EEE PC - Best distro?

[NintendoTogepi]

I'm fairly certain I'm getting an EEE PC for my birthday, however it is only a 4GB one.

I know it comes with Xandros, but I've heard it can be incredibly cluttered, taking up almost the entire hard drive.

Is it better to stick with Xandros or switch?

[CJ Master]

eh... Don't know about Xandros, but if you want a small distro I'd have to recomend "Puppy Linux".

[binbash]

http://www.geteasypeasy.com/

[snowpine]

Congrats on the (potential) new eee!

I have never used Xandros (my eee came with Windows) so I have no comment there. There are lots and lots of distros that work on the eee, and it can be confusing. Check out forum.eeeuser.com for more discussion.

The primary OS on my eee 900ha is Cruncheee. This is a port of Crunchbang (Ubuntu 8.10 + Openbox) specifically for the eee. It will fit on the 4g with room to spare.

The most popular distro right now over on eeeuser.com seems to be eeebuntu 8.10. I've been told the Base version fits on 4g. It has a more traditional Gnome destkop, if you're into that.

Xubuntu also fits onto 4g. It won't work with wireless and stuff, but you can fix that easily by installing the array.org kernel.

Ubuntu-eee 8.04 was the first distro I tried when I got my eee. It uses the netbook remix interface and is pretty stable.

Honorable mention goes to Puppy linux. It supports the eee with one tiny little tweak (wireless driver). It's a tiny OS (less than 100mb) and very fast.

So really, it comes down to which interface you prefer. Are you into Xfce, Gnome, Openbox, NBR...?

[dannytatom]

I don't know much about Xandros, but you could give Cruncheee (http://crunchbanglinux.org/wiki/applications#cruncheee_eee_pc_edition) a shot. Uses openbox as the WM, with a good selection of internety apps.

[Polygon]

my dad got one yesterday actually and he was fooling around with a linux distro called 'crunchbang linux' or something. might want to check that out

[wolfen69]

i hear Eeebuntu (http://www.eeebuntu.org/) is pretty good. they have 3 different versions.

[cmay]

i had xandros for two hours on mine. its a night mare and i do not like it. its slow compared other distros too. even linpus lite is faster than that from live usb. i recomend using something else than xandros on the EeePC.

i found links for installing known distros on the EeePC here http://www.linuxpusher.com/links.php?&lPath=2_3

i could recommend trying the debian install since the harddrive is so small you may need or want the control it gives to install debian from "scratch" with this small installer image but to be fair i did not yet try this since my EeePC is happy with crunch bang the ordinary version that i installed the eee kernel and i have 8 giga byte harddrive so i am dong just fine up to now.

i would like to say i did try at least once to install the debian so i know how its like when i recomemmend it. just so you know i did not try it out for my self yet.

there is also the option to use the minimal ubuntu install cd and install the eee kernel by your self instead of the regular ubuntu kernel if you wnat to do a small custom setup on this machine.

[wolfen69]

i could recommend trying the debian install since the harddrive is so small you may need or want the control it gives to install debian from "scratch" with this small installer image

there is also DebianEeePC (http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC). worked great for me until i got bored and uninstalled it.

[bobisculous]

I had 3 Operating Systems on my old Eee 701.

Xandros, default. Was alright, but not enough options for me. Fairly fast though IIRC.

eeeXubuntu. Fast once booted up. Wasnt as quick as you would like for booting, but still started in under a minute. More options and more you can do with Xubuntu.

Ubuntu Eee. This one had the netbook remix. I really did not like it at all. Was way too slow to boot and to even navigate. Xubuntu performed way better. Of course there are reasons for that, to some though, that reason is strictly eye candy.

Of the three I had on it, I liked Xubuntu the most. Still had plenty of space on the HDD after I installed. By plently I mean more than 2GB. Stayed clean and simple.

Now I am onto a 1000HA Eee machine running Windows XP and Eeebuntu IIRC. Good stuff there. Just a normal Gnome interface but with all the Eee related drivers and programs installed from the get go. Not sure how well it works on an earlier Eee. Never got around to trying before I sold my 701.

