How-To Install Express Gate / Splashtop on Asus Motherboards from Ubuntu / Linux

[SqRt7744]

Well I finally got Express Gate to install with Ubuntu! It was actually pretty easy, strange that nobody has posted a how-to yet. I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 x86-64 (though the method should work just as well for 32 Bit)

1. Install wine. I used version 1.1.13, which I got from winehq.org, installation instructions are on the wineHQ site.


2. run the installer from the CD. Accept defaults and click OK, etc. etc until it indicates that it has completed the install successfully.

3. It is now necessary to create an NTFS (or FAT32) partition for the Splashtop install. This must be done from a live CD or USB stick. I set up a usb stick with the 'Desktop' version of Ubuntu 8.10 using Unetbootin for the purpose. Boot into the live environment.

4. start gparted from the live CD (System->Administration->Partition Editor). Create a new partition on your hard drive, type NTFS. I made mine 1.5GB, labeled it "WINDOWS", and gave it the boot flag to be on the safe side. I created mine at the beginning of the drive. This was probably a mistake since the drive is 500GB and the current partition had to be shrunk and moved, it took 20hrs or so. I suggest making it at the end of the drive where the computer has less work to do. When gparted is finished, reboot the computer (remove the live CD) and enter your normal install.

5. Open a terminal window (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and mount the partition. The command will look something like this:
sudo mount.ntfs-3g /dev/sda3 /mnt
where sda3 is the name of the newly created ntfs partition on my computer. It may well have a different name on yours. It will now be mounted in the directory /mnt.

6. copy the 'fake' wine drive c to the newly created WINDOWS partition.
cp -pr ~/.wine/drive_c/* /mnt

7. if you now look in /mnt, you should now find a file called splash.idx. You have to edit this file.
Mine looks like this:

root=UUID=43FE94EC1C4A1BAA
/ASUS.SYS
/ASUS.000

the first line, containing the UUID has to be changed to the UUID of your new ntfs partition. You can find this by typing
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
if you have a number of partitions and aren't sure which is the correct one, note that an NTFS UUID should look similar to mine. The ext3 and swap partitions look something like this: d7a92374-231a-4b45-86db-abc930c5a89c (note the presence of dashes and overall length)
typing 'file 43FE94EC1C4A1BAA' tells me that the UUID points to /dev/sda3 which is what I am looking for.
Now enter the UUID of the appropriate partition into the splash.idx file.

Save everything, close, reboot. If it doesn't work, make sure that the Sata mode in BIOS is set to IDE emulation, otherwise splashtop won't work at all (see the mainboard manual)

8. YAY!

[devolnx]

Tks for this great instruction list. I have just got a ASUS P5Q SE & want to use the Express Gate. (just sucks that a Linux based prgm doesn't run naturally on Ubuntu 8.10)

Went through steps 1 - 6 (step 4 used bootable gParted & put at end as advised) BUT in step 7 I did not get a splash.idx in the /mnt folder. There are two folders, Program files & windows but the file isn't there either. Wine was version 1.01 through the Package Manager.

Searched all file system but no splash.idx. How else can this be created?

So close but so far.

TIA

[devolnx]

I finally got Express Gate to work, very happy now, but it needed a few more steps for this machine.

1) Found out how to make a new splash.idx at here http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?p=52657 and did step 7.

2) Did steps 5 & 6 again then rebooted. BUT the /mnt folder became empty again.

3) So I did 5 & 6 again and copied the Express Gate folder from the MB CD into the /mnt folder.

4) Using Wine I ran the install program accepting OK all the way. I then noticed new files like ASUS.000 & ASUS.SYS & checking the splash.idx, it was different. So putting the correct UUID in place & rebooting, the thing works very well.

Perhaps all that is needed is to do all to step 6, then install the Express Gate using wine, do step 7 & reboot.

Since by chance this one is working now, I am not going to try & undo it to prove a theory, but hope others will try.

Cheers to all & once it is going it does look good.

[SqRt7744]

I'm glad that you didn't have to create the partition at the beginning of the drive. I suspected this wouldn't be necessary, but it's good to know it isn't!

note: mounting the NTFS partition is only necessary to copy the Splashtop install over to the new partition. After a reboot it won't be mounted anymore, which is fine.

[koshari]

any reason the partitioning needs to be done in a live session?

[SqRt7744]

any reason the partitioning needs to be done in a live session?

you can't modify a mounted partition.

[StuartRothrock]

Thanks for the informative post. I removed the windows and Program Files directories and it worked well. I think it was 307MB. It gzipped down to 158MB for safe keeping. Thanks again - You saved me hours!!

Stuart

[Mahyar]

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

I couldn't get Express Gate working with the methods above, so I tried a few different things and came up with this. Note that this is on an Eee Box B202 with Ubuntu Jaunty installed.

1. Create a 1GB NTFS partition at the end of your HDD and give it a "boot" flag (the installation takes 865MB). I called mine ExpressGate and it shows up in Nautilus, but I've set it as unmountable if not root.
2. Download and extract this file: "ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/ExpressGateSSD_ExpressGateV1231.zip".
3. Open ExpressGate(HDD)/ST_ASUSEG00_HD_v1.2.3.1_20080605.EXE with WINE.
4. Copy all the relevant files from /home/username/.wine/drive_c/ to your new NTFS partition. These are directories called ASUS.000, ASUS.SYS and windows, and other files called 1033.MST, Express Gate.msi, splash.idx and version.
5. Open your splash.idx file and do as SqRt7744 suggests in number 7 above. The only change is that there's no need to muck around with /mnt. Do it all on the NTFS partition. In fact, my /mnt is empty.
6. Save and reboot and you should have Express Gate.

The only (quite large) problems are that I can't link my photos directory to the NTFS partition, it won't detect USB drives and it won't pick up my router. It picks up some other networks, so it must have to do with the N standard (which my router doesn't use). I suppose I'll just plug it in.

I hope this helps someone.

Edit: LAN works fine in Express Gate, as do external drives.

[SqRt7744]

has anyone figured out how to change the resolution to a widescreen format? 1440x900 in my case...

[BobGod8]

How did you get past needing a bootloader? All I get is "Bootmgr is missing". I tried installing my own (install-mbr, syslinux, etc.), but just ended up with a screenful of noise.

How did you select the kernel? Do I have to try pointing it to /ASYS.SYS/kernel.bin somehow?