I got a netbook today, as a new device. I wanted one for some months already but was not brave enough (or whatever). But I wanted one for when I fly home to Germany, so that I can watch some of my movies and listen to my music on the flight. The Laptop is always too big to handle when you sit in the plane… Tablet…? I am not a touchscreen man. On a phone: ok, but not on a computer.
So I finally took the plunge and ordered a netbook, a HP Mini 110-3530NR. It came with Windows 7 Starter pre-installed and as I at least try to open my mind I tried it if it is suitable to fullfill my needs. I realised that it is as I expected: not my piece of cake. You just can start 3 apps once and it is really really slow. And (this was the icing on the cake) you can not even change the desktop background. At least I did not find an option for that.
So I tried the openSUSE KDE live CD from an USB stick and it runs really good on the small netty. So finally ended up installing it, removing Windows 7 Starter, because I want to use the harddrive for my files and not for another OS. I have KDE running in netbook mode (can be set in the KDE systemsettings) and it fits nicely into the screen. It is also really intuitive in netbook mode. I really like it.
Hardware is no issue so far. The system has recognised all devices. I still have to test the webcam though, but in YaST it tells the name and manufacturer information along with a loaded driver for it, so I am quite sure that it will work.
anyone else, having openSUSE running on a netbook?
It appears to me that a huge progress has been made in supporting netbook hardware. openSUSE 11.4 was a very nice surprise in this regard. Thank you for reporting your success on the HP Mini 110-3530NR. This helps other users in choosing appropriate HW. Maybe you may consider to add a note to the HCL?
I ‘inherited’ my wife’s 2 year old Asus Eee PC and immediately wiped XP to install oS 11.4 -KDE.
Seems to work beautifully OOTB including sound and video.
Response is reasonably quick using KDE upgraded to 4.6.3.
yeah, new toys are great
the video playback works also out of the box. Skype works after installation without further config.
I noticed that switching off the desktop effects gives a noticeable boost in speed. I can not believe that the very same system which runs on my big desktop is also running so smoothly on this tiny netbook This is simply amazing. Battery life is more than 6.5 hours.
I still have to test the bluetooth functionality and then I put something into HCL.
Asus 1000H OpenSuse 11.4
I am pleased with the move from Ubuntu to OpenSuse 11.4. The positive experience of other members on the forum was the prompting I needed. My install is still relatively new, but so far so good. The system is responsive and graphics look good on the 10" screen.
I, stupid as I am, have killed the openSUSE on my Netbook. Because I wanted to try some really Netbook-dedicated distros. Now the openSUSE USB stick doesn´t boot anymore - so I can not install it again. I now have Xubuntu 11.04 on it, because this was the only Live USB which booted, after I had Easy Peasy on it (which couldn´t cope with the wireless adapter).
But Xubuntu so far does a good job. Some flaws (as always in an Ubuntu), but it is running really fast and snappy
On 2011-07-19, steffen13 <steffen13@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> I, stupid as I am, have killed the openSUSE on my Netbook. Because I
> wanted to try some really Netbook-dedicated distros. Now the openSUSE
> USB stick doesn´t boot anymore - so I can not install it again. I now
> have Xubuntu 11.04 on it, because this was the only Live USB which
> booted, after I had Easy Peasy on it (which couldn´t cope with the
> wireless adapter).
> But Xubuntu so far does a good job. Some flaws (as always in an
> Ubuntu), but it is running really fast and snappy
Try Mint, it’s even better.
About your openSUSE boot, there is no serious standard for booting from an
USB stick. Or rather, there seem to be to many. A bootable USB stick might
work on one machine, not on the other. The same machine that refuses to boot
on one image, might boot well with another image on the same stick. Compared
to the floppy/cd/dvd boot mechanisms it’s all really pathetic, these days.
Anyway, here’s my suggestion: get yourself an USB-IDE/SATA adapter. Use it
to connect any old DVD player (or buy one, they’re cheap) to your netbook.
