back to article The Netbook Newbie's Guide to Linux

I opened up my Acer Aspire One again after a prolonged interval while I was involved in a very different project and was puzzled to discover that Live Update was offering me a "Bluetooth patch". It's not just that the hardware doesn't have Bluetooth - that's easily fixed by plugging in a dongle - but even if you do plug in a …

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  1. Dave

    It Worked For Me

    Something's amiss, because I installed the Acer BT update a few months ago and it works fine for me, I can transfer photos from my camera phone direct to the Aspire One with minimum fuss. However, the BT dongle I use with it isn't a CSR one, I think it's a Marvell chip inside. Perhaps I'll have to extract my CSR dongle from the back of the desktop machine and see if that makes a difference.

  2. Kevin Whitefoot
    Unhappy

    Linpus!

    I dropped Linpus as soon as I could because almost everything I tried to install failed with a dependency error. It seems that Acer didn't put as much effort into the quality control of the software as they did the hardware Just install Easy Peasy Ubuntu Netbook Remix (http://www.geteasypeasy.com/) and then it just works. Both Cambridge Silicon Radio and Broadcom work with no configuration.

  3. Dave Bell
    Linux

    Bluetooth on Eee 701SD

    Using Eeebuntu Linux on an Eee701SD, and Bluetooth works.

    I don't see any use for it in my life, but the dongle was cheap. I never did get it working with Windows.

    The cheap, bulky, sticky-out Bluetooth thingy from Tesco does work on the Windows box, and Nokia do provide software for Windows which works with my phone, so Linux isn't likely to get a look-in before Windows 7 tries to take over.

    A powered hub might confirm the theory about the dongle. Or one of those 2-to-1 leads for external USB drives

  4. Waderider
    Linux

    I'm a cynical fanboi.......

    Okay, I have Ubuntu on an EeePC 1000H, so different distro and hardware, but the only 'complication' I had was about four lines at the terminal to install an Eee compatible kernel. On day one, and since then everything works and I haven't needed to use the command line.

    My point is the article makes it sound like the stereotyped linux faff. I think this is bad luck on the authors behalf, maybe backed up by prejudice inherited from when linux required more under the bonnet effort.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    the question is

    If bluetooth is so cheap, why isn't it just built in to the netbook? I'd like a 3G thingumy too.

    Linux isn't the problem, it can do it, but I'd like an alternative to the MacAir in order to get a proper hardware. It doesn't have to be a CPU or graphics powerhouse, but the interface needs to be decent and it needs to have all the features I'm likely to use.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    And this is user ready?

    Imagine Microsoft produced an operating system where you had to jump through these hoops to get something working. Vista shipped with support for quite a lot of different hardware configs (including many Bluetooth interfaces) yet still got panned for being "not compatible".

    Articles like this show just how far Linux is from being ready for general use. Installing a piece of hardware should at most involve an online update, tar in the command line is user hostile and rebuilding kernels something that should have died out in the 1970s.

  7. David Simpson
    Black Helicopters

    40% Return rate anyone ?

    And its certainly a mystery why linux netbooks have a 40% return rate, the manufacturers don't even know how to support it ! Pretty ridiculous from Acer they seem to be shooting themselves in the foot.

  8. Riccardo Mannella

    No problem with Asus, for me

    Actually, one of the first things I did on my asus 4G 701 was to enable bluetooth through a dongle - I used an extremely cheap SBS device (Product: ISSCBTM Manufacturer: ISSC), recovered from the bottom of my bag. I was interested in using it to go online via my Nokia phone, and it worked like a charm until I acquired a Huawei stick (then I started using the latter and the dongle again disappeared at the bottom of another bag). It was some one year ago, and I do not recall the details, but I am under the impression that it was straightforward. So, well, I think that perhaps the problem with the power supply might be indeed dongle dependent, on Asuses.

    Riccardo

  9. twopeak
    Coat

    Bluetooth on eeepc

    Bluetooth on EEE pc 901 worked right out of the box...

    no setup, no nothing: turn it on using the button to turn on networks; connect to the bluetooth app you want and download whatever you want to be downloading.

  10. paul
    IT Angle

    @AC

    there are lots of versions of linux - and you are aware there are more than one version of windows? Would this bluetooth work if plugged into windows 95 - no. Windows 98 - no. Windows 2000 - no. XP - probably. Vista - probably.

    Like I said , there are lots of linuxes. Its just a pity that Acer have a crap one.

    But its ok as its linux to totally generalise and assume as it doesn't work on MY COMPUTER then it will never ever work on anyone elses.

  11. Joe Harrison

    Patch what patch?

    I had no idea there was an "official" Acer bluetooth patch; at least my attempts at Windows update er I mean AA1 update (whatever it's called) have never offered it to me.

    I have got about three-quarters way through the incredibly faffy procedure in this article and had some success using one or both of two different "dollar fifty" bluetooth dongles from dealextreme.com

    Bluetooth on my AA1 does actually "work" in the sense that it can scan around the area and get responses from local devices. Sadly any attempt at a working ppp connection via my phone seems doomed; "no route to host" from the l2ping seems to be the scuppering factor.

    Also the very presence of the netbook in the same room now seems to send a previously working Nokia PC Suite on an unrelated machine into a dither.

    I have to say that if you get a 3G Huawei E160G dongle for the AA1 it just plugs straight in and works (via the inbuilt Mobile Partner software) so actually I wish I'd done that now instead of rashly buying a 3G phone.

  12. Geoff Pitt
    Thumb Up

    EEEBUNTU

    Hi

    Just installed EEEBUNTU on my Aspire one ( w HDD) and am well happy with it. The only mod I've made is to use Synaptic to add Evolution using a full intrepid DVD for a repository. Added a 3, G3 dongle for when I'm out and about and it worked as soon as I plugged it in. Have previously made assorted mods to Linpus (some from these articles) but this is *much* better.

    I don't use Bluetooth but there's a configuration option for it so I guess it's set up.

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