Acer aspire one 756 (review + tweaks)

[saou]

I just got this netbook and put xubuntu on it, dual boot with window 7. Wifi/LAN/hdmi/xrandr work out of box (I have not tried VGA). Suspend also works via the logout menu, but not through the F4 key. Volume control, speaker mute and wifi on/off work via function keys.

Multitouch works out of box, including two-fingers vertical and horizontal scrolling (you might need to adjust touchpad settings in xfce). Pinch-zoom does not work. Right-click is slightly flaky and/or I have not yet found the sweet spot for right click (which I guess means it's flaky :-)

On a freshly charged battery, xubuntu reports/predicts 5:32 of battery life. I have not tried to drain it, but based on experience with other laptops this is a reasonable estimate for normal use (40% brightness, wifi on, light browsing+emails+editing); take 30% for looping youtubes :-)

The speakers are surpising loud but very tinny. I watched fullscreen 720p video (using VLC) for about 40min (on AC); the palm rest is warm but comfortable, and both cores stay below 56 degree. I've been using this all day and the fan is not loud at all (disclaimer: I don't have good ears!)

Two tweaks (warning: don't blame me if these brick your machine!):

(1) Common acer problem: Backlight control does not work out of box. I googled "acer brightness" and found this fix on the ubuntu forum (unfortunately I lost the original URL): Edit /etc/default/grub by changing

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux"

then sudo update-grub and reboot.

(2) There is a long delay between logging in and xfce showing up. This seems to be a xubuntu and/or lightdm problem. See post #39 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1970326 for a patch (remember to reboot).

The screen is good (not macbook good) and has good viewing angle. The keyboard is good (on par with the ultrabooks on display at BB), about 95% of the regular ones. I've been typing on it all day and have not problem except for the forward slash key (because of the 95% keyboard it's slightly off from where I'm used to finding it; should be okay after a few days). The arrow keys (and tilde) are small but functional.

All in all this is a very capable, light (< 3lb) and inexpensive travel machine. I like it a lot. I plan to put SSD + 8G of ram and make it a poor-man's 'bunbook air, all for all about $400! Good luck!

PS: Mine has a celeron 877 -- slightly clockdowned version of sandy bridge i3. Several people on amazon says that that this is on par and maybe slightly better than the pentium one (I have not tested that).

[ahallubuntu]

~

[addlepatedcamel]

I jumped on the AO756 band wagon as well. I needed something to replace my ancient mac laptop. I'm planning on downloading Ubuntu 12.04 and I'm assuming I'll need the 64bit version for the celeron 877 processor since the computer comes with the 64bit Windows. The only reason I ask is because the 32bit version is listed as "recommended" on the download page.

I just want to double check before I download the huge installer file. I'm also going to up the ram from 2g to 8g.

Thanks.

[addlepatedcamel]

Or perhaps a better way to phrase it, which version would a more experienced Ubuntu user suggest for a relative newbie such as myself? Given that the intel celeron 877 is a 64bit processor and from my understanding, the 32bit ubuntu version should work as well.
Thanks.

[ahallubuntu]

~

[vickoxy]

Hi,thanks for reports. I am also interested in this modell-so if someone can describe more accurately the fan behaviour-i will be very grateful. I want to know how much audible is the fan at the lowest speed?

[vigi84]

I have just ordered a netbook like this, and I am planning to install Ubuntu 10.10, the netbook version.
Maybe it's a naive question, but which version of Ubuntu drains the battery least, hardware-usage-wise etc.??

[saou]

I have just ordered a netbook like this, and I am planning to install Ubuntu 10.10, the netbook version.
Maybe it's a naive question, but which version of Ubuntu drains the battery least, hardware-usage-wise etc.??

xubuntu and lubuntu is more lightweight and a bit more power-efficient than unity 3D. See http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTA2NDA for some benchmarks.

[vigi84]

Thanks for the answer! Appretiate it!
Yes, according to this chart Lubuntu does seem to take off some weight of CPU and battery usage.

But am so very used to Ubuntu 10.10, and not very keen on changing this habit of mine, because, as it's said Ubuntu is Linux made for human beings. Heh, and I am not very much of a programmer-mind to understand every bit, some installations are still time consuming in Ubuntu, but I like the challenge.

Anyhow, most importantly, the question is if important software would be running on Lubuntu, e.g. Corel After Shot Pro - this is my biggest concern, Libre Office 3.6., that I presume works. Do these OS-es have e.g. a software centre like Ubuntu?

Would the netbook version of Ubuntu 10.10 be still a good option?

[saou]

If you are used to ubuntu 10.10 then I recommend xubuntu 12.04. I find xubuntu to be the right balance between clean/light-weight install on the one hand and useability on the other (I hate unity and and find lubuntu a bit too spare). I've been on the road for over a week with my 756 running xubuntu 12.04, often using power saving mode (both CPU clocked at 800MHz) and I have no problem with it except for high res youtube video; the reduced heat is a big plus

If you don't mind wasting bandwidth, download the different version and run them as live USB/CD and see which one you like best. Oh, I would not recomend using any version of 10.10; it is no longer supported (so no security update -- bad idea!!)

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!