EeePC Linux

A collection of topics related to Linux on EeePC.

Disclaimer:
Please note that all the following is provided without any warranty or guarantee. It's a collection of hints and tips that helped me and might also work for you.

Fedora 10 on EeePC 900

Sometimes also referred to as Eeedora. You may also check the related Fedora Project webpage.
Target for me was to have about same functionality as original Xandros Linux but with a more familiar Fedora way.
This implies also a little more security in user handling.

Preparation

on a Fedora 10 PC:

prepare a Fedora livedisc on USB memory stick

Use yumex to install liveusb-creator

see also: http://lifehacker.com/391067/fedora-9-puts-your-desktop-on-a-usb-drive
I used manual way to create the livedisk including a format of my memory stick first.
see also: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowTo

Result:
a Fedora 10 livedisk on 4GB USB stick with 512MB persistent data area

used some advise from: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=29477

backup of original Xandros

Just in case you'd want to later roll back ...

follow: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/backup_procedure_for_eee_with_xandros and download http://www.glost.eclipse.co.uk/gfoot/eee/eeebackup/ tool.

Eeedora - get it going ...

put USB memory stick into EeePC.
enter bios settings by F2 press during boot
make sure removable device is bootable.

Select boot device on EeePC
Hold ESC during boot to select boot device .. select the USB memory stick .. let it boot.

Within LiveDisk use the icon for "install-to-disk" and install on 16GB SD-card or directly onto build-in SSD.

Some usefull considerations while still on LiveDisk:
install yumex
install ntfs-config (a frontend to enable NTFS read/write on dual-boot PCs)
above goes into the persistant data area on the USB memory stick, i.e. it'll be available also the next time when using the LiveDisk.

personalization

Some first personalizations, I've used. I did change some of them after some time again.

1. System->Preferences->Look&Feel->Screensaver
   remove screen locking

2. • System->Preferences->System->Software Updates
     change to Never - Nothing - Never and remove ticks from both boxes

   • System->Preferences->Personal->Sessions
     un-check "PackageKit Update Applet"

3. System->Prferences->Personal->File Management
   change to "single click" opens

basics

su -
yum intall yumex
rpm -Uvh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-10.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

install via yumex

Some applications I like

• Emacs
• mplayer with GNU frontend
• Blender
• openoffice
• bluefish
• Inkscape
• dia

NFS - file shares

to see exported shares of fileserver type
>/usr/sbin/showmount -e fileserver

added mountpoints in /home as this is on dev/sdb with my configuration and therefore more space was left there.

su
mkdir /home/public-server
emacs /etc/fstab

add lines:
fileserver:/public /home/public-server nfs defaults,nfsvers=3,port=xxxx 0 0

Skype

download RPM from www.skype.com
install from file explorer

configure audio (a little tricky at first)
i've got it working with using

HDA Intel (hw:intel,0)
for all

• Sound In
• Sound Out
• Ringing

in Options menu, Sound Devices.


And set Sound Mixer settings to
HDA Intel (Alsa Mixer)-> Options Input Source to Front Mic

webcam

modprobe uvcvideo (supposedly drivers are installed and simply needs to be loaded)
yumex to install ucview (small webcam application)

Don't forget to check that the camera is enabled in the BIOS.

memory consideration

to ensure sufficient space for applications I use a separate partition for /usr.

ThinkOrSwim - thinkdesktop

login to your ThinkOrSwim account
download installer from https://mediaserver.thinkorswim.com/installer/install.html

yumex to install

• java-1.6.0-openjdk
• java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin

1. download the thinkorswim installer to a directory on your PC.
2. from shell 'cd' to the download directory.
3. sh ./thinkorswim_installer.sh.

Note: requires Java virtual machine.

UMTS 3G modem usage

yumex to install comgt
(control tool for UMTS cards)

also helpfull

• http://www.fedorafaq.org/f10/
• Adobe Flash in browser:
  su
  rpm -Uvh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
  then yumex install flash-plugin (e.g. search for adobe)

freemind

use method as shown at http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/FreeMind_on_Linux#On_any_UN.2AX_kind_of_system_.28also_Linux.29

download the zip package

su
mkdir -p /usr/local/share/freemind
unzip freemind*.zip -d /usr/local/share/freemind
chmod +x /usr/local/share/freemind/freemind.sh
ln -s /usr/local/share/freemind/freemind.sh /usr/local/bin/freemind
exit


create desktop launcher that links to /usr/local/bin/freemind