My Asus Eee PC's Linux Journey
This previous Christmas, I asked for and was given a brand new Eee PC (701). When I opened it, the comments around the room came quickly, “That’s a computer?” and “It’s so small” and “What a neat toy.” Well, that Toy has been on quite a Linux journey in recent months. And I’m now running eeeXbuntu on the Eee PC. Here’s how I arrived at that operating system, along with some clues about where I may go next.
When I first received the Eee PC, it took about ten minutes of charging to get it to boot up, and my pleasure with my Eee was almost immediate.
Before I could even get comfortable on the floor it had booted up and was waiting for my input. “Simple” mode was exactly that- even as a power user, I could very much appreciate the design of the simple Xandros desktop. The tabs, the icons, the speed at which I was connected to some random wireless network in the neighborhood: this was incredible. If I didn’t know anything about computers or operating systems, I could turn this thing on and send email or start typing a document in minutes.
After about a day of simple mode, a simple .conf edit and a click and I was able to start up in “advanced” mode. While more advanced than simple mode, advanced mode was really just a standard KDE desktop (even a Windows user would recognize the elements of a KDE desktop). This was my first time with Xandros, and so far I was impressed. Minus a security vulnerability in the SAMBA configuration identified in the months after its release (and easily fixable), the Xandros implementation was done well.
But I wanted something a bit more challenging, something I could learn more from. So I decided to try a different Linux flavor. I moved over to the Eee user site and checked out the forums, where I found many options for operating systems.
Time to Backtrack
My first choice was Backtrack 3 Beta (a Slackware and SLAX based security distribution). I wanted to learn more about security and penetration testing, and Backtrack 3 Beta was the way to go. Using information on the Backtrack forum, I was able to easily create a bootable SD card for Backtrack. Now I was able to play around with my new OS without disturbing the Xandros installation on my SSD.
But after a few weeks of not touching the SSD, I decided to take the plunge and wipe Xandros off and install Backtrack on the SSD as my sole operating system. This went surprisingly well. But while I really liked the Backtrack 3 Beta, it simply wasn’t the right choice for my prime OS. I kept the bootable SD card so I could still use it when needed, but I wanted to put something different on the eee’s SSD.
EeeDora and Red Hat
Back to Google in search of more alternatives, and I quickly found eeeDora. eeeDora is a Fedora 8-based distribution, which of course is ultimately a spin-off of Red Hat. I didn’t have much experience with Red Hat/Fedora, so I figured I would give it a try. Downloading and installing to another SD card was super easy, and as promised, pretty much everything worked upon booting: networking, video, sound, etc, all seemed to work out of the box. This was now my third different Linux OS on my eee PC, and I thought I might have found a winner.
But it was only two weeks later that I was again unhappy. The distribution itself was wonderfully stable and functional…but I simply found it boring. Please don’t misread this as a slight against the developer. I think eeeDora did an incredible job with out-of-the-box functionality and simplicity. It just didn’t suit my taste.
Time to Work With U
Finally, I came back to Ubuntu. Again on the Eee user site, I decided on eeeXbuntu (Ubuntu with XCFE). Once again, download and install was incredibly easy. I installed it directly to my SSD (removing eeeDora). It boots up a bit slower than my previous OSes.
Once up and running, like eeeDora, everything works out of the box. I was happy to get back to the Debian environment as I am much more comfortable there than I am in a Red Hat/Fedora environment. I feel like I lost a little bit of stability (programs took longer to start and longer to shutdown, plus some hangs and crashes along the way), but gained the familiarity of Ubuntu.
Today, eeeXbuntu remains on my eee’s SSD. But…I think I am going to switch it up in the next week. My options now, as I see it, are Ubuntu 8.04 and SuSE 10/11. I know there are many others well-suited for the Eee (Puppy, Arch, Mint, etc), but right now I am sticking with the big guns. But hopefully I will be able to later download all of those other options onto bootable SD cards to see how they fare on my Eee PC.
