Opensuse 11 on the U100
Posted by Bob on Jul 22, 2008
The last few days I tried to install Opensuse 11 on my U100, but wasn’t very succesful.
First, I tried the Live CD and that seemed to go very well. After a relatively slow boot I saw the wondeful new KDE4 desktop. Unfortunately I was not able to connect my wireless with my home network. Also, the instaal from the Live CD wasn’t working. No errors, no messages, it just did not work.
Then, I started the installer from the Install DVD and had a bit more success installing the software. The Gnome dekstop did not work al all. The gdm would not start, although the installation was in the native 1280×786 screen resolution.
So, I tried to install the KDE desktop and later the XFCE desktop and that did work. Unfortunately, again, I wasn’t able to connect my onoard wireless device. MAybe I missed a few steps during the confuguration, but I’m not that die hard Lunix guy to have it fixed from the command line.
So, as I made a image of my Xubuntu 8 installation, I’ll go back to Xubunutu very soon (i hope).
Libretto u100 disassembly and hard drive extraction
Posted by Luda on Jul 17, 2008
To disassebmle libretto u100, use manual posted by some other user here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1kgshjbsczz
First of all, the thing I loved most about that manual - is that all connectors have names and numbers!!! So, just read the manual carefully and you will find the connector you need by inspecting the computer. Note: because of that I will not talk about how to remove every single connector - that will just be repeating the manual. I will only mention those that were problematic or somehow special.
Another very important thing - this laptop is very small and has lots of small screws, which are not all the same. You must keep track of them so that it reassembles correctly. I did not, because I was too excited to gut my little friend, whom I love now down to his kidneys. But, again the manual comes to the rescue: they label every kind of screw, and the label embeds the length and color and flatness of the head. So, if you did not keep track of screws, but still have all of them - just read page 4-7 of the manual, and follow instructions for every step of disassembly.
The U100 Bios key
Posted by Bob on Jun 7, 2008
Just a short note on ‘How to get into the Libret; to U100 bios’. This day it took me about half an hour before I remembered how to enter the bios of the U100: press [esc]!
How-to replace the U100 harddisk?
Posted by Bob on May 24, 2008
From the moment I got myself the Libretto U100 I wondered how to replace the slow harddisk. Within the first week I opened the Libretto as far as possible and I had a short look inside the little machine. The harddisk was nowhere to be found, although I knew it had to be somewhere at the bottom.
After a day or to on Google, I found myself the original replacement manual! In that manual there are step-by-step instructions how to disassemble my Libretto u100 completely and finally (that chapter is located almost at the end of the instructions) locate the harddisk and remove it!
As soon as I have the time and guts, I’ll start to replace my standard 60GB HDD for a (faster and) bigger 120 GB 7200 rpm harddisk. I certainly hope the U100 motherbord will support the bigger drive!
Linux on the U100 (2)
Posted by Bob on Apr 15, 2008
Well, as I wrote in my earlier post, the first attempt to install Linux my U100 wasn’t a big succes. But, after some Googling, I learned that Xubuntu should run witj the Lilo bootloader instead of GRUPP.
So, after a quick download of the Xubuntu 8.04 Beta Alternate CD, I put the CD into the DVD slot of my U100 and started installing it the alternative way.
Linux on the U100 (1)
Posted by Bob on Apr 14, 2008
Last weekend I decided to remove my Windows Vista Home Premium installation and try to install linux on my Libretto U100. Reason for this drastic move is the poor performance of Vista, despite the 1 GB memory. Maybe in the future I’ll try Vista again and tune it a biot, but now I want Linux!
So Linux it will be, but what distro will meet my demands? All those different distributions of Linux does not make life a lot easier. But from my little linux experience in the past I choose Xubuntu 7.10 on my Libretto.
Why? Because XFCE is very light compared to Gnome or KDE, and Ubuntu is easy to install and has good support on multimedia, wireless networking and more.