All you need then is to burn a DVD and you’re good to go.
Worked for my Asus, on which I installed 11.4 recently. And then removed it
again with a big sigh of relief, but that’s not boot related.
Opensuse 11.4 Asus 1000H
Well time moves on and the netbook is still doing its job with a few caveats. I have trouble getting Audio Players to work. I would like to use Amarok. It does not read the portable CD player attached to the Netbook. And I have difficulty managing its windows with the touchpad. Some things may be concealed - I am not sure. How does the touchpad move window borders I wonder ?
Kaffeine seems to load an individual audio track from the cd. When I hit next it stops in its tracks. I can see the tracks in the media window - bottom left hand - but cannot seem to get them into the play window with the touchpad.
Vlc on the other hand will load and display all of the tracks on a CD. It plays all of the tracks but some times audio will not be present - even when playing. It displays a log saying “cannot load pre buffer” or something similar.
Has anyone come across these issues ?
I tried Linux Mint with Gnome some days ago, because Xubuntu gave me a headache when loading Thunar (the filemanager) there was always a failure message that the application was locked, or whatever… Such issues drive me crazy. Mint runs good, but it is a bit slower than Xubuntu. I ordered more RAM for the netbook. Lets see if I break it completely then…
@cabernet: no clue, sorry. Maybe the VLC problem is related to the audio backend or Pulseaudio? Thats where I would take a first look into.
My wife ordered a new Netbook (although its very much an upper-end Netbook and probably ‘pushes’ the definition of a ‘Netbook’) and I wrote about it in my BLOG here: Purchase considerations for a new netbook - Blogs - openSUSE Forums … she went about this procurement in a bit unusual fashion, and it will be a month before she gets the Netbook (assuming all goes well).
I have successfully run both opensuse-11.4 and debian-squeeze on my ‘Zenith Always ON’ OEM Netbook (India). My only problem is that on none of the OS the touchpad works. But that must be a driver problem of the machine. The Multimedia front gives no problem.
I had a HP Mini 1101 passed down to me with XP on it. I wiped XP off and installed OpenSUSE 11.4. Somewhere in playing with the OS, I removed the ability to boot from a USB stick and am stuck with the installed OS, until I can get an external drive. Thankfully the install of 11.4 is running solid for me. Im running Gnome 2, as that is what I am familiar with from my desktop. Only issues I’ve had was that my wireless card didn’t have the firmware it needed to start. A post in the forums solved that in 20 min. And VLC plays video, but I don’t get audio. Totem works well enough for the occasional tv episode and has played audio just fine while on the road.
I use the netbook mainly for my email, empathy, and light web surfing. The other night/morning I grabbed KStars and drove up onto a mountain outside of town and checked out the Perseids meteor shower.
Opensuse 11.4 has been blown away and Linux Mint installed in its place. I will revisit Opensuse later - perhaps after the next release. The jury is still out on what is the best system for the Asus. Mint is by no means entrenched. I am looking for something that provides a fast boot, hardware compatibility - (touchpad and wireless broadband etc), and an interface with lively interaction. This machine has 2gb of ram - yet you would not think it sometimes. Starting software takes too long, and you are frequently waiting for your next action to kick in. I was reading something about a ram disk recently and wished more of the system could use one - along with normal hard drive for other lesser tasks. Anyway so far Mint has good hardware compatibility. Things are working as they should. But it is still Ubuntu underneath and I am not sure if this is a good thing. The Lxde desktop is not as snappy as hoped. So we shall see.
Hi
I have an ASUS 1000HE with 2GB of RAM, and running GNOME 3.0 without
any issues. Touchpad works fine. It wants to connect to my phone as a
modem either via USB or Bluetooth but don’t use it so not sure how that
would go (I’m guessing ok).
Boot to desktop takes around 40 seconds, but looking at one of he
Segate hybrid drives for it which should improve that. Everything works
OTB for me, SD reader, USB, external monitor, suspend, hibernate, yada
yada…
