AROS & Aspire One AOA150 what can I expect really?!

[XDelusion]

As some of you may have read, I'm having issues with AROS running on Virtual PC. No sound, and the AmiBridge configurator will not load. It will set things up automatically via with the Amiga Forever Cd, but after that I can not load up AmiBridge to configure the damn thing to the exact way I want it.

So I am wondering, if I buy one of these Aspire One laptops, what kind of experience can I expect? Will Amibridge still refuse to work? (It loaded on older versions of IcarOS) Will 3D graphics work with Intel or is that only a Nvidia thing? Can I actually pull the screen all the way to the bottom of the screen or only part way like it does in the emulator? Can I expect sound, can I expect wireless, can I expect AROS to not lock up, crash, and hang as if it were written by Microsoft, let alone leave screen garbage when I open up too many windowss More importantly can I run Janus and not have it crash and hang every two seconds as it does on my Emachine, OR....


...will it run as smooth as a baby's butt like it does in all those amazing Youtube videos that up till now, only seem like false advertising to me?

Please share actual experiences with AROS and this particular hardware.

I REALLY want to see this working as well as the die hard fans claim it does. Thankx!

[Cammy]

Heya!

I'm sorry but I don't have an Aspire One, I have an Aspire 3610 laptop. My netbook is an unbranded OEM netbook with unsupported audio and network chipsets.

But from what I've read and seen, the Aspire One is fully supported, it would run as well as it does on my laptop and netbook except with sound and the ability to go online. But you still will not have 3D acceleration so many games won't work. I think you should install Aros to a USB stick and take it to a shop that sells laptops and netbooks and ask if you can boot it up on them, explaining carefully that it won't effect anything on the hard drives and it doesn't have viruses on it, you just need to know which model is best supported by your intended operating system.

If you could find a netbook or laptop with a built-in nVidia chip you might be in luck. If you only use Intel GMA you can still run all those programs and most games, but you won't be able to play the really nice looking ones that require Gallium 3D.

[XDelusion]

If I could get Janus to run smoothly, with out system hangs, graphical garbage, and crashing (as experienced on my Emachine) I'd be satisfied, though I'd hope that 3D acceleration is on the way for the Intel Video Chips.

[ncafferkey]

Unless there's more than one version of the AOA150, I can safely say that sound, wireless, and GMA graphics work. I've never seen screen dragging not being able to reach the bottom of the screen.

BTW, what network driver are you using with VirtualPC (or in your EMachine if running natively)? An unstable network driver might cause problems with other areas of the OS.

[XDelusion]

I have network disabled in the Emu.

So on your Aspire One, how stable would you say AROS runs, especially when gaming, browsing, or multi-tasking in general?

Really, WIFI works now?! Yippy!!!!

I want to be a believer so bad if you can't tell!

[ncafferkey]

I beta tested IcAROS 1.3 extensively on my AOA110 (same as AOA150 but with an 8GB SSD), and don't remember it crashing. I'm not much of a gamer, but I did run Blobwars, Doom and Quake a bit without trouble. Browsing the web wirelessly was very stable, but it can be slow for heavy sites (this has been fixed in AROS nightly builds, and Icaros can be patched).

Disclaimer: I wrote the wireless driver, so I'm probably biased ;-) But wireless is working well for a lot of AROS users now too, despite the intial releases last year being fairly unstable.

[XDelusion]

So you wrote the driver hugh? Well thank you for that kind sir!

So it sounds like I'm going to have to buy an Aspire One! Also, where can I find out how to patch IcarOS?

[ncafferkey]

For the patch, look or ask around at aros-exec.org. But I'd guess there will be an official fix by the time you get an AA1, and the bug isn't critical anyway.