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I have, well had, a Powerbook G4 which was driving me nuts. Having been using Linux for a such a long time, I wasn’t quite able to adjust to how a Mac dealt with software - most of the stuff out there isn’t free. That was just one of the problems I had with a Mac. Making a long story short, I ended up with giving my Powerbook to my parents. I’m sure they’ll enjoy it way more than I do.

So, having gotten rid of that laptop, I suddenly found myself laptop-less, which, to be honest, left me feeling quite naked. I did find a solution though! Getting hold of an Acer Aspire One.



The machine is finally in my hands. You can find the following tips and tricks for:

• Adding your own Desktop-icons - Done
• Changing the keyboard layout to Norwegian - Done
• Changing to the default desktop - Done
• Disabling autologin (and enabling GDM)- Done
• Enable Circular Scrolling
• Enabling the right click menu - Done
• Improving read and write performance - Keep walking
• Installing Firefox 3 - Done
• Installing other packages with yum - Done
• Managing the (noisy) fan speed - Keep walking
• Removing the Search Bar - Done
• Setting the right resolution on an external monitor - Done
• Troubleshooting - Keep walking
• USB Recovery Image - Keep walking
• Wallpaper for the Acer Aspire One - Keep walking

Please keep in mind that most changes done to the system will require you to have root-access. So unless specified otherwise, run all the commands as root. Whether you are root or not is indicated by the first character in your terminal. $ signifies that you’re a regular user, # is for when you are root.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about what the root password is, I believe it is the same as your regular user password. If you’d like to change it though, do the following:

$ sudo su -
# passwd root
New Unix password:
Retype new Unix password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updates successfully.

Before we proceed though, I need to emphasize that every instruction here is done at your own risk. There is no guarantee that any of this will work on your Acer Aspire One. Most people have reported these instructions to be a success, while others report failure. So, be cautious!


Changing to the default desktop

The Acer Aspire One runs a Linux distribution called Linpus. This distribution comes with XFCE as the default windowmanager. Of course Acer has modified it a bit, which makes it look like this:




Word of caution though. Most websites will tell you to do the following:

su to root:

$ sudo su -

and open the file /etc/xdg/xfce4-session/xfce4-session.rc:

# mousepad /etc/xdg/xfce4-session/xfce4-session.rc

and find the line:

Client0_Command=xfdesktopnew

Change it to:

Client0_Command=xfdesktop-xfce

But the thing is, when you replace xfdesktopnew with xfdesktop-xfce, a script called xfce-mcs-manager won’t start up, and that is what some people find so “horrible” about the regular xfce-desktop. If we open up the file xfdesktopnew located in /usr/bin/, we find the following:

#!/bin/sh
if [ -f /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager.new ];then
sudo mv /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager.new /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager
fi
/usr/bin/xfdesktop2 & >/dev/null 2>&1
sleep 5
if [ -f /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager ];then
sudo mv /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager /usr/bin/xfce-mcs-manager.new
fi

As you can se here the script xfdesktopnew starts the application xfdesktop2. What that script contains, I’ve no idea. Try opening the file for yourself, you’ll see what I’m talking about. Anyway, in order for this to work, change the line:

/usr/bin/xfdesktop2 & >/dev/null 2>&1

to:

/usr/bin/xfdesktop & >/dev/null 2>&1

Save it and close it. Next, open up the file /usr/bin/xfdesktop, and change line 6 to look like this:

/usr/bin/xfdesktop-xfce & >/dev/null 2>&1

Save, close, and reboot. You should have a fully working xfce desktop, with icons!

Now, if you’re like me, and would like to have the icons gone from the desktop, create a file named xfdesktoprc in /home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/ with the following in it:

[file-icons]
show-filesystem=false
show-home=false
show-trash=false
show-removable=true

Save and close, and reboot. The result? Something like my desktop:

Enabling the Right-click Menu

Usually when you’re in xfce you can right-click on the desktop to bring forth a menu. This isn’t enabled as a standard function with the desktop that comes with the Acer Aspire One. To enable it, do the following.

