• Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 577

Topic: Crunchbang lpia on the Dell Mini 9

CrunchBang lpia on the Dell Mini

Background: My Dell Mini 9 came with Ubuntu 8.04 pre-installed. The Dell version of Ubuntu uses an lpia (Low Power Intel Architecture) kernel rather than the typical i386. Allegedly, this lpia kernel has some benefits for Atom-based netbooks like the Dell Mini and Asus eee: better battery life, faster startup, snappier performance, etc. I want to test whether or not these claims are true by installing #! over Ubuntu 9.04 lpia.

DISCLAIMER: The "regular" i386 version of 9.04 is currently the best and easiest choice for Mini 9 owners. All hardware is recognized out of the box. I am not recommending that anyone actually go through the process below, just sharing my experiences. smile

First step: I installed Ubuntu 9.04 beta using the daily build of the lpia alternate cd: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/daily/current/

Next, I ran the CrunchBang 9.04 install script: http://crunchbanglinux.org/build-scripts/testing/

The script completed except for one big problem: it did not install any packages because crunchbang-desktop is an i386 package, not an lpia package.

Next step is to download crunchbang-desktop and convert it to an lpia package using these instructions: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=962835

Basically, the most important step in the instructions is to open the Control file and change architecture to lpia. I also found that several packages could not be installed (see below), so I removed those packages from this file.

Now, I installed the new lpia crunchbang-desktop and I have a functional Crunchbang desktop!

Problem packages:
bmpanel crunchbang-bmpanel-themes (I repackaged bmpanel for lpia, then was able to install the themes)
adobe-flashplugin (use flashplugin-installer instead)
linux-headers-generic (replace with linux-headers-lpia)
gftp (broken dependency, gftp-text too old)
qgtkstyle usplash-theme-crunchbang transset-df (need repackaging, also depends on newer version of libqt4-gui)
udmz-cursor-theme winff (missing from lpia repository)

So far, I like the lpia version but I can't prove whether it has any advantage over i386. I am curious if anyone has any benchmarking suggestions to get some hard scientific numbers on performance, battery life, etc. It would be especially cool if someone with an i386 build on a Dell Mini 9 could run the same benchmarks so we can compare. smile

Last edited by snowpine (2009-04-18 22:03:23)

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 2,772

Re: Crunchbang lpia on the Dell Mini 9

An interesting post, thank you! I have not had much chance to investigate the possibility of an lpia CrunchBang build, maybe I should?! As always, I would be interested to know your thoughts about performance once you have been running it for a while, but probably even more interested in looking at any results from the possible benchmarking, especially if you find a willing i386 buddy to compare results against.

Regarding the missing packages, you might be able to find some of them in my PPA. wink

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  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 577

Re: Crunchbang lpia on the Dell Mini 9

I am going through your PPA and repackaging for lpia one by one. I just repackaged bmpanel, then I was able to install crunchbang-bmpanel-themes (which I noticed was "architecture: all" ... nice!) It is a pretty easy conversion process. 

I want to answer the question of which is better for the Atom, i386 or lpia. The cynic in me thinks, if lpia is so great, why aren't distros like Debian and Arch supporting it? On the other hand, Dell knows their hardware best and must have picked lpia for a reason. I lack the benchmarking skills to compare, though, so I'm hoping someone with experience in this department can give advice.

  • Bane
  • Member
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  • From: Carlisle, UK
  • Registered: 2008-12-28
  • Posts: 110

Re: Crunchbang lpia on the Dell Mini 9

I'm planning on getting the Dell Mini 9... & installing #!
Until I read this post I wasn't aware of lpia.  However, I'll just stick with i386.

I'll certainly let you know when I get it.

Hail #!
  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 577

Re: Crunchbang lpia on the Dell Mini 9

After a couple of weeks, the verdict is in... LPIA is unimpressive. Battery life is *exactly* the same as my i386 Debian Squeeze install on another partition. Graphics performance, especially Flash, is pretty bad. Otherwise, lpia seems pretty much the same as the i386 version (except for the smaller repositories and hassle of installing). I feel all cool and special to have such a unique build, but I will probably replace it when something else new and shiny comes along.

  • Registered: 2008-12-13
  • Posts: 1,335

Re: Crunchbang lpia on the Dell Mini 9

thanks for the testing with this, makes me glad I installed i386 wink

I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.