[HOWTO] Installing Arch Linux stable release on Acer Aspire One 522

tigrezno · 2011-04-20 12:14:12

[This is a work on progress and my first howto ever]

These steps will teach you how to install ArchLinux x64 stable release (currently 2010.05) on Acer Aspire One 522 from an existing ArchLinux (your desktop computer)

As you need a 2.6.37+ kernel to make networking work on the AO522, installing stable release as is won't work.
This Howto borns with the intention to address this problem.

You need to be familiarized with Linux internals to follow this howto.

(Expect this howto to become useless with new stable releases of ArchLinux.)

Remember to make a backup of your Windows 7 Starter system before installing ArchLinux.

I did a full raw copy of the harddisk by using systemrescuecd, an external harddisk and dd utility:

Just boot with systemrescuecd
Mount your external harddisk on /mnt/floppy for example
Clone harddisk with: dd if=/dev/sda |gzip -c > /mnt/floppy/ao522.img

This process took me a lot of time since my external harddisk is USB-1 (almost an entire evening)
Result image was about 22GB size

This image will restore partition table, boot sector and all data if things go wrong.

I followed some of the steps from this guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ting_Linux
If you have some Gentoo Linux experience you will find those steps really familiar.

You will need 2 USB pendrives or similar storage options.
One is needed to boot into your netbook, and the other to store our custom archlinux build.

Making an updated ArchLinux system

1) Make a local dir on your existing linux system

# mkdir ./newarch

2) Install pacman database on it

# pacman -Sy -r ./newarch

3) Install base system

# pacman -S base -r ./newarch

4) Let's chroot inside

# cp /etc/resolv.conf ./newarch/etc/
# cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist ./newarch/etc/pacman.d
# mount -t proc proc ./newarch/proc
# mount -t sysfs sys ./newarch/sys
# mount -o bind /dev ./newarch/dev
# chroot ./newarch /bin/bash

5) Edit configuration files

# nano -w /etc/rc.conf
# nano -w /etc/hosts
# nano -w /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

Forget /etc/fstab for now since you don't know what partitions to use yet

6) Generate kernel image

# mkinitcpio -p kernel26

7) Generate locales

# nano -w /etc/locale.gen
# locale-gen

8) Make a tarball with our custom ArchLinux

# exit
# umount ./newarch/proc
# umount ./newarch/dev
# umount ./newarch/sys
# tar -cvpf newarch.tar ./newarch

9) Copy this tarball to an USB pendrive or external harddisk

10) Boot your netbook with a Linux bootable USB stick (I used systemrescuecd, and remember to pick the x64 bit kernel at grub screen)

You can use any linux distribution with usb bootable options. I suppose ArchLinux works too

To install SystemRescueCD on an USB stick follow this tutorial -> SystemRescueCD on usb stick

Insert the usb stick on your netbook, switch on, hit F2 to enter BIOS menu, and choose to boot from USB as first option. Save and Exit.

You should be booting into SystemRescueCD without any problem.
After initialization you will end in a root prompt.

11) Let's partition the disk
You will find 3 partitions if this is your first time:

/dev/sda1            2048    29362175    14680064   27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2   *    29362176    29566975      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3        29566976   488397167   229312696    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

My recomendation is to leave sda1 and sda2 intact, as they have the recovery information to restore Windows 7 Starter
You have plenty of space with sda3, about 230G.

So run fdisk/cfdisk and delete /dev/sda3
Now create a 100M partition for boot
Now create a Extended partition with all the space left
Now create a 1GB logical partition for swap
Now create a 10-15 GB logical partition for root system
And finally a logical partition for our home partition with all space left

Your partition table should look like this:

/dev/sda1            2048    29362175    14680064   27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2   *    29362176    29566975      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3        29566976    29771775      102400   83  Linux
/dev/sda4        29771776   488397167   229312696    5  Extended
/dev/sda5        29773824    31821823     1024000   83  Linux
/dev/sda6        31823872    63281151    15728640   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        63283200   488397167   212556984   83  Linux

12) Create filesystems
I choosed ext2 for boot, and reiserfs for root and home partitions.

# mke2fs /dev/sda3
# mkreiserfs /dev/sda6
# mkreiserfs /dev/sda7
# mkswap /dev/sda5

13) Mount partitions

# mkdir arch
# mount /dev/sda6 arch
# mkdir arch/boot
# mount /dev/sda3 arch/boot
# mkdir arch/home
# mount /dev/sda7 arch/home

14) Copy our custom ArchLinux build on it

# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/floppy (for example)
# cd arch
# tar -xvpf /mnt/flopy/newarch.tar

15) Configure /etc/fstab
Mine is as follows:

devpts       /dev/pts      devpts    defaults 0 0
shm          /dev/shm      tmpfs     nodev,nosuid 0 0
/dev/sda3     /boot           ext2         defaults 0 1
/dev/sda6     /               reiserfs  defaults 0 1
/dev/sda7     /home           reiserfs  defaults 0 1
/dev/sda5     swap            swap      defaults 0 0

16) Chroot in your new system

# mount -t proc proc ./proc
# mount -t sysfs sys ./sys
# mount -o bind /dev ./dev
# chroot ./ /bin/bash

17) Install grub

# grub-install

Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to suit your needs
Mine looks like this:

timeout   5
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda6 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

title Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda6 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

title Windows 7 Recovery
rootnoverify   (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

As you see, you can restore Windows 7 Starter from Grub.

18) Change root password

# passwd

19) Add a regular user account

# useradd -G video,audio,users -m username
# passwd username

20) You're done!

