Netbook Experience

A big thanks to Herman who has sent in the following great article to me to publish on the site.

Thanks Herman….

Some people may not like the fact that neither their Aspire One netbook nor the linux operating system will allow them to play modern games.

So, why not play some old favourites on the Aspire one? I am a fan of the FPS genre and Doom and Quake are classics that made FPS what it is today. Both are DOS based games and will therefore only run under a DOS emulator.

So first we need to install DOSEMU which happens to be part of the Mint Linux Synaptic Package Manager. Open the Package Manager (in Mint’s “Adminstration” menu folder) and do a “quick search” for “dosemu” and it finds version 1.4. This is quickly installed and can be found back in the System Tools menu as DOS emulator.

In Mint Linux two drives are recognised C: and D:. The D: drive is where you can access data, files etc. So let’s install Quake. Go to http://www.idsoftware.com/games/quake. Select Quake from the submenu and download the demo “Quake106.zip”.

Doubleclicking the file will open it in the file archiver. Extract it in a place where you can easily find it from within your Dos emulator. In the Dos emulator navigate to the drive and directory where the unzipped files reside. You can use the “cd” command to change the directory.

Run the install.bat file, indicate you want the files to be installed on the D: drive and let the program make a directory called “quake_sw”. The rest is easy. Use a video size of 800×600 for best results and press Ctrl+Alt+F to maximise the Dos screen.

Doom is installed very much in the same way although you will not find a Doom (1st episode) demo on the idsoftware page. Instead go to http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/doom/.

Is FPS not your cup of tea and you prefer the curves of Lara Croft (aka Tomb Raider)? I installed Tomb Raider effortlessly in the same way.

Have fun!

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One of the most popular games is the classic Tetris which is available across many formats, and there’s a really good version called Gnometris available for Mint Linux and it works really well on the Acer Aspire One.

To install Gnometris on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux Fluxbox.

• Right click on the Fluxbox desktop.
• Click on Synaptic
• Enter your admin password if required
• Type Gnometris into the quick search box
• Click in the box next to Gnometris and click on Mark for Installation
• Click on Apply and Gnometris will install.
• Gnometris will now be available in the Games Menu

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As standard when you boot into Mint Linux running Fluxbox you need to enter a user name and password every time the computer starts.

There is a software utility included with Mint Linux to automatically log in a user account of your choice.

To automatically log on to Mint Linux running Fluxbox:

1) Right click on the Mint Linux Fluxbox Desktop to open the applications menu.

2) Go to the system section and select preferences

3) Launch the SLim Autologin Application

4) Enter you admin password

5) Enter the name of the user account that you want to automatically login when the computer starts.

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Techplay-Experience.com have recently written an article on a web based golf game called WGT, and given the lack of good golf games (see this article on how to run Links golf on the Acer Aspire One) and with WGT being free to play I thought I would give it a go on my humble Acer Aspire One.

One the AA1 running Mint Linux Fluxbox and on the Opera Internet Browser the game runs reasonably well, occasionally after you hit a shot there is a short pause whilst the game works out where the ball will land, but this won’t spoil your enjoyment of the game to much.

The game graphics are fantastic with computer generated players super imposed over real photographs of the courses.

If you are looking for a good golf game for your Acer Aspire One then check out this article over at Techplay Experience.

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One of the elements missing as standard in the Fluxbox version of Mint Linux is the ability to capture a screen shot. This is an important function for some users including yours truly.

There is a utility available in the package manager called screenshooter which will capture the current screen.

The install Screenshooter:

1) Open the Synaptic package manager from the Program Menu ( accessed by right clicking on the desktop). Enter your Admin password if required.

2) Type screenshooter in the quick search box

3) Click in the box next to the 2nd screenshooter box and choose mark for installation.

4) Click on Apply and Screen Shooter will now install and will be available in the  Accessories section of the program menu called Screenshot.

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Google Chrome is a popular web browser based on the open source Chromium browser.

