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View Full Version : Asus eee pc, feasibility of ubuntu?



jgrabham
August 12th, 2007, 03:33 PM
OK, xandros - no thanks : D

So Im thinking of an asus eee PC as a replacement for my thinkpad 600.

How feasible would it be to put ubuntu on it? I really dont like the looks of the OS they're shipping it with - and on top of that its based on xandros - wouldnt touch it with a barge pole!

How easy would it be - would I need an external CD-ROM drive? Would it boot from said drive?

Would I have to get a flash drive (Although with only 4GB ill be looking to keep a 2GB flash drive with it at all times anyway!!)

DalekClock
August 12th, 2007, 03:57 PM
Do you know how to configure the EEE's BIOS? If yes, attach your CD drive and set it to boot from there.

jgrabham
August 13th, 2007, 03:35 AM
Do you know how to configure the EEE's BIOS? If yes, attach your CD drive and set it to boot from there.

So I'd need to buy an external USB CDROM drive??

blithen
August 13th, 2007, 03:48 AM
Why not just make your flash drive bootable with ubuntu on it?

init1
August 13th, 2007, 04:34 AM
OK, xandros - no thanks : D

So Im thinking of an asus eee PC as a replacement for my thinkpad 600.

How feasible would it be to put ubuntu on it? I really dont like the looks of the OS they're shipping it with - and on top of that its based on xandros - wouldnt touch it with a barge pole!

How easy would it be - would I need an external CD-ROM drive? Would it boot from said drive?

Would I have to get a flash drive (Although with only 4GB ill be looking to keep a 2GB flash drive with it at all times anyway!!)
I don't like Xandros either, but I don't know if Ubuntu will recognize the eee pc hard ware.

blithen
August 13th, 2007, 04:35 AM
I don't like Xandros either, but I don't know if Ubuntu will recognize the eee pc hard ware.

That's a good point. Never thought of that.

Kubunteando
August 13th, 2007, 10:58 AM
The Asus EEE PC HW is very Linux friendly, so should be no issues for the HW to be recognized by Ubuntu.

Personaly I think the best option is to boot from a USB stick with Ubuntu on it (assuming that the EEE PC can boot from USB).

The main issue I see is to know what kind of Flash "Hard Drive" the Asus EEE comes with. Because if there are the usual ones, they have a limited number of writing cycles. Meaning that the customized Xandros version will implement some kind of RAM disks to avoid burning it quickly minimizing the number of write operations.

So first we have to know if this is so. This is a very interesting point, because:

1- 512MB of RAM is not much if you need to create "RAM disks"
2- does any have some idea if there are new Flash memories having much higher number if writing cycles?
3- the Operating System a quite intensive in the Hard disk use...

So it would be good to have some info on this point.

PartisanEntity
August 13th, 2007, 12:51 PM
Good questions, I too am interested in the Asus eee pc and have been wondering whether it is/would be, Ubuntu friendly.

popch
August 13th, 2007, 12:56 PM
Good questions, I too am interested in the Asus eee pc and have been wondering whether it is/would be, Ubuntu friendly.

Has anyone here thought of asking Asus?

igknighted
August 13th, 2007, 01:08 PM
You would need the alternate CD I believe, I had an external drive on an old laptop and the live environment could not load because the proper drivers were loaded too late... although now that I think about it, that might have been a PCMCIA drive. Either way, an external drive would be far more expensive than a 1gb USB stick which you could just stick the iso on and boot from that.

PartisanEntity
August 13th, 2007, 08:19 PM
Is this page loading for anyone?

http://eeepc.asus.com/

blithen
August 13th, 2007, 08:24 PM
My friend said(I have NO idea how reliable this is) that you can have Ubuntu on it by request, but I don't think it's true.

init1
August 13th, 2007, 08:38 PM
Is this page loading for anyone?

http://eeepc.asus.com/
Not for me.

jgrabham
August 13th, 2007, 08:39 PM
Not for me.

me neither

popch
August 13th, 2007, 11:13 PM
Is this page loading for anyone?

http://eeepc.asus.com/

That server does not exist.

popch
August 16th, 2007, 02:21 PM
That server does not exist.

Now it does (http://eeepc.asus.com/).

igknighted
August 16th, 2007, 02:36 PM
Now it does (http://eeepc.asus.com/).

F***ing flash... a linux machine and theres a flash website? Give me a break.

popch
August 16th, 2007, 03:04 PM
F***ing flash... a linux machine and theres a flash website? Give me a break.

It becomes obvious that they (Asus) do not use Linux, they just sell machines which contain it.

Much as a fine food vendor may sell products containing caviar which he does not eat himself.

Take a break if you need one.

igknighted
August 16th, 2007, 04:30 PM
It becomes obvious that they (Asus) do not use Linux, they just sell machines which contain it.

Much as a fine food vendor may sell products containing caviar which he does not eat himself.

Take a break if you need one.

Haha, yeah, sorry... thats a "rough day at work + 4 hours sleep" post right there...

Kowalski_GT-R
October 16th, 2007, 06:29 PM
getting there.....

guide (http://eeepc.asus.com/en/guide.htm)

engadget (http://chinese.engadget.com/gallery/eee-pc-hands-on/441993/)


is the flash drive changeable?

PartisanEntity
October 18th, 2007, 11:08 AM
Asus launches tiny PC (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/16/asus_launches_eee_pc/)