Hello,

Before attempting Kubuntu 8.10, the AAO was tried out with Kubuntu 8.04 using a regular external HDD controller connected to a Mosher Bayer DVD R/W. It would keep stopping at the 'initramfs' prompt. Then I tried creating a USB LiveCD in my pen drive but that was not successfull in booting properly. Then the Kubuntu 8.10 CD ( which did not boot till the desktop in my Intel 845 GEBV2 PC) was tried out and it was able to boot into the live desktop on the AAO.

My pre-installation worry was the single partition already installed with XP Home and the hidden rescue partition getting knocked out. I wanted dual boot. However fdisk -l showed that the rescue partition was the first one and the rest of the disk was XP. During Kubuntu 8.10's installation, in the partitioning section, there was already an option of dividing the XP partition into 50% XP and 50% Ubuntu. Installlation went smoothly and did not damage the XP pre-installed. On booting into XP after installing Kubuntu, Windows detected a file system error and went into automatic scandisk ( don't stop that process ). Then it automatically rebooted and went on to boot normally and all was well.

Kubuntu 8.10 detected everything properly except the wireless LAN. The wired LAN kept going on/off even after upgrading all packages. However after a few reboots it appeared to take the wired connection properly. The wireless issue is simple to resolve by following instructions given in this site https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne110L#WLan

For the webcam this site https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne talks about 'luvcview'. It works fine and has many detailed settings. Its buttons are tiny but anyway results are good. Don't follow the wireless instructions given here. Go to the earlier link for 8.10.

I haven't tried the card slots as I don't have any such cards. However the website has some information on it.

A word of caution. Don't mess with the wireless on/off switch on the front side of the AAO. It disables the wireless well but getting it back was next to impossible. Repeated attempts to bring it to life failed. In XP I would get the on-screen display for enable and disable but no sign of the hardware itself. Finally I shut down the system and gave the switch some exercise. That brought it back to life. Whew!

Anyway this netbook and Kubuntu 8.10 are like fish and water. Installation with live partitioning is fully automatic. This mail is being sent from the AAO using the wireless connection.