Help with Linpus on the Aspire One One

August 17, 2008 7:01 PM

So I bought an Acer Aspire One, a netbook/UMPC/whatever you want to call it, and it comes with Linpus and I know next to nothing about Linuxish stuff let alone this flavour, please help with some basic questions?

Linpus (or at least the version installed on this thing) is very basic, it's designed for basic access to email, the internet, etc. I think it's built on Fedora 8 (or at least those are the applications that work on it). I figured out how to get access to the more advanced settings, and have installed VLC based on instructions from the internet, and found the package manager which has a bunch of stuff that I don't really understand. The key key thing that I want to accomplish is accessing my windows-based wireless network, which I have no idea how to do and can find no support for. Nothing pre-loaded on the machine seems to allow for this. Can I not create a shortcut to my server and carry on? Do I need to install something?

Before you suggest Ubuntu or another flavour, which is what I was thinking to do, the current distributions don't yet support this guy, so I want to hold off on installing that. Unless you know better...

posted by loquax to computers & internet (16 comments total)

What do you mean by windows-based wireless network? Do you mean that you want to access network shares on a windows machine on your network?

There's nothing specifically "windows-based" about a wireless network itself.
posted by odinsdream at 7:11 PM on August 17, 2008

Yes, sorry, it's just a windows network, I can connect to my wireless router that serves the rest of the network.

Also, if it helps, it's Linpus Lite v1.0.7.E, and I think the package manager is Red Hat...
posted by loquax at 7:18 PM on August 17, 2008

And yes, I want to access network shares on windows machines on my network...
posted by loquax at 7:27 PM on August 17, 2008

You want Samba for connecting to Windows stuff. I've never even heard of Linpus (it sounds like a disease), but "samba" is a very common package, so try its package manager.
posted by fogster at 7:47 PM on August 17, 2008

I bleieve Linpux is based on Fedora and includes KDE. Can you start the program Konqueror? If so, you should be able to type smb:// into the location bar and browse your Windows shares.
posted by PueExMachina at 7:47 PM on August 17, 2008

Though I should clarify... What exactly are you accessing? Stuff like Windows programs won't run on Linux, though wine (which, almost alarmingly, is the #1 Google hit for "wine") can help. And Word documents won't open, though OpenOffice may succeed.

BTW, the Wikipedia article mentions people running Ubuntu on the Aspire One. Seemingly mixed-results, but I definitely wouldn't give up hope of a "real" distro coming to your device soon!
posted by fogster at 7:53 PM on August 17, 2008

Funny, Samba seems to be installed but I can't seem to find it anywhere, I'll keep trying. This is a really really basic and locked down os.

It doesn't include KDE, it comes with XFCE for the desktop, and it's pretty sucky. No Konqueror, smb does nothing. I may try installing KDE (which is just a skin/wrapper for the os, right?).

Yeah, no programs, just trying to access files on my windows network. Haven't given up hope for Ubuntu, and will probably head that way once they come up with something...thanks.
posted by loquax at 8:00 PM on August 17, 2008

This Wikipedia entry suggests that Linpus Lite (made for UMPCs) features both a 'basic mode' and a 'pc mode.' You're already in 'pc mode,' right?

Also, even by the standards of open-source software, 'Linpus' is a terrible name. "Eww, gross, that computer has linpus on it!"
posted by box at 8:09 PM on August 17, 2008

Well, I think I'm in pc mode, although I think the only difference is that you can right click on the desktop, change more settings than the date and time, and access the terminal and package manager. Still no luck with accessing Samba though (or installing java vm, for that matter)...
posted by loquax at 8:17 PM on August 17, 2008

Have to agree w/fogster. On everything.

Ubuntu is stay-ble. Samba last time I used it was stable, mostly.

If it's not a high volume, convenience kinda thing then you could ftp/ssh stuff - they have GUIs for that. You're able to telnet into the box eh? RTFMPs, j/k. sourceforge.net and download.com are your friends.

Hopefully someone with more your flavor of unix will respond.
posted by prodevel at 8:43 PM on August 17, 2008

OK, I reread and get it a little better.

smbstatus

ps -ef | grep smb

gets you anything? sorry if this is an insult - it's not meant to be. None of the following is.

man samba

There's a bit of configuration do to from what I remember. Not easy, but not rocket science.

/etc/inetd or /etc/init.d or similar named and manually look for start scripts and settings from /etc on down and /opt if you have it.

if nothing then do a find from /etc

solaris: find . -name \*smb\*
or: find . -name *smb*
or: man find

should be a "XXXXXXsamba" or something there w/hopefully a mention of a config file that you're familiar with after checking samba docs.

In solaris is was pkginfo -l | grep samba
to see if it was installed
pkginfo -l | more
and type in '/' then samba or Samba to skip to the pkg to read about it.

I might be way off base here so forgive me if I am.


I can't even bring up linpus.com atm but maybe thats a location issue...
posted by prodevel at 9:09 PM on August 17, 2008

The Ubuntu Netbook Remix does run on an Aspire One, although it seems you need to install Hardy (Ubuntu 8.04) using UNetbootin before installing the Netbook Remix add-on.

By the sounds of things, your Linux knowledge probably won't give you the confidence to attempt this, but it does work, and enables you to dump Linpus as quickly as it deserves!
posted by benzo8 at 9:32 PM on August 17, 2008

Alternatively, there's another method for installed Ubuntu here...
posted by benzo8 at 9:47 PM on August 17, 2008

Does Linpus come with a program for installing packages from Fedora's repositories? If so, I'd try installing fusesmb.
posted by PueExMachina at 10:35 AM on August 18, 2008

Thanks for the help everyone - still one problem. I found fusesmb in the packages and installed it, and I think I have Samba installed too, but I have no idea how to access them or my windows network - Isn't there a "network neighbourhood" or something? How do I do it from the file manager? I think I'm just missing the command or the syntax to actually go out over the network. Am I making any sense?

(prodevel, thanks but that went waayy over my head)
posted by loquax at 6:05 PM on August 18, 2008

For anyone else interested in this, I found a very useful forum dedicated to the aspire one, with how to guides for a lot of things, including mounting network shares, which is a lot more complicated and tricky than I ever imagined as a windows guy.
posted by loquax at 6:03 AM on August 19, 2008