Ubuntu on Aspire One D270

[Dingo7]

Hey guys,

I recently got a D270 Netbook, and, like many others have had troubles installing Ubuntu on this machine..

I am now typing on the same netbook running Ubuntu 13.04 Daily Build, and GMA 3600 are working great in 3D mode.
The only problem is that top reports CPU as 100% all the time, The problem is compiz, reporting use of 217% CPU etc, (Screenshot attatched below.), The CPU is not over heating or anything, but still, that shouldnt be happening.

Baby steps guys, Baby steps...

[Dingo7]

Come on, anyone? The problem persists even when compiz isnt running....

[Dingo7]

hey guys, I have 100% CPU all the time, even if Xorg and Compiz are not running... Can anyone help me please?

Screen shot here

[matt_symes]

Threads merged.

Please don't create multiple threads on the same subject. It dilutes community effort.

[mike555]

I also have a Acer netbook, I found out Lubuntu runs much better,because it is much lighter ..... no fancy effects though.

[Dingo7]

I also have a Acer netbook, I found out Lubuntu runs much better,because it is much lighter ..... no fancy effects though.

Cool, I was really hoping for Unity though, Ive been trying for ages and this is alot of progress for me, even if the way of installing through OEM mode was a pain. VGA is working too, havnt tried HDMI yet...

[oldos2er]

Moved to Ubuntu +1

[Dingo7]

Thanks, thought I posted in the right place... Anymore thoughts on this?

[mikewhatever]

Intel's GMA3600 is the current reincarnation of the infamouse GMA500. Much had been said about it over the uears, and you are welcome to read up on that saga of failure by searching this forum or the web.
To run Unity well, you'd would need a 3d capable GPU and driver, and we've been waiting fro the driver since 2008.
You can try 12.04.1 with Unity2d though. 12.04.1 even has a proprietary CedarView 2d driver.

[Rob Sayer]

I have a D270 running kubuntu 12.04. I wouldn't even consider running unity and/or compiz on my i3 laptop (also kubuntu 12.04) let alone the 270. Compiz performance stinks. KDE is much faster. Both take similar ram as far as I can see.

You can install cedarview drivers in a 270. I wouldn't recommend the way I did it first, which involves installling and holding an older generic non pae kernel. That caused me other odd problems. For instance, the HDD controller in my 270 isn't totally compatible with the cedarview patches. There were other weird things too.

I recently just installed kubuntu 12.04 32 bit and lightdm (lightdm may not have been actually necessary but it works, at least on kubuntu). Then run sudo apt-get update. Then run the update manager a few times until there aren't any more updates.

Then, and only then, go into additional drivers and install the cedarview one. The screen went blank, and I had to to a hard shutdown with the power button. A wee bit panicky, that. But when I turned it back on it worked fine. The brightness keys work and it plays youtube video and billardgl as well as with the previous method. And without holding the system to an older generic kernel.

However, you still will only get xrender video, not opengl. So I would not use Unity or any other gnome 3/compiz based shell on a cedarview machine. But I hate gnome 3/compiz anyway. No loss.

Most people would reccommend something like xubuntu or lubuntu in a situation like this, and they're largely right. But I'm running kde (kubuntu) on my 270. It definitely uses more ram than xubuntu (which I used for a while but I never tried lubuntu). That's not a problem for me. It's a netbook.

Actually kde runs faster than xfce. One of the most common myths in computers is that a program or system that uses less ram will run faster. It's usually the opposite.