Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

[blackpaw]

Have installed the Kubuntu Alpha 6 Netbook remix on my eee 900 and am loving it. Am most surprised to discover that plasma/oxygen is very readable on the Netbook screen.

• Task switching between running apps using “Present Windows” - excellent
• Took me a while to figure out how to add to the favourites container.
• Wireless! Finally works perfectly! Found my WPA2 network and I only needed to set my passphrase, now it transparently connects whenever I'm in range.
  Additionally I was able to set a static ip with the wireless network at work, which has a borked DHCP setup.
• Live Boot from the USB stick was a great way to preview it and the installer looked very slick.
• There's no battery monitor?

I actually tried the original Xandros install first, found it to limiting for my tastes while not really catering to the netbooks limitations.

I then installed the Ubuntu NBR (Karmic A6) and found it much better than Xandros. Then tried the Kubuntu NBR and found it even better. Looking fwd to Karmic Release.

I really thought plasma would be tough on the small netbook screens, but its worked out really well.


Is there a NetBook forum for Kubuntu?

[lmilano]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

Excellent news, I'll give it a shot in my dell mini 9 in a couple days when the beta is out.

My main concern is the hotkeys, are they working out of the box?. I really need to be able to adjust the screen brightness, the volume, and turn wifi on/off from the keyboard. In the default mini *buntu, you can add kubuntu 8.04 easily, but a few things (including the hotkeys) don't work smoothly.

I don't think there is a netbook subforum, It might be overkill but there is a forum to propose enhancements for the site, you could propose it there.

Thanks!

[blackpaw]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

My main concern is the hotkeys, are they working out of the box?. I really need to be able to adjust the screen brightness, the volume, and turn wifi on/off from the keyboard.

Sorry to be so long replying, and to answer your question - again, much to my surprise - yes. The Brightness, Volume and Wifi keys all worked OOTB.

I would have liked more notification that the WiFi was turned off - hard to tell without checking the status bar.

There is a battery monitor, just hard to see.

I'd like to be able to enlarge the top status bar - much to small for me, but can't figure out how to.

[lmilano]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

Thanks a lot for getting back with more info, I am drooling already. I will give a shot to the beta on my mini. Ah, one more question, in case you are around and you don;t already hate me : does it have the automated test to see if your netbook is compatible?

http://www.workswithu.com/2009/09/23...rk-on-your-pc/

[blackpaw]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

Ah, one more question, in case you are around and you don;t already hate me : does it have the automated test to see if your netbook is compatible?

I didn't see anything that looked like it - however the plasma layout is not searchable so I could have missed.

Don't forget I'm testing with a eee 900 - your Dell Mini could be a different kettle of fish

The bootable DVD/USB is live - you could just boot it and see how well it works.

Cheers,

[lmilano]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

Yes, exactly. Things like the hotkeys can very well work in one and fail in the other.

I think the hardware diagnostics might be included only in the Live CD. It could also be Gnome Ubuntu only (which would suck, but would also contradict the way Ubuntu has been developed lately, so hopefully that's not the case).

I'll play a bit with the live cd for the beta (to be released today) over the weekend.

Cheers!

[The Liquidator]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

Unless bandwidth is an issue I think the only way to do this is to simply download it and try it live, but stick it on a pen drive rather than a CD, even if you have an external CD reader.

My wifes aspire one (a humble 110) has ubuntu 9.04 NBR running on it. My testing showed there is a world of difference between how a pen drive and live CD work, especially in terms of speed. It gives a far better idea as to how it will work when installed.

[lmilano]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

Unless bandwidth is an issue I think the only way to do this is to simply download it and try it live, but stick it on a pen drive rather than a CD, even if you have an external CD reader.

My wifes aspire one (a humble 110) has ubuntu 9.04 NBR running on it. My testing showed there is a world of difference between how a pen drive and live CD work, especially in terms of speed. It gives a far better idea as to how it will work when installed.

I fully agree, I always use a USB stick to test. Reads are fast. Writes are horribly slow. In fact, I got a much more usable permanent install in an SDHC class 6 becuase writes are faster than on my USB key. But I agree, for a live session, the USB is the fastest.

And yes, I am gonna have to try for myself, but having a bit of feedback before trying is not a bad thing. To be concrete, if things were broken at this point, I would not bother for now.

Thanks!

[The Liquidator]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

Must confess I'm a bit keen to get it myself and try it live on the AAO (when the owners not looking of course!)

[lmilano]

Re: Netbook Remix in Karmic Alpha 6 - loving it.

I tried it yesterday night 8)

It looks terrific, although there are a still a couple bugs for the Dell Mini (see here):
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...8484#msg198484

To blackpaw: the battery monitor is there in the beta

Ah, I really loved how the live USB has been created by the usb-creator app from the CD ISO. It makes you a live usb with persistent data. So, it is still pretty slow to boot (it goes through the HW bootstrapping), but any extra apps you install, you keep. Same with user config. Sweet!