It’s possible to install Chromium on the Acer Aspire One on several OS’s

To install Chromium on the Acer Aspire One running Linpus read this post

To install Chromium on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux follow this procedure:

1) Open a Terminal Window and type: sudo apt-get install gedit

Input your admin password if required, this will install the gedit text editor

2) In the Terminal Window type sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list    and again enter your admin password if required, this will open redit.

3) Enter the following 2 lines at the bottom of the document

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Save the file.

4) In the terminal window copy and paste the following line: sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xfbef0d696de1c72ba5a835fe5a9bf3bb4e5e17b5

5) In the terminal window type sudo apt-get update

6) In the terminal window type sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Chromium will now install, and should be available in the Internet program section.

or you can run the application by typing chromium-browser in a terminal window.

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In this post I mentioned how well the fluxbox version of Mint Linux runs on the Acer Aspire One, and I strongly recommend that users of the Acer Aspire One switch to this OS if they are struggling or are frustrated with the default Linpus Operating system.

Here’s the procedure for installing Mint Linux with the Fluxbox desktop on the Acer Aspire One.

On a Windows PC with a USB .

1) Download the ISO file for Mint Linux Fluxbox by clicking here.

2) Download  Linux Live USB Creator by clicking here and then run the application.

3) Select your USB Pen Drive in Step 1

4) Click on the ISO option is Step 2 and point the application to the ISO file you downloaded. You may get a warning that the program doesn’t recognise the distribution, and it’s going to use the settings for Mint 8 Helena – this is fine

5) Set the Persistence to 0MB

6) Tick the box that allows the application to format your USB Drive – you will loose everything on your Drive.

7) Click on the Lightning icon to start the installation

When the install has completed:

1) Reboot your AA1 with the USB stick will plugged in.

2) Press F12 when the Acer Flash screen appears to choose the boot device

3) Select your  USB Drive.

4) A Mint Linux boot menu will appear – select install and Mint Linux Fluxbox will now install on your Acer Aspire One.

One of the first things you will notice is that there is no Start or Menu button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. To access your applications click the right mouse button on the desktop

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In this previous post I described how to install Mobile Internet on the Acer Aspire One running Linpus

This article explains how to install a Mobile Internet 3g Dongle on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux Fluxbox,

The process is simple and is tested on the 3g dongle released by 3UK.

To install the dongle on Fluxbox:

1. Right click on the network icon in the bottom right hand corner of the Screen
2. Click on Edit Connections
3. Click on  Mobile Broadband
4. Click on Add
5. This will launch a Wizard
6. Click on Forward
7. Choose your country and click on Forward
8. Choose your provider and click on Forward
9. Choose the right plan and click on Forward
10. Click on apply

Restart your Acer Aspire One with your dongle in the USB port, and after you have logged on, left click on the network icon,  and your broadband connection will be available in the list of available connections.

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For those of you who have installed Skype on the Acer Aspire one running the Fluxbox version of Mint Linux you may be experiencing some difficulties with the audio quality through the Internal mic.

To resolve this issue:

1) Open the Mint Menu and load Terminal

2) Type cd / and press return

3) Type cd etc and press return

4) type sudo rm asound.conf and press return

5) Enter your admin password if prompted

6) Reboot your computer

Your audio quality in Skype will now be greatly improved.

If you are having problems with Skype when running Mint Linux 8 Helena – check out this post

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Recently the source code for the original Simcity has been donated by EA to the One Laptop One Child project under GNU License.

The results are Micropolis and it’s available to play on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux through the package manager.

To install Micropolis on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux:

1) Activate the Mint Menu

2) Load the Synaptic Package Manager

3) Enter your Admin Password

4) Enter micropolis into the Quick search box

5) Click into the box next to Micropolis and mark for installation.

6) Click on install

Micropolis will now install and be available in the Games Menu.

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In this article I described how to install Mint Linux8 (Helena) on the Acer Aspire One.

As standard Mint Linux comes supplied with the Gnome Desktop which provides a stylish, easy to use and configurable user Interface, and one which puts the Windows XP experience to shame.

