not what I used.  Let the machine load. It takes about 4 minutes for me from the USB on the Aspire One to load the Kubuntu OS from the USB Live.
5. Let it load! If you’re using the Aspire One, there will be a prompt saying, you’re using restricted drivers, wait until this prompt pops up and close it.
6. Click the Install icon on the desktop.  You will be prompted to choose your language, then time zone, keyboard layout until you get to “Prepare disk space”
7. Choose “Guided – use entire disk” unless you don’t want to and you know what you’re doing.  You WILL loose everything that’s stored on the hard drive
8. Let it install.  There are a few prompts, like are you sure you want to do this?  If you’re sure, then continue. The install is going to take a while (40 minutes for me) and is a good time for a coffee and donut break.   When the install is complete, you will be prompted.
9. Reboot.  You will want to reboot!

You have installed Kubuntu, but you need to ‘fix’ a few things.

1. Plug your Cat5 into your Acer Aspire One.  You’ll need to enable DHCP on your router.  If you don’t know what DHCP is, then you probably have it enabled, so don’t worry.
2. Boot your machine.  The first time is going to take a little longer than normal as you’re going to be prompted for user name, password and such.  Don’t forget your user name and password!
3. Open a terminal window no, this isn’t scary, it’s really quite easy.  Go to “K” which is where “Start” is on windows, then go to utilities and open the terminal.
4. Get ready to do a little typing, but this is going to get your WiFI working, so it’s worth it.Into the terminal type:
   sudo apt-get update
wait for the machine to do its thing.  Then type into terminal
sudo apt-get upgrade

   These will get the latest updates for your new OS

   Now, let’s get those wifi drivers ready!  Into the terminal, one a a time, type in:
   wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz
tar xzvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz
   We are NOW using the current builds which will change directories, depending on the build.  The above step will show the directory that was created (mine was madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080742) this directory WILL change every time a new snapshot is made.  You will see the directory listed in the files extracted in the terminal (This IS easier than it sounds)
   cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3816-20080742 (This will change when new snapshots are made)
   sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)

   Sweet, you’ve just donwloaded the WiFI drivers for your Acer Aspire One, now let’s install them!  Type into the terminal, one line at a time:
   make
sudo make install
sudo -i
echo ath_pci >> /etc/modules

You may or may not need the sudo on the last line before echo.  If you get an error without sudo, then add sudo.  If it still won't work, try kdesu.

   Now, we’re almost done.  Here’s the last line you need to type into the terminal
   exit

Viola!  You are done.  You now have Kubuntu installed on your Acer Aspire One.  I had to reboot to get the WiFI to work, so you might want to do it to.

Optimize and tweak your Kubuntu install

There are a lot of setting inside Kubuntu and if you want to have your OS running as fast as possible, you might want to get rid of some of the edsktop efffects and change the OS partition type from ext3 to ext2.

To change the desktop settings and much more in your Kubuntu install, go to “K” in the taskbar and then “Run” type in “kcontrol” and you will be prompted with w huge list of settings for the desktop to help optimize performacne.  I got rid of all the GUI effects and the bouncy cursour (which I hate).

To change the filesystem from ext3 to ext2, which I would recommend, you’re going to need the same bootable USB with kubuntu and follow the directions here.

Reducing SSD wear
Follow the directions in this post in the section about “Reducing SSD Wear” at http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1233#p1233 Ubuntu users seem to report errors using this method, but using Kubuntu, I have had no errors.  But I also can’t ‘see’ a difference in performace.

Special Thanks!

Special thanks go out to Aubrey, WanderingStar and sbemail over at the Aspireoneuser.com forum.  Without their help, I would not have been able to install the WiFi drivers.

Aspire One Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Mini-Notebook – Seashell White Intel Atom N270 1.60GHz 512MB DDR2 533 SDRAM and 8GB Solid-State Drive 8.9″ WSVGA LCD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Fast Ethernet 802.11b/g Linux AspireOne

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In the last few years, the ultra portable notebook market has really taken off.  The ultra portable notebooks rest firmly somewhere between a PDA and a full size (full power) notebook we all know and love.  Until very recently, the Ultra portable notebooks have been little more than glorified PDAs with a computing power on par with high end cellphones.   Combined with small screens, low power and micro storage , the ultra portable ‘sub notebook’ wasn’t ready for the mainstream and was the realm of the micro Linux tech communities and people who built their own computers.  Thanks to some recent additions to the sub notebook market, the new ultra portables are ready for the masses.

One of the greatest features of these ultra portable notebooks (sub notebooks) is the SSD (Solid State Drive).  Not only are SSDs much lighter than their spinning cousins, SSD drives aren’t prone to failure from shock like standard platter hard drives.  There are no moving parts in a SSD, so those little bumps aren’t going to scratch and damage the solid state drive like the standard hard drive.  Solid state drives also use about 5% of the power of the standard HDD and this means a big boost in battery life. The problem with the SSD is the cost, these things are expensive and because of the limitations, most ultraportables have store capacities as low as 2GB.

