OSNews:

OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/20795/Installing_Windows_7_on_the_Aspire_One_or_Any_Other_Netbook Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:11:55 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com yeah... http://osnews.com/thread?344278 http://osnews.com/thread?344278

In other words: NVIDIA, get your act together.

I used to have a huge amount of customer loyalty towards them. The last 2-3 years they have managed to erode it all away. Between a huge dive in driver quality, and defective hardware on a massive scale (especially in the mobile space, it is hard to believe they are still making money. Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (google_ninja) Comments Er, nice to know http://osnews.com/thread?344283 http://osnews.com/thread?344283 Not sure of the point of this article as knowing how to install Windows 7 on the Aspire One, or Any Other Netbook is all very well, even if tedious.

But, is it worth the bother can hardly, and wasn't, be answered by using such a heavily modified 'Aspire 1' that has little relevance to any Netbook your readers might have to hand. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (quackalist) Comments RE: Er, nice to know http://osnews.com/thread?344284 http://osnews.com/thread?344284 My netbook is actually less powerful than the stock Windows variant due to the slow drive, so yes, it's relevant. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom_Holwerda) Comments list disk FAIL http://osnews.com/thread?344286 http://osnews.com/thread?344286 I have tried doing this in the past Here is my output. My F: which is my usb key is not visible, but under explorer it is.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\john>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565

Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: VENICE

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 298 GB 0 B

DISKPART> Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (John Blink) Comments Promising! http://osnews.com/thread?344288 http://osnews.com/thread?344288 From the article:

"Then, load up a command prompt with administrative privileges (right click, "Run as administrator..."), and enter the following commands to properly format the USB drive ..."

Cool! This is just like Linux. Maybe I can get into this "Windows" thing. But what is "administrator"? Is that like "root"? Where can I download the .iso? Can I do all this from Linux? Do I need "wine"? Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (softdrat) Comments RE: list disk FAIL http://osnews.com/thread?344293 http://osnews.com/thread?344293 typing list volume shows me numbers.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\john>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565

Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: VENICE

DISKPART> list

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565

DISK - Prints out a list of disks.
PARTITION - Prints out a list of partitions on the current disk.
VOLUME - Print a list of volumes.

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 49 GB Healthy System
Volume 2 E NTFS Partition 210 GB Healthy
Volume 3 F WIN7 FAT32 Removeable 3936 MB

DISKPART>

is this what I am looking for?Edited 2009-01-19 02:04 UTC Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:03:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (John Blink) Comments RE: Promising! http://osnews.com/thread?344295 http://osnews.com/thread?344295 It's almost certainly possible to do this from Linux using fdisk and dd for the bootsector. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (PlatformAgnostic) Comments Comment by Sodki http://osnews.com/thread?344296 http://osnews.com/thread?344296 I've been using UNetbootin to do this kind of stuff on GNU/Linux and Windows:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

I just have to select the ISO file, the device and it just works. I use it to boot Windows and GNu/Linux distributions without having to waste CDs. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sodki) Comments SSD? Dont bother http://osnews.com/thread?344297 http://osnews.com/thread?344297 If you have an SSD drive in your Aspire one (8GB Model) dont bother its not woth the hassle, windows is unusable.

http://lifesdirection.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/windows7-on-the-acer... Edited 2009-01-19 03:13 UTC Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rkvirani) Comments Comment by bnolsen http://osnews.com/thread?344298 http://osnews.com/thread?344298 There's also the wastefulness of running a virus scanner on these netbooks which will also bring them to their knees.

If anything the last year of netbook experiments has given the linux distro maintainers time to try to get their act together to put together useful distros.

Having an acer aspire one myself (previously having access to an EEE 701) this thing works great as a web access device, webmail reader and for watching media. It should also work well for taking notes. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bnolsen) Comments RE: Comment by Sodki http://osnews.com/thread?344302 http://osnews.com/thread?344302

I've been using UNetbootin to do this kind of stuff on GNU/Linux and Windows:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

I just have to select the ISO file, the device and it just works. I use it to boot Windows and GNu/Linux distributions without having to waste CDs.

This works well for Ubuntu and Fedora .iso files, but I had no luck with Mandriva or SuSe.

I'm looking forward to the speed and power of KDE 4.2 on one of these netbooks. IMO this will be the only really viable way of running a full-powered desktop experience at speed on a netbook.Edited 2009-01-19 04:49 UTC Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (lemur2) Comments Get their act together? http://osnews.com/thread?344303 http://osnews.com/thread?344303 Think you're being ridiculous to tell a company to get its act together because they have a non-optimal driver for a beta release. That is all. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (abdavidson) Comments RE[2]: Er, nice to know http://osnews.com/thread?344312 http://osnews.com/thread?344312 I thought you replaced that as well? Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:22:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Glynser) Comments RE[2]: Comment by Sodki http://osnews.com/thread?344316 http://osnews.com/thread?344316 Do I understand correctly that the iso needs to be on a partition on the computer in question?

For me it didn't seem to write it to the usb-key at least. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (TQH !) Comments RE[2]: Er, nice to know http://osnews.com/thread?344318 http://osnews.com/thread?344318 Your aspire has 1.5GB ram and the stock model with windows XP has 1GB available...
The size of HD doesn't matter that much if you already took one of 30GB. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (spinnekopje) Comments RE[3]: Er, nice to know http://osnews.com/thread?344321 http://osnews.com/thread?344321 Hear hear. Exactly what I was thinking when I read the article. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (dumbkiwi) Comments RE: its called BETA for a reason http://osnews.com/thread?344323 http://osnews.com/thread?344323 Get their act together? The OS isnt released yet and nvidia prolly havent time to iron out issues before after they considdered the API stable which maybe isnt that long ago.