-cameron

[Takmadeus]

Well, I used to use Ubuntu-eee before my Eee broke, and although it runs somewhat slow, it kicks **** ;)

[Cope57]

Linpus Lite (http://www.linpus.com/products_1.php) or Crunchbang Linux (http://crunchbanglinux.org/) would be my choices.
But then again, the freedom to choose is yours as anybody else. You could accept what it comes with, or select one of your own.
Enjoy the freedom of choice, and choose one for yourself...

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2472/dwbannernr8.png (http://distrowatch.com/)

[NintendoTogepi]

Which is the best of the distros for these purposes:


Simple, not too bloated or large
Very quick, boots up fast
Good for browsing internet
Doesn't suck up too much battery life
Easy to use


I'm not looking to spend a lot of time tweaking, breaking and fixing this computer. I have other computers for that. This is just to surf the internet on the go and for IM, maybe a few other simple things.

Should I just stick with Xandros?

[Zlatan]

Which is the best of the distros for these purposes:


Simple, not too bloated or large
Very quick, boots up fast
Good for browsing internet
Doesn't suck up too much battery life
Easy to use


I'm not looking to spend a lot of time tweaking, breaking and fixing this computer. I have other computers for that. This is just to surf the internet on the go and for IM, maybe a few other simple things.

Should I just stick with Xandros?

Yes. Stick with it then.
Anyway- you can get rid of it anytime:) Or keep it if you like it.

[t0p]

I own a 4G Eee PC. It came with XanDROSS installed - I soon scraped that off my SSD! Since then it's been Ubuntu - first Hardy, now Intrepid - and it's fan-bleeding-tastic!

I don't use eeebuntu or ubuntu-eee - it's regular ubuntu, modified by way of the riceeey script. You can find plenty of info and advice at the EeeUser Forums (http://forum.eeeuser.com/) and at eee.ricey.co.uk (http://eee.ricey.co.uk/).

[cmay]

my dad got one yesterday actually and he was fooling around with a linux distro called 'crunchbang linux' or something. might want to check that out

on my asus 701sd it found all hardware and works out of the box. it had one tweaking to do as i used the ordinary installer (since cruncheee was not out yet) and that was to add the respotoris to the eeekernel and install it to through apt-get. i still use that installtion and i use it mainly for skype.

i think as i been playing around with live versions from usb stick testing different ubuntu based distros for asus eee pc that its the most suitable for that model i have of eeepc.

i personally reccomend that one very much but i am not sure how its like on a smaller hardrive such as 4 gigabyte and i cant say how its working on ohter models than 701sd.

[BigSilly]

We have a 4G Eee701 Surf (well, it's my daughters actually), and I tried out quite a few different distros. EeeBuntu was the best of the lot imho. Ubuntu-Eee wouldn't even install at first, but when I did get it going it just didn't seem as complete as EeeBuntu.

Either is better than the default Xandros, though they do take a little longer to boot up. It's a price worth paying I reckon.

[wmcbrine]

Xandros on a 4 GB drive -- at least the version that came with my 900a -- is a disaster. There's so little free space left that if you just try to install the system's own recommended updates, the drive fills up. And guess what happens then? You can't boot! Oh, that was fun.

I'm currently running Ubuntu Eee 8.04 and am much happier, although now I wonder if I'll be able to upgrade it properly (to Easy Peasy), or if I even should, or should switch to Eeebuntu or something else.

[Johnsie]

I have a 4gb model. I use regular Ubuntu 8.10. I tried Xandros, and puppy etc but preferred Ubuntu. The main problem I have is disk space. I have compressed everything in /usr and that gives me about 2gb of free space. As I update software that space fills up so I need to recompress /usr every so often (to do that I need to have about 800mb).

I would love my eeepc if it had a better ssd because it runs really well and the screen has taken a good beating. The click button on my trackpad is broken though and I have had to use cellotape to hold it in place. So far I havent been able to find a replacement part.

btw... Ubuntu 8.10 has driver modules specific to the EEEPC that weren't in 8.04 or previous versions of Ubuntu. So pretty much everything works out of the box.

[cmay]

Xandros on a 4 GB drive -- at least the version that came with my 900a -- is a disaster. There's so little free space left that if you just try to install the system's own recommended updates, the drive fills up. And guess what happens then? You can't boot! Oh, that was fun.

