Weblog entry #1 for diveli
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I finally got fed up with the dopey default Xandros-based installation on my eeePC. Among other issues, I always found it unnerving that it didn't prompt me for my password if I ran a 'sudo su'...
So I took the opportunity to try installing Debian on something just a little different to the usual desktop box, server etc, and installed Lenny on the eeePC via a bootable usb stick.
The wiki pages related to Debian on the eeePC are truly fantastic... any problems I experienced post-install were listed there in the HowTos or Tips and Tricks.
In particular I was impressed with the way wireless 'just worked', even with WPA encryption... judging by the wiki pages devoted to wireless, other people have not been so fortunate.
I wrote a more extended account of the experience on my site
Comments on this Entry
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
The only time I notice it to be a bit sluggish is when I'm streaming music via an externally connected ogg/mp3 player. That could just be amaroK hogging the system though... I might fiddle with mocp a bit and see how it goes.
Initially I installed a standard system (no X)... then I added Fluxbox. I found Fluxbox a little unwieldy to be honest, despite how lightweight it is. This comes down to personal preference... right-clicking on any laptop, especially one so small as the eee, to perform most tasks, starts to irritate me.
KDE runs quite well, and I find 3.5.9 sufficiently light on RAM and bug-free to use (3.5.5 or so was a lot worse). I will admit the only downside to KDE on the small eeePC screen is that some of the GUI windows, especially things like system preferences of any sort (Control panel, desktop preferences, Amarok settings etc) tend to be too large for the screen and one has to manipulate the window to access some of the controls (especially typical OK / Apply / Cancel combinations)
There are strengths and weaknesses to any DE. I am a KDE person anyway so I put up with those little things with keyboard shortcuts. I'll add also, that I was impressed with the out-of-the-box functionality of the Function (fn) keys... exactly the same as the eee as it comes shipped.
I may go back to fluxbox from KDE the more I use it, but that's the way I use a standard desktop setup anyway :)
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I'm a KDE user by default but on my antique laptop I do use Fluxbox instead. As you say it's all down to personal choice in the end. I like KDE because I find it easy to configure, I never found GNOME easy to tweak which means I've invested more time in KDE so now everything seems hard and messy by comparison.
Fluxbox I tend to use out of the box with minimal tweaking. I don't like it as much as KDE but I have found it a lot faster, and on a PII-233 with only 256Mb of RAM it makes a difference...
My old Dell laptop is well and truly knackered, the case is cracking in two places, one touch pad button is held in place with electrician's tape, it's got some dead pixels on the screen, sound doesn't work at all under Linux (odd sound card), it's dead slow (PII-233), doesn't have much RAM or disk space (256Mb and 4G). However it's long since paid for and I don't need or use a notebook much.
I could buy an Asus 701 or Acer One, or for £100 (50%) more a cheap full specification laptop from Dell or any of the other usual suspects. Even though a full specification laptop would not cost a lot more in absolute terms, in relative terms is a lot more than a 701 and ultimately it's not something I need and a smaller device may actually get used more...
Would you buy yours now given the new competition?
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I don't know a hell of a lot about the recent competition against the eee, but I've been very happy with it. I bought my eee out of pure fanboi-ism (not particular disadvantaged in terms of hardware, already have a Dell inspiron and a couple of desktops). I think it's a fantastic device. Last year I went overseas, wish I had had one of these with me back then.
I mainly use mine as a pseudo-mp3 player streaming off of a bigger mpd server, otherwise as a portable laptop (rarely plug in the ethernet), especially for those cramped little server rooms when you need to test something. I don't store a lot on it, so the small SSD space doesn't bother me. Then again I could extend it with the SD slot, but I've never used it.
The other beauty of the eee has been its sturdiness. The SSD withstands a lot. The touchpad is quite solid and other aspects (sound and webcam especially) are terrific quality. I've had mine for about 3 months or more, the battery still lasts about 3 and a half hours. Both Xandros install and Debian as of a few days. It gets a bit warm but nowhere near as much as my Dell laptop, and the 'standby' mode is great
It's a great accessory to me, but couldn't replace my main desktop.. The keyboard and screen size take a little while to get accustomed to. My fiancee (also a Debian user) can't get into the eee, she finds it too small.
I'm not sure where you are (England?) - in Australia these eee's are generally half the price of standard Asus, Acer, HP, Toshiba, Dell etc laptops, so great value.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
The 701 is about £220 (retail), the new 901 is estimated to cost about £300. Dell et al. sell entry level standard lappies from around £300. The 701 is both small and cheap, some of the other ultra-portable units are not so cheap, some like the Acer One are expected to be as cheap.
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
xcfe
icewm
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My Dad's running Gimp on his eee... I wonder how well that comes up on a screen that small...!
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I have the 4GB EeePC Surf (With 2GB RAM), and exactly like you got fed up with Xandros and installed Debian with the Debian Eee PC image. I did all modifications and fixes from the Debian EeePC Wiki, and installed the Xfce desktop environment. After a few days of usage, I restored a backup of my Xandros installation (From which I removed unionfs and made a lot of other changes). I had three reasons for returning to Xandros:
* The Eee worked much slower for some reason.
* The volume buttons on the keyboard didn't work.
* I was missing the wireless network manager from Xandros, which I have no idea which manager is it and how I can find it anywhere else.
When I know how to overcome these problems, I intend to install Debian again.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I forgot I had another reason for returning. Iceweasel didn't work for some reason and I couldn't fix it. It was after I already returned to Xandros and the same problem happend on my desktop computer that I found out what was wrong: the ".firefox" directory in my /home was owned by root and my user couldn't access it... Chowning it to my user solved the problem.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
I find that my EEE boots much slower on debian, but there are some fixes for that on the wiki as well, including a way to get the same 5-10 second boot you get with xandros.
I can't help with the wireless manager, I just set wpa assistant, and I've not had to worry about it since.
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