ASUS EEE Box

[Saiing]

So the ASUS EEE Box is available, and looks like a reasonable spec machine with a nice footprint and low power consumption. I need a small form factor server fairly urgently. As you're probably aware, ASUS has rather disappointed the Linux community by releasing a Windows only version of the box first (with a Linux version to follow later). However, due to the pressing commitments of a project, I don't really have the time to wait for the Linux box to arrive, so I'm probably going to buy the launch model and put Linux on it myself.

My question essentially is: Is there anything about the basic spec of the EEE Box that might cause me problems when trying to install Ubuntu? I'm not too concerned about small details (e.g. if the card reader didn't function it wouldn't be an issue because it's going to be a small dev server).

FYI to save you the trouble of looking stuff up, the rough spec is as below (some parts I don't know the specific make/model):

Processor: Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz, FSB 533)

Memory: DDRII-400 512 MB / 1 GB

Storage: Seagate 2.5" 80 GB Low power HD

Chipset: 945GSE + ICH7M

VGA: On-board Intel GMA 950

Networking: 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN, 802.11n WLAN

SD/MMC/MS slot: SD, SDHC, Mini SD, (Micro SD through adapter) ; MMC, MMC plus, MMC4.x, RS MMC, RSMMC4.x (MMC mobile through adapter);MS,MS PRO

Audio: Azalia ALC888 Audio Chip

Front Ports:
USB x 2
Card Reader x 1
Headphone-out jack (WO/SPDIF) x 1
MIC x 1

Rear Ports:
USB 2.0 x 2
Gigabit LAN x 1
DVI out x 1
Line-Out (L/R) with S/PDIF x 1
WiFi antenna

[indiekid97]

I know it's not much help, but I can verify that Ubuntu recognizes the integrated graphics. I have the same chipset on a budget box. This probably doesn't help much for what your using it for, but I thought I'd let you know anyway.

[Saiing]

No really, thanks - that's exactly the kind of comment I'm looking for. While it doesn't guarantee trouble free installation, it at least helps to identify whether or not the key components are supported.

[RedPandaFox]

Oh heck yes! I have been waiting for the Eee Box for months, I'm going to sell one of my 2 eeepcs for it. Anyone want a 2gb eeepc surf?
It shouldn't have any problems with Ubuntu from what I see, Hell, I got Ubuntu working on a G3 mac so I don't see why that will stop it?

[anontrol]

I've been working with an Intel D945GCLF board trying to get a general feeling for how well Ubuntu works with it. I'm running 2GB of RAM and 32GB transcend SSD with an Aterhos based PCI wireless card (not using the wireless for general network access).

My initial assesment was that Ubuntu + firefox = unusable. I would get grey "I'm busy go away" screens that seemed to be associated with disk writes. I went through the standard disk activity minimization tweeks with no improvment. In addition the wireless card was not recognized. I moved to Opera to continue my assesment, but still ran in to frequent grey screens because of disk activity.

On a whim, I decided to upgrade the BIOS (looks like Intel has gotten smart and is distributing their BIOS upgrade as bootable .iso images... nice). Anyway, that help a little (boot up was faster and certain types of disk access no longer produce grey screens) and my wireless hardware was finally recognized; however, I still get occassional grey screens every couple of minutes when there seems to be a huge block of disk activity (file system journaling?). Firefox is still pretty much unusable.

My recomendation would be to first upgrade the BIOS, then try some disk access tweeks: http://www.kaobear.com/2008/07/30/re...ity-in-ubuntu/ . If that doesn't get the system usable, then I'd recomend looking at moving away from a journaling filesystem (but I haven't tried that yet as my system is now relatively usable under Opera).

You'd think Intel/Ubuntu would get more involved, but it's obvious that they're not particularly serious about making sure their lower end stuff is super usable. In 12 to 18 months, these Atom based systems are going to be everywhere...

[Saiing]

Well, I managed to find a supplier that would sell me the Box only, minus the bundled copy of Windows for 50 bucks less, so I ordered one. Should arrive in the next couple of days.

If I discover anything useful I'll report back.

[RedPandaFox]

Where did you find the supplier and for how much? My supplier can only get them for $500 AUD with Windows and no peripherals. He gets his stuff from multiple suppliers but that's the best he can do. What happened to the announcement of $200-300 eeeBox?

[Saiing]

I got it from ebay from a supplier in Taiwan called e-bagel. Price was US$300. When I ordered he obviously had a few because he asked me if I wanted a black or white one. Delivery was prompt.

OK - Progress so far on my Ubuntu Install (copied from a forum post I made on another forum):

Downloaded the standard 8.04.1 iso because I heard that the .1 update has better Intel Atom support to see if it would install 'out of the box' so to speak.

Decided on an external USB CD install since I had a spare drive lying around. Put CD in drive. Started EEE Box. Splashtop came up. Chose the exit to OS option. Ubuntu main install menu came up. Chose install. My Apple Mac Pro keyboard was detected fine. It tried to start the graphical installer, failed, black screen. Finished.

Kicked myself and downloaded the alternate iso with the text based installer.

Ubuntu installed without any issues, ejected the CD, restarted.

Ubuntu startup screen came up with the progress bar, got to 100%, screen went black. Nothing further.

Rebooted, pulled up the grub boot menu. Dropped into root shell. Tried 'startx' - X server wasn't starting properly (which presumably was the reason the graphical installer failed before).

Tried reconfiguring with dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. Didn't give me many options - just keyboard config really. No help.

Manually edited xorg.conf - changed the driver setting to vesa. Tried starting the X server again. Success!

Shut down the x server, rebooted, Ubuntu started up, login window appeared, logged in, network is running, resolution set automatically at 1600x1200. Currently downloading system updates.

[RedPandaFox]

Yeah, something I noticed with my eeepc, it may be a coincidence but X always has problems, could it be coincidental or maybe because of such cheep parts?

[Saiing]

Things are working pretty well now. Set up the standard LAMP configuration, SSH server etc. I'm running it as a headless server, so I configured the remote desktop and it's working absolutely fine. Very fast response when I open a VNC window from my Mac.