SmallWorld
November 15th, 2013, 04:17 PM
The short of it:
The default 12.04.3 64bit DE install works good with a few tweaks. I haven't tested Bluetooth or external monitors yet.
The long of it:
Following is the process I used.
This laptop comes with Windows 7 Home Premium, even though we're well into the Windows 8 era. Bless your hearts, Asus.
The 500GB hard drive comes with three partitions:
- sda1 (ntfs) 19.3GB - the Windows7 recovery partition.
- sda2 (ntfs) 104.9MB - the Windows7 loader
- sda3 (ntfs) 480.7GB - the Windows7 "C:" drive
I left the hard drive in this configuration (no editing of the parition table) prior to installing Ubuntu.
The firmware (BIOS) is UEFI, specifically InsydeH20. This means the install-from-Windows (Wubi) installer won't work. Also, this UEFI does not support booting from a SD card. You must boot and install from a USB device.
I put the 64bit Desktop Edition 12.04.3 installer onto a USB drive and set the laptop's UEFI to boot from the USB.
Upon booting from the USB I chose the option to Install Ubuntu directly.
I chose to install Updates and 3rd Party Software during the OS install.
I was able to connect to wifi from within the installer program without any issues, although the wifi connection interface was a little laggy.
I chose to "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7".
The next step was to use the poorly-labeled drive space divider. This allows you to shrink the sda3 partition (on the left side of the visual divider), making room for Ubuntu (on the right side of the visual divider). I made the left side of the divider 100GB.
I let the installer do its thing. I chose to encrypt my home folder.
When finished, I restarted.
GRUB and then Ubuntu booted up without any hitches.
The Additional Drivers control indicated that "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system." Sweet.
GRUB needs to be modified to get the keypad brightness buttons to work:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grubChange the line
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi="
Then:
sudo update-grubThen restart.
After a while, the wifi just stopped working, and apparently this is common. A number of forum pages reveal the permanent fix:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.confType in the following:
options ath9k nohwcrypt=1Save and close this file, then:
sudo modprobe -rfv ath9k
sudo modprobe ath9k
The touchpad is a buttonless model, so it's a PITA to right-click on anything. I'm considering installing Synaptiks to be able to use a two-fingered tap as a right-click but just can't swallow that Synaptiks needs 300MB to install.
The system now runs like a champ. Wifi works, full-screen Youtube videos play smoothly, speakers work, headphones work, and Windows7 still boots up and runs as good as it ever did. I haven't tested Bluetooth or external monitors yet. I use Gnome with No Effects, so can't speak for the performance of the Unity or Compiz.
The default 12.04.3 64bit DE install works good with a few tweaks. I haven't tested Bluetooth or external monitors yet.
The long of it:
Following is the process I used.
This laptop comes with Windows 7 Home Premium, even though we're well into the Windows 8 era. Bless your hearts, Asus.
The 500GB hard drive comes with three partitions:
- sda1 (ntfs) 19.3GB - the Windows7 recovery partition.
- sda2 (ntfs) 104.9MB - the Windows7 loader
- sda3 (ntfs) 480.7GB - the Windows7 "C:" drive
I left the hard drive in this configuration (no editing of the parition table) prior to installing Ubuntu.
The firmware (BIOS) is UEFI, specifically InsydeH20. This means the install-from-Windows (Wubi) installer won't work. Also, this UEFI does not support booting from a SD card. You must boot and install from a USB device.
I put the 64bit Desktop Edition 12.04.3 installer onto a USB drive and set the laptop's UEFI to boot from the USB.
Upon booting from the USB I chose the option to Install Ubuntu directly.
I chose to install Updates and 3rd Party Software during the OS install.
I was able to connect to wifi from within the installer program without any issues, although the wifi connection interface was a little laggy.
I chose to "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows 7".
The next step was to use the poorly-labeled drive space divider. This allows you to shrink the sda3 partition (on the left side of the visual divider), making room for Ubuntu (on the right side of the visual divider). I made the left side of the divider 100GB.
I let the installer do its thing. I chose to encrypt my home folder.
When finished, I restarted.
GRUB and then Ubuntu booted up without any hitches.
The Additional Drivers control indicated that "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system." Sweet.
GRUB needs to be modified to get the keypad brightness buttons to work:
sudo gedit /etc/default/grubChange the line
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi="
Then:
sudo update-grubThen restart.
After a while, the wifi just stopped working, and apparently this is common. A number of forum pages reveal the permanent fix:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.confType in the following:
options ath9k nohwcrypt=1Save and close this file, then:
sudo modprobe -rfv ath9k
sudo modprobe ath9k
The touchpad is a buttonless model, so it's a PITA to right-click on anything. I'm considering installing Synaptiks to be able to use a two-fingered tap as a right-click but just can't swallow that Synaptiks needs 300MB to install.
The system now runs like a champ. Wifi works, full-screen Youtube videos play smoothly, speakers work, headphones work, and Windows7 still boots up and runs as good as it ever did. I haven't tested Bluetooth or external monitors yet. I use Gnome with No Effects, so can't speak for the performance of the Unity or Compiz.