EEEpc--Just arrived

[securitybreach]

I'm dredging this old thread up securitybreach, just to find out how your eeepc is performing.I'm about 5% away from buying one. I actually wanted an 8gig model but NewEgg doesn't seem to have them. I actually went to the bank and upped the limit on my internet-only credit card from a permanent $500 limit just so I could buy one. I may settle for the 4gig model (no-surf) because I do want the longer battery life.I have an inverter with car adapter so I could keep it plugged in, when I travel by car then just use the battery at the hotspots.I'd probably stick with the default vanilla-Xandros until pclinux becomes stable. Is it doable to consider putting pclinux on a 4 gig hd? Of course, if I figured it out, I could put /home on an SD card and I now on a solid state hd, swap isn't needed.

Well I have to say this machine is performing like a champ. To begin with I tried the default OS and even reinstalled it at one point but frankly for myself there were too many problems with the default Xandros. For starters the UnionFS is a pain if you want to actually REMOVE software to free up space. With the UnionFS you cannot free any space, which is good for a beginner but not a novice. Having said this, you can remove the UnionFS which I did. The next problem is even worst. Synaptic is extremely buggy in the default OS. I have to constantly reload and fix problems. I always get the error:

E: Unable to parse package file /var/lib/dpkg/status (2)E: Unable to lock the download directory

This is with the default repos not any new ones. So I got fed up. I went through EEEXubuntu, EEEDora, Arch Linux, and eeePCLInuxOS remaster-1/2/3, Ubuntu, and Kubuntu. All had their good points but none were completely finished with regard to the hardware, etc. I ended up using Kubuntu because of the dislike for gnome until either ArchLinux or PCLinuxOS is completed for the eeepc. As far as PCLinuxOS, the install left more room than the default Xandros did and it is 100% bettter even if not completed. Also PCLinuxOS is more stable than the default OS which is not at all stable. The boot time does not vary that much although I can boot Kubuntu in a matter of about 25 seconds on the EEEpc. Not as fast as the default OS though. I did not notice any boot time difference between the various remasters versus the vanilla installs of the various distros. The remasters are good for recognizing all hardware, sleep, hibernate, wifi, and the special buttons (Fn-F*) which varies from remaster to remaster.As far as the 8gb model, I personally do not really need it since I have numerous usb, SD sticks/cards, and an external 160gb usb drive. Unless you have the money, the 4gb non-surf should be sufficient since usb sticks and SD cards are extremely cheap nowadays. For instance, I got a 4gb usb card from Bestbuy for like $25 dollars and you can get them even cheaper online. As far as the battery life, you get the same amount of battery life on any of the OSs. Also I can ssh to my home computer and have access to all my hardrives. Since I have 450gb connected to my home computer via internal or USB harddrives, I do not even need a large drive on this machine even though I just bought a 16gb SD card from NewEgg. Also playing media from my home machine using SSH works as well as if I had it on the actual EEEpc. Hope this helps.Thanks

Edited January 12, 2008 by securitybreach

[zlim]

ok., thanks SecurityBreach. A few questions for Adam:a) what size did you get? are you running Xandros and if so in Easy or Advanced Mode?For my needs, I can't see me actually needing to download a lot from synaptic. I'm getting this to browse and watch videos that I load on an SD card.

[sunrat]

Ok, just couldn't resist when I saw them in the window of a computer shop. Got myself a 4G! I'm amazed that PPRacer is included and is playable. Bit jerky though, maybe 7-10 FPS. Even OOo seems to work well, and Firefox is almost as fast as my desktop.Now how long will it take to stuff it up? Tweaking here we come.Now to try my Puppy bootable USB key.

[securitybreach]

Hmm must be xandros. I get around 410fps to 433fps using eeeXubuntu and Kubuntu. This page shows you how to enable the 3D acceleration. http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ubuntu:eeexubuntu:customization

sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa

then add this to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Section "Module"	Load "glx"	Load "dri"	Load "dbe"EndSectionSection "DRI"	Mode	0666EndSection

I installed the same packages when I was using Xandros and achieved the ~400fps.Also here is the site for all the tweaking for the default OS including links to install other versions of linux, too: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/Thanks

Edited January 13, 2008 by securitybreach

[securitybreach]

