Update on Linux on Netbooks

Update on Linux on Netbooks

This little  writing would not have come if not for our industrial action.

First of all, I must thank my young colleagues for initiating and prolonging the action for the third month without a break.

I must thank my bank manager for extending a loan to to buy the netbook with SuSe Enterprise 10 on it. 

Mind you we are without a salary for 3 months.

I would not have found this net book lying in a corner, if not for the strike.

Everyday I come out looking for a new adventure and window shopping and getting involved in a long conversation (used to be very brief when we were working) with anybody and everybody was a welcome change.

The extra time was utilized to find the appropriate Linux distribution/s for the new netbook.

What you need apart from the netbook and money are as following

1. Gparted, an old version (new one might not boot in a netbook).

2. Pinguy Eee (It is actually a PIN GUY in Sinhala-Pinata Pahalawela)

3. Easy Peasy-2009-Ubuntu derivative

4.Puppeee a Puppy Linux derivative especially for netbooks

5. Couple of 8 GiB Flash Drives

6. Couple of Mini DVDs  and a USB DVD Writer.

7. Ideally on strike and sleep well on day time

8. Do all this when everybody is sleeping and Internet is not very busy

STEPS

1. Boot up and erase the hard disk with SuSe for good with Gparted and prepare the hard disk the way you like.

2. Install Pingue Eee with a relatively large home partition to place the images of the distributions mentioned above If one is downloading them.

I had all of them in my my CD/DVD collection downloaded over the last three years (for testing) with images as well as Live DVDs.
One needs the images or convert it/them to image/s using K3B, if UnetBootIn used for preparing Live USB.

Pingue 11.04 has Live USB/CD-DVD Creator instead of UnetBootIn.

3. Download NetRunner 4.2.1 and copy the image to  Download folder.

4. In my case I copied it to a DVD

5. Boot Up Pingue Eee with 8 GiB Flash Drive ATTACHED.

6. Open the UnetBootIn

7. Give the path to the NetRunner Image or  Easy Peasy Image.

8. Click OK and go and make a cup of good coffee if you an impatient guy / girl.

9. Before  you can finish the coffee the Flash Drive will be ready for booting.

10. Why did I select the latest NetRunner?

It has GIMP the latest 2.8 version which is pretty good.

Depending on your liking  the other distributions can also be run live or on a Flash Drive which I have done and they all work OK.

But take care with Puppy Linux since one is not able to reverse any action committed by you except reinstalling the distribution one has downloaded.

I have tried Joli OS, Cloud USB and PCLinux 2010 and all of them work OK.

All new versions of Ubuntu, SuSe, PCLinux and Knoppix do not boot and have left YOU with no choices.
They have become hunky dory!

However I copied Knoppix 7.0.4 CD to a download folder and prepared a Live Flash Drive to boot with my other computers.

It looks like images over 1 GiB cannot be copied to a netbook but downloading an image (large) by torrent may be a way round that problem if one has a fast Internet connection. 

If you are pressed for time, form a TRADE UNION and go on strike for at least 3 months and all your creativity will be recharged in no time.

GOOD LUCK with your FREE TIME on Linux FREEDOM.

One can boot Linux from a MicroSD card but I use them for loading photos from my digital camera /or from the phone.