Very intressting article, this and alot more things are some of the reason why I’m getting a EEE when it comes to Sweden. ^^ Once again thanks for a great article.
Landrash: Are you a Linux or Ubuntu user at the moment? Interested to hear why you expressed interest in the Eee PC.
Y dont u give EEEPCLinuxOS a shot. After PCLOS comes 2nd in Distrowatch but i should its mandriva(Redhat) based
[…] My Asus Eee PC’s Linux Journey […]
Just a correction, sorry to be a pain but its XFCE not XCFE.
Good article, I’m still running Xandros on my EeePC, have no reason to remove it, I can ssh to my server if I need more Linux power or use my desktop with Fedora 8.
Lee Ball…thanks for the correction, I certainly missed it.
Like I said, Xandros was quite impressive. I think most people see no need to remove it, I just wanted something different. One of the great things about the Eee is the ease of changing distributions and experimenting with others.
Hi, Try installing the new 8.04 EeeXubuntu. Then buy a USB GPS dongle – a BU-353 works well. Install gpsd and Viking from the Ubuntu repos. Get a car charger that is EeePC specific (eBay) and viola you have the option of using it as a GPS. This approach does not give driving instructions, but makes a good moving map setup and adds more value to the EeePC. Add some mp3s and a connection to your car sound system and you have a moving jukebox as well (and simultaneously). Add an ASUS USB TV dongle and… you get the idea.
The GPS won’t work well with Xandros as the software is too old and you have to resort to compiling from source.
There is a good YouTube video of an EeePC sitting on the dash in Japan running TV and GPS.
Jus a few ideas for using the thing
Why don’t you try Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring? It’s the only major distro whose mainline release (not a third party modification) is specifically tweaked to run on the Eee, including support for all the hardware, very reliable suspend / resume support, tweaks for the low screen resolution and so on. It’s pretty popular with the Eee enthusiast community: see http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewforum.php?id=46 . Thanks!
Adam Williamson
Mandriva
Adam Williamson: I think Mandriva 08 would be a good choice.
Jason: I had that same thoughts about Fedora 9, it looked just like red hat the reason why I got out of linux years ago, thank god I went back. BTW I would try Ubuntu 8.04 before anything else its WAY better than 7.10 and runs alot faster. also I would look into a 8-12gb SD card before doing this. Newegg.com has them for 30$ US and up. Pump up the space 😀
Good luck with trying Linux Mint on your eeePC. I’d love to have it working on there, but when I tried to intsall it the system will run from the LiveCD, install, reboot, and hang for eternity. Not sure what is wrong, but an eeeMint would be great
I just installed Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 on my Eee last week after using Xandros for about 5 months. I have to admit that I am very pleased with it. Everything works perfectly. Even my screen space has more room. The only issue I found was with the automounting of my MMC/SD 16GB card which I devised a fix for and posted it in the wiki at eeeuser.com
I am sure you’ll enjoy it. It is here to stay!
Perhaps you should try eeebuntu?
http://www.eeebuntu.org
There seems to be a bit more positive than negative feedback in its forums.
Wanting to know: It would help me a lot if when you say, It was not exciting and not to my taste.” you would tell me what your criterion are.
Else it becomes a boring saga about you and a string of names of systems.
Or are you only interested in preaching to the choir.
— find similar complaints from penguinv on UbuntuForums.
— am available for hire to work on the UI.
I’m so glad I kept the original Xandros on my 701. While I also prefer Ubuntu in general, when I am in a rush and only want to do a simple task, Xandros serves me better because it boots in no time. Why wipe it out completely??
What I did on mine was installing EeeXubuntu on the SDHC card, this way I can have both systems and choose which one too boot. Xandros when I don’t want to waste time and complete simple tasks, and Ubuntu when I want a bit more power and flexibility. Best of both worlds!