I'm actually perfectly happy with the "dummies" desktop that ships with the Aspire One. I placed the icons I care about right on the front page (Terminal and Geany). Still, here's some instructions for those that may want to use or toggle between Aspire Desktop and XFCE Classic Desktop.
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1525
More random stuff
http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2008/09/27/30-cool-acer-aspire-one-hacks/
Whee.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Installing VICE
VICE, specifically for the AA1's Linux distro can be found here:
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/updates/8/i386/repoview/vice.html
Current version here (as of this post) is 2.0, where 2.1 came out a week or 2 ago.
I should also note, doubling the screen size and full-screening can be found under "Settings->VIC-II->...".
It "should have" worked after doing the repository add-on with VLC, but it doesn't seem to. Oh well.
More files can be found by browsing RPM Fusion.
Free and Non Free.
Mame and others.
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/updates/8/i386/repoview/vice.html
Current version here (as of this post) is 2.0, where 2.1 came out a week or 2 ago.
I should also note, doubling the screen size and full-screening can be found under "Settings->VIC-II->...".
It "should have" worked after doing the repository add-on with VLC, but it doesn't seem to. Oh well.
More files can be found by browsing RPM Fusion.
Free and Non Free.
Mame and others.
Warcraft 3 on the AA1
Alright, here's how to run Warcraft 3 on an Aspire One.
First things first, you'll need to create an ISO image of a Warcraft 3 disk. It may work by merely copying the data, but I didn't try it. If you do, simply ignore all the steps involving mounting.
My main machine is a Windows XP box, so I used the free program ImgBurn to create an ISO.
http://www.imgburn.com
You're also going to need the latest patch from Blizzard, which just happens to include a No-CD fix.
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=21220
Copy the ISO file and the Patch to a Memory Card or USB Key, and insert it in the AA1.
Next you're going to need Wine. If you don't already have it, from a terminal execute:
yum install wine-devel
This should get Wine version 1.1.9 or better.
Now that we have Wine, lets install the game.
Start by mounting the ISO image.
sudo mount -o loop /media/disk-1/Warcraft3.iso /mnt/mountfolder
/mnt/mountfolder must exist as a folder for this to work. Tweak appropriately.
If you became root by using SU, be sure to exit. Otherwise, you'll install the game in root's account, instead of your user account.
Browse to the mount and run the installer.
cd /mnt/mountfolder
wine install.exe
Follow the instructions. Feel free to place it anywhere on your C drive (it's a fake C drive anyways). C:\Warcraft 3, or under Program Files.
Let the install finish, but DON'T START the game yet.
Application installed by wine can be found in your home folder in a hidden directory ".wine/drive_c/".
cd (this goes back to your home folder)
cd .wine/drive_c
cd wherever_you_installed_Warcraft3
The first thing you must do is rename the Movies folder. This is to avoid a startup bug in Wine.
mv Movies/ _Movies/
Next, browse to the memory card or USB stick and install the patch.
cd /media/disk-1/
wine War3ROC_122a_English.exe
Wait a bit, and the patching process will begin.
The patch may start the game at this point, and it may be slow and have glitchy sound. Just exit, and we'll fix this.
First the sound fix.
From a terminal run the Wine Configuration Tool.
winecfg
Go to the Audio page.
Deselect the ALSA driver and select the OSS Driver instead.
Click Ok.
Next the performance.
We need to add a registry key. From a terminal type:
wine regedit
Browse to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Warcraft III
From here, were going to add a new DWORD key. Call the key "Gfx OpenGL" (no quotes), and give it a value of 1.
That's it. Browse to your Warcraft 3 folder and run it by executing:
wine Warcraft\ III.exe
Tada, Warcraft 3. You can play with the graphics settings to improve performance. With everything turned off/low and running 800x600, for me it's a very playable looking 20fps or so.
First things first, you'll need to create an ISO image of a Warcraft 3 disk. It may work by merely copying the data, but I didn't try it. If you do, simply ignore all the steps involving mounting.
My main machine is a Windows XP box, so I used the free program ImgBurn to create an ISO.
http://www.imgburn.com
You're also going to need the latest patch from Blizzard, which just happens to include a No-CD fix.
http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=21220
Copy the ISO file and the Patch to a Memory Card or USB Key, and insert it in the AA1.
Next you're going to need Wine. If you don't already have it, from a terminal execute:
yum install wine-devel
This should get Wine version 1.1.9 or better.
Now that we have Wine, lets install the game.
Start by mounting the ISO image.
sudo mount -o loop /media/disk-1/Warcraft3.iso /mnt/mountfolder
/mnt/mountfolder must exist as a folder for this to work. Tweak appropriately.
If you became root by using SU, be sure to exit. Otherwise, you'll install the game in root's account, instead of your user account.
Browse to the mount and run the installer.
cd /mnt/mountfolder
wine install.exe
Follow the instructions. Feel free to place it anywhere on your C drive (it's a fake C drive anyways). C:\Warcraft 3, or under Program Files.
Let the install finish, but DON'T START the game yet.
Application installed by wine can be found in your home folder in a hidden directory ".wine/drive_c/".
cd (this goes back to your home folder)
cd .wine/drive_c
cd wherever_you_installed_Warcraft3
The first thing you must do is rename the Movies folder. This is to avoid a startup bug in Wine.
mv Movies/ _Movies/
Next, browse to the memory card or USB stick and install the patch.
cd /media/disk-1/
wine War3ROC_122a_English.exe
Wait a bit, and the patching process will begin.