I'm currently running Ubuntu Eee 8.04 and am much happier, although now I wonder if I'll be able to upgrade it properly (to Easy Peasy), or if I even should, or should switch to Eeebuntu or something else.

those eeepc are very very popular in my hometown. so i figured i would try follow the instructions on how to make a full desktop so i could write it down and show others how its done when they get tired of the default theme and the big icons.

the first step was to upgrade. when i did that the screen was black and all menu and stuff was missing. i could go into a terminal using the keys ctrl+alt+t but that was it. it was after two hours of usage and i figure it does not matter anyway.
i can install many ohter linux distros for other people instead since i have the iso images downloaded and i have unetbooting ready. so it wont take me that long.

[gjoellee]

It is all about your needs, but in my opinion: Get rid of Xandros, install something else!

[snowpine]

An interesting tutorial for those with small drives:

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=55247

(haven't tried it personally since my eee has 160gb)

[speedwell68]

EasyPeasy FTW. Got it on my Acer One and it rocks. Done a bit of tweaking and it seems quick and stable.

[banjobacon]

I'd like to know people's reasons for recommending one distro over another. For example, what's the difference between Eeebuntu and Easy Peasy? I know Cruncheee is Ubuntu with OpenBox as a window manager; is there anything else to Crunchee?

[Grant A.]

Arch (http://www.archlinux.org/)?

[Zip247]

Just got my eeepc 1000 yesterday. Have installed easy peasy on it and am loving it. I need to go buy a usb mouse, I cant stand any touchpads. The only thing that will mess with me is the right shift key.

wdecker

[PointyWombat]

gOS works very well on the EeePC... www.thinkgos.com

[snowpine]

I'd like to know people's reasons for recommending one distro over another. For example, what's the difference between Eeebuntu and Easy Peasy? I know Cruncheee is Ubuntu with OpenBox as a window manager; is there anything else to Crunchee?

I can't speak for others; my distro recommendations are based on personal experience testing these distros on my eee.

What you will find with all of these "unoffical" distros is that they have varying degrees of community support, frequency of updates, updates & bug fixes, etc. You have to take that into consideration as well.

So I chose Cruncheee for a number of reasons. First and foremost, because I was already using Crunchbang on my desktop. Second, because it has a very active and friendly community. Finally, because its "minimalist" philosophy really resonates with me.

Really the best thing you can do is get some SD cards or blank CDs and test out the distros for yourself. It's impossible to capture the subtle differences between them in a couple of paragraphs. :)

[t0p]

A piece of advice for anyone (like the OP) who's getting/got a 4G Eee PC: beware of updates! The SSD will fill in no time. I deactivated the update notifier, and I just don't bother with them at all. But it might be a good idea to look at the updates on offer and go with the security ones. Still, I think you'll be forced to juggle a lot of files...

Also, if that 4GB SSD is still too small: you can get SD cards with extra capacity (SDXC I think) - up to 8 GB I believe. I've got a 4 GB card permanently in my Eee PC, and the riceeey script I mentioned in my previous post includes a feature to automount the card on boot.

[gloscherrybomb]

I have an eeepc 701 (4gb) (which I love!) and run eeebuntu 8.10.

I set the home folder to the expansion memory card (I have an 8gb SD) so the main internal memory is only programmes and updates.

eeebuntu comes with all the configurations required so everything works out the box.

To minimise SD card wear and to speed up the system I dont have a swap space, and have also disabled writing of temporary files by firefox.

As I say, getting this eeepc for £150 was the best purchase I ever made!

Apparently (for UK users) Asda are selling the acer aspire one for £150 now as well.

