Xubuntu 9.10 on Acer Aspire One

One of the few things that I have done in my own time this fall is re-install Xubuntu (the recent version 9.10) on my AAO. Long story short, I felt the previous 9.04 Xubuntu install was getting pretty slow, and there were a few tricks that I wanted to try out. I also hoped that some of the issues with the previous version had been fixed. The results have been satisfactory.

The things that I did differently:

• Encryption. I chose to stick with encryption, but decreased the encryption level. Or at least I think I did--I seem to recall using a 256-bit key previously, while I now use just a 128-bit key. Considering that my goal is not really full data safety (I don't store anything confidential on the AAO anyway) but rather just making it not worth it for any potential thief to attempt recovery of any personal data from the AAO, I think a 128-bit key will prove quite sufficient, and any improvement in reading/writing speeds make it well worth it--more on that below.
• noatime. I guess this is quite obvious in retrospect, but I have now set up all partitions to mount with the noatime flag. This means that the file system does not update file access times, but it also cuts down on file system metadata writing significantly. And the AAO's SSD is slow. Taken together with the decreased encryption key size, write times have improved significantly-- I did not store the numbers, but I seem to recall getting write speeds of about 4-8MB/s before, and now get 32-36MB/s. So we're talking about a 300-800 percent improvement, and it is obviously quite noticeable. While current speeds are still not that great, the system now at least feels usable, as opposed to before.
• tmpfs. Another thing that contributes to the speed of the system, I now use multiple ram disks for locations that a) presumably are written to a lot and repeatedly, and b) won't contain anything that must be saved:
  • 128MB for /tmp
  • 24MB for /var/tmp
  • 24MB for /var/log
  • 64MB for my Firefox cache
  At least the Firefox cache makes a huge difference, I think. Previously I could open a bunch of tabs at once (say 20 or so) and come back 15-30 minutes later, at which point they might have loaded, or they might not. Now, you can start browsing in 5-15 seconds or so. And considering that I have 1.5GB in my AAO (and the system still just uses some 120-130MBs once it has booted up), 240MB is a very small price to pay for that. It could probably be tuned downwards a bit, but what's the point?

Other than these, I set up Xubuntu 9.10 pretty much exactly the same way I did 9.04.

What's improved in Xubuntu 9.10 (out of the box):

• More of the shortcut keys now work (volume up, volume down).
• The volume setting is stored between logins.

What still doesn't work in Xubuntu 9.10 (out of the box):

• The card readers. The card readers still don't work as they're supposed to. The left card slot auto-mounts and handles ejection; the right slot requires the media to be present at boot, and it can't be ejected. This should be the other way around.
• Perhaps as a consequence of above, the left card reader still can't be used with LVM. This is annoying, because even if I strictly speaking don't need it, I had really hoped to be able to add more storage space.

Things I haven't confirmed to work in Xubuntu 9.10 (out of the box):

• Hidden SSIDs. I have not tested if the wireless now handles hidden SSIDs or not.
• Camera. I haven't used the camera, so I can't comment on that. Then again, this may not have ever been an issue in the first place.
• Wireless Led. I haven't paid much attention to the leds, so I also consider the wireless led functionality somewhat unconfirmed. I think the led works--at least it seems to be flashing when I'm using the wireless, and it stays dark when I'm not--but I can't say for sure.

Various AAO issues that (of course) still apply:

• Slow SSD. If it has not become clear already, let me say it explicitly: The AAO 8GB SSD version has a slooooow storage medium. Without the noatime flag and the ram disks, the system was borderline unusable. With them, I have pretty much not seen any temporary system freezes anymore (ok, maybe once or twice in several months, as opposed to several times every few minutes). On the one hand, I'm not sure what to expect for 300EUR (200EUR after sales discount), but on the other hand, you nowadays get pretty slick netbooks for 400EUR, and it has only been one year after all.
• Wireless Issues. This is something I haven't written about (that much) before, but it seems like there are some serious issues with the wireless. If the wireless is under heavy stress, as in downloading a few MB file, it sometimes crashes completely--in Linux, I get a kernel panic followed by a complete system lockup, requiring a hard reset (keeping the power button pressed until power is cut from the system). I previously thought it might have been due to the slow SSD, but storage now works pretty well (and Firefox cache is on a ram disk), so I'm less likely to believe it to be the culprit anymore. This is quite unacceptable IMO; just consider that your system would freeze completely every time you try to watch a Youtube video longer than one minute! And it is just wireless; wired works fine. As it is now, each time I update the system (about once a week) I worry about side effects of the system crashing whenever the updates are larger than a few MBs (which they almost always are); it happens about half of the time (and sometimes more than once per update, if the updates are large enough). I usually end up using the wired network to do any updates.
  If this only happened with the AAO, I would not care that much--again, I'm not quite sure what to expect for 300EUR. Unfortunately, similar things happen with my old Acer laptop as well, which back in the day cost significantly more. And it is not just a Linux thing, either. I run Windows XP as well on that laptop, and I got weird and sudden freezes there as well (ironically, far less so under Linux). So wherever the issue ultimately lies, both my Acer computers have had the same symptoms.
• Poor battery life. I get about two hours of use from my AAO when it's fully charged. As I tend to stay near power outlets, it's enough for me, but the standard tends to be three to four times that nowadays, with some netbooks pushing towards six times that. So... yeah.

So I don't know. I may have to go back on the recommendation of AAO with Xubuntu. I still think Xubuntu is an excellent OS for a netbook and a definite improvement over Linpus Lite, and I have got my system set up so that it works for me... but I don't think the AAO 8GB SSD is for everyone. If you want a really cheap netbook (read: disposable, which was what I was aiming for), you can probably get one used for next to nothing by now. And if you do, I think Xubuntu is an excellent choice. Even with a 512MB system, I'd consider setting up a 64MB ram disk for the Firefox cache, and you'd have a decent read my e-mail and browse the Web system whenever away from your primary computer. I'd also go ext3 (or maybe ext4) rather than ext2 just to decrease the risk of data loss if the system completely freezes due to issues with the wireless, or other issues.

But if I were looking for a netbook today, and were willing to spend a little more than an absolute minimum, I'd probably look into the Samsung N120 netbook, as I hear it has received very good reviews.

A Small Report, Episode VIII

Another three months have gone by, just like that. Except that they're actually four months this time, not just three.

However, I do have an excuse of sorts. When I wrote my previous post, I had no idea that we'd soon have spring all over again at work, with tremendous pressure to get things completed by an insane deadline, but that's pretty much what happened.

Hm. At first, I was planning to write about that. But on a second thought, although I think we've done some extraordinary work in the last four months, I think I'll skip it. It would feel too much like bragging, and too much like marginalizing similar efforts made by others. I'm quite sure that everyone in my profession has some horror stories about crunch time, and the next story will always be embellished to top the previous one. So no. Suffice to say, I don't think that anyone on the team has had any life outside work for the two first months (although we did get to sleep sometimes), and very little in the last two months.

But hey. Christmas vacation, right? Maybe I'll actually manage to write several posts before going back to work?

Merry Christmas!