I’ve finally had a chance to setup and test Lucid on my AAO zg5. I’m giving up on Crunchbang for the time being. I’m tired of hand editing menu entries and although the current alpha release has an XFCE4 version which has built-in automatic menu generation, it’s a little buggy. And when it comes down to it, I prefer Ubuntu to Debian. I ended up going with Lubuntu rather than Linux Mint LXDE CE. Although I like the app selection for Linux Mint better, I’m kind of dissatisfied with the general feel of Mint. Bootup gives an error as it looks for a nonexistent uid 0.
Installing Lubuntu
My suggested install method for Lubuntu is to use either the alternate install CD or the mini iso and install a minimal command line system. (Use unetbootin or Ubuntu’s usb-creator to create a live usb drive.) There is a release iso but, it did not install libpam-gnome-keyring by default which causes some problems with having to type your keyring password all the time to connect to the network. Of course you could install libpam-gnome-keyring by hand if you want after installing the release iso. If you have an SSD, I recommend against creating a swap partition as that will increase the wear on your SSD (I switched out my SSD for a 60GB Samsung).
Strangely, despite the fact that the ath5k wireless module has been working at least since kernel version 2.6.33, it has problems in Lucid’s 2.6.32 kernel, even if you install the wireless modules that have been backported from both the 2.6.34 and 2.6.35 kernels. To get wireless working stably, we will install the backported kernel from Maverick.
After installing your minimal system, boot up and type:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lubuntu-desktop/ppa
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lucid-proposed.list
Enter the following, save and exit:
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid-proposed main
Now type:
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install lubuntu-desktop
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
No SSD
If you do not have an SSD, type:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
and look for the line that starts “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT”. Edit this line to read:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”acerhdf.kernelmode=1 pciehp.pciehp_force=1 quiet splash”
These additional options enable acerhdf for better (not constantly on) fan management and hotplugging the right card reader. Type
sudo update-grub2
to update your grub configuration.
SSD
If you have an SSD, type:
sudo nano /etc/fstab
and add the following at the end:
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
none /var/tmp aufs noatime,br:/tmp=rw:/var/tmp=ro 0 0
none /var/log aufs noatime,br:/tmp=rw:/var/log=ro 0 0
none /var/cache aufs noatime,br:/tmp=rw:/var/cache=ro 0 0
This will mount /tmp as a ramdisk and then uses aufs to jointly mount /var/tmp, /var/log and /var/cache with /tmp. This will put all temporary files (including your logs) into the ramdisk and minimize wear on your SSD. If you want to keep your log files, omit the 3rd line.
Now type:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
and look for the line that starts “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT”. Add “elevator=noop” to the list of options. The various ‘elevator’ kernel options specify the order in which access requests are made to a disk. This is important for traditional hard drives where the read/write head moves along the platter and sequential access according to the direction the read/write head is moving will improve performance. But with an SSD, there is no read/write head so that specifying a particular order for drive access can actually degrade performance. The ‘elevator=noop’ kernel option disables this, improving SSD speed. Along with necessary options from the previous section, it should now read:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”elevator=noop acerhdf.kernelmode=1 pciehp.pciehp_force=1 quiet splash”
Now type
sudo update-grub2
to update your grub configuration.
Firefox on an SSD
Firefox by default caches data to the hard drive. This is no good for an SSD but it can be fixed by telling Firefox to cache data in /tmp. To do so, open Firefox and type ‘about:config’ in the browser window. Click ‘I’ll be careful, I promise!’ and then create (or edit) the key ‘browser.cache.disk.parent_directory’ and give it the value ‘/tmp’.
Done!
Now type:
sudo reboot
to reboot into your new Lubuntu system.
Concluding remarks
From what I’ve seen, I’d say this is the best Ubuntu release ever. Wireless works stably once the backported kernel is installed, the wireless LED works, suspend works and it requires minimal tweaking to get the fan and right cardreader working properly.
As usual, please post if you have any questions or comments. I will update this as necessary.
Tyler
December 2, 2010
When I try to save and exit lucid-proposed.list from nano it says “error writing /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lucid-proposed.list”
I skipped that portion of the directions and everything else completed fine but it still says “wireless disabled”
aspireonezg5
December 2, 2010
Sorry — I omitted a “sudo”. The command should be
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lucid-proposed.list
Alan
September 2, 2010
linux-backports-modules-wireless-lucid-generic didn’t work for the ZG5 I was using, but linux-image-generic-lts-backport-maverick from the kernel ppa worked. Must be a 2.6.35 fix. Thanks for the tip.
Sisyphus
July 25, 2010
Hi, Thanks for your post.
I just installed Lucid on my ZG5, and wireless is disable by default (nm-applet’s enable wireless is inactive). What’s your advice?
Thanks.
Sis.
aspireonezg5
July 25, 2010
Can you tell me what is in your “/etc/network/interfaces” file?
ZG5 in Seoul
June 26, 2010
Thanks. I was thinking of going for the prior release of Crunchbang, but perhaps you’re right and I’d be better off with waiting for alpha 2.
aspireonezg5
June 26, 2010
Crunchbang 10 alpha 2 is out. In case you aren’t aware though, it is now Debian based, currently based on testing and final release will not happen until Debian Squeeze is released.
The prior release, 9.04 (jaunty), from what I recall was fine although you might want to install the backport modules — I seem to remember some wireless issues.
ZG5 in Seoul
June 25, 2010
Hi, Thanks a lot for putting together this blog. I’ve been through Linpus, UNR, full Ubuntu and JoliCloud on my ZG5, but have never quite found the sweet spot I’ve been searching for, so it’s great that you’ve been documenting your experiences for others to learn from.
Two quick questions: (1) how is Skype on Lubuntu Lucid? It’s often a sticking point in distros. (2) Apart from the need to hand edit menu entries, did you have any other major problems with CrunchBang? I’m thinking of giving it a look out of curiosity.
aspireonezg5
June 25, 2010
I’m not a big Skype user but my brief test of it under Lucid worked fine and it worked great under Jaunty (I didn’t stick with Karmic long enough to test it). You can install it easily by enabling the Canonical repository.
Do you mean the prior release of Crunchbang or the current alpha? The prior release worked fine and I expect you could follow my Karmic HOWTO but use a minimal Lucid install instead. The current openbox alpha seems to be perfectly stable (my mom is using it) but the xfce4 alpha (from my experience) is very buggy. I think alpha 2 is due out anytime and I bet that will be much more stable.