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Trying A new Operating system EEEBuntu on my Acer Aspire one

I recently saw EEEBuntu running on a friends EEEPC, and I was impressed, it looked a bit like Ubuntu but looked to run a bit quicker.

It also has a Apple style dock which provides quick access to your applications.

Although EEEBuntu is designed to run on the EEEPC after a bit of research I found that it can run on the Acer Aspire One, so I thought I would give it ago and report back here how it goes.

How to install Command and Conquer on the Acer Aspire One

Command and Conquer is a great game that should run really well on the Acer Aspire One, and it's now available as a legal and free download.

It is however quite difficult to install on the Acer Aspire one but it can be done. Here's how I did the install on my AA1 running Windows XP:

1) A little preparation.
I'm running a streamlined version of WindowsXP so there were a couple of files that I needed to copy to my machine first.

From another Windows XP PC I copied the following files from the System32 directory into my c:\windows\system32 directory.
Required files: autoexec.nt, cmd.exe, command.com, config.nt, dosx.exe

2) Download the game:
The full game can be downloaded by clicking here. You will need to join GameSpot but that is free to join.

The download is a zip file which contains 2 iso files. Each ISO file is an image of the a game CD, depending on which campaign you want to play, extract which ISO file you require, or both if you want.

3) Install MagicDisc
MagicDisc is an application which emulates a CD\DVD drive and will allow Windows to treat an ISO file like a physical CD.
Click here to download MagicDisc, and install it.

4) Set Windows95 Compatibility.
For the install files to work on the virtual CD, there is a need to set Windows 98 compatibility modes.
MagicDisc should be running in the system try on the bottom right side of the screen, right click on the Magicdisc icon.
Choose Virtual CD/DVD-ROM and then choose Mount and select the ISO file on your AA1.
The virtual disc will now autorun.
Choose the explore the CD option.
Right click on Setup.exe and choose properties, then in the compatibility tab tick the top box and then click ok and finally run the setup.exe file.
Command and Conquer will now install.
5) Apply a patch.Google CCGOLDXPPATCH.ZIP and download the file, extract the thipx32.dll file into your command and conquer directory (normally c:\WESTWOOD\C&C95)

6 ) Preparing to Run the Game

Go to the install directory of the game (normally c:\WESTWOOD\C&C95)

Right click on the C&C95.exe icon. Select PROPERTIES & Select the COMPATIBILITY tab

Check the check box for “Run this program in compatibility mode for” & Select Windows 95 from the drop down menu.

Check the check box for “Disable visual themes”

Check the check box for “Turn off advanced text services for the program”.

Command And Conquer is now installed on your Acer Aspire One.

Can you install mobile Internet on the Acer Aspire One running Linux

In this post I described how I installed a Mobile Internet Dongle on my Acer Aspire One running Windows XP.
Following this post Marlot asked a good question, is it possible to use the dongle on an Acer Aspire One running Linux.

I've currently got Windows XP installed so I'm not in a position to test it, but I've search through the Aspire One User Forums and it looks like it is possible.

This post is a good starting point. I hope it helps.

Installing Mobile Internet on the Acer Aspire One

I've read a lot about mobile Internet recently with network providers offering superb deals for customers so I thought I would go one a go and add the net to my Acer Aspire One Netbook.

Before signing up for a contract it's important that you check which network offers the best coverage where you need to use it. Often your home address isn't where you need to use the dongle as you will have traditional broadband there. So make sure that you do the research first.

I choose the package from 3 as the network offers good, fast coverage and they offer a great deal where you can get 15 GB of bandwidth for only 20 pounds per month.

The dongle it's self is quite nifty it plugs strait into the USB port of the AA1 and sits nice and securely, there is a LED on the Dongle which indicates signal strength and network speed.

The Modem Dongle contains all the drivers and software needed to install the dongle and connect you to the Internet.

When you plug in the Dongle into the AA1 running Windows XP, the 3 Connect software auto runs and all you have to do is to click on connect and you are away.

The modem speed is great for Browsing and can provide access to secure networks however it may be too slow for live video streaming.
These dongles are great value and can provide connectivity for when wifi isn't an option.