However on the humble Acer Aspire One sometimes Mint Linux 8 is a bit laggy, although using the Opera Browser rather the Firefox assists the web browsing experience.

There are other versions of Mint Linux available which use different desktop environments and one of them is the Fluxbox desktop.

Fluxbox is a lite desktop environment, which means that it’s less complex then heavier desktops and may be missing some of the more advanced functionality, eg you cant grab screen shots with a button press, but it makes up for it with speed, and the Fluxbox version of Mint Linux flies, it’s even quicker to use then Linpus.
It is a little less stylish to use then Mint with Gnome, eg there isn’t a menu button to access applications, the program menu is access through a right click on desktop, but both versions of mint run the same applications.

The table below shows a comparison of the usability and functionality of the 3 types of Linux I’ve tested recently with my scoring:

If you are looking with a really quick operating system for your Netbook and are looking for more flexibility then the original linpus then checkout the Fluxbox version of Mint Linux

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In this post I described how to play FreeCiv in a Web Browser

In this post I described how to install FreeCiv on the Linpus version of the Acer Aspire One, and also how unfortunately it stopped working when a software repository was taken off line.

FreeCiv is an open source version of the PC classic game Civilization, and previously I’ve had difficulty getting it to work on the Acer Aspire One but on Mint Linux it works really well.

To install FreeCiv on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux.

1) Click on the Mint Menu Bar

2) Click on Package Menu

3) Enter your admin password

4)Search fro FreeCiv

5) Click on the box next to freeciv-client-gtk and click on mark for installation

6) Click on Apply

7) Freeciv will now install and will be available in the Games section of the Mint Menu.

Before Playing FreeCiv right click on the program bar at the bottom of the screen.

9) Click on Properties

10) Enable Auto Hide. This will slide the program bar off the screen when it’s not needed and will give you the extra space needed to play FreeCiv.

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Most Internet users use some form of instant messaging (eg MSN messenger) to talk to their friends and colleagues and Netbooks cope with Instant Messaging applications very well.

Both Linpus and Mint Linux come with good instant messaging clients:

• On Linpus the Messenger application can be accessed through the Connect Section, and provides access to MSN Messenger
• On Mint Linux a great instant messaging application called Pidgin can be found in the Internet section of the Mint Menu Bar.

Pidgin supports many different messenger systems including MSN, Google, Facebook and many more.

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In this post I described how to install Skype on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux.

If you follow this procedure then you will find that the microphone doesn’t appear to work in Skype. If you shout in the microphone during the test call you will be able to hear your voice very quietly during playback.

To resolve this issue:

1) Click on the Mint Menu Button

2) Click on Sound and Video

3) Click on PulseAudio Volume Control

4)Click on the Input Devices Tab and Click on the Lock Channels together button (to Unlock the channels).

5) Slide the Front Right slider down to Zero and the right Left Slider upto 3/4.

6) Close the Volume Control Application

This solves the problem however as default Skype  breaks it again, by setting the volume to 0

To resolve this

1) Launch Skype

2) Go to the Options menu and click on the Sound Devices Tab.

3) Make sure that the option to allow Skype to automatically adjust mixer levels is turned off.

Apply and then close the options window, and make a test call to make sure that everything is working ok.

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In  this Post I described how to install Skype on the Acer Aspire One running Linpus

This process below describes how to Install Skype on the Acer Aspire  running Mint Linux.

1) Click here to download the install file from the Skype site.

2)  Choose to Open the file with the Gnome installer.

3) When the Package installer loads click on Install Package.

Skype will now install and will be available in the Internet Section of the Menu bar.

There will be a problem with the microphone but this follow up post will show how to resolve this.

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Traditionally I’ve always used Firefox, or more recently the quicker Google Chrome for browsing the Internet on the AA1, but I’ve just discovered Opera and I love it.

I’ve used Opera before on Mobile Phones but I’ve never considered it as an option for a desktop computer, but I’ve given it a go and and it’s the quickest browser I’ve ever used.

