Eee PC Linux
Install Ubuntu from Flash Drive
I decided to ditch the standard Eee Xandros Linux distribution and go for the more user centric Ubuntu distro.
For the installation I used a regular Pretec i-Disk Tiny 1 GB USB 2.0 flash drive. Almost all flash drives are either formatted as FAT16 or FAT32. For a computer to be able to boot from a flash drive it has to have support in the bios for USB drives and the flash drive has to have a master boot record (MBR), i.e a entry-point to load code.
Make Flash Drive Bootable
To install a Linux bootloader on a flash drive, there is a wonderful tool called syslinux.
- Download the latest syslinux (3.61 or later) zip-archive from syslinux.zytor.com under the kernel.org link
- Extract the sysliunx.exe in the win32 directory from the zip-archive
- Open a command-promt and execut 'syslinux -s g:'. Where g: is the flash drive
- The tool will install a bootloader and a hidden ldlinux.sys file in the root directory
- Try to boot from the drive, a 'boot:' prompt should appear
Copy Install Files
The normal way to install a distro is either via a CD/ISO or netinstall by downloading the files. This method will use the CD/ISO method and copy the files from the CD/ISO over the the flash drive.
- Download the ISO-file for the latest Ubuntu release. As of writing it's Gusty Gibbon, e.g ubuntu-7.10-desktop-i386.iso. Fortunately, I ordered the free retail Ubuntu install disc and got it in the mail
- Either mount the ISO or insert the CD, and select all the files and copy them over to the root of the flash drive, or use 'xcopy /e /h /k f:\*.* g:' in a command-prompt
- To allow the syslinux bootloader to load the installation, rename the 'isolinux' directory to 'syslinux'
- And inside the 'syslinux' directory, rename 'isolinux.bin' and 'isolinux.cfg' to 'syslinux.bin' and 'syslinux.cfg' respectively
- Now, the flash drive is ready
Installation
The installation should work as if it was running form a CD. Nothing special is done to make it run from a flash drive other than renaming the directory and files mentioned above.
- Insert the flash drive, start the machine, press ESC to show the boot device list, and select the flash drive
- When the 'boot:' prompt is shown, press enter, ignore the unknown keywords errors
- After a few minutes the Ubuntu splash screen should appear and the desktop, double click the 'Install' application
- Since the Eee screen resolution is only 800x480, the installation screen will be cut off, but there's a trick
- It's holding ALT+dragging the window, but to make the trick work properly the Compiz effects has to be disable
- From the System menu, select Preferences and Appearance, then Visual Effects and None. Close the window.
- Now, in the installation window hold ALT+drag the window upwards to reveal the buttons, follow the normal installation
- Once at the paritioning screen, select 'Manual' and pick the correct drive and parition to install to. Mine was the VoyagerGT 4 GB on /dev/sdd1. You might need to create a new parition table if you want more or fewer paritions.
- Click 'Edit partition' and under 'Use as', select 'ext2' as the filesystem. Ext2 is not journaled will supposedly use less write cycles and spare the flash drive for excessive use. 'Mount point' should be '/'.
- When prompted to select a swap-memory parition, ignore and continue. Swap will use excessive flash write cycles and my machine already has 2 GB of physical memory.
