Aerospace Software Ltd.

Asus Eee PC How-to Guide

For Debian 4.0R1 (Etch) and
Mandriva 2008.1 Cooker

Scope

The Asus Eee PC is a delightful little toy. Finally I have a PDA that I can use for real work. Of course I am writing this guide on the Eeep, directly on the web server, over SSH. There are a few tricks to it though and this guide explains a few.

Living with the Small Screen

One thing that is important, is to learn how to live with the small screen. That involves figuring out how to maximize applications to use the whole screen (usually F11), how to disable space grabbing toolbars (usually on the View menu), how to zoom font size (usually ctrl+ and ctrl-), copy and paste (double or triple click and then click both sides of the bar simultaneously to paste) and finally, how to drag a window around when some buttons are off screen so you can get to them (Alt left click in the window and drag it - this is best done with both hands!).

Once those things are figured out, the little machine is a breeze to use and I find the screen size quite adequate.

The Linux Distribution

The Eeep is based on Debian 4.0R1 (Etch). Xandros added IceWM and a custom menu system that makes the Eeep really easy to use by ordinary mortals. However, a typical Geek may want to change a few things.

I don't recommend changing the whole system for another distro - it works very well as is. The WiFi, Battery life indicator, Camera, Sound and whatever you got, all works really well, so I am inclined to leave it mostly alone, since changing things at a low level, can only make it worse, as it is working really well already.

If you wish to install extra software, install Debian Etch in VMware or something on another machine and compile things there or get Deb files from the 4.0R1 repositories. Copy the debs to the Eeep and install with 'dpkg -i filename.deb'.

Although I don't recommend it, it is possible to install Mandriva Linux 2008.1 (Cooker) on the Eee PC. Most things work. That is why I don't recommend it, but if you are adventurous and wish to know how, see the bottom of this guide.

Bash console

Out of the box, there are two ways to get to a terminal. IceWM has the 'ctrl-alt-t' hotkeys set to launch a rather cripple Xterm. A better one can be invoked from the file manager (Konqueror). Launch Konq and press 'ctrl-t' to run the KDE Konsole.

You can change the IceWM key bindings in '/etc/X11/icewm/keys'. To do that, you need an editor. Both 'vi' (ugh) and 'nano' (better) are available. The first change I made was to hook 'ctrl-alt-t' to 'konsole' since it has scroll back and looks a lot better.

BTW, 'mcedit' is also available, but I have never used it so I have no idea what it can do.

Adding icons to the UI

The user interface is controlled by a file called '/opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc'. This file is HTML-ish and can be modified with 'nano'. Once you installed a new program from a deb file, edit this rc file and add another stanza to the bottom.

The icons are problematic. The normal icon is just a png file, but the mouse-over highlighted icon is strange. Everything I tried failed so far. When I mouse over a home-made icon, it disappears, which is rather annoying. If you figure it out, please let me know!

Be very careful with this file. Any typos will cause the system to fail and come up with a black screen. After changing something, restart IceWM with 'ctrl-alt-backspace'.

IceWM

You may also wish to make a few minor changes to IceWM, to activate the menu or enable virtual desktops (ctrl-alt-1..4 actually works already). Have a look at '/etc/X11/icewm/preferences'. The file is well documented. After making a change, restart IceWM with 'ctrl-alt-backspace' and log in again.

Memory Upgrade

2GB SODIMM, PC2-5300, 667MHz, non-ECC, Unbuffered.

In other words, El Cheapo notebook memory.

Remove power cable, remove battery, remove two screws at the bottom of the case, remove old memory, snap in new memory, re-assemble, then sell old memory on Ebay for a profit...

Linux is quite frugal with disk space and Open Office files are typically a quarter to a tenth the size of similar MS Office files, but if you do manage to fill her up with crud, buy a large camera SD card, plug it in and leave it there.

System Recovery

If you fool around with your Eee PC, something will eventually go horribly wrong. Fortunately, Asus foretell that is going to happen, so they use UnionFS to keep the original system on the disk drive separated from your user changes. The original files are not deleted, instead they get 'masked' by whatever you do with the system.

