Zenwalk Linux 6.2 on the Acer Aspire One netbook
filed under: Linux
OK, so running Zenwalk and various other distributions of Linux running on the Aspire One is nothing new, after all, many of them originally came with some flavor of Linux. I've tried several of them, but it's been forever since I had my favorite desktop distro Zenwalk on it.
Installation was a breeze, but there were a few tweaks needed to get this distro running smoothly on the Aspire One, but it's worth it if you're a fan of Zen.
It seems as though the pciehp module is no longer available with this kernel, so you may find you have trouble getting your card readers to work.
I found this works a treat, open a terminal, su to root, and vim /etc/lilo.conf, then find the stanza containing your Zenwalk configuration, and add the highlighted bit as below... the append line;
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/sda6
label = Zenwalk
initrd = /boot/initrd.splash
append = "pciehp.pciehp_force=1"
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
Save it, issue the lilo command, and then on the next reboot hopefully it will recognize your SD Cards on hotplug... this works on my Aspire One AOA-150, 8.9", on both the left & right hand slots.
An additional thing the default Zen install seems to have left out was the touch pad double-tap click and horizontal scrolling. This one is an easy enough fix as well, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, find the Section that contains your touchpad device, and add the highlighted bits below;
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Pad1"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "Device" "/dev/tp1"
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.09"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.18"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0015"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "3"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
EndSection
Another annoyance was the XFCE places plugin that ships with Zenwalk 6.2 doesn't change icon size with gtk-icon-sizes hint. This bug was fixed some time ago, so simply download the latest places plugin package, extract the contents, cd into the directory, then build the package;
./configure make make install
That should do it, now add the places plugin to your panel and now it should follow GTK menu icon size.
While I love it and have been using it since the mini-slack days, it's probably not a distro I would recommend to people new to Linux, but if you're comfortable tinkering around, then give it a shot. m4xr8d's tutorial is a great starting point for those of you who need a little extra help. I used his function key mappings, and they work perfectly.
And of course, the gratuitous screenshots of my Zenwalk desktop on the Aspire One.
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Jan 23rd, 2010 at 11:05 am
I actually used zenwalk at some point on my acer aspire 5536, and was really impressed, really really lightweight, although my lappy easely can run "heavier" os's, I just had to try out zenwalk.
Jan 24th, 2010 at 7:58 am
I've used Zenwalk for a few years now, and I've really liked it. I have to admit though, on the little Aspire One, Windows 7 runs unbelievably well.