On your desktop, under the File category, select My Documents. When this opens, select File and then Terminal. When the terminal opens, type:

$ xfce-setting-show

This will bring up the xfce settings manager. Select Desktop, Behavior and click the box named Show desktop menu on right click. Voila, that should be it.


Changing the keyboard layout to Norwegian

This can be done in at least two ways. You either put setxkbmap no at the bottom of the .bash_profile-file (located in your home-folder) like this:

$ echo "setxkbmap no" >> bash_profile

Or you can download and install this RPM.
Update: With the new Live Update-patch, this is no longer required.


Disabling autologin

Warning: Take caution when commenting out lines, and inserting new ones. The lack of a single character may render your system useless.
Open the file named /etc/rc.d/rc.S and comment out the following line:

/usr/bin/xinit -- -br>/dev/null 2>&1 &

Like this:

#/usr/bin/xinit -- -br>/dev/null 2>&1 &

Below this line, insert the following:

/usr/sbin/gdm

And that’s that. The username is user and the password is whatever you set it to be during the installation.

Should you for some reason be unlucky enough to forget to add /usr/sbin/gdm to the file, but still commented out /usr/bin/xinit — -br>/dev/null 2>&1 &, and rebooted.


Installing Firefox 3

If you want Firefox 3 to be installed properly (via yum), you should add the remi repository:

# wget http://rpms.famillecollet.com/remi-release-8.rpm
# rpm -Uvh remi-release-8.rpm

Edit the file /etc/yum.repos.d/remi.repo, and set enabled to 1 under [remi] and NOT [remi-test].

Then we proceed with removing the old Firefox and installing the new one. Now, a regular yum remove firefox won’t work, as it’ll drag a buttload of dependencies with it. However, this will only remove Firefox, without its dependencies:

# rpm -e --nodeps firefox

Then install the new one:

# yum install firefox

That’s all there is to it.

Now, having said that, a friendly chap named Nacho Marin made me aware of a problem that had totally slipped my mind. It seems that there are several programs that are depending on some libraries that Firefox 2 has, and not Firefox 3. The Acer Aspire One e-mail client being one of them, and the RSS reader too. The missing libraries are libgtkembedmoz.so, libmozjs.so, libxpcom_core.so and libxpcom.so.

A big thank you to Nacho for the heads up about the library-files.

Update: It seems that several people were complaining about how the e-mail program kept shutting down for no apparent reason. It seems that they need more than simply the library-files. I believe I’ve located the files, and that you now should be able to have both Firefox 3, and the email client working. Give me some feedback to let me know how the script turns out.

I have made a script to make this a bit easier to fix, see below:

Become root and open a file named recover_firefox_libraries.sh:

$ sudo su -
# mousepad recover_firefox_libraries.sh

Place the following in it:

#!/bin/bash
#
## Script to recover Firefox 2 libraries
## Version 2
#
#
## Usage: ./recover_firefox_libraries.sh

WGET=`which wget`
RPM_URL="http://jorge.ulver.no/files/firefox-files.tar.gz"
MV=`which mv`
CHOWN=`which chown`
CHMOD=`which chmod`
RM=`which rm`
TAR=`which tar`
MKDIR=`which mkdir`
RMDIR=`which rmdir`

cd /root/
echo "## Getting hold of the Firefox-files.."
$WGET $RPM_URL

echo "## Unpacking the library-files.."
$TAR zxvf firefox-files.tar.gz

echo "## Moving library-files.."
$MV /usr/acer/bin/AME /usr/acer/bin/old.AME
$MV /root/firefox-files/AME /usr/acer/bin/AME
$MKDIR /usr/lib/firefox-files/
$MV /root/firefox-files/* /usr/lib/firefox-files/

echo "## Changing permissions and cleaning up.."
$RM /root/firefox-files.tar.gz
$RMDIR /root/firefox-files/
$CHOWN -R root.root /usr/lib/firefox-files/
$CHMOD -R 755 /usr/lib/firefox-files/

echo "## Done!"