How to install FreeCiv on the Acer Aspre One running Windows XP

In this post I described how to install FreeCiv on the Linux version of the AA1.

Now that I've installed Windows XP on my Acer Aspire One I thought I would see how easy it is to Install FreeCiv on the Acer now.

To install FreeCiv on Windows XP:
1) Click on This Link
2) Save the install file and run it.
3) Run through the installer and choose which disc drive to install the application too. ( I installed to my extra memory card so to save space on the main drive)
4) Make sure that no other applications are running.
5) Launch the application.

It looks to play well on the AA1 and so far so good, it's good to have FreeCiv back and up and running.

How to watch TV on the Acer Aspire One.

I've just discovered a new way to watch TV and Films on my Acer Aspire One.

FilmOn.com has launched the FilmOn HDi Player, which provides live access to a number of live TV stations including BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Eurosport, Film4 and many more. It also provides access to film channels and also Downloadable film rentals.

The software is really easy to use, and the video quality is suprisingly good on the Acer Aspire One's Screen.

The FilmOn HDI player can be downloaded from http://www.filmon.com/tv/index.php
by clicking on the Red Download button.

You will need to create a few user account - but this is easy to do through the application.

Some opinions on Windows XP running on the Acer Aspire One

I've been running Windows XP on my Acer Aspire One for a while now so I though I would post some of my thoughts so far.

Windows XP allows me to access some of my favourite software easily, eg Sling player, Itunes etc. without having to worry about using Wine or emulation.
Iplayer runs extremly well on Windows XP on the AA1 better then on Linpus and much better then on Ubuntu and getting ITV player working is easier.

There is one major drawback to using Windows XP on the Acer Aspire One is that Windows doesn't handle writning to the expansion memory card very well and this slows down reading and writing to it, so if like me you intstall applications onto the expansion card they take a while to load, becasue of this issue I am thinking of switching back to Linpus.

But Iplayer does run so well......

My application checklist for Windows XP on my Acer Aspire One

Now that I've got Windows installed on my AA1 I thought I would work out which applications I should install.

Music Applications
Itunes
My favourite Music application. I've been using my IPOD for years and I love it, I have my music stored on a network device so I can use Itunes on my Acer Aspire one without eating into the valuable storage space.

Office Applications
Open Office
Open Office is a good free alternative to Microsoft offie with great functionality - a must for all laptop owners.

Multi-Media Applications
Sling player
VLC Player - VLC player is a great media player which plays just about every video and audio format.

Games
Mame - agreat arcade emulator.
FreeCiv - everybody loves Civ.

Internet Security for the Acer Aspire One

Now that I'm running Windows XP on my Acer Aspire One, I'm aware that I need to protect my AA1 against Viruses and other Internet threats.

I'm also aware that I need to minimize the overhead on the humble processor in the AA1 so I've found a few useful utilities which seem to do the trick.

Internet Browser: Firefox Version 3

Given the recent security alterts around Internet Explorer I made sure that the browser on my Acer Aspire One was FireFox Version 3. Firefox includes strict anti-phishing and anti-malware measures and has an open source process to include new security updates.

More information on the security facilities in Firefox can be found here.

Firewall: Windows Firewall

What's a firewall? (from Wiki)
A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system. It is also a device or set of devices configured to permit, deny, encrypt, decrypt, or proxy all computer traffic between different security domains based upon a set of rules and other criteria.

Windows Firewall is the standard firewall that comes free with Windows XP.

Anti Virus Software for the Acer Aspire One: Avast!
Avast! is a free (for home users) anti virus software, downloadable from http://www.avast.com/eng/download.html

Avast! is aimed at preventing several types of computer threats, including those that are not technically computer viruses such as spyware and even rogue anti-spyware, and can also make a virus Recovery DataBase which is used to recover files when they are infected (instead of deleting them). The program is available with text and voice translations for 27 languages.

Script Protection for the Acer Aspire One: NoScript

Many websites contain scripts, often these are harmless and need to be run, but sometimes these scripts are malicious and install malware on your computer. NoScript gives the choice back to you of if you want a site to be able to run scripts or not. No script will be able to run unless you give it permission to do so, this might sound like a pain but you can set NoScript to always allow scripts from your favourite page...so you can forget about it after you have set it once for your page.