The real attraction to the ultra portable notebook market is the ultra portability.  You’ve seen pictures on the net, but until you have one in your hands, you won’t believe how small they really are.  I mean small!  These are smaller than most books and will fit easily into a purse.  How’s that for portability!

Ultra Portable : The New Beginning

In the uber competitive laptop market, Asus came in under the radar not too long ago with the Asus EEE PC 700 series.  A small ‘sub notebook’, the Asus EEE PC was fitted with with a diminutive  7″ screen, miniature keyboard and the power to match.  It was a really cool mini laptop, but with a 900mhz CPU, 512MB RAM and a 2GB SDD, the Asus EEE PC just doesn’t have the horsepower that consumers need in a laptop, even if the laptop is tiny.

Asus EEE PC 900 Series

Now this is what I’m talking about, 8.9″ LCD finally made viewing the ultra portable laptops a little easier.  Storage increased from a ridiculous 2GB to an acceptable 12GB model.  But what I was really missing from the EEE PC series was the Intel Atom processors.  The Asus EEE PC still didn’t have enough ‘umph’ to make it much more than a PDA and could not handle the pressure of mainstream computing needs.  The Asus EEE PC 900 series still used the 900mhz processors.  With the lack of CPU, the Asus 900 series was still little more than a internet device and not really functional for speedy application use.  And even though the screen got bigger, the Asus EEE PC 900 series still had a tiny keyboard that’s hard to use.

Acer Aspire One

Finally, something better! The Acer Aspire One picked up where Asus left off.  Using the best features of the EEE PC, Acer’s Aspire One starts with the 8.9″ screen, which at 1024 width, is wide enough for all websites and allows enough screen to do some real work.  And that’s about where the similarities end to the Asus EEE PC.  Asus fell behind with the 900mhz processor, but Acer jumped in the market with an Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU in the base model of the Acer Apire One.  This is HUGE!  You can actually run graphics programs with large files and not have a crash.  Another area where Acer must have been listening to the Asus crowd is the keyboard.  Asus users had been complaining about the tiny keyboards since the 700 and the 900 had the same keyboard size – ugh!  One of the features many users of the Aspire One like the most, seems to be the bigger keyboard.  Rather than the tiny keyboard of the EEE PC, the Aspire One’s keyboard is a 95% keyboard.  That means, the keys are more like a real keyboard and you can ‘touch type’ a lot easier.

Asus EEE PC vs. Acer Aspire One

CPU:  Acer Aspire One beat the Asus EEE PC 900 by a mile!
Acer Aspire 1 = 1.6GHz Intel Atom
Asus EEE PC 900 =  900mhz

Screen: Acer Aspire One beat the Asus EEE PC 900, but it was close.  The Crystal Brite screen on the Aspire One made Acer the winner:
Acer Aspire 8.9″ with Crystal Brite
Asus 8.9″

Storeage*: Asus EEE PC 900 beats the Acer Aspire One, but only in the SSD models
Acer Aspire One 8GB SSD
Asus EEE PC 12GB

Additional Storeage: Acer Aspire One beats the Asus EEE PC 900
Acer Aspire One: 3 USB and 2 SDHC slots
Asus EEE PC 900: 2 USB 1 SD slot

Looks: The Acer Aspire One looks and feels better than the Asus EEE PC 900
Acer Aspire One : Solid feel and nice looking.
Asus EEE PC 900: If it didn’t show fingerprints so bad, it would have been a tie.

Layout:  Acer Aspire owns Asus EEE PC 900
This one isn’t really fair.  The Acer Aspire one is 24mm wider than the Asus EEE PC 900.  While that’s only about the width of my thumb, Acer made the most of it by using a larger keyboard layout which make typing much easier.  Also, the Acer Aspire has the additional USB and SDHC slots and that’s something you don’t want to under estimate with the small SSD in these.

Overall, I choose the Acer Aspire One.  It has more power, bigger keyboard, more storage options and a great desin.  After you get yours, be sure and check around the forums for all the tweaks, mods and accesories that are going to make the Acer Aspire One the next ultrportable to beat in 2009!

Aspire One Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz Mini-Notebook – Seashell White Intel Atom N270 1.60GHz 512MB DDR2 533 SDRAM and 8GB Solid-State Drive 8.9″ WSVGA LCD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Fast Ethernet 802.11b/g Linux AspireOne

Hostel Board Company sponsored a wake boarding contest in a parking lot. It was a lot of fun and the contestants were really good. Check out Hostel Board Company to see the whole stroy and pictures from the event.