# exit
# cd ..
# umount ./arch/proc
# umount ./arch/dev
# umount ./arch/sys
# umount ./arch/boot
# umount ./arch/
# reboot

Remove the usb stick from your netbook.

If all went ok, you will be inside your new stable and updated ArchLinux system

Next post is reserved for software configurations specific to the Acer Aspire One 522

Last edited by tigrezno (2011-04-20 12:22:38)

tigrezno · 2011-04-20 12:16:04

Using acpid to achieve the following:

- Change screen brightness when operating in battery mode
- Power off when the power button is pressed
- Suspend when the lid is down
- Reduce CPU frequency speed to maximize battery usage

Remember that system suspend is only supported by ati free driver xf86-video-ati

1) Install acpid daemon and cpufrequtils

# pacman -S apcid cpufrequtils

2) edit acpid handler script

# nano -w /etc/acpi/handler.sh

Change the following section:

ac_adapter)
        case "$2" in
            AC)
                case "$4" in
                    00000000)
                        echo -n $minspeed >$setspeed
                        #/etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode start
                    ;;
                    00000001)
                        echo -n $maxspeed >$setspeed
                        #/etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode stop
                    ;;
                esac
                ;;
            *)  logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
        esac
        ;;

for:

ac_adapter)
        case "$2" in
            ACAD)
                case "$4" in
                    00000000)
                        echo 3 > /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
                        cpufreq-set -c 0 -f 800Mhz
                        cpufreq-set -c 1 -f 800Mhz
                    ;;
                    00000001)
                        echo 9 > /sys/devices/virtual/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness
                        cpufreq-set -c 0 -f 1000Mhz
                        cpufreq-set -c 1 -f 1000Mhz
                    ;;
                esac
                ;;
            *)  logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
        esac
        ;;

Make sure you changed AC) for ACAD)

Now change this other section:

button/power)
        #echo "PowerButton pressed!">/dev/tty5
        case "$2" in
            PWRF)   logger "PowerButton pressed: $2" ;;
            *)      logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
        esac
        ;;

with:

button/power)
        #echo "PowerButton pressed!">/dev/tty5
        case "$2" in
            PWRF)   poweroff ;;
            *)      logger "ACPI action undefined: $2" ;;
        esac
        ;;

Change:

button/lid)
        #echo "LID switched!">/dev/tty5
        ;;
    *)
        logger "ACPI group/action undefined: $1 / $2"
        ;;

for:

button/lid)
        pm-suspend && /etc/rc.d/network restart
        ;;
    *)
        logger "ACPI group/action undefined: $1 / $2"
        ;;

Network restart is used because wlan0 will disconnect from AP after some time. You can try using iwconfig wlan0 essid <ap> key <key> instead of the network script, but haven't tested it myself.

3) Start acpid and load modules

# modprobe powernow-k8
# /etc/rc.d/acpid start

Add "acpid" to DAEMONS in /etc/rc.conf to start on boot
Add "powernow-k8" to the modules sections on /etc/rc.conf to load at boot

Stopping system freezes due to ethernet driver

The only way people have found to avoid freezes is by blacklisting atheros kernel drivers.

To do it at boot just edit /etc/rc.conf and change the MODULES line as this:

MODULES=(!ath9k !atl1c)

Reboot and you're done, but remember to not press the Wifi key, because it can freeze your system.

Correctly starting wireless at boot

I've found that standard scripts wont load properly my wireless lan. It gave an error telling you to use the WIRELESS_TIMEOUT variable and such.

To solve this, edit /etc/rc.d/network script and change the wi_up function by adding a second iwconfig command like this:

wi_up()
{
    eval iwcfg="\$wlan_${1}"
    [[ ! $iwcfg ]] && return 0

    /usr/sbin/iwconfig $iwcfg
    [[ $WIRELESS_TIMEOUT ]] || WIRELESS_TIMEOUT=2
    sleep $WIRELESS_TIMEOUT
    /usr/sbin/iwconfig $iwcfg

    bssid=$(iwgetid $1 -ra)
    .....

It will do the trick and will start at boot correctly. This is not a solution but a fix.

Adjust Touchpad to disable false taps

What I did here is defining an area to be ignored. This area are 3 rectangles on top, left and right of the touchpad.
This means you can write and press space without having the cursor click out of the window and such.

# synclient AreaLeftEdge=150
# synclient AreaRightEdge=1300
# synclient AreaTopEdge=300

Also, add it to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "evdev touchpad catchall"
    MatchIsTouchpad "on"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Driver "evdev"
    Option "AreaTopEdge" "300"
    Option "AreaLeftEdge" "150"
    Option "AreaRightEdge" "1300"
EndSection

You can play with those values. They just work for me.

Last edited by tigrezno (2011-04-23 13:49:48)

Korrode · 2011-04-20 13:11:25

Is there any reason why using unetbootin to put the Arch installation ISO on a USB stick, installing Arch off that and then just copying over a 2.6.37+ kernel package and installing it wouldn't work?

tigrezno · 2011-04-20 13:27:16

Korrode wrote:

Is there any reason why using unetbootin to put the Arch installation ISO on a USB stick, installing Arch off that and then just copying over a 2.6.37+ kernel package and installing it wouldn't work?

That's another way, try writing a howto about that and specificly on the AO522
I think archlinux can directly boot from usb without unetbootin IIRC.

karol · 2011-04-20 13:34:15

I suggest you put this in your user page in the wiki.

Gyscos · 2011-07-23 13:09:10

As mentioned in the post on the wiki, before installing the pacman database on the newly created directory, the newarch/var/lib/pacman directory should also exist, hence a more complete line :

mkdir -p newarch/var/lib/pacman

Thanks for everything !

Arch Linux

#1 2011-04-20 12:14:12