[cmay]

I'd like to know people's reasons for recommending one distro over another. For example, what's the difference between Eeebuntu and Easy Peasy? I know Cruncheee is Ubuntu with OpenBox as a window manager; is there anything else to Crunchee?
i have only tried actual install of crunch bang on my asus. i did it because it was the only one that just worked out of hte box on my asus model 701sd. since i started to use this distro i switced to crunch bang on a ordinary computer i have and i started to use openbox or lxde on my older computers.

i like to have the easy configuration as openbox gives me. one thing i like about crunch bang is that the programs installed per default is pretty much something i can use all of it and those things i dont need i uninstall.

i like the bin folder in home where the terminal executes the scripts i place in there and the way i can remove the wallpapers and place my own instead and remove the default gdm theme and use my own custom made gdm theme so easy actracts me a lot.

i know that this distribution has become very popular and it seems that it fits well with most laptops. so i guess its a good and actually very stable distribution .

i use my asus mainly for skype and for when i go to the hospital . so i needed a little distro that was fun to play with but had the applications that i would need when i am away from home for while and it should not be totally unstable or too experimenting.

i think crunch bang fits me that way better than i would think the other distros i tested from live usb first was not so much what i needed . i tried eeebuntu and ubuntueee. i tried eeexubuntu and plain ubuntu. i tried to run a live cd with my 64studio but that was not going to work.

[banjobacon]

It'll be about a week before my Eee PC 901 arrives, so I can't test any of these distros out yet. I'm leaning towards Crunchee. I remember having a pretty positive reason with Openbox, though I stopped using it a long time ago for some reason.

I also find Easy Peasy and Eeebuntu appealing because they come with the Netbook Remix interface installed by default, though if I really wanted that I could just install it on Crunchee.

[Carl H]

I've got one of the first 701 2G models, and most of the time I've had it, it's been running the default Xandros OS in Advanced Mode.

It's a bit difficult to install another distro because there's not enough room on the SSD, and installing onto an SDHC card made it run noticeably slower. The wireless is usually patchy too.

Can anyone recommend a small distro (i.e. that will fit into 2Gb) that just works out of the box on the 701 2G EeePC? All I want is a browser, email program, photo viewer, text editor, and Python.

I already tried Puppy Linux, and failed at the first hurdle when it claimed my USB stick was duff and refused to continue. Eeebuntu 7.10 was unimpressive too.

[der_joachim]

I second the Arch suggestion. It does require some tinkering (a full 15 minutes for me;)), but arch gave me one thing that any other distros could not: a 15 second boot time. That was the only good thing about Xandros.

Read this wiki page (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installing_Arch_Linux_on_the_Asus_EEE_PC) for instructions on installing arch on a 700 series EEEPC.

[cmay]

It'll be about a week before my Eee PC 901 arrives, so I can't test any of these distros out yet. I'm leaning towards Crunchee. I remember having a pretty positive reason with Openbox, though I stopped using it a long time ago for some reason.

I also find Easy Peasy and Eeebuntu appealing because they come with the Netbook Remix interface installed by default, though if I really wanted that I could just install it on Crunchee.
i did try to do that for the fun of it but it did not work for me. i think that the netbook interface needs compiz and something else that open-box do not provide. maybe i was just being unlucky. however you can of course install gnome and the netbook interface instead of using open-box. it takes more space and it uses more ram this way as a downside to it.

[snowpine]

I am pretty sure the netbook remix interface requires Gnome and does not work with Compiz.

[NintendoTogepi]

bump

[NTolerance]

I have a 900A with the 4GB SSD. I wanted a Ubuntu-based distro so I tried out Easy Peasy and Eeebuntu (http://www.eeebuntu.org/). Easy Peasy took up at least 85% of my SSD. It included a lot of questionable apps installed by default such as Songbird (wtf?). It also had some strange bugs, such as icons for XFCE4 Terminal not displaying. I then tried out Eeebuntu base and have been quite happy with it. It is very clean and only has a handful of apps installed by default. I added a few apps along with the Netbook Remix interface as described here (http://www.ubuntumini.com/2008/10/installing-ubuntu-netbook-remix.html). It only takes up about 50% of my SSD.

[Carl H]

I've got one of the first 701 2G models

I checked at the weekend, and it's actually a 2G Surf model. I don't know if that makes it a 700 or a 701 or what. 2Gb SSD, no webcam.

Did these have different wireless chips to the later ones?

Reason I ask is that every distro apart from the default Xandros one has been a bit flakey with the wifi.

[NintendoTogepi]

I second the Arch suggestion. It does require some tinkering (a full 15 minutes for me;)), but arch gave me one thing that any other distros could not: a 15 second boot time. That was the only good thing about Xandros.

