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Which Distro For an Eee PC?
An anonymous reader writes "I've got an Eee PC 1000HD, and frankly, I can't stand XP. I know it's odd, because I actually like Vista, but XP is such a giant piece of crap on here that I struggle to use it day-by-day. Anyway, my question is this: which Linux distro should I run on it? Plain Ubuntu just doesn't have driver support. I tried Ubuntu-eee, which, to put it bluntly, does not work for me at all (slow, terrible battery life, even worse interface). I've heard that Jaunty Jackalope is going to have better netbook support, but that's all the way in April! Is there a distro out now that will free me from XP's terribleness without being terrible itself?" Getting wireless working on an Eee PC (though in my experience imperfectly) with stock Ubuntu is possible; for me it took some googling, though I've been told with great enthusiasm that it actually works "out of the box." What distros are you running on your netbook, and what problems do you find?
Also there is EeeOS which claims to be:
EeeOS is designed to be a minimalistic Custom Debian Distribution that provides a base system (drivers, system tools, Xorg) and nothing more. The idea behind such a release is so that users of Eee Linux OS can configure and build their own Eee experience ... an EeeXperience if you will :P While systems like Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse and Xandros are all amazing in their own right, they often come pre-configured and with a lot of bloat. Some power users prefer to have complete control over their systems and it is with these users in mind that Eee OS was created.
I was going to go on a lengthy explanation about how you could use Slackware or Gentoo to provide the optimal configuration you are interested in but after reading your summary, I doubt you're interested in this sort of devotion to squeezing your eeePC like a lemon over your enemy's eye.
Ubuntu has worked "out of the box" for two of my DLink WiFi cards. It worked on a no name CompUSA brand rebate PCMCIA card on my laptop but there were ... annoyances ... with lack of encryption options.
... which I guess would be more widely supported?
Also, why did you go with an Eee Ubuntu and not Xubuntu
My work here is dung.
You may wish to try http://www.eeebuntu.org/ which is NOT the same as Ubuntu-eee.
It has worked decently on my 1000HD.
IMarv
Trusting software vendors is no smarter than trus
If you're struggling to use Windows XP on a daily basis, perhaps you should try something like this laptop. I'm certain you will find yourself struggling just as much and see just as much bloat with any kind of GNU/Linux distribution, so this can really cut down on the learning curve and usability issues.
If you like vista why not stick windows 7 on it?
+1 on Ubuntu. I picked up an Eee 1000H this past weekend and installing Easy Peasy (the poorly named Ubuntu Eee distro) via flash drive was ridiculously easy. Everything worked right off the bat without any messing around with config files. The "Netbook Remix" interface is sort of annoying, but very easy to turn off.
Seconded.
I've been running Debian's Lenny release upon my Eee PC for the past few months. Everything works, from the power buttons, sound, video, camera, wireless.
The only instructions I used were those on the wiki you link to.
Still this question is going to receive the obvious replies - everybody will suggest the distribution they know and like the best (the two are often the same).
I'd say "try a few, choose your favourite", but I suspect the better thing to do would just be to pick what you're using elsewhere, or whatever local people are using. Then if you have problems you'll have people to ask.
You like Vista, but dislike XP?
What's it like in your parallel universe? Can I visit?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I can't take seriously someone who claims he loves Vista AND considers XP to be crap.
I can kinda, sorta understood someone liking Vista's pretty new interface, but I've been using XP for 7 years now, and it's far from being crap. It's the most stable OS I've ever used, second only to the Mac OS. Vista on the other hand..... I can't even get it to play video on cnn.com or foxnews.com. It's not the worst OS I've ever used (Windows 3 was worse), but it's still pretty sad.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
But I can't take seriously someone who wants to watch videos on foxnews.com.
I think I speak for all of slashdot when I say this.
No, you really don't. You just speak for judgmental, obnoxious pricks that believe the world should operate only according to their narrow-minded rules. People like you are the reason linux only enjoys a 1.2% marketshare.
A lot of us actually would like to see better market penetration and a system that is universally accessible and enjoyed by users of all proficiency levels. This is a requirement for the big software houses to want to port their products to *nix.
I'm the same, I've got Xubuntu and compiz running and it's perfect, get some minimal window decorations and you're sorted.
Just do a standard installation, then head over to http://www.array.org/ and follow the instructions to install the kernel which will get your wireless and hotkeys working.
http://www.eeeuser.com/ is an excellent forum if you have any more questions. There are a few threads there that have step by step guides to installing and configuring Xubuntu, but there really isn't much to it beyond getting a custom kernel.
I found stock Ubuntu Intrepid with a few tweaks to be easier to set up and more pain-free than any of the "easy/tuned" distros are. Once I had everything working (including wireless), I wrote up a HOWTO explaining how to go from bare metal to a fully working system so that others wouldn't have to go digging through a dozen forums to find the info. Check it out, might be all you need to get up and going.
Read my blog.
"You just speak for judgmental, obnoxious pricks that believe the world should operate only according to their narrow-minded rules."
Like he said, he speaks for all of slashdot.
The latest archlinux ftp install worked without custom kernel on my 701, wifi and all. The img file makes it easy to install on the cd-less computer.
Here's the rule of thumb I've followed... however I've only tested this with the Linux version. (I wasn't aware that Windows EeePC 901s use Atheros)
EeePC ==701SD: Realtek Wifi
EeePC <900A: Atheros Wifi
EeePC >=901: RaLink Wifi
As a result, the modules, depending on the version of Linux you're using varies.
Atheros Wifi on <=2.6.24: ath_pci (madwifi) external driver
Atheros Wifi on >=2.6.26: ath5k internal driver
RaLink Wifi on < 2.6.28: rt2860sta external driver
RaLink Wifi on > 2.6.28: rt2860sta internal driver*
Realtek Wifi on < 2.6.28: rtl8187se external driver
Realtek Wifi on > 2.6.29: rtl8187se internal driver
* Heres the crux, as of 2.6.28, the rt2860sta internal driver uses version 1.8.0.0, but this version has broken WPA/WPA2 support. If you somehow ended up with 1.7.0.0, it too has broken WPA/WPA2 support.
However, rt2860sta v1.7.1.1 appears to be good.
I've been working on porting the changes introduced in v1.7.1.1 into v1.8.x.x for 2.6.29. So far it works for me, but I still need to submit this as a patch into the kernel:
http://git.array.org/?p=kernel/stable/linux-2.6-stable.git;a=commit;h=ee8834f5551943b7bd2db49bbad9ba3c24ce6f67