Asus EEEPC 901(Linux) optimization discussion (ubuntu-eee)

chonia

I have bought my first netbook: Asus EEEPC 901(Linux) from Computer Festival 2008 and decided to install ubuntu-eee (http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/) instead of keeping the pre-installed Xandros.

If there is any experienced user, please correct me if I have made any mistake.  And please kindly suggest/share your optimization method(s) in using ubuntu-eee.  I will then update the thread and hope it will help any beginners who would like to try using open source OS and decide to start with ubuntu-eee.

Before I bought the machine, I asked some of my friends and researched on the Internet about installing linux in netbooks.  I found that it is suitable for beginners to start using ubuntu-eee in Asus EEEPCs.  That's why I made the above decision and tried to install 8.04.1 in the steps below:

1.  Download the ISO file from the official website (http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/)
2.  Burn it to a CD (If you don't have an external CDROM, you can download the software from official website to move the installation file to USB stick)
3.  Connect netbook to an external CDROM and boot from the CD
4.  Choose "Install Ubuntu"
5.  Follow the guide, you will need to input the time zone, language, keyboard layout, username, password etc.  It's just similar to install windows
6.  The most different / technical part is, it will ask you about the partition here (a bit different with windows, which would ask before the installation wizard start).  As I am a beginner, I choose "Guided - use entired disc" and the 4G ssd as the installation path.  (Please be noted that it will format this disc and all the information in this disc would be lost during the installation)
7.  After the installation, it will restart once (My netbook stop in a black screen after a restart and after I forced it to restart, it works well)

I'm lucky that wired network, audio, webcam are working out of box.  I will try function keys and touch pad functions afterward and report it here.  I will also try to find more optimization skills and update here.

P.S.  I am not very familiar with linux but I am eager to learn and discuss with others.  I believe that it is worth to group up the installation and optimization information in this forum, mainly for beginners, just like me, who would like to try using linux, an open source and free operation system.

erickleung

Please refer to following links for details

http://tombuntu.com/index.php/20 ... -on-the-eee-pc-901/

So far so good.

The only complains is the bluetooth supports with ubuntu is not quite stable at the moment.  And the ubuntu-lean is booting a little bit faster than the generic ubuntu.   

If you prefer a 'Easy' mode than a desktop mode, please refer to ubuntu - remix as below

http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/nbr

Have happy experience with ubuntu and eeePC

Jacson

after update the kernel for eeepc, what should be taken care when running the update manager? seems it will also down load the linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic, should i unselect it? please kindly advise, thanks.

henrylwk

oh, that means we can use this to replace the Windows?

how many spaces does this ubuntu occupy in the 4GB SSD??

does it work under Windows version but not Linux version?

[ 本帖最後由 henrylwk 於 2008-12-15 22:53 編輯 ]

chonia

原帖由 henrylwk 於 2008-12-15 22:42 發表
oh, that means we can use this to replace the Windows?

how many spaces does this ubuntu occupy in the 4GB SSD??

does it work under Windows version but not Linux version?

1.  There are many OS could replace windows in fact.  It depends on what purpose that you use your netbook and how you use it.  And if you choose to use linux, you would have to change some of your habit.  For example, MSN, you could not install MSN but instead you could use pidgin, amsn or kmess.

2.  After I installed ubuntu-eee, it used up 1.83 G of my 4G SSD.

3.  It should have no problem to install ubuntu-eee in Windows version.  But I must say that I did not try it before.

chonia

原帖由 Jacson 於 2008-12-15 22:22 發表
after update the kernel for eeepc, what should be taken care when running the update manager? seems it will also down load the linux-image-2.6.27-7-generic, should i unselect it? please kindly advise, ...

Sorry, I'm not very familiar with this.  Is there anyone could answer?

henrylwk

原帖由 chonia 於 2008-12-16 12:44 發表


1.  There are many OS could replace windows in fact.  It depends on what purpose that you use your netbook and how you use it.  And if you choose to use linux, you would have to change some of your  ...

in fact my main purpose of using eeePC is to do clerical work, normal media (mp3, AVI, rmvb) and browsing the internet, downloading documents. MSN is not essential with it. Can this OS fufill my needs?

btw, i wanna ask the security of this OS, u know, windows often has some fixing error packages to download from Windows Update, can this OS have similar kind of stuff?

Are the softwares supporting Windows can be compiable with this OS?

Thank you very much!

chonia

原帖由 henrylwk 於 2008-12-16 15:07 發表


in fact my main purpose of using eeePC is to do clerical work, normal media (mp3, AVI, rmvb) and browsing the internet, downloading documents. MSN is not essential with it. Can this OS fufill my nee ...

1.  In my point of view, it could fulfill your need.  As there is some office tools could be used and you can also play music and video, browse the internet and download documents.  In fact, these are what I planned to do with my EEEPC. (But you may need some time to configure the system and familiar with the softwares)

2.  There is a update manager which is similar to the windows update

3.  Not all the softwares supporting Windows can be used in this OS.  MSN is an example and also MS Office which you could use Open Office instead.  But most of the time, useful software could replace by other software which is linux compatible.

chonia

Wireless works out of box ~~

As I have upgraded the machine to 2G Ram,
seems it's better not to use swap.
This is because read and write in a small particular of SSD would fasten the wearing level
Therefore, from my friends advice, I can disable the swap function by the command:

swapoff -a

If it won't affect the system, I will then delete the swap partition.
Then, I can free out more space in the SSD :)

Jacson

现在有EEEBUNTU8.10了，好好用喔……