Windows XP has now been installed on my Acer Aspire One

I'm finally installed Windows XP on my Acer Aspire One.
It wasn't as easy as I had imagined, I originally had hoped to plug in an external drive using the process described in my post here, and boot from my Windows XP disk. Unfortunately the setup process crashed twice so I searched the internet for a different approach.

Fortunately there is another option.
Check out this process here to see how to install Rons TinyXP.
There is a guy out there who has created a optimised installation of Windows XP for the Acer Aspire One, and it looks to work really well. The original download link has now expired BUT a quick google search will help you find it.

So far so good. I'll let you all know how it goes.

A great article on tweaking the Acer Aspire One

Whilst I'm finding time to install Windows XP I thought I would share this.
A post on the Acer Aspire One forum reminded me of a great article I read on the register site on how to tweak your AA1.

The article in full can be found by clicking here and it worth a read for every AA1 owner.

If anybody else knows of any good articles on getting the most out of the Acer Aspire one then please feel fee to post them in the comments section of this post.

Wow - Time flies

Well we are still using Ubuntu - and the plan is still to change to Windows XP.

I've just not had a spare couple of hours to do the installation - hopefully over the next week I'll get it done.

The Results are in....

As mentioned in this post I asked the readers of the Acer One Users forums to recommend which Operating System I should install next.

The result that came back, shown in the graph above, was that I should try Windows XP, so this weekend I will try and install it and post here how it goes.

Thinking of changing OS but which one?

In this post I described how I had installed Ubuntu on my AA1, but as mentioned here, I wasn't really happy with the speed of the OS.

So I'm on the verge of going back to Linpus but before I do I thought I would ask the users of the Acer One Users forums if they could recommend a different OS.

I've got a poll on the forum so I'll see what comes back.

How to install Itunes on the Acer Aspire One (running Ubuntu)

For a bit of fun I thought I would see if I could get Itunes to run using Wine.

Wine is available to install from the Synaptic Package Manager, and after it is installed it adds an extra tab to the menu on the left hand side of the screen.

I then downloaded the latest version of Itunes from the apple site, and unfortunately the install wouldn't complete, so I was about to give up.

However I manager to find an earlier version of Itunes for download so I thought I would give it a go, and it looks to work.

After Wine was installed, I downloaded Itunes verion 7.7 from here.
Wine then opened the install file and installed the application, and an Itunes icon was placed in the Wine Tab.


The application loads ok, I haven't yet played with any of the Wine configuration settings so there may be more work to do yet.

Ubuntu is slower then Linpus on the Acer Aspire One

I've been using Ubuntu for about a week now on my AA1 and here are my impressions so far.

The ubuntu interface is much better and easier to configure then the default Linpus Interface and tasks are generally much easy to perform.

However the AA1 performs better running Linpus, Sites like Youtube and Iplayer and significanlty slower to load and are jerkier when running on Ubuntu.

I'm looking into this but I'm tempted to move back to Linpus.

How to install Flash player on Ubuntu

In this post I described how I installed Ubuntu on my AA1.

One of the first problems I noticed was that BBC IPlayer and You Tube wouldn't play videos.
This is because Flash Player doesn't come installed as standard on Ubunto Netbook Remix edition.

The solution is quick and easy.
1) In the left hand Ubuntu Menu select Administration.

2) Select Synaptic Package Manager.
3) Enter you Admin password if required.

4) Type Flash in the quick search box.
5) Tick the flashplugin-installer addon.
6) Click Apply - Flash player will now install.

BBC Iplayer and YouTube now work fine. :-)

Installing Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire One.

In this post I mentioned that my Acer Aspire One had started a crashing loop. although the problem looked to have corrected itself I decided to re-install the operating system.

I've taken this opportunity to look at Ubuntu, to see how it matches up to the originally supplied Linpus.

