Thread: Reviving the ol' Acer Aspire One 110L

if else has posted before, please forgive me, there questions in thread i'd have with!

love convenience , portability of old acer aspire 110l, plus no moving parts, it's rugged come. dropped solid wood window shelf on mine accidentally. cracked lcd , bent usb plug on wireless mouse, didn't cause computer shut down. replacement on ebay $60 or , , running. then, dropped (in it's case) on paved parking lot no damage. has been faithful companion, , couldn't pry out of fingers if promised me ipad.

1 area i've never been satisfied performance of ssd. diminishes enjoyment of using little netbook. bought ultra-small jump drive , tried run off of that, keeping casper-rw filling of headache.

wanted replace ssd real hard drive, after reading procedure, decided relegate being last-ditch effort. instead, decided focus efforts on sd card slot , put operating system there.

major hurdle had overcome fact 110 won't boot sd. so, decided try experiment little. got 8gb class 6 microsd card in full size sd adapter. since card slot on right can read variety of formats, , wanted keep open, put card in left slot.

booted ubuntu via usb drive , opened gparted. started 16 gb ssd built 110 , partitioned 1 gb partition @ beginning, , rest of 15 gb partition, both ext2. formatted microsd card ext2. then, started installation.

when offered choice install on built in hard drive or else, chose "something else". started making assignments. sda1, 1 gb partition, /boot. sda2 home. mmcblk0, microsd card, /. not necessary add swap, when confirmed above choices, installer encouraged me go , create one.

following strict policy of ignoring might advice, proceeded without swap. installation went off without hitch , prompted reboot.

after bios screen, got sinister looking grub messages. don't know whether or not result of unorthodox installation, or other error, displayed these error messages few seconds , proceeded boot login screen.

logged in , looking @ ubuntu desktop! full ubuntu natty, too, unity desktop in it's glory!

logged out , selected ubuntu classic (gnome) because hate unity , logged in. ran gconf-editor put buttons on right side.

it. surprised easy , yet worked. , wow, difference in performance. it's not far off full size hp dv6000 runs natty. firefox, unusable on old acer ssd, runs regular hd install class 6 card. google earth runs fine. not smooth, every bit usable on hp nvidia graphics.

far, hitch i've found suspend doesn't work correctly. if understood little more how suspend works, might know start looking solution.

since have 9 cell battery, it's not big deal shutdown or reboot, it's tradeoff can live with. still, if fix it, make whole deal perfect.

summary:

pros:

not difficult set way.

inexpensive...an 8gb sd card can had under $15 , can replaced easily.

home directory safe during reinstall long don't check "format" option

speed increase dramatic

easy undo...just remove card , reformat it, , install ubuntu ssd before

gain giant 15gb home directory , still have 8gb installing programs...total capacity increases 16 gb 24.

can more space if you're willing buy bigger sd card

not obvious looking 110 isn't running in factory configuration...no usb's sticking out of side or that.

cons:

might wear sd card repeated writes. not big of issue, since home directory on different drive, , sd cards cheap. can , running new sd card in less hour, , bookmarks , settings left them. might experiment , see if can copy system files sd different one, see if can make quick , dirty backup of system way. imagine you'd have create image, not difficult do, since put sd in computer , on hard drive.

obviously, lose sd slot. fair, still have 1 open. can't recall situation absolutely needed plug 2 sd's computer @ once. if did, still have usb card reader can plug usb slot.

while inconsequential, i've used method twice, , start error messages on boot each time. if things nice , tidy, try fix it, doesn't bother me because doesn't affect functioning of computer can tell (unless that's what's messing suspend , resume!).

suspend , resume doesn't work. if has ideas this, i'd glad hear them. said, big battery, it's not dealbreaker, handy not go through shutdown/reboot procedure each time.

suggestions/advice appreciated.

if have old aspire 1 ssd, method might worth try.

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