Ubuntu on the Eee PC 900
I’ve had an Eee PC 900 for several weeks now, and really like it. I definitely couldn’t use it as a machine on which to do major programming or web development; however, it’s great to have for traveling. For the lower price and slightly larger amount of storage, I opted to go with the Linux model. The distribution of Linux that ships with the device, a customed Xandros installation, isn’t bad, but I wasn’t a huge fan of it so I installed Ubuntu in place of it.
There were a few things that needed customization after the installation, so I’ve attempted to summarize them all here. In the future, I may add some additional posts on this topic as there are a couple of things that still don’t work quite right. Overall, it’s fine for now.
Prerequisites
Pre-installation
After installing Ubuntu, my ethernet card didn’t work. To fix this, I turned off the Eee PC, removed the battery, replaced the battery, and turned the machine back on. It worked fine and has ever since. Obviously, this resets something internally. Additionally, not everyone has experienced this issue, but for the sake of completeness I wanted to include it here.
Installation
I’m assuming that you have access to an ethernet connection. Wireless isn’t supported out of the box and there are numerous updates that are required after initially installing Ubuntu 8.04. If you don’t have access to an ethernet cable, skip down to the Wireless section for instructions on how to get Wireless working - you’ll need to obtain the driver on a USB key or flash drive. You can still perform all of the steps listed here, but you’re going to have to re-install the Wireless card after some of the updates complete.
When performing the installation, most of the default operations will suffice; however, there are a couple of things to modify with respect to partitioning that may ultimately increase performance. First off, do not create a swap partition. For the amount of RAM in the machine, you’re not likely to need a swap partition. Additionally, a swap partition is subject to many read/write operations and the frequency of these operations can decrease the lifetime of solid-state drives. Secondly, opt to use the ext2 file system. Apparently, the ext2 file system requires fewer read/writes than the ext3 file system.
Post-installation Updates
Following the initial installation of the operating system, it’s best to grab all of the most recent updates. Connect the Eee PC to an ethernet cable and, permitting you’re connected to the internet, Synaptic should automatically detect and list all of the updates required. Install every one of them (this step will take sometime), and then reboot the machine.
Important Note
If, after any update, the wireless card stops working, simply reinstall it as per the directions here. The card will stop working if a new kernel is installed, so its simply a matter of reinstalling the module.
The Major Fixes
Getting the device to correctly shutdown
Initially, Ubuntu will not shutdown correctly. Though the screen blanks and the device appears to be off, it still holds power. This is a result of the operating system failing to correctly disable the sound card. To fix this, open the halt script in your favorite text editor:
$ sudo gedit /etc/init.d/halt
Find the function do_stop() and then find the line that reads if [ "$INIT_HALT" = "" ]. Right after the functions signature and right above the conditional, add this line so that the script appears like this:
do_stop() {
rmmod snd-hda-intel
if [ "$INIT_HALT" = "" ]
…}
The Eee PC should now properly shutdown.
How to configure the wireless card
To get the wireless card working, a couple of packages need to be removed because they conflict with the wireless drivers that will be used. To remove these packages, do this:
$ sudo update-rc.d -f linux-restricted-modules-common remove
and update the packages list:
$ sudo apt-get update
Now install the wireless driver. First, download the driver by issuing these commands:
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
$ wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3698-20080604.tar.gz
Secondly, untar the archive and enter the directory. Compile the driver and install the kernel module:
$ tar zxvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3698-20080604.tar.gz
$ cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3698-20080604
$ make clean
$ make
$ sudo make install
Finally, reboot the machine. Once you log back into Ubuntu, you should see wireless networks available in Network Manager.
