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 click 'New paritions'. My drive was the VoyagerGT 4 GB on /dev/sdd.
- I created one primary parition, selecting 'ext2' as the filesystem. It's 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.
- After rebooting I got a 'No operating system found' error message by the boot loader. I installed again and at the end of the installation, in 'Advanced Options' changed boot loader disk to '(hd1)'. It let me in to the Grub bootloader where I could select which option to boot but I had to change back to '(hd0)' by typing 'e' and 'e' again, then 'b' to finally boot. After that I fixed the /boot/grup/menu.lst configuration file to make it permanent.
Tweaks
Networking
To get wireless and ethernet set up, I had to use the network-admin utility in System, Administration, and Network. My Intel 802.11n adapter was discovered automatically and I could just select 'Properties' and enter the correct ESSID and password, deactivate and activate, to get it to work.
Bluetooth
I think Bluetooth is so standardized that every adapter you through at it will work, at least my adapter did.
To get my Logitech V470 Bluetooth mouse, I just had to enable/insert the Bluetooth adapter, make the mouse discoverable by pressing the Connect-button, and enter the simple commands below
Scan for devices.
ivc@eee:~$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
00:07:61:A6:84:15 Bluetooth Laser Travel Mouse
00:07:61:45:9E:C3 AGANDHJIN
Connect to MAC address of the mouse.
ivc@eee:~$ sudo hidd --connect 00:07:61:a6:84:15
And it just works! To make the changes active over reboots, enter these lines into /etc/default/bluetooth.
HIDD_ENABLE=1 HIDD_OPTIONS="--server --search" HIDD_OPTIONS="--connect 00:07:61:A6:84:15"