So, when your Eeep is totally zonked out of its mind, reboot and tap the F9 key (repeatedly) to get to the system recovery menu and revert back to 'out-of-the-box', mint condition. Needless to say, you will lose whatever data you may have had on the device, but at least it will work again. Guess how I know...

BIOS Upgrade

Some digging found the Eeep 701 BIOS here:
http://update.eeepc.asus.com/bios/

And updating it is simple too:
Put the image file (renamed 701.rom) on a VFAT(!) USB stick, reboot, then press ALT-F2 for the update utility.

Note that clocking the Eeep to 900MHz doesn't work properly, so don't bother. "650MHz is fast enough for anybody." ;)

Enabling Fullsession Mode with KDE Kicker

If you are tired of Baby Mode, some extra packages are required for a full desktop. Here is how by EeeUser, Kiteless:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T to bring up a terminal
Type "sudo bash" to gain root access
Type "apt-get update" to make sure you download the most up to date packages
Type "apt-get install kicker" and answer "y" when asked if you want to install
Type "apt-get install ksmserver" and answer "y" when asked if you want to install
Type exit twice to leave the terminal

When you hit the power button, you'll notice a new option that says Full Desktop next to Task Manager.

Now you can go here http://ubuntusatanic.org/screenshots.php and get a better wallpaper... ;)

One sizzling hot Eeep with fire and brimstone...

Hooking the Eee PC to a Desktop

This is a description of how to turn a desktop machine that is hooked to a cable modem, into a LAN gateway router using a second ethernet port.

Lets assume the modem is on eth0 and the free port is eth1. Hook the free port to the Eeep via a cross-over cable.

To make this work, I'll explain a manual setup. You can later change it to an automatic setup with DHCP if you like, but for now, lets keep it simple. You need to assign an IP address to eth1 on the desktop and to eth0 on the Eeep. Then you have to enable ethernet forwarding between eth0 and eth1 on the desktop, set up a Network address translation rule between eth0 and eth1 and set a default route on the Eeep, plus DNS to resolve the internet names.

On the desktop do:
$ su -
rootpassword
# ifconfig eth0
and write down the address
# cat /etc/resolv.conf
and write down the DNS addresses

Configure eth1, the LAN port:
# ifconfig eth1 192.168.1.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Enable IP forwarding:
#echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

Create a sooper simpel NAT firewall
# iptables -I FORWARD -i eth0 -o eth1 -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED
-j ACCEPT
# iptables -I FORWARD -i eth1 -o eth0 -j ACCEPT
# iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Now go to the Eeep:
Open a terminal with 'ctrl-alt-t'.

Change to root:
$ su -
youruserpassword
# ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.10 netmask 255.255.255.0

Set a default route:
# route add default gw 192.168.1.1 eth0

Add the DNS addresses:
# nano /etc/resolv.conf

Add two DNS lines so it looks like this, using the DNS addresses written
down above from the desktop:
nameserver w.x.y.z
nameserver w.x.y.z

Ctrl-X to save it.

Now you should be connected. Try pinging the desktop:
$ ping 192.168.1.1

Try pinging Yahoo!:
$ ping www.yahoo.com

If all of that works, launch a browser and you are in business.

To make the settings permanent, add them to the bottom of /etc/rc.d/rc.local

Right Hand Control Key

I tend to do a lot of one handed typing while holding the Eee PC in my left hand. The Firefox Zoom keys are 'Ctrl+' and 'Ctrl-', which I also use a lot while browsing. Even with my huge paws that can span 12 notes on a piano, I still find the missing right-hand control key to be annoying.

The solution is to use 'xmodmap' to remap the useless 'Menu' key (between 'Alt' and 'Home') to 'Control'. This can be done by creating a small configuration file and calling 'xmodmap' from '.bash_profile'. This way the key will be remapped each time you log in.