In this series, I will try and broach some of the pros and cons of various shopping cart and various ecommerce solutions. We will begin with ZenCart.

Zen Cart is a really nice online shopping cart. Out of the box, it works. It’s basic, but it does work. There’s a beauty to its simplicity, thus Zen. Out of the box, you get basic image handling, easy to use and create templates and built in credit card processing gateways. You also have the ability to add a lot of features that would cost thousands extra for most pay shopping carts, but with Zen Cart, most every extension and contribution that add functionality to your cart are free. $0 is a very attractive price for a piece of such powerful software, but there’s a cost. ZenCart management is not for the faint of heart. ZenCart requires a fairly high level of knowledge to really have a good shopping cart.

ZenCart – The Good

One of the best things about Zen Cart is it’s free. Yep, free. Not only is it free, it’s also open source, which means, given enough knowledge, you can make the cart do anything you want it to do. Well, anything within reason or the ability of your programmer. And it’s not just the cart that is free, the source is also free for Zen Cart. Shopping carts source code can cost thousands of dollars, but Zen Cart is free. And when you really need to change a function of the site, the source is, well, the best source. Updates and upgrades are also free and that’s a big plus in the world of ecommerce.

Designing a shopping cart with ZenCart is fairly simple, if you can design a website. Zen Cart uses a great template system. It’s very easy to use and it makes updating the software a lot easier. I really like the hierarchical taxonomic structure of the template system. It takes a little getting used to and it’s not a WYSIWYG system, you still need to code, but it’s one of the easier template systems I’ve used. And let us not forget, ZenCart is free.

Zen Cart – The Not So Good

Product management with ZenCart is both a godsend and a nightmare. The godsend is keeping track of products that are published vs non-published items. Price adjusting and category management. Any system is going to take some time to learn, but Zen Cart provided a wealth of information about your products, all on one page and all easy to update and edit. In some aspects, it’s the best product management layout I’ve used. However, adding variants (size, color, etc..) to a product is archaic. ZenCart’s cousin, OSCommerce, has an add-in that addresses this issue, but not in Zen Cart. ZenCart 3 is scheduled to address this issue, but the schedule itself is 2 years old. There are a few contributions and add-ons that try and address this issue, but the method for adding variants to products falls far short of user friendly and is downright hostile at times.

ZenCart – The Ugly

The downside – you need a real programmer. And every upgrade is going to require some rather extensive work to keep the look, feel and functionality of your site. All the little bells and whistles are going to cost you in programmer fees or extensive amounts of your time. Your cart is going to need a lot of add-on, contributions and graphics to have a nice looking and highly functional site. Images handling is fairly poor, but there are add-ons to make image handling as good as most any other website, but again, you’ll need someone who knows PHP and SQL to get it functional and be able to update your site in the future.

Search engine optimization is going to take a lot of work with Zen Cart. The shopping cart isn’t exactly what you would call search engine friendly out of the box, but that can be fixed with an add-on. So there’s more money to the programmer.

ZenCart – What it all means

Depending on what you’re selling, Zen Cart may be the best solution for your shopping cart. It can handle an infinite amounts of products, but if you have a lot of variants (size, color, etc.), you’ll probably be happier with an easier to use administrator interface for stock and attributes than the one used by Zen Cart. If you’re selling products without variants ZenCart may be a great solution for your web site’s shopping cart.

coming up next… ASPDotNetStoreFront

The storefront is ASPdotnetstorefront.com, which is a handful to type, but definitely worth the time. One of the big reasons for trying this ASPDNSF was Visa’s PABP and PCI compliance. PABP and PCI are basically Visa and many other credit card vendors telling the ecommerce community to ‘strengthen security’. More and more, you’re hearing about websites being compromised and customers credit card information be hijacked. Well, PABP and PCI are meant to help stop these compromises. It’s not just business practices, but the way the code is written. ASPDNSF is PABP out of the box and , as Martha Stuart would say, ‘that’s a good thing’.

Another key issue was Quickbooks integration. If you’re running a brick-and-mortar store and an ecommerce site, you’ll quickly learn inventory control is a beast that can easily consume a lot of time, resources and there’s nothing worse than selling an online item that’s out of stock – ouch! With an application called T-Hub, from Atandra.com, you can have a bidirectional synch with Quickbooks. Sales on the website are imported into QB and sales on QB update the inventory in the online store. You also get integration with shipping that updates your website and your QB. It’s really an amazing accomplishment if you’ve ever attached the 800lb gorilla that is QuickBooks POS. One click and all your orders are downloaded from the website into Quickbooks and one more click and all the inventory in the website is updated from Quickbooks – how’s that for efficiency!

So, take a look around the ASPDotNetStorefront site and check out all the amazing features you can have on your website.