Ubuntu 9.04 and Asus EeePC 1000HE, What I Did.

Ubuntu 9.04 eeePC 1000HE Install

What I did with lots of help from the Internet.

I used at least 10 different sources, ranging from personal blogs and message boards to the official Ubuntu site. Help sought ranged from partitioning the hard drive all the way to installing flash and such. I'm posting this in the odd case that someone can use this information, as well as for my own purposes. Enjoy.

Partition the harddrive

I'm quadruple booting on my netbook, so space is limited. After setting up partitions for Windows XP, OS X, and Windows 7 (all primary partitions), I set up the rest of the hard drive as an extended partition and set up logical partitions the following way:

30G Extended Partition
8G ext4 Mount as /
20G ext4 Mount as /home
2G linux-swap

Then booting off the Ubuntu Disc, selected the Live Disc mode (boots into Ubuntu without installing it), and clicked on the Install icon on the dekstop. It's a pretty simple install. The more complicated part is setting up the partitions (making sure they mount at the specific place) but it's pretty much a breeze. Once all the information is entered, it installs and the following is what I did once Ubuntu was installed.

1) System > Administration > Update Manager
Update and install all available updates.

2) Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse 5000
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bluez-compat
hcitool scan
You should see something like
Scanning ...
00:1D:D8:98:90:B1 Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000
Copy the hardware address found above.
sudo gedit /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf
device 00:1D:D8:98:90:B1 {
name “Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000”;
}
sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart
You should see some thing like
* Restarting bluetooth [ OK ]
sudo hidd --search
Searching ...
Connecting to device 00:1D:D8:92:59:F6

3)Install WICD (for using 64Bit WEP)
sudo apt-get install wicd

4) Connect to wireless network (note, I swapped out the default WiFi card with an Apple Airport Broadcom BCM94321MC. This is what I had to do to get it to work)
Open Wicd (I put a shortcut by the Bluetooth and Sounds shortcuts in the notification tray)
Click on Preferences
Under General Settings enter "eth1" (no quotations) where it asks for Wireless Interface
System > Preferences > Startup Applications and remove "Network Manager" from the list.

5) Add repositories
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty universe multiverse
sudo apt-get update

6) Add Codecs
System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
mplayer
mencoder
mplayer-skins (optional)
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html#binary_codecs
After installing mplayer files
As of this writing it is essential-20071007.tar.bz2.
Accesories -> Terminal
sudo nautilus
/usr/lib/ and make new folder name it as codecs,
extract all the files to /usr/lib/codecs
System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad,
gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg

7) Install Flash
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

8) Edit Grub menu.lst
sudo gedit /boot/grub.menu.lst

## ## End Default Options ##

title Microsoft Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Apple OS X Leopard
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Ubuntu 9.04
uuid c7b3a2b3-4e7a-41ce-b1b8-f73bdc827552
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=c7b3a2b3-4e7a-41ce-b1b8-f73bdc827552 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid c7b3a2b3-4e7a-41ce-b1b8-f73bdc827552
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=c7b3a2b3-4e7a-41ce-b1b8-f73bdc827552 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Memtest86+
uuid c7b3a2b3-4e7a-41ce-b1b8-f73bdc827552
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet


The Microsoft Windows option loads the Windows 7 Bootloader, giving the option of booting into XP or 7. Would be nice to just have an option for both on the Grub menu, but it's not a big deal to me. If anyone has an easy way to do this, by all means leave a comment, and I'll try it out.

And there we go. Everything is working... well, I haven't checked the webcam yet or the microphone, so I'll give those a whirl later. Good Luck.

Late.

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So...

I procured an Asus eeePC 1000HE Netbook at work... then three days later I had to RMA it back to NewEgg for Video issues.

......

Two weeks later, I got a new one (from NewEgg (exchange)) and I've been using it since Thursday. I immediately wanted to experiment and so right now I'm running a Quadruple boot with Windows XP, OS X Leopard, Windows 7 RC1, and Ubuntu 9.04. I swapped out the WiFi card for an Apple Broadcom one so (the default WiFi currently has no drivers for OSX) and so almost everything works in OSX and everything work in Windows and Ubuntu.

Realistically, I know the Quad boot won't last. It's an ego thing and I know I'll favor 1 OS out of the 4. Actually I need to have XP on this (for work) and I'm partial to 7... but I really am digging Ubuntu 9.04. It has a good feel and I feel more and more confident about using it semi-regularly. OSX on the other hand... eh. I can see how a lot of people like it, especially power-users. Application install is ridiculously easy. You want to uninstall a program? Open up the applications folder, select your app and move it to the Trash. Uninstalled. But for the most part I'm slightly underwhelmed and given a decision to learn OSX or Ubuntu, I think it's much more useful, practical, and enjoyable to go the linux route.

Overall, however, I'm enjoying this netbook. I was somewhat worried (?) that I wouldn't have any practical use for it, but I find myself using it all over the place: bathroom, bedroom, living room. It's just so convenient and the keyboard (a chiclet style board) is awesome. I do have one caveat that I will mention. Playback of video on this isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I was having some issues with youtube and hulu. Which makes me glad that I didn't pay for it. My wife's 1000h (essentially the same specs, with the exception of a different style keyboard, maybe the slightly older processor, no wireless-n nor bluetooth) doesn't seem to have any issues, but it may (probably) be the way I installed everything on mine. If I ever do buy one of these for myself, I think I would hold out for the dual-core atom processors due out this fall or an Ion-based netbook. I just want a little more power. Just a little. But for the most part, I could recommend this for an casual user. It's great for email, web surfing (although the small screen may hinder some, but hey, you wanted small.) and the keyboard on the 1000HE is good for typing.

The Asus eeePC line just gets better and better. I've seen some of Asus' prototype systems due out in the future and it's very stylish (comparable aesthetically to Apple's equipment) and it it has the eeePC label, will probably be pretty affordable. Overall, I really like Asus, I pimp them wherever I go and now I pimp the 1000 line because, you know, it's awesome.

late

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