SW doesnt popup magically you know, its a symbiose of all involved parties. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (meeh) Comments RE: Get their act together? http://osnews.com/thread?344324 http://osnews.com/thread?344324 I think the main reason that nVidia's driver quaility was called into question even on a beta product is that the release of drivers for Vista was a shambles from nVidia. Im a big fan of the cards but when they have had a beta product (Vista) for so long and still release drivers which had poor performance and would BSOD a computer on RTM then they was seriously lazy. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (REM2000) Comments RE[2]: Get their act together? http://osnews.com/thread?344325 http://osnews.com/thread?344325

I think the main reason that nVidia's driver quaility was called into question even on a beta product is that the release of drivers for Vista was a shambles from nVidia. Im a big fan of the cards but when they have had a beta product (Vista) for so long and still release drivers which had poor performance and would BSOD a computer on RTM then they was seriously lazy.

In the same timeframe (early 2007) as their problem with Vista drivers, nVidia also had a huge performance problem with their driver for Linux. This problem has only just recently been fixed. The Vista problem, at least, was fixed within a couple of months. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (lemur2) Comments RE[2]: its called BETA for a reason http://osnews.com/thread?344327 http://osnews.com/thread?344327

SW doesnt popup magically you know, its a symbiose of all involved parties.

Well, Ati and Intel have perfectly working drivers. Why can't NVIDIA? Haven't they learnt anything from their Vista debacle? Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom_Holwerda) Comments RE[2]: its called BETA for a reason http://osnews.com/thread?344330 http://osnews.com/thread?344330

Get their act together? The OS isnt released yet and nvidia prolly havent time to iron out issues before after they considdered the API stable which maybe isnt that long ago.

The driver API is pretty much the same in Vista and 7. 7's kernel is (on purpose) just a slightly updated Vista kernel.
As a Linux user I can fully agree that NVidia should get "the act together". It's been a year since KDE 4.0 was released (with betas even older). Plasma is exposing Nvidia driver bugs since then and NVidia is acting really slow to fix them. While some bugs are fixed (most notably the ultra slow rendering speed and corrupted graphics when OpenOffice is visible), others remain. Tray icons are still mostly distorted for example. I never had those problems on my other PC with a Radeon card. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:12:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (KAMiKAZOW) Comments RE[3]: its called BETA for a reason http://osnews.com/thread?344336 http://osnews.com/thread?344336

"Get their act together? The OS isnt released yet and nvidia prolly havent time to iron out issues before after they considdered the API stable which maybe isnt that long ago.

The driver API is pretty much the same in Vista and 7. 7's kernel is (on purpose) just a slightly updated Vista kernel. "

So what changed in order to break the driver? Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sergiusens) Comments RE[4]: its called BETA for a reason http://osnews.com/thread?344343 http://osnews.com/thread?344343 nVidia's code Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (modmans2ndcoming) Comments RE[2]: Comment by Sodki http://osnews.com/thread?344353 http://osnews.com/thread?344353 I installed Mandriva on my netbook easily:
download the 'free' iso, mount it, get the vmlinuz and all.rdz from the isolinux/alt0 directory, add that to menu.lst in grub and boot. Then tell it to mount the iso from the hard drive or from the USB key and it will install your Mandriva. You didn't even need a USB key. Just let the iso on the hard drive and you can go.
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Docs/Installing_Mandriva_Linux Edited 2009-01-19 16:15 UTC Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (spiderman) Comments RE[2]: list disk FAIL http://osnews.com/thread?344355 http://osnews.com/thread?344355 For those partial to a GUI, the USB drive may also be setup using the Disk Management MMC snapin.

Assuming the drive is already formatted (FAT32 in this case):
Insert the USB drive.
Click the Start button.
Right-click (My)Computer.
Click Manage.
Click Disk Management.
Right-click the USB drive partition.
Click Mark Partition as Active.
Copy the files from the Windows DVD/iso to the USB drive.
You may now boot from the drive to install the version of Windows copied (Vista/7/Server 2008/Server 2008 R2).

Apparently the bootsect step mentioned in the article is only necessary if you are preparing the drive on a non-Vista/7 OS. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (n4cer) Comments RE[2]: Promising! http://osnews.com/thread?344397 http://osnews.com/thread?344397 What an amatuer you are at trolling.... having to use fdisk and dd to format a USB drive? which Linux version are you talking about ? kernel v 0.9 perhaps ? Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (raver31) Comments RE[3]: list disk FAIL http://osnews.com/thread?344420 http://osnews.com/thread?344420 Thanks n4cer. Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:25:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (John Blink) Comments Nvidia drivers http://osnews.com/thread?344684 http://osnews.com/thread?344684 I agree that Nvidia drivers leave a lot to be desired.

On ATI and Intel graphics, you don't have to do ANYTHING in order to get your videos playing properly. No matter if your video player ships with XVideo or X11 output as the default, it'll work.

Use the open-source nv driver and XVideo will work.

Use the Nvidia proprietary driver and if your video player uses Xv, it will not render the video's colours properly. If yours works properly, hang tight - the next driver version will cause mine to work properly and yours not to work.

Nvidia knows about this bug; I'm not the first to have told them, and I'm not the last either. They never fix the problem, they just keep moving it to a different set of cards. Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (3rdalbum) Comments RE[3]: Promising! http://osnews.com/thread?344722 http://osnews.com/thread?344722 Eh? I was not intending to troll.. those are the tools I know which accomplish the task of formatting the drive and embedding a boot sector. What tool would you prefer? (It hadn't occurred to me that Linux would include a gui tool that can set up an MBR since Windows only has command line tools for this). Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:48:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (PlatformAgnostic) Comments