Arch Linux on my MSI Wind U100

Davini · 2010-04-29 07:07:40

I toyed with the idea to put a linux on my netbook, but I couldn't really decide which one to use. A friend of mine told me to use Arch Linux when I mentioned gentoo. He has been using Arch for a while and totally talked me into it. The reason for my post is to see if I can find anyone else out there that has tried/done such an installation: Arch Linux on an MSI Wind U100. I used to play around with Linux a long time ago, but forgot most of details.

My goal is to optimize my system to the fullest...and I mean fullest. I don't want anything on my system I'm not going to use. For example, if you do a basic Ubuntu install, you get all a lot of crap. I had Windows 7 on it for about a year now, and I couldn't take how slow it ran (on my netbook). Anyways..

So, my questions: What are the sort of packages I need to get for an absolute barebones system? Like, which window manager or desktop environment could I use that will be good-looking but also fast and efficient? I've read some good things about Openbox and Xfce4? Which applications exists that will help my system run better?

austin.rbn · 2010-04-29 07:15:56

It does sound like Arch Linux is what you want to run. I suggest you search both the wiki and forum for "Wind U100" as there is quite a lot of information already available, including a dedicated wiki page and lots of forum threads about specific problems.

I would suggest that you follow the "Beginner's Guide" for your installation, installing Openbox as your windowing environment, and then searching the wiki for specific packages as you need them. There is plenty of information on the wiki, so I am sure that you will be able to find the answers you are looking for there.

demian · 2010-04-29 07:42:35

Arch is fast out-of-the-box. Especially the kernel config is great. I mean, you can save a bit of space and lots of compiling time if you strip the kernel down but you can't noticibly influence system speed/boot speed/power consumption.

You should consider using a tiling window manager. You can't use the screen more efficiently than with a tiling window manager, especially if the screen is rather small and you need every bit of space. I'd recommend Awesome, it looks really good oob, has cool features and takes little space.
Then pick your apps from this wiki page.
Things you could do after that are optimization of boot speed (check the wiki) and optionally get zsh instead of bash.

Just to give you an idea: For a rather small installation with Openbox (~1.4 GB) I'm using the following packages.

BASE:
alsa-utils acpid pm-utils cpufrequtils nfs-utils rpcbind rsync tree
calc bc dosfstools ntfsprogs abs cups pmount samba openssh     ntfs-3g
ethtool lm_sensors stress reflector
lzop unzip rar p7zip unrar zip xz-utils unace
zsh grc cowsay fortune-mod vim htop screen
irssi wgetpaste scrot curl clamav powertop laptop-mode-tools slock
mpc moc imagemagick yaourt
GUI:
xorg xf86-input-evdev xf86-video-intel
openbox openbox-themes obconf obmenu
gamin transset-df gxmessage xdg-user-dirs xcompmgr
ttf-dejavu ttf-ms-fonts ttf-bitstream-vera
terminal galculator gvim feh pcmanfm gmrun medit xarchiver epdfview
mirage conky sonata gmpc firefox thunderbird flashplugin vlc

I suggest you try both Openbox and Awesome (as well as any other DE/WM you'd like to try of course).

Regards,
demian

Last edited by demian (2010-04-29 07:50:54)

keegan · 2010-04-29 13:47:13

Im using a wind u100-420US with basically just scrotwm and firefox. I have a few console apps like irssi, but I usually have no more than a few terminals and firefox open. My setup is very insecure as I have setup minigetty for automatic login, and my bashrc to start x at login, but thats just how I wanted it for simple internet browsing. I used to have slackware running on it with tuxonice for hibernation, but with this setup a cold boot is faster than the hibernation was. It's poweron to desktop in about 35 seconds. Im using wicd for the wifi setup because I love wicd-curses for how light it is and the startup daemon automatically connects to my ap at boot. I've been running musca as the wm on my other laptop and will probably switch the wind over to that soon just because im getting more used to it, and I like having more control over my status bar. Either way, even running a slim non-tiling window manager like xfce or fluxbox will be speedy on your wind too. Best of luck

Davini · 2010-04-29 21:23:22

I was looking at Awesome the other day before I started any install, and it seems pretty good...I'll probably give it a try. thanks for the suggestions

vigohe · 2010-05-03 16:21:46

I had a u100 as well, I recommend you to use ratpoison it's very easy to costumize and has really interesting futures... gnome for msi wind u100 is a bit buggy you can't change the brightness well... or it's only my problem?

samuliko · 2010-05-04 18:22:17

vigohe wrote:

gnome for msi wind u100 is a bit buggy you can't change the brightness well... or it's only my problem?

I upgraded BIOS and it works for me now.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-04-29 07:07:40

Arch Linux on my MSI Wind U100

#2 2010-04-29 07:15:56

Re: Arch Linux on my MSI Wind U100

#3 2010-04-29 07:42:35

Re: Arch Linux on my MSI Wind U100

#4 2010-04-29 13:47:13

Re: Arch Linux on my MSI Wind U100

#5 2010-04-29 21:23:22

Re: Arch Linux on my MSI Wind U100

#6 2010-05-03 16:21:46

Re: Arch Linux on my MSI Wind U100

#7 2010-05-04 18:22:17

Re: Arch Linux on my MSI Wind U100

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