Since the Aspire One doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive, I used UNetBootin to create a bootable USB thumbdrive from the ISO, booted, installed and rebooted successfully.Īfter logging in for the first time I was prompted to install the linux-netbook-manjaro package and palemoon-atom package. Specifically I downloaded the latest and greatest 32-bit version ( direct link to ISO). Next I tried Manjaro Netbook Edition, a community developed flavour of Manjaro Linux. Most of these are no longer actively developed, apart from a few. First I tried Lubuntu but after installing successfully, found it would get stuck booting and I didn’t have the inclination to troubleshoot it. Wikipedia has a page dedicated to comparisons of netbook-orientated Linux distributions. However, fast forward a few years and Windows XP is dead and a lot of the Linux distributions for netbooks are no longer actively developed and have fallen behind the times. A lot of customised Linux distributions started to appear, designed specifically for netbooks. It was capable of running Windows XP, various Linux flavours, FreeBSD and even OS X.
When the Aspire One first came out there was a wide range of Operating Systems to choose from. In addition I also found that a BIOS password (“user” and “supervisor”) had been set but the password wasn’t known. Secondly, the battery appeared to be dead and wouldn’t charge.
Firstly, it was running Ubuntu 12.04 but the upgrade to Precise Pangolin had broken and wasn’t easily recoverable. I was given an Acer Aspire One ZG5 (A110) and asked to try to update it.