The patch may start the game at this point, and it may be slow and have glitchy sound. Just exit, and we'll fix this.
First the sound fix.
From a terminal run the Wine Configuration Tool.
winecfg
Go to the Audio page.
Deselect the ALSA driver and select the OSS Driver instead.
Click Ok.
Next the performance.
We need to add a registry key. From a terminal type:
wine regedit
Browse to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Warcraft III
From here, were going to add a new DWORD key. Call the key "Gfx OpenGL" (no quotes), and give it a value of 1.
That's it. Browse to your Warcraft 3 folder and run it by executing:
wine Warcraft\ III.exe
Tada, Warcraft 3. You can play with the graphics settings to improve performance. With everything turned off/low and running 800x600, for me it's a very playable looking 20fps or so.
Storage Expansion Notes
I plugged my 16 GB SDHC card in to the storage expansion port of the AA1. As expected, it added the space to the systems total space. Here's how it works.
The memory card is actually mounted at:
/media/disk
On the AA1's file manager, it shows up as:
Removable:///disk
The way the storage expansion works is this: in any folders that exist on both the user folder and this folder on the memory card, the files will be placed in which ever one has more free space. More often than not that's the memory card.
Also, in the case where a folder exists in one, but not the other, it'll be placed only on the device that has that folder. In other words, I have a "Writing" folder on my SDHC card, but not in my user folder. My files (imported from SVN) reside on the memory card.
And now you know.
Sorry, I can't remember where I read this.
The memory card is actually mounted at:
/media/disk
On the AA1's file manager, it shows up as:
Removable:///disk
The way the storage expansion works is this: in any folders that exist on both the user folder and this folder on the memory card, the files will be placed in which ever one has more free space. More often than not that's the memory card.
Also, in the case where a folder exists in one, but not the other, it'll be placed only on the device that has that folder. In other words, I have a "Writing" folder on my SDHC card, but not in my user folder. My files (imported from SVN) reside on the memory card.
And now you know.
Sorry, I can't remember where I read this.
Cave Story Linux and Wine'ing
You can grab the Linux port of Cave Story here, on Archive.org:
http://www.archive.org/details/CavestorydoukutsuForLinuxV1.01
Looked for a VICE binary suitable for the AA1, but haven't found one yet. Guess I'll have to build one.
- - - - - -
As for running apps with Wine, it was easier than I thought it would be.
First, grab wine from the repository with yum.
yum install wine-devel (the latest version will be the devel branch)
Running it creates a ".wine" directory and tree under your user account. Windows hierarchy lives in ".wine/c_drive/Program Files/Blah", if you run a Windows installer.
Running an app with Wine is easy... too easy.
wine MyApp.exe [ARGS]
Depending on the complexity of the app, wait a bit, and it should start shortly.
Easy.
I initially ran Cave Story this way, which ran 40-60% normal speed on the AA1. The Linux port runs full speed.
- - - - - - -
You can mount an ISO image on Linux as follows.
mount -o loop /path/to/file.iso /path/to/mount/point
Mount point MUST BE an existing folder. Likely /mnt/blah.
Found this by Googling.
http://www.archive.org/details/CavestorydoukutsuForLinuxV1.01
Looked for a VICE binary suitable for the AA1, but haven't found one yet. Guess I'll have to build one.
- - - - - -
As for running apps with Wine, it was easier than I thought it would be.
First, grab wine from the repository with yum.
yum install wine-devel (the latest version will be the devel branch)
Running it creates a ".wine" directory and tree under your user account. Windows hierarchy lives in ".wine/c_drive/Program Files/Blah", if you run a Windows installer.
Running an app with Wine is easy... too easy.
wine MyApp.exe [ARGS]
Depending on the complexity of the app, wait a bit, and it should start shortly.
Easy.
I initially ran Cave Story this way, which ran 40-60% normal speed on the AA1. The Linux port runs full speed.
- - - - - - -
You can mount an ISO image on Linux as follows.
mount -o loop /path/to/file.iso /path/to/mount/point
Mount point MUST BE an existing folder. Likely /mnt/blah.
Found this by Googling.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The BIOS Update down side
The new BIOS is fine, but I did discover a down side. It seems there were changes to a couple prior bios updates that adjusted the lowest brightness levels. Unfortunately, that now means you can't make the screen go as dark as you could with the stock BIOS. Oh well.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Updated my BIOS
Apparently the latest Acer BIOS improves the battery life. How can I say no to that? ;)
Also fixes a problem with BIOS recovery some people have experienced. Good. So the sooner I get this on there, the sooner I'll be able to do safer BIOS updates.
I took my USB key and made it in to a flash key following these instructions.
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashing-bios.html
Downloaded the BIOS from Acer Europe's server.
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_one_110/bios/
Made a FreeDOS bootable key, and copied the firmware "3.305" to the key. Booted the key like I booted my recovery Linux (F12 on boot).
Also fixes a problem with BIOS recovery some people have experienced. Good. So the sooner I get this on there, the sooner I'll be able to do safer BIOS updates.
I took my USB key and made it in to a flash key following these instructions.
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashing-bios.html
Downloaded the BIOS from Acer Europe's server.
ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/aspire_one_110/bios/
Made a FreeDOS bootable key, and copied the firmware "3.305" to the key. Booted the key like I booted my recovery Linux (F12 on boot).
- Hit enter
- Selected option 5
- Ignored the errors and switched to the C: drive
- Ran the batch file (3305.bat)
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