Moblin 2.0 - Delicious!

[bigtomrodney]

I've just been trying out the Moblin project, which is designed for Netbooks. It is driven by The Linux Foundation and has a strong push/input from Intel.

Join the moblin development community | moblin.org

I have to say, it's delicious. That's not a word I would normally use for anything but the finest of gastronomical offerings. The entire system looks and feels great. It's not quite a desktop, probably more along the lines of an appliance-style system such as SymbianOS, the Ubuntu Netbook Remix or Linpus Linux Lite.

The entire interface is smooth and beautiful, probably even moreso than a well configured Compiz-running desktop. I hear for the final 2.0 release they'll be using kernel-mode-setting to its full extent so that even X won't run as root.

Phoronix recently did an article on the interface. All I can say is that in terms of appliances/netbooks/phones this will be an absolute winner. If anything those screenshots don't do it justice. Animations are seamless and flicker free.

Now if I can just find a logon screen...I hate auto-login!

[Rubberman]

Hey BTR. I'm definitely interested in checking it out. What did you install it on? Does it run in a VM? I've been following it a bit on the Linux Foundation site, now that it is managing the project.

[bigtomrodney]

I have it installed on an Acer Aspire One netbook but I hear that it plays well with KVM/Qemu. As I understand it Moblin runs on Core 2 processors also though you may be stuck for some more general hardware drivers. I'm posting from it now...still no login screen and I wasn't able to use my expansion SD as the home partition. I'm sure these things are fixable by me if not in the final 2.0 release. Definitely worth a look Rubberman

[Rubberman]

Hmmm. I wonder if I can install it on a thumb drive for my laptop?

[bigtomrodney]

The only way to install it is to write the image to a USB drive so it's worth a go. I used imagewriter from Ubuntu's repos which was very handy for writing the image. Note though, you might need to completely reformat your thumb drive afterwards to get its original capacity back afterwards. I've had to do that twice this week, once with Moblin and the other during an install of the Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

[rokytnji]

I am downloading Moblin 2 right now. I am gonna give it a spin on a 2 gig Kingston Data Traveler in live mode on my Asus EEEpc 900. I will update later if I have any success with it.

[bigtomrodney]

Let us know how you get on

I've found a few bugs but I won't say anything until I see how you get on

[Rubberman]

Unfortunately, after reading the available docs, it seems that an Intel graphics chip set is a requirement. My laptop has nVidia video, and I don't know if VirtualBox will simulate an Intel graphics chip set. I'm going to try that, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll post a message here if it does work.

[bigtomrodney]

I tried it after posting earlier and it did boot, but was mostly garbled. I quit after waiting about a minute or so, not sure if it would have sorted itself out as it had been running kind of slow compared to real hardware.

Interesting point: The volume control is described in fuzzy phrases such as "Fairly Loud" etc. The best part for me as a Spinal Tap fan is that if you turn it up all the way it says "Turned Up to Eleven"

[HROAdmin26]

Hmmm...I have been debating on trying this one out for some time...

Just tried build moblin-netbook-beta-refresh-20090710-001 on an IBM X41 I have laying around, but no boot success.

It's a Centrino setup (Intel CPU, video, and wireless) with the 915 video chipset. I guess this is more of an FYI for anyone else trying out Moblin...