How to Install and Tweak Ubuntu-Eee on an Asus Eee 701
Introduction
If you own an Asus Eee PC 701, you owe it to yourself to upgrade from Asus’ version of Xandros’ Linux Operating System to John Ramvi’s customized version of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Eee. (If you don’t already own one, consider buying one for less than $350! I carry a small briefcase, and it fits right in, adding only 2 pounds. There are more expensive models offering more memory and storage, a webcam and Windows XP, but I don’t think they are worth it.)
Ubuntu Eee is a tweaked version of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, a specialized version of Ubuntu Linux meant to run on small mini-notebooks like the Asus Eee.
There are so many reasons to run Ubuntu Eee on your Asus: it is pretty; the interface is very snappy; it is easier to use than Xandros’ default GUI; and most importantly, it is based on the extremely popular and well supported Ubuntu Linux without all that damn brown! No more need to worry that your Firefox is out of date, that SSL might be compromised, or that you won’t be able to connect to wi-fi at the library or at the Bed & Breakfast where you’re staying.
These instructions assume that you are an intermediate Windows PC user, with a tiny bit of knowlege about Linux. If you are more advanced, feel free to do things differently, like using nano or emacs to edit files.
Installing Ubuntu-Eee
If you haven’t already installed the OS, go to the main page, click Download, and download the distro (the direct download link) and the unetboot installer.
Then pop in an empty usb key into your Windows XP computer (a 4G key should be sufficient) and launch unetboot and select the disk image you just downloaded. Once it installs the files, exit.
Important Warning: Make sure to back up any important data on your Eee’s hard drive before continuing.
The next step is to put the usb key into your Asus Eee. Hit the power button, and after a second or two, hold down the escape key so that it gets you to the boot menu, and select “boot from usb key”.
If you want to see how Ubuntu-Eee looks and works on your Asus without risking an install, select the first option to run the distro live from your usb key. Or you can go directly to a graphical install. Either way, give it a few minutes to load up. In the live version, there will be an install button you can double click on the interface, I believe.
Then just follow the prompts the installer gives you to install the entire OS to the hard drive. Its very simple. And if you don’t like it, you can always default back to factory settings by holding down the escape key during boot up and selecting factory re-install.
Once you have everything installed, reboot the computer. If it doesn’t reboot on its own, I’ve popped the battery and then put it back in, and hit the power button with no ill effects.
Tweaking your Ubuntu-Eee Install
Once you reboot, log in and look around.
Then, it is imperitive to do step 1 and 2 immediately:
1) Get your software updates working.
Go to the administration tab, and navigate to Synaptic (you have to drag the bar down to see it. Click on the settings menu, then Repositories. Select main, not US. Then click on Reload. Exit Synaptic.
2) Download software and security updates
You’ll know things are going well when you see a warning pop up in the tray. Click on the red arrow with the exclamation point in the upper right hand corner of the screen to the left of the battery indicator. Click on the “install update” button and wait while they download and install.
3) Adjust Monitor Power Settings
You’ll probably want to adjust or turn off the hibernate, suspend, and dim monitor options under Administration —> Power Management. I turn them all off since they act weirdly for me.
4) Get usb sticks (mostly) working
Type sudo gedit /etc/fstab at the prompt. Go to the lines where you see the words cd rom and floppy in it. Put a # in front of both lines to comment them out. Save the file.
Note: This only allows read-only access to the drive, so if you need to save something to the drive, you’re out of luck. I’ve created a creating a /media/usb directory and then tried editing the fstab file by adding rw,user,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,dmask=027,fmask=137 options, which seems to work sometimes…and not at others.
5) Get better wireless (Wi-Fi) connectivity
Warning: Make sure that you are connected to the internet using a wired connection during this step…wireless won’t be reliable during install of wicd.
Launch Synaptic. Add deb http://apt.wicd.net hardy extras to the 3rd party repository. Then open a terminal and type:
wget -q http://apt.wicd.net/wicd.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Then, search for wicd and click install.