The only thing that took a while to figure out.... some of the windows are too big for the screen. to move the window, simply Alt-click on the window and drag to where you want.I love this thing a lot! It really works very well!Adam

On Kubuntu, all windows fit on the screen. No need to move windows using alt-click.Thanks

[ross549]

ok., thanks SecurityBreach. A few questions for Adam:a) what size did you get? are you running Xandros and if so in Easy or Advanced Mode?For my needs, I can't see me actually needing to download a lot from synaptic. I'm getting this to browse and watch videos that I load on an SD card.

a. I got the black 4G model (non-surf). b. I use Xandros. mostly I stay in easy mode. I have advanced mode enabled so I can do other stuff if I needed to. However, the default set of software is pretty good. I only have installed VLC and xchat. everything else is default (for now).Adam

As far as the 8gb model, I personally do not really need it since I have numerous usb, SD sticks/cards, and an external 160gb usb drive. Unless you have the money, the 4gb non-surf should be sufficient since usb sticks and SD cards are extremely cheap nowadays. For instance, I got a 4gb usb card from Bestbuy for like $25 dollars and you can get them even cheaper online. As far as the battery life, you get the same amount of battery life on any of the OSs. Also I can ssh to my home computer and have access to all my hardrives. Since I have 450gb connected to my home computer via internal or USB harddrives, I do not even need a large drive on this machine even though I just bought a 16gb SD card from NewEgg. Also playing media from my home machine using SSH works as well as if I had it on the actual

I got an 8GB SDHC card last week for the same price. Works like a champ!Adam

[zlim]

okay, you guys have convinced me to stop visiting four sites just to see if any 8g models are in again.My hubby keeps saying order it; I can't wait to see this and he isn't a computer geek! LOL. The cuteness factor got to him. I think he also is very receptive to the idea of loading some of our DVD movies onto an SD card so we can take them with us and watch while we are waiting somewhere.I already have an inverter with a card adapter so I don't have to worry about running out of battery power if we are in the car.

[ross549]

That sounds like fun. I've been using it extensively as a media player. :)Last night I installed Audacity and lame so I can record audio for my podcast. :)Adam

[securitybreach]

That sounds like fun. I've been using it extensively as a media player. :)Last night I installed Audacity and lame so I can record audio for my podcast. :)Adam

Among other things, I have been using mine to SSH to my home machine to watch movies and play music without having to carry around the media with me. It is great using my huge harddrive at home remotely with the EEEpc. The only drawback is I get a dhcp IP, so I have to take note of the IP every once in a while since it changes about every 2 weeks. I know about using No-IP to get a static one but its no big deal to look at the IP every now and again.Thanks

[zlim]

Mine arrived yesterday. 4gig Pearl White (better for my senior eyes than black) non-surf. I waited patiently while the battery charged (and the fact that we were delivering my old notebook to a senior citizen and teaching him how to set up an Excel database) before I turned it on. Last night I spent fixing FF so I could get the addons and surf comfortably. I'm working on some bookmarks - I don't need to import the hundreds I have on my main desktop! I was pleasantly surprised that it found my wifi with no problem because some users at the eeepcusers forum can't seem to get it working (I just wonder if they bother reading and following the directions?) I also attached my mini USB wireless mouse and didn't have to do anything to use it.Today I opened it up and installed the 1 gig stick of RAM I bought and the 4gig SDHC card. I didn't want to add anything new yesterday, I just wanted to be sure that it worked properly.First stupid human trick: I used suspend to RAM (STR) and then couldn't figure out how to get it working again. I grabbed the manual and started looking and found it. I was determined not to press the reset button on the bottom.I have to say, I really love it. My husband, who is not a geek and doesn't get excited about tech gear, is really interested in it. He's a pretty big guy ( 6' and played football and wrestled) with large hands and didn't find the keyboard all that hard to use. Granted, if he were typing a math test, he wouldn't stick with that keyboard. I showed him how to open the doc-like and xls-like sections of OO and he was surprised.My next task will be to rip a DVD we own and see if I can put it on the SD card and watch it on the eeepc. I've seen mplayer, xplayer and VLC mentioned. Do you find one works much better than the others? (I haven't looked at any of the players yet so I guess the only thing on is the default smplayer).