Press 'ctrl-alt-t' to open a X terminal and create the file '.keymap' in '/home/user' using 'nano':

keycode 117 = Control_R
clear Control
add Control = Control_L Control_R

Then edit '.bash_profile' with 'nano' and add the following line to the bottom:

xmodmap .keymap

Next time you log in, this command will execute automatically, but for this session, you have to execute it manually:

$ xmodmap .keymap

There you go, the useless 'Menu' key is now a 'Control' key.

In case you were wondering, you can get the mystical key codes with 'xev'.

Transfering files to/from Windows PCs

Linux has very powerful networking capabilities, but Windowsers usually have no idea how to do the simplest things, since Windows simply cannot do it...

So, lets say you wish to transfer a manuscript from your Windoze desktop to the Eee PC so you can work elsewhere and you know diddly squat about networking. The easiest way is the oldest way - FTP. Go to http://filezilla.sourceforge.net and get Filezilla Server and FileZilla Client. Install both on your Windows desktop and run FileZilla server. Configure a login user name and password and base directory to share. Now click Start, Run and type cmd and press Enter. At the prompt, type ipconfig and press Enter. Note the machine IP address, say 192.168.1.100. Finally, run the Control Panel and set the Firewall to allow FTP.

On the Eee PC, run the File Manager (Konqueror) and in the Address bar, type ftp://192.168.1.100 and La Voila! If you now split the screen (Window, Two horizontal), then you can click-drag-drop files to/from the desktop machine.

If you already have a LAN of sorts going, then you can type smb://192.168.1.100 in the Eee PC File Manager, but you may get tripped up by the Windows Workgroup setting and may need something like smb://user%password@workgroup:192.168.1.100/sharename which gets kinda complicated, but once you have it figured out, you can save that as a bookmark.

Install Mandriva Linux

I eventually got tired of baby mode and installed Mandriva 2008. There are still a few little things to fix, but it mostly works already.

Start off by making a bootable USB memory stick. To do that, you need to find a Cooker mirror, eg. ftp.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu and copy i586/isolinux/all.img to your PC.

Copy it to a memory stick:

# dd if=all.img of=/dev/sdx
(modify sdx to suit)

Now plug the schtick into the Eee PC and reboot.
Hammer on the Esc key till you get the boot menu.
Select USB boot.
Press Fn-F2, to turn the WiFi Adaptor on (Blue LED on)
Press enter at installer menu.
Select FTP install
Select Cooker
Select one of the universities close to you
etc.

The trick is to start off by installing the least amount of stuff you can get away with. A simple IceWM system will consume about 900MB, while a more flexible KDE install will consume 1.8GB and will take twice as long to install (about 4h). So if you just want to test things and get it to work and install more things later, choose IceWM only.

Right at the end of the install wizard, just before the reboot, go into the video setup again. If you futz around in there you can set the resolution to 'Automatic'. This is useful, since 800x480 isn't listed and there is no way to explicitly set a new value in this wizard - automatic will make it work.

Partitioning

Partitioning the disk drive presented me with some hearth-ache. Originally, I wished to install it in as little space as possible and partioned the SDD with a 2GB /, 400MB /swap and 1.4 GB /home partitions, with / and /home formatted with Ext3. This is enough room to install a nice KDE system.

Subsequently, I bought an 8GB SD card and stuck it into the camera card slot. It can be mounted at start-up by adding the following to /etc/fstab:

/dev/sdb1 /data vfat defaults 1 2

Make a directory /data and mount it permanently with 'mount -a'

In retrospect, I would use the whole SDD for /, stick 2GB RAM in the machine with no /swap partition, and put the /home partition on the SD card. Just a thought to explore further.

WiFi Adaptor

The Atheros MadWiFi driver would not work for me, so I took the Windows XP disk that comes with the Eee PC and searched for the Windows driver.

Copy the files in this directory: /media/cdrom/Drivers/Wireless/ndis5x/

Run the Network setup wizard and select Wireless setup and install the Windows driver with ndiswrapper. It works for me!

La Voila!
Herman