What the script basically does is to get hold of the file firefox-files.tar.gz (so be online when running it), moves the libraryfiles, changes the permission, and removes the file and the unnecessary directories it creates. Make the file executable, then run it:

# chmod +x recover_firefox_libraries.sh
# ./recover_firefox_libraries.sh

Have Fun!


Installing other packages with yum

If you want to install other packages with yum, a repository I can recommend is http://rpm.livna.org. You can add this repository by following these instructions. First, become root. You should be able to either do sudo su - and then entering the password for user, or just do su -, and entering the root-password (which I think is the same as for user):

$ sudo su -
# yum -y install yum-priorities

Open and edit the file /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf. Change vim to whatever editor you prefer (nano is one of the easier ones):

# vim /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf

Make the contents of the file look like so:

[main]
enabled = 1
check_obsoletes = 1

Save and close the file. Now finally, install this package and you should be set:

# rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/f8/yum http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm

Removing the search-bar

Removing the search-bar is very simple as well. Open the file /usr/share/search-bar/start-search_bar.sh and comment out each line to make the content look like so:

#!/bin/sh
#resolution=`xrandr |grep *|awk '{print $1}'`
#resolution=`xrandr |grep current|awk -F"current" '{print $2}'|awk -F"," '{print $1}'|sed 's/ //g'`
#
#if [ $resolution = "1280x800" ];then
# acer-search-desktop --x=650 --y=90 --width=490 --height=31
#elif [ $resolution = "1024x600" ];then
# acer-search-desktop --x=510 --y=65 --width=490 --height=31
#else
# acer-search-desktop
#fi

Enable Circular Scrolling

I doubt that this part is Linpus-specific, but after having had an Acer Aspire One for a few days, you’ll come to notice that the scrolling is damn annoying. The way to scroll as default is by dragging your finger along the right-hand side of the touchpad. And it isn’t even on the edge either, but a bit inside the edge. I personally found circular scrolling to be easier to use. Enable it like so.

Either press Alt+F2 and type gsynaptics or open a terminal and type the same. Go to Scrolling and select Enable Circular Scrolling. Enjoy!

Adding your own Desktop-Icons

You’re probably not going to use some of the the default applications listed on your Acer One-desktop. I know I’m not going to. But wouldn’t it be nice to be able to specify what programs you would like displayed on your desktop? Good thing it IS possible then. Have a look:


There you see that I’ve added two applications of my own - VLC and audacious. Here’s how you do it.

First off, you need to have the programs installed. In most cases you’ll already find that once you install the program, icons for it will come along. Check /usr/share/pixmaps/ for them. But should you need an icon for some program that hasn’t any at some point, it has to be 90×90, and be placed in that folder.

If you installed VLC through yum, like I did, then you’ll find the file livna-vlc.desktop in /usr/share/applications/. Now, for the sake of tidiness, I renamed the file to vlc.desktop:

# mv livna-vlc.desktop vlc.desktop

This file looks something like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=VLC media player
Name[fr]=Lecteur multimédia VLC
Comment=Read, capture, broadcast your multimedia streams
Comment[fr]=Lire, capturer, diffuser vos flux multimedia
Name[sv]=Mediaspelaren VLC
Comment[sv]=Allmän uppspelare av film och musik
Name[ru]=Медиаплеер VLC
Comment[ru]=Универ�альный проигрыватель видео и аудио
Exec=vlc
Icon=vlc.png


Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=AudioVideo;Player;
MimeType=video/dv;video/mpeg;video/x-mpeg;video/msvideo;video/quicktime;video/x-anim;video/x-avi;video/x-ms-asf;video/x-ms-wmv;video/x-msvideo;video/x-nsv;video/x-flc;video/x-fli;application/ogg;application/x-ogg;application/x-matroska;audio/x-mp3;audio/x-mpeg;audio/mpeg;audio/x-wav;audio/x-mpegurl;audio/x-scpls;audio/x-m4a;audio/x-ms-asf;audio/x-ms-asx;audio/x-ms-wax;application/vnd.rn-realmedia;audio/x-real-audio;audio/x-pn-realaudio;application/x-flac;audio/x-flac;application/x-shockwave-flash;misc/ultravox;audio/vnd.rn-realaudio;audio/x-pn-aiff;audio/x-pn-au;audio/x-pn-wav;audio/x-pn-windows-acm;image/vnd.rn-realpix;video/vnd.rn-realvideo;audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin;application/x-extension-mp4;audio/mp4;video/mp4;video/mp4v-es;x-content/video-vcd;x-content/video-svcd;x-content/video-dvd;x-content/audio-cdda;x-content/audio-player;
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.13

The next step is opening up the file /home/user/.config/xfce4/desktop/group-app.xml. Go through the file, you’ll see it’ll make sense. Now, I assume that you want VLC to be placed under the category Fun. Open the group-app.xml-file, and search for:

<id>7</id>

Somewhere in between there, add the following:

/usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop

Save and close the file, reboot, and your VLC-icon should be there. :) If you want your VLC-icon to be visible, like I did on my desktop, swap the sequence=”6″ with a more appropriate number (like 1-3), just make sure that two objects in the file don’t have the same sequence number.

Or even easier - click and drag the icon you want displayed into one of the first three slots.


The right resolution with an external monitor

If you’ve plugged in an external monitor, you’ve probably noticed that 1024×600 doesn’t look too good on a 17″. There is a remedy for this though, but you need to modify your xorg.conf-file.

First, take a backup of your current xorg.conf, in case something goes wrong:

# cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /root/

Now open the file:

# mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Find the Screen-section - there should be a line there that says:

Virtual 1024 600

Change it to:

Virtual 2304 1024

Also add the resolutions “1280×1024″ and “1024×768″ to the Modes-line above. This will make sure that the virtual screen space is big enough to accomodate a 1280×1024 screen beside a 1024×600.

So that part of your xorg.conf should end up looking like this:

Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "1024x600" "800x600" "640x480"
Virtual 2304 1024

Save and close the file, and reboot to activate the virtual screen size.

Now, to be able to clone your desktop to the external monitor, press Fn-F5. If you however would like to use BOTH your Acer One Aspire, and your external monitor, open a file named dual_desktop.sh and put the following in it:

#!/bin/bash
xrandr -s 1280x1024
xrandr --output LVDS --left-of VGA --auto

Save, close, and do a chmod +x on it:

$ chmod +x dual_desktop.sh

Press Fn-F5 till both your Acer Aspire One and the external monitor are active. Then run the script:

$ ./dual_desktop.sh

Now when you run it, you should be able to drag applications between your Acer Aspire One, and your external monitor. Just change –left-of to –right-of if your Acer Aspire One is on that side. Change the resolution in the script to something else as well if you should need it. If you don’t feel like doing it though, here’s a script I’ve made that’s a little more advanced:

#!/bin/bash
#
## Script to extend your Acer Aspire One (AA1) desktop
#
#
## Press Fn-F5 on your AA1 till both monitors are
## active then run this script. Usage is like so:
## ./dual_desktop.sh
##
## Example: ./dual_desktop.sh 800x600 left

XRANDR=`which xrandr`

if [ "$1" = "1280x1024" ] || [ "$1" = "1024x768" ] || [ "$1" = "800x600" ] && [ "$2" = "left" ] || [ "$2" = "right" ]; then

echo "Setting resolution to $1 and alignment to $2."
$XRANDR -s $1
$XRANDR --output LVDS --$2-of VGA --auto

else
$XRANDR -s 1280x1024
$XRANDR --output LVDS --left-of VGA --auto
echo "No or invalid resolution given - setting resolution to 1280x1024 and alignment to left."

fi

If you want a resolution of 800×600 on your external monitor, and your Acer Aspire One is on your right-side, run the script like so:

$ ./dual_desktop.sh 800x600 right

Done.

To be continue. Stay tuned!