[securitybreach]

Mine arrived yesterday. 4gig Pearl White (better for my senior eyes than black) non-surf. I waited patiently while the battery charged (and the fact that we were delivering my old notebook to a senior citizen and teaching him how to set up an Excel database) before I turned it on. Last night I spent fixing FF so I could get the addons and surf comfortably. I'm working on some bookmarks - I don't need to import the hundreds I have on my main desktop! I was pleasantly surprised that it found my wifi with no problem because some users at the eeepcusers forum can't seem to get it working (I just wonder if they bother reading and following the directions?) I also attached my mini USB wireless mouse and didn't have to do anything to use it.Today I opened it up and installed the 1 gig stick of RAM I bought and the 4gig SDHC card. I didn't want to add anything new yesterday, I just wanted to be sure that it worked properly.First stupid human trick: I used suspend to RAM (STR) and then couldn't figure out how to get it working again. I grabbed the manual and started looking and found it. I was determined not to press the reset button on the bottom.I have to say, I really love it. My husband, who is not a geek and doesn't get excited about tech gear, is really interested in it. He's a pretty big guy ( 6' and played football and wrestled) with large hands and didn't find the keyboard all that hard to use. Granted, if he were typing a math test, he wouldn't stick with that keyboard. I showed him how to open the doc-like and xls-like sections of OO and he was surprised.My next task will be to rip a DVD we own and see if I can put it on the SD card and watch it on the eeepc. I've seen mplayer, xplayer and VLC mentioned. Do you find one works much better than the others? (I haven't looked at any of the players yet so I guess the only thing on is the default smplayer).

Congratulations on getting one of the great little machines. As far as the media players are concerned. I do not see much of a difference on any of the media players. I personally use smplayer because of the minimalistic look of it. Although you can use skins for more of a minimalistic look on xine or mplayer. All of the video players do full screen perfectly. Of course, I did not stick with the default OS but I do not think that would matter in this case.Also, video playback is just as smooth as a regular PC including online video.Thanks Edited January 18, 2008 by securitybreach

[zlim]

video playback is just as smooth as a regular PC including online video.

I'm glad to hear that.I'm not into skins and eye candy. I just want a player with a pause, stop, fast forward and volume control available when I need it.I bought a case tonight. It is a case for up to 9" portable DVD players for cars. What is neat is that there is an audio jack in the case that I can plug into the sound port of the eeepc. Up near the handle of the case are two connectors for earphones so both my husband and I can hear the music or the movie track at the same time without disturbing anyone around us.

[securitybreach]

I'm glad to hear that.I'm not into skins and eye candy. I just want a player with a pause, stop, fast forward and volume control available when I need it.I bought a case tonight. It is a case for up to 9" portable DVD players for cars. What is neat is that there is an audio jack in the case that I can plug into the sound port of the eeepc. Up near the handle of the case are two connectors for earphones so both my husband and I can hear the music or the movie track at the same time without disturbing anyone around us.

When I mentioned skins it was not for eye candy it was more along the lines as it was minimalistic for the 800x480 display on the 3EPc. But if you are happy great but mind you some of the media players out there may need alt-click to see everything. I have not run across one but that is the reason I mentioned skins.Thanks

[ross549]

Liz,I installed VLC, but I did it via the command line. I had to add a debian repo to the sources.list to make VLC available. The asus eee repos are very thin.

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian stable main non-free contribdeb  htt6p://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US/ stable/non-US main contrib non-freedeb http://www.rareware.org/debian/packages/unstable ./

I added the above to sources.list. I keep them commented out unless I need to install something. A word of caution, though..... the newly installed programs will not add themselves to your easy menu. they will be available in full desktop mode, however. Enabling full desktop mode is pretty simple... you simply need to install a couple small packages (not from the debian sources) and then the full desktop option will be available from the menu that pops up when you hit the power button in easy mode.Hit Ctrl-Alt-T...

sudo bashapt-get updateapt-get install ksmserver kicker

...and reboot.Have fun!Adam

[zlim]

I'll keep that in mind and get back to this in a week or two.So far, I'm afraid to do anything in synaptics. I've read about pinning and don't understand it. Some users were offered a BIOS update, which wasn't for their model and they managed to brick their eeepc. I do not want to chance downloading anything and breaking my unit.Tonight I will try my first minor tweak - changing the clock from a 24 hour display to a 12 hour display, LOL. I'm very timid!