Read this wiki page (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installing_Arch_Linux_on_the_Asus_EEE_PC) for instructions on installing arch on a 700 series EEEPC.

700...I think the one I'm getting is a 900. Does the wiki still apply?

[Divider]

Hands down, full intrepid and the eeepc 2.6 pre-compiled kernel (LEAN!)

its a beast, power management works, and ALL drivers.

[der_joachim]

700...I think the one I'm getting is a 900. Does the wiki still apply?

For my 900 it did, since the 900 is a 70x with a bigger screen and more SSD space.
However, if I were you, I'd buy a 901. The battery life on the 900 is poor. The 901 has no such flaw. Furthermore, the processor is a celeron-M, whereas the 901 has an Atom.

Just my 2 cents.

[Johnsie]

Intrepid. If you've only got 4gb then compress /usr

Prospective buyers definitely should go for larger than 4gb now that the bigger drived ones are a bit cheaper. 4gb is pushing it.

[jay576]

Intrepid. If you've only got 4gb then compress /usr

Prospective buyers definitely should go for larger than 4gb now that the bigger drived ones are a bit cheaper. 4gb is pushing it.

The 4GB was fine when their wasn't anything else available for a similar price point but it is very small and not that I recommend it or that you will need it, a swap partition would even make that smaller.

The default Xandros was pretty annoying. I used it for a few months, I couldn't stand it when I switched.
There are a lot of ubuntu based flavors designed for the EEE now. I haven't tried the newer ones but eeexubuntu was alright and so were the eee scripts with your own install which I preferred.
Mandriva worked out of the box on my 4g and has claimed out of the box support for a lot of netbooks in the 2008 and 2009 releases. I still haven't switched from this but I don't really like Mandriva after trying it but that was just preference.

[wmcbrine]

Intrepid. If you've only got 4gb then compress /usrHow do you compress it?

[NintendoTogepi]

So once again, not to be a pain, which distro is best if I want something relatively easy, very lean and very speedy?

I don't want something with any more then the essential programs. No Openoffice or such. I'm fine with any DE.

Is Linpus good?

[oupsemma]

How do you compress it?
Just follow that tutorial: http://po-ru.com/diary/linux-liposuction-or-xubuntu-in-under-a-gig-on-the-eee-pc/.

You can also move your /usr on a SD card, I've been doing it on my 701, and now have a lot of free space.(2.7 GB on SSD, 1.8 GB on SD card).
The tutorial is in French: http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/deplacer_repertoire_usr
there's another one in English: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1048874

[NintendoTogepi]

bump

[NTolerance]

bump

There's plenty of suggestions here. Did you read my post?

[will1911a1]

I left the default Xandros install on my EEE. Everything works, nothing needs fixed. I don't feel the need at all to replace it.

I briefly considered installing a different distro but couldn't justify the time spend doing so.

[snowpine]

bump

Not sure why you're bumping; you have 5 pages of good responses... do you have any questions about the advice I gave you two weeks ago in post #4?

[thisllub]

http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090209
http://distrowatch.com/moblin


I booted it and installed Moblin to the internal flash drive. The installer was very simple, taking just a few clicks and was also very fast. After only a few minutes, I was ready to boot into my freshly installed system. This time, booting from the internal flash drive was over three times as fast as booting from the card, taking just 10 seconds from boot to desktop. That's pretty impressive.

[inuit-joe]

I got my eee (actuly its a MSI u100) it came with XP but im dual booting with easypeasy i found it to work great and its speacially sesined for epcs

[inuit-joe]

I got my eee (actuly its a MSI u100) it came with XP but im dual booting with easypeasy i found it to work great and its especially designed for epcs

[michaelzap]

Crunchee runs beautifully on my 4G 701 Eee. Ubuntu also worked well enough, but #! is dramatically faster. Xandros made me feel as if I were using an Etch-A-Sketch instead of a laptop, although it did boot very fast.

[m_duck]

+1 for Cruncheee. I installed it a couple of days ago and it's nice and quick and everything seems to be working OOTB - I'm also a sucker for openbox. I was originally running Intrepid with the array.org lean kernel but that wasn't as quick. I assume that was mostly down to GNOME but I can be lazy at times and couldn't be bothered changing it.