To install Ubuntu I first installed the Netbook Remix edition to an auto booting USB stick using a Windows application. Following the instructions here. (Shown below)

1. Download the desired .img file ( I downloaded the Netbook Remix edition from here)

2. Download Disk Imager from https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download

3. Insert your flash media
4. Note the drive letter assigned to your flash media
5. Start Disk Imager
6. Select the downloaded file and target device, and click "Write"
7. Remove your flash media when the operation is complete

I then booted from the USB to make sure that the system worked and used the Ubuntu install application.

The whole process went well, and my intial impressions of Ubuntu are favourable.

Acer Aspire One is working again.

Well how bizzare.

Despite a morning of constant crashing, I've just tried my AA1 8 hrs later, and it's worked first time without crashing.


Strange but good. ;-)

My AA1 has started crashing on boot.

Bad news: My Acer Aspire One has stopped loading sucessfully.

It gets to a point where it displays the desktop and then 5 seconds later it crashes.

So I'm going to rebuild it from scratch - I just need to decide which OS to use.

Unfortunatly I'm away from home until Tuesday so my AA1 will be out of action until then. :-(

How to install a Solitaire Game on the Acer Aspire One

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A serious charity survey on Lung Cancer

How to install a Game Boy Advance Emulator on the Acer Aspire One

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How to install Picasa on the Ascer Aspire One.

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A web based chess game for the Acer Aspire One

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A Flight Sim that works well on the Linux version of the Acer Aspire One

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How to install Spotify on the Linux Acer Aspire One

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How to install a flight simulator on the Acer Aspire One

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How to watch Live BBC channels on the web

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Are you looking for a MMORPG for the Acer Aspire One? - How to install DOFUS

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Traveling with the Acer Aspire One

I'll be traveling over the next few days with work and there is plenty of traveling on the train involved, so I thought I would use my Acer Aspire One to provide some entertainment whilst I'm away.

I've filled 2 usb flash disks with videos and with VLC player they play really well on the Acer, to keep the audio to myself I'll be using the brilliant Panasonic RP-HT225 headphones to listen to the videos.

So along with the free Wi-fi on most trains these days, I should have more then enough to kill some time.

How to watch ITV Player on the Acer Aspire One

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Xmame not up to date - some modern games don't work

Following on from this post - I just thought I would share with you that Xmame is based on a version of Mame which is a couple of years old.

This isn't a big problem as Xmame still runs 1000's of games but a few small number of recent games (like Street Fighter 3) won't run.

It's not an issue for me as I really the SF2 series but I'll look to see if there is a later version of MAME that will run well on the Acer Aspire One.

QuakeLive on the Acer Aspire One

As a long time Quake fan I was interested to see the launch of Quake Live, a multi player version of Quake that runs in a Web Browser.

I was curious to see how well QuakeLive ran on the Acer Aspire One, unfortunately when I visited there isn't a Linux version of the browser plug in available yet , however the website states that one will be available soon.

When a linux version becomes available I'll post the results of the test here.

How to improve performance of Mame on the Acer Aspire One

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Found a great post about increasing the viewing size of Webpages in FireFox

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How to install Mame on the Acer Aspire One

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How to play the Settlers Clone WideLands on the Acer Aspire One

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A great golf game on Linux for the Acer Aspire One

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How to mount a DOS drive in DOSBox on the Acer Aspire One

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How to map a network drive on the Acer Aspire One

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How to install Google Earth on the Acer Aspire One

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How to install Songbird on the Acer Aspire One

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How to view ebooks on the Acer Aspire One

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How to stream BBC Live Radio on the Acer Aspire One

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Videos of the classic PC game Wing Commander running on DosBox on the Acer Aspire One

The following video's show how well the classic PC game Wing Commander runs under DosBox on the Acer Aspire One.

Video One shows the game loading and the start of the games introduction.



Video Two shows the the fantastic mission briefing sequence.



Video three shows an in game battle, with enemy ships. At the end of the video I flip DosBox into window mode showing the linux desktop.

Classic PC gaming using DosBox on the Acer Aspire One

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How to access external drives on the Acer Aspire One

One of my original goals when getting the Acer Aspire One Netbook, was to be able to access my files on the SATA drive from my old broken laptop.

