Hi, I have one of the old acer aspire netboks with an built-in impossible-to-replace ssd 'hard drive'. Now the ssd has finally given up and died, so I'm looking for a way to run the OS off a usb key.
I'm used to xubuntu and it can be run off usb, but I found that slax is quite a bit faster!
However, there are some problems with slax on aa1:
1. The aa1 has an incredibly noisy fan which needs a 'acerhdf' driver to control it (see: http://www.piie.net/?section=acerhdf). This feature is included in the *buntu distributions nowadays. (It is 'built into the kernel', if I remember correctly).
2. The wireless range when running slax is inferior compared to xubuntu. I recall that there were a lot of problems with wireless networking back in the day when the aa1 was new, and some difference between the various solutions in the range that was achieved. Now this is working out-of-the box on *buntu as well.
I don't know enough about linux to judge whether it would be possible for me to implement the xubuntu solutions to fan control and wireless networking from slax, but perhaps someone on the forum can guess what I need to do from the vague hints above. Any help is greatly appreciated!
I don't know enough about linux to judge whether it would be possible for me to implement the xubuntu solutions to fan control and wireless networking from slax nike five fingers
My best recommendation: Try to take the thing apart (there are guides on Google) and see if you can add or replace your internal drive. It shouldn't be soldered to the motherboard so it shouldn't be near impossible to take it out. If you have doubts on disassembling it yourself, get it to a trusted technician.
As for the software, upgrade the kernel for better performance, though I personally don't think the wireless in Slax is too awful bad, imho. As for the fan, again, upgrade Linux to 3 if you can. Acers had a known fan problem at first--go to the Acer support webpage for your model, and download and install the upgrade.
Otherwise, look in the sys and proc contents for a better idea... that's about all I'm going to say for now and I hope it helps. :)
