Debian Squeeze on Acer Aspire One 522 AO522-C6Dkk

On 2012-03-31 I bought the netbook Acer Aspire One 522 AO522-C6Dkk (LU.SES0D.322). I paid 299,35 euro at Makro Machelen.

I followed the instructions for installing Windows 7 Starter. Then I used Windows to resize the C: drive. The result is that the C: drive became 144,04 GB, and that I got 140,95 GB free space.

I put the Debian network installer on my USB stick using the following steps, using my old laptop :

• I downloaded the files boot.img.gz and debian-6.0.4-amd64-netinst.iso.
• I verified the MD5 checksums 62db0ccef71117ef5da70c068199547e and 4ea4c72e4c9eb6af8f2fa59c3d2b5248.
• I inserted the USB stick.
• GNOME automatically mounts the USB stick. Not what I wanted. So I unmounted the USB stick with this command :

  umount /dev/sdb

• I wrote boot.img.gz to the USB stick :

  zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sdb

• I pulled out the USB stick and insert it again, so that GNOME automatically mounts it at "/media/Debian Inst".
• I copied the file debian-6.0.4-amd64-netinst.iso to the USB stick with this command :

  cp debian-6.0.4-amd64-netinst.iso "/media/Debian Inst"

• To work around an unrecognized keyboard I set the timeout in syslinux.cfg to 5. I simply edited the file "/media/Debian Inst/syslinux.cfg" and replaced "timeout 0" by "timeout 5".
• Finally I unmounted /dev/sdb and pulled out the USB stick.

Next, I modified the boot order in the bios. I powered up the netbook, and quickly pressed F2 to enter the bios. There I set the boot order to the following : USB FDD, USB HDD, Network Boot, HDD0, ATAPI CDROM, USB CDROM. Putting "Network Boot" before "HDD0" is to work around a problem with freezing.

Then I used the USB stick to install Debian on the netbook. I followed these steps :

• I inserted the power cable, the network cable (utp), and the USB stick, and then I powered up the netbook.
• The "Installer boot menu" was shown only briefly, because the timeout in syslinux.cfg was set to 5, see above.
• In the partitioner I chose "guided - use largest continuous free space" and "all files in one partition".
• When the question about the Debian mirror was shown, I first followed these steps to make sure that all packages downloads go via apt-cacher.
  • I switched to a console using the alt-F2 key combination.
  • Then I executed these commands :

    cd /usr/lib/apt-setup/generators
    nano 91security

  • I replaced host="$RET" by host="192.168.60.6:3142/$RET".
  • I saved 91security and exited the nano editor.
  • I did the same with 92volatile.
  • Then I switched back to the installation procedure using the alt-F1 key combination.
• Back at the question about the Debian mirror I selected "manual" and entered "192.168.60.6:3142" and "/ftp.be.debian.org/debian/".
• When asked what software to install, I accepted the already checked packages groups : graphical desktop environment, laptop, standard system utilities.
• I confirmed to install grub in the master boot record (MBR).
• Finally, at the last screen of the installer, I pulled out the USB stick and the network cable, and confirmed to reboot.

At this point, Debian Squeeze was installed on the netbook. However, a few problems were still to be solved. I followed the these steps :

• I booted the netbook. Without the network cable to prevent waste of time trying to boot from the network.
• At this point, the screen resolution was only 800x600, and the wifi led was out.
• Then I inserted the network cable.
• I edited /etc/apt/sources.list to disable the deb-src lines by adding a # sign, to add sections contrib and non-free on all remaining lines, and to add backports by adding this line :

  deb http://192.168.60.6:3142/ftp.be.debian.org/backports.org squeeze-backports main contrib non-free

• Then I executed these commands :

  apt-get update
  apt-get install firmware-linux-free
  apt-get -t squeeze-backports install firmware-linux-nonfree
  apt-get -t squeeze-backports install xserver-xorg-video-radeon
  apt-get -t squeeze-backports install linux-image-amd64

• I pulled out the network cable, and rebooted to use kernel 3.2.
• At this point, the screen resolution is 1280x720 (great!) and the wifi led is red (excellent!).
• To enable mouse clicks with the touchpad, I switched that on via System, Preferences, Mouse, Touchpad.
• I opened a wifi network connection to my home wifi network using the icon on the screen.
• I edited /etc/inputrc to turn off the irritating beeps in the console.

  set bell-style none

• To turn off the loud beep when starting gdm I edited /etc/gdm3/greeter.gconf-defaults :

  /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds false

• I changed the screensaver settings : blank screen, idle after : 2 hours, activate : no, lock : no. That is because I want to use the netbook for viewing tv recordings with mplayer.
• I also changed the "power management" settings, so that when the laptop lid is closed, the screen becomes blank instead of doing a "suspend".
• I switched off the option "automatically download and open" in the Epiphay browser preferences.
• At this point sound did not yet work. I saw that there are two audio devices, using this command :

  cat /proc/asound/cards

  To make sound work, reordering the two devices was a solution. To do that, I added the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf :

  options snd slots=,snd-hda-intel

  After rebooting the two devices were switched.

  cat /proc/asound/cards

  I tested the volume hotkeys Fn-arrow-up and Fn-arrow-down : they worked. I played a tv recording with mplayer, and tested the / and * volume keys : they worked.
• To turn off the beep at reboot or shutdown, I opened "volume control", clicked on the "preferences" button, selected the mixer "beep", and then muted the "beep" mixer.

2012-04-09 Bart Martens