The Internet is rendered extremely quickly and the page update when scrolling is blistering.
Video On Demand  through YouTube or TV Catchup is fluent and impressive.

Opera is quicker then Chrome and much quicker then FireFox.

To install Opera on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux 8 ( Helena):

1) Click on the Menu Button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen
2) Click on Package Manager
3)Enter your Admin Password
4)Type Opera into the Quick Search box

5)Click in the box next to Opera and click on Mark for Installation.
6)Click on Apply and Opera will install on your Acer Aspire One, and can be run from the Internet section of the start menu.

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In this post I described how to Install Mint Linux on the Acer Aspire One.

Following the post Mark from the Linux Community Forum contacted me to explain that this procedure installs Mint Linux version 6, and pointed me in the direction of Mint Linux version 8 (AKA Helena).

Version 8 adds the latest software repositories for application downloads and is also a little quicker in operation. In addition Wifi automatically works without the need for extra configuration.

To install Mint Linux 8 on the Acer Aspire one, you will need a Windows PC with Internet connection and a 2gb USB memory stick.

1) Download the the Mint 8 ISO from here

2) Download the USB Installer by clicking here

3) Place the USB stick into the PC and run the USB installer.

4) Click on Agree

5) Choose Mint 8 and select the ISO file that you downloaded

6) Choose your USB drive and select next.

7) Choose the option with 1 GB RW and click on next.
Mint Linux will now install on your USB Drive and you will be able to boot from the stick.

Now reboot your AA1.
On boot press F12 on the AA1 to choose the boot device.
Choose your USB Drive and Linux Mint will now boot from the Drive.

After Mint Linux 8 as loaded feel free to have a play with it to make sure you like it.

You can install Mint Linux 8 permanently on your AA1 by running the install program that is sitting on the desktop, and selecting your internal drive when prompted, then follow on screen instructions.

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In this Article I wrote how to Install Wine on the Acer Aspire One running Linpus.

In this Article I’m going to describe how to install Wine on the Acer Aspire One Running Mint Linux.

Wine is an application which allows Windows Applications to run without emulation in a Linux environment.

To install Wine on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux:

1)Click on the Mint Menu Button in the bottom left hand corner  of the Screen

2)Select Package Manager and input your admin password

3)Type Wine into the Quick Search box

4) Click in the box next to Wine and choose Mark for Installation

5) Click on Apply and Wine will now install

A new section for Wine and Windows applications will now appear in the the Programs Menu.

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SeeSaw have launched their new Video on Demand Service in the UK.

The service provides access to BBC, Channel 5, Channel 4 and ITV content through a Internet Browser so no Set Top Box is required.

The good news is that the service works very well on the Acer Aspire One running either Linpus or Mint Linux, although you may want to use FireFox rather then Chrome as Firefox displays video a little better.

To View SeeSaw point your Browser at http://www.seesaw.com/

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In this post I described how to play a Web based chess game on the Linpus version of the AA1.

I’ve found a great chess game for Mint Linux called DreamChess and it works well (in 2d mode) on the Acer Aspire One.

To Install Dream Chess on the Acer Aspire One running Mint Linux:

1) Click on the Mint Menu button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen

2) Click on Package Manager.

3) Type Dreamchess into the Quick Search box and press return

4) When DreamChess appears in window click on the selection box next to it and choose Mark for Installation.

5) Click Apply

Dream Chess will now install and will appear in the Games Section of the Mint Menu.

The get the best out of Dream Chess on the AA1:

1) When the Game has loaded go to the configuration Menu

2) Go to the Screen Resolution settings and choose 640×480

3) Turn Full Screen On.

4) Make sure you choose a 2d Theme, like Figurine or Sketch and the game will run really well.

3d themes do work but run quite slowly on the AA1.

The Figurine Theme

The Sketch Theme

On an unrelated note check out: iamamiwhoami

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As Standard Mint Linux is supplied with the FireFox Browser, which is a great and secure browser that always produces great results when rendering pages, but it’s not always the quickest option.