Installing ACPI
ACPI will enable better power management by conserving energy when the system is idle. Some custom modules have been created to help with this so it’s a simple matter of downloading the modules and installing them. Here are the commands:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install -y -f build-essential module-assistant eeepc-acpi-source –force=yes
$ sudo m-a a-i eeepc-acpi
$ sudo cp /etc/modules ~/modules.tmp
$ sudo chmod 777 ~/modules.tmp
$ sudo chmod 644 ~/modules.tmp
$ sudo mv ~/modules.tmp /etc/modules
Restoring HotKey Functionality
The following fix will restore the functionality from the hot keys as well as restore the on-screen display for each of the actions. For example, you’ll be able to disable wireless (Fn+F2), control volume, (Fn+F7), or suspend the device (Fn+F1). Again, much of the work has already been done. Issue the following commands to download the package and install it:
$ wget http://eee-osd.googlecode.com/files/eee-osd_2.1-0eeeXubuntu1_i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i eee-osd_2.1-0eeeXubuntu1_i386.deb
Restoring Webcam Functionality
The webcam is broken after an initial installation; however, as with the past couple of scripts, some modules have already been written that make it really easy to restore functionality. Before grabbing the necessary modules to fix the webcam, you need to make sure you’ve got subversion installed so that you can pull files from the module’s repository. To install subversion, do this:
$ sudo apt-get install subversion
Next, download and install the necessary modules by issuing the following commands to fix the webcam:
$ svn co svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk linux-uvc
$ cd linux-uvc
$ sudo make
$ sudo make install
$ sudo modprobe -r uvcvideo
$ sudo mv /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ubuntu/media/usbvideo/uvcvideo.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ubuntu/media/usbvideo/uvcvideo.ko.original
$ sudo cp uvcvideo.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ubuntu/media/usbvideo/uvcvideo.ko
$ sudo modprobe uvcvideo
I myself don’t use Skype, so I’ve little use for Ekiga. I still wanted to use my webcam, so I downloaded and installed the Cheese application. To download Cheese, do this:
$ sudo apt-get install cheese
Once it has been installed, you should be able to access it via the Applications | Graphics menu.
Restoring sound after suspend
Suspending the Eee PC works fine; however, once the machine resumes, sound no longer works. The tweak I’m providing isn’t perfect - Gnome sounds still do not work after resuming from suspend, but all other sounds (MP3s, etc) work fine.
Open the alsa configuration file by doing this:
$ sudo gedit /etc/default/alsa
and modify the force_unload_modules line to read like this:
force_unload_modules_before_suspend=”snd_hda_intel”
If you know how to restore Gnome sounds, please leave a comment.
The Minor Tweaks
Reducing the amount of read/writes in swap
If you ended up going with a swap partition, you can reduce the swappiness by modifying one of the configuration files on your file system. To reduce the amount of operations, do this:
$ sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf
and add this line to the very bottom of the file:
$ vm.swappiness=0
Unconstrain windows to the top of the screen
With a 1024×600 resolution, some applications are going to be ‘taller’ than others. In order to access some of the options hidden via the bottom of the screen, it helps to make the windows draggable so that you can move them upwards. By default, windows cannot be dragged higher than the top of the screen. To remove this constrait, enter this into a terminal:
$ gconftool-2 –set /apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options/constrain_y –type bool 0
Hide the battery warning
Although Gnome correctly reports the status of the battery, it shows a warning about 0% being available right after installation. To hide this message, enter this into a terminal:
$ gconftool-2 –set /apps/gnome-power-manager/notify/low_capacity –type bool 0
After rebooting, the message should no longer appear.
My Suggestions
Hide the volume control applet
The volcume control applet doesn’t correctly reflect the state of the audio hardware if it has been manipulated via the hot keys. I personally use the hotkeys to control the sound, so I removed the volume control applet from my panel. Now there’s one less thing cluttering my tray.
Unused applications
Because I don’t use Skype and I tend to use web-based email clients, I uninstalled Ekiga and and Evolution. I don’t need them and this frees up a little bit more space on the hard disk.
What Doesn’t Work
It’s broken - why?
At the time of this post, hibernate nor the microphone work. Because I don’t really need these two features, it doesn’t really bother me; however, if a fix does exist, please leave a comment - I’d like to keep this as complete as possible and having a fully working system (regardless of if I use the features or not) is always nice.
References
These fixes are a collection of my own fixes and tweaks as well as those gathered from several other sources throughout the internet. For more information on the Eee PC 900 and Ubuntu, check out the following sites, as well.