I've now achieved this, and this is how I did it:

1) I purchased a Plexus USB to IDE & SATA Adapter from ebuyer. (Click here for more info)


Inside the box there's a Power Adapter, data to USB convter , Power converter, and SATA data cable.


2) Into the SATA hard drive I plugged the Power Converter and SATA Data Cable. (Shown below)


3) I then connected the Power Adapter and Data to USB Converter. (Shown Below)


4) I plugged the usb cable into the Acer Aspire One.


5) The Acer Aspire One automatically detects both partitions on the drive and displays them as separate disks in the File Manager.
All the data is now accessible.

High Definition Video is currently a problem for the Acer Aspire One

I've been running a few tests with video playback quality using VLC player on my Acer Aspire One.

Normal broadcast quality video works really well using VLC player with a good quality frame rate and image quality.

However - High definition (720p) broadcast quality video suffers from a poor rame rate when watched on the Acer Aspire One with VLC player, the video is very jerky.

I'm not sure that this will be much of an issue for me as normal video does play really well.

It's just worth bearing in mind.

How to free up extra space on the Acer Aspire One.

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How to install Skype on the Acer Aspire One

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How to boot from a USB Flash Drive on the Acer Aspire One

There are 2 methods that you can use to boot from a USB Flash Drive on the Acer Aspire One,

Method 1:

• Press the F12 key as soon as the first black and white Acer screen is displayed, this will display the Boot Menu.
• Select the USB Flash drive.
• Press the Enter Key
  

Method 2:

• Press the F2 key as soon as the first black and white Acer screen is displayed, this will take you into the Bios menu.
  
• Press the right key to move into the Boot menu.
• Press the down key until the USB HDD option is highlighted.
• Press F5 to move the USB HDD option up a level.
• Highlight the USB HDD option and move it up using the F5 key.
• Repeat the above instruction until the USB HDD option is at Level 1.
  
• Now save and exit the setup tool.
  

From now on when you boot the Acer Aspire One, if the USB drive is connected it will boot from it, but it the USB drive isn't connected it will boot from the Internal HD Drive as normal.

How to install Ubuntu on to a USB Flash Drive

I'm curious to see how well the Acer Aspire One handles other operating systems, but I'm really happy with distribution of Linux which comes installed as standard, it's quick and easy to use.

So I thought that I would install Ubuntu onto a flashdrive.
Ubuntu is a popular version of Linux and my goal is to use it to develop my Linux knowledge and to try and get Slingplayer working on it.

Here are the steps I took to install Ubuntu onto a flash drive:
1) There is a usful utility called Unetbootin which will create a self booting USB drive and automatically install a Ubuntu distribution onto it. For this exercise I will be using the Windows version. It can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/unetbootin/

2) Next download a disk imageof Ubuntu from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download


3) Next run UNetbootin. Make sure the Diskimage button is selected, and select the ISO file that you downloaded.


And click on ok.
A booting version of Ubuntu is now installed on the USB drive.

Installing GIMP on the Acer Aspire One

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Video Quality on the Acer Aspire One through VLC Media Player

I had the opportunity to watch a film in AVI format this afternoon on my Acer Aspire One.
The film was stored on an external 500 GB USB Hard Drive, which I connected into my Acer and it was recognised and visible in the 'My Files' application almost immediately.

After navigating to the AVI file I was able to right click on it and choose to open it with VLC player.
The file streamed perfectly and the quality was outstanding, perfect frame rate and suberb picture quality - even in full screen mode.

I was very impressed - perfect for travel or solo watching.

How to install Lincity on the Acer Aspire One

Another one of my favourite games from my Childhood was SimCity, and there's a Linux clone called LinCity. The game is available from the add software in the system section of the Advanced menu, but there is one extra stage that you need to take before the game will run. ( I found this solution here )

After the game has finished installing open a terminal window (Press ALT and F2, make sure the input box is empty, make sure run in terminal is checked and then Click run) and type:
lincity-ng -S 1024x600 into the terminal window.

This will launch the game in the correct resolution and the game will save these settings automatically.
From now on the game will run fine from the games section on the advanced menu.

Watching BBC IPlayer on the Acer Aspire One and increasing system performance.

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How to install freeciv on the Acer Aspire One

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