Kubuntu Jaunty Mini 9
Ok, not original, but it took me a few trawls around to make all this work, then it worked so easy I thought I would share 
- these instructions should work for most netbooks (except the bits that say "Mini 9" of course) and other computers (except the bits that are about netbooks...).
Install process
First backup your data - actually irrelevant to my tests as these were brand new out of the box machines for corporate use, but I just like to remind people 
Download ISO of Kubuntu Jaunty from the Kubuntu download page. At time of writing, this was actually the beta which was downloaded from the Kubuntu beta page.
Install usb-creator onto your current Kubuntu install (available in Kubuntu 8.10 for sure, not sure about earlier). This excellent application simplifies the creation of bootable USB flash drives to the point I could do it slightly hungover...
Plug decent-ish USB flash drive with 1GB of free space or so into your computer.
Run usb-creator, entering sudo password when prompted; select downloaded ISO and target USB flash drive. Press the Make Startup Disk button.
Wait. Not very long...
Now (re)boot target Mini 9 computer with USB key in it and either modify the BIOS to make USB its first boot device or press "0" during the splash screen to get to boot options menu and select USB from there.
Go through install setup process as suits. Click the button to complete.
Wait. Not very long at all...
Install completes in under 10 minutes. Reboot.
Wait. Not very long at all, at all...
Repeat as necessary (from the (re)boot target step just above).
Aftertweaks
Create your very own Kubuntu NBR by going to system settings and setting all the fonts to small. If likely to use Konsole, configure its fonts to small too.
Add Firefox (sorry guys, but it really should be in there by default. Trust me...).
Open mixer window and ensure speaker volume is turned up.
Done. Enjoy
Things that remain annoying
(i) Getting NetworkManager to use a Bluetooth connected mobile as a modem. This I'm told worked easily with the rather lovely BlueMan and previous versions of NetworkManager, but no longer does, As these netbooks are intended for non-expert users, I really need to get this sorted in a click GUI sort of way. A fix has been committed, I understand, hopefully it will be packaged up shortly.
Update 090423: yes, it does work very easily with Blueman and the older KNetworkManager (after hours of struggling after the rfcomm0 net interface started appearing in the network device list when you used Blueman to connect the dialup servive of the phone...). See bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/plasma-widget-network-manager/+bug/334122 for latest on this, but for now remove the plasma-widget and install KNetworkManager. Now I just need to figure out how to make the older application start automatically...
(ii) Be damned if I can figure out how to make the edge of touchpad work for scrolling. Come to think of it, not sure the edge of the touchpad worked for scrolling with the Dell build either...
Update 090409 - just noticed this is now working, I guess an X update or something...
(iii) The launcher doesn't put the focus into the Search box on the first one I built, did the second, which then stopped doing it again...
Update 090415 - after this morning's update this is working as expected
(iv) be nice if the launcher could be scaled so that the "Leave" section displays all its content without scrolling (picky, I know), although now I've got used to just letting it suspend to RAM by closing the lid and not worrying about it.
Any of these issues may of course be resolved when using the release version rather than the beta or by some clever fellow providing a nifty solution as a comment below. I'll update the post as things progress!
> Open mixer window and ensure speaker volume is turned up.
For a fresh install, will be resolved with the next alsa-utils upload (http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~crimsun/alsa-utils/ubuntu.new/revision/19).
Posted by Daniel T Chen on April 06, 2009 at 04:28 PM GMT+00:00 #
How well does upgrading work? I have kubuntu 8.10 on my eee 900 and plan to upgrade soon. I use the 4 Gb partition for the root and 20gb for /home.
Anyone know how much space I need on the root to allow the upgrade (at the moment I only have about 500mb).
Would I be best using the technique in this article but leave home unchanged?
Posted by Stuart on April 06, 2009 at 05:49 PM GMT+00:00 #
You can also install a distro on USB sticks with unetbootin
http://lubi.sourceforge.net/unetbootin.html
When there is a product version, you can select in the menu else you can download the iso and select the iso to put on a stick.
Even if you have (K)ubuntu 8.04
Posted by S7P on April 06, 2009 at 06:12 PM GMT+00:00 #
I have an Aspire One, and do something similar to this myself. Setting the fonts as small as you can doesn't sort out the large text on the login screen - to resolve fonts a simpler way you should add the next line to the screen section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Option "NoDDC"
which turns off retrieving your monitor display size parameters, and sets your DPI back to 96.
Posted by TGM on April 07, 2009 at 07:11 AM GMT+00:00 #
I went for the jaunty netbook remix on my brand sparkling new HP 2133- absolutely no problems whatsoever and soooo much nicer than the version of Suse that was on it for all of about 20 minutes when I got it back from the shop...
Posted by Jo on April 07, 2009 at 07:56 AM GMT+00:00 #
Android font ?:
http://www.stefanoforenza.com/get-androids-fonts-on-ubuntu-how-to/
Posted by Fabian Rodriguez on April 07, 2009 at 09:48 AM GMT+00:00 #
Anna wrote up Ubuntu on her Advent 4211C (otherwise known as an MSI Wind) here. Installation followed the same process - download ISO, get it onto a USB stick and boot.
Posted by Joseph on April 07, 2009 at 09:56 AM GMT+00:00 #
@Stuart - upgrading should work fine. My main laptop was upgraded from 8.10 without any significant problems. Although the damn Launcher focus is affecting this as well. Yann thinks it is an X problem as it affects his not Kubuntu Jaunty laptop too. Hopefully it will get fixed before release.
Posted by Chris Puttick on April 08, 2009 at 05:43 AM GMT+00:00 #
Couldn't get USB-Creator to work on the Dell implementation of Ubuntu. So used a prog called cd2 usb (which is a W*****s application). This worked fine and gave me a bootable USB stick which enabled me to install Kububntu 9.04 onto the Mini9 no problem. The only issue I seem to have at the moment is with wireless networking. With Ubuntu it found my wireless hub asked me for the WEP code and away it went logged on every time no problem. With Kubuntu evertime I restart it asks me for security code and doesnt always connect (I have turned the KDE wallet off). Its probably something I am doing but any suggestions/help would be appreciated. One general comment Dell appear to have made a fairly reasonable job of their Ubuntu front end (my kids preferred it and even my wife thought it was simple to navigate) so I am not sure that giving people Kubuntu instead is such a good idea. One final comment - why is Firefox not installed by default?
Cheers
Posted by Tony Roberts on June 23, 2009 at 07:36 AM GMT+00:00 #
I am not sure that giving people Kubuntu instead is such a good idea.
Posted by cheap computers on October 15, 2009 at 11:16 AM GMT+00:00 #