It’s useful to have 2 different browsers installed on you computer as different browsers have different strengths, and if you want a quick and speedy browsing experience then check out Google Chrome, which renders web pages extremely quickly.

To install Google Chrome on Mint Linux.

1) Click here

2) Click on Accept and Install

3) This will open the file download widow, make sure open with is highlighted and click on OK.4) When the file has downloaded, the install package window will open. Click on Install Package, and Google Chrome will now install.

Google Chrome will now be available in the Internet section of the Programs Menu.

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In this post I described how to install FreeCiv on the Linpus version of the Acer Aspire One, and also how unfortunately it stopped working when a software repository was taken off line.

I’ve also tried to install FreeCiv on Mint Linux but unfortunately that version of the game struggles to work on the screen format of the AA1.

I’ve come across a solution which allows you to play FreeCiv on the Acer Aspire One and it works on both Linpus and Mint Linux.

The solution is a web based version of the game that allows the user to play FreeCiv in a browser window. I recommend that you use the Chromium browser on Linpus, or the Google Chrome Browser on Mint Linux as although FireFox runs the game, it’s much faster on Chrome\Chromium.

This version of FreeCiv also lets you easily play on-line multi player FreeCiv

Just point your browser at http://freeciv.net/ Register for a free account and click on play now. Enjoy FreeCiv again on your AA1.

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In this post I explained how I installed Linux Mint on the Acer Aspire One.

The first thing I noticed is that although the wired network connected fine, I couldn’t get the Wireless interface to work.

The solution wasn’t straight forward but should be quick and easy with these instructions.

To fix the Wireless Network interface on the AA1:

1. Click on The Menu Bar in the bottom left hand corner.
2. Got to the Administration section and then select the Windows Wireless Drivers Application.
3. Enter your Administrator Password if required
4. Click on Install New Driver and this box will open.
5. Navigate to /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWifi/drivers/i386/Atheros_AR5007eg and choose the inf file that’s there. Click on install.
6. After a couple of moments the driver will be loaded and will appear in the driver window.
7. Restart your Acer Aspire One.
8. You will now be click on the network icon in the bottom right hand side on the screen and you will be able to see your wireless network(s)

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UPDATE – please check out this post to install a later version of Mint Linux.

As standard the version of Linux that comes supplied with the Acer Aspire One is Linpus Lite.

Linpus has a job to do and it does it very well, it has a small footprint, its aimed at the average user and provides a simple and quick interface to some powerful applications.

However Linpus has some downsides, it’s difficult to modify and even installing extra apps involves small hacks, and it’s now dated so that some modern applications are difficult to install.

So every now and again I like to try new operating systems for my Acer Aspire One, ans after stumbling across Linux Mint I thought it would be good to give it ago.

So what is Mint? It’s a version of Linux based on Ubuntu, and adds extra integrated Multimedia codec’s, it also has a great and simple to use interface and it’s reportedly quick to use.

To install Mint on your AA1 you will need, a Windows PC, a USB drive (at least 1 GB) and an Internet connection.

Before you start make sure you still have your Acer Restore disk, just in case you need to revert back to Linpus.

To install Mint:

1. On your Windows PC’s download and install UNetbootin by clicking here.
2. Put your USB drive into a USB socket on your Windows PC.
3. Run UNetbootin
4. Select Linux Mint in the Distribution Pull down List, and then select 6_live in the version Pull Down List. (as shown above)
5. Make sure that the Drive letter points to your USB drive and then click ok.  UNetbootin will now download Linux Mint and install it on your USB Drive in a bootable format.
6. Now reboot your AA1.
7. On boot press F12 on the AA1 to choose the boot device.
8. Choose your USB Drive and Linux Mint will now boot from the Drive.

After Mint Linux as loaded feel free to have a play with it to make sure you like it.

You can install Mint Linux permanently on your AA1 by running the install program that is sitting on the desktop, and selecting your internal drive when prompted.

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