Open up another terminal, type: sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces
Replace everything you see with:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
Then restart networking by typing: sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Then, open the session manager (System -> Preferences -> Session) and add this to “Startup Programs” tab:
Name: Wicd Autoconnect
Command: /opt/wicd/autoconnect.py
Comment: Autoconnect the configured interfaces (eth0 dhcp)
You don’t need to set up wicd-client to auto-launch the tray, since Synaptic did that for you auto-magically.
5a) Oh sh*t, I screwed up install of wicd and network manager is gone!
If you followed the directions on the wiki, you probably got disconnected from the internet after you purged network-manager-gnome and network-manager. Yea, that means that you can’t install wicd from the online repository you just added. Woops!
To restore network connectivity, hook yourself up to an ethernet cable, and click on the Administration tab. Click on the network tab, then wired Network, then unlock, then click the box next to “Wired Connection” — that should get you back online so that you can apt-get wicd.
If that doesn’t work, try reinstalling a fresh copy of Ubuntu-Eee and then follow this guide.
Note: If you follow the directions on the wiki using synaptic and you failed to purge network manager, you’ll end up with two icons in the tray. You can solve that problem by just clicking off the extra wicd start up item)
5b) Reserved for adding additional NDIS Wrapper support for wicd, since connecting to encrypted Wi-Fi is problematic…blah.
6) Install extentions for Firefox
For a better experience surfing the web, make sure to install the following add-ons for Firefox:
Adblock Plus (and Filterset G Updater)
Advanced Dork (makes searches easy)
Delicious Bookmarks (if you use del.icio.us to store your bookmarks to access them anywhere)
Download Statusbar (prevents pop-ups when you download stuff)
Flagfox (warns about mismatched international domains and tells you what country the website your visiting is in)
Gmail Manager
Header Spy (Lets you see what type of server and OS a website is running)
Undo Closed Tabs Button
7) Install Games
Using Synaptic, search for “gnome-games” and install. It isn’t included by default anymore because the 2G model doesn’t have the storage space. I think the installer should include it, if it detects that it isn’t the 2G model.
8) Make sure Ubuntu is counted!
Make sure to visit distrowatch.com while browsing from your Ubuntu-Eee computer, so that Ubuntu is counted as the most popular distro! I’m not sure if Firefox tells websites that it is using Ubuntu-Eee rather than plain Ubuntu, but its worth a shot!
Rants and Raves
-I wish the Ubuntu-Eee website had a good forum and dedicated install guide. It doesn’t. Relying on a wiki is sloppy, since it doesn’t mirror how Ubuntu’s main website does things. And directing users to launchpad is intimidating. The site has improved overall though, since its early days.
-Why doesn’t sound work properly? It blasts at full volume and only software controls in the program you’re using can tone it down. If the program doesn’t have sound controls…you’re screwed.
-Adding applets to the panel doesn’t work. This is not a big deal, until you accidently delete an applet and need to do some linux-fu to bring it back, albeit in a manner that is unsightly and leaves the panel ugly and unusable.
-Why do the scroll bars not work properly in the netbook tab screens? Its ridiculous that I can’t click below the slider to browse down, and that I have to click and drag. Unacceptable.
-Why isn’t there a password set up for su by default? It should match the sudo users password. I managed to kick myself out of the sudoers group accidently while installing VirtualBox and found myself unable to get root. Big Woops right there.
If anyone knows of any ways to fix these things, please leave me a comment below.
Conclusion
If everything goes well, you should be on your way to a much improved Eee experience!
Please Comment!
If you enjoyed reading my install and tweak guide, or if it helped you, or if you think it needs improvement, or if you have a suggestion…or if you just want to say hi, let me know in the comments!
Remember, I won’t know that you read my guide unless you say hello! Plus, it will stroke my already over inflated ego. Help a guy out here!
Important Legal Warnings and Disclaimers
Remember, these instructions are AS IS, and I don’t guarantee or warrant that the results will work or that they won’t fry your computer. Use these instructions AT YOUR OWN RISK. ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FOR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED. I accept no liability for any direct, special, indirect or consequential damages, or any other damages of whatsoever kind resulting from whatever cause through the use of any information obtained either directly or indirectly from this website. Your sole remedy is to discontinue using this website.
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