Eeepc 1000 btw.

[mpc350]

A piece of advice for anyone (like the OP) who's getting/got a 4G Eee PC: beware of updates! The SSD will fill in no time. I deactivated the update notifier, and I just don't bother with them at all. But it might be a good idea to look at the updates on offer and go with the security ones. Still, I think you'll be forced to juggle a lot of files...

Also, if that 4GB SSD is still too small: you can get SD cards with extra capacity (SDXC I think) - up to 8 GB I believe. I've got a 4 GB card permanently in my Eee PC, and the riceeey script I mentioned in my previous post includes a feature to automount the card on boot.

The high capacity SD cards are called SDHC. I found a 16GB one for under $30 at an online retailer that ends with "egg".

I'm using eeebuntu and the major + for me is EVERYTHING worked perfectly out of the box. After several days of trying different distros, eeebuntu so far seems a good choice; great user interface, stability, comes with just the right apps that I will actually use. I spent like 5 minutes I also have the 4GB SSD and it is 70% full with just the OS. That is around 850MB free now. My only two concerns: how many updates can I do before I fill it up? It's not that snappy to boot. ~a minute or so. But boot time (within reason) doesn't bother me because it suspends / wakes up really well.

[myusername]

jaunty

[NintendoTogepi]

I'm currently using Eeebuntu base with a few programs added on - it works splendidly.

[Smeags]

Hands down, full intrepid and the eeepc 2.6 pre-compiled kernel (LEAN!)

its a beast, power management works, and ALL drivers.

Divider,

I'm pretty new to Linux, I've been using Ubuntu 8.10 for a few months now, but I'm interested in getting a netbook and running Linux on it at some point in the near future. I was wondering if you could explain how to set up full Intrepid with the eeepc 2.6 pre-compiled kernel that you mentioned. That sounds like a setup I'd be really interested in using.

[Daisuke_Aramaki]

I currently run Lunar Linux on my EEE1000H. Works great, fast, and boots to login in 14 seconds.

[dcherryholmes]

I just booted off the Moblin Live Image v2 (http://moblin.org/documentation/test-drive-moblin/using-moblin-live-image)

This thing *screams*. I had been running Easy Peasy 1.0 and it was.... OK. I mean, it was great in the sense that all the hardware on my 900A worked out of the box, no tweaking required. But it felt... sluggish. I thought maybe it was due to the Atom, or maybe it was due to a crappy SSD. I scoured the net and applied all the tweaks I could find for the OS and for Firefox, and that all helped a little.

I no longer think it's hardware related. Unfortunately, this Moblin-based OS is xfce, which no matter how hard I try to love it, I just can't quite get there. I'd really like to be running Netbook Remix on top of this, and maybe that's possible. But anyway, the speed improvements from Moblin are amazing. Good times ahead.

[Maupertus]

I just got my Eee 904HA this friday. It's currently running XP (which I actually don't hate, I cleaned it up and is actually pretty lean and mean)
but I really want to use it for linux as well.

But I'm a little bit anxious about a couple of things, could someone help me with these questions? It's a Atom with 160gigs of HD
- Battery life, I have a six cell battery, would running Linux instead of XP have any effect on battery life, as XP comes with Asus made powersavers as the "SuperHybrid Engine" (although I think it's just a power usage profile manager)

- I've been reading about a lot of problems with WiFi, especially with the newer models as they have an obscure Ralink card?

- Is there any work or progress on a kernel that's specific for the Atom platform?

- Will the hardware buttons (that I actually use :) ) still work under linux?

- Will I still have a multitouch touchpad?

I'm not a n00b to Ubuntu and such, but it's just that I actually love this little thing, and it's the first time in years that I haven't hated Windows ;)

[Orlsend]

I say eeebuntu. the Standard edittion. My friend has a sister with a eeepc and he uses easypeasy and he still srtuggling with wireless.

For me Eeebuntu worked Out-Of-The-Box. Its bit bloated in the seesions, but a few clicks make it a nice eee distro! I use a 900HA. Its not even in thee list of supported models but its works flawlessly.

[Rotaj]

Consider giving sidux a try. Even the KDE version is fast.

Use the cheatcodes vga=788 DPI=96 to get the screen right.