Which Distro For an Eee PC?

An anonymous reader writes "I've got an Eee PC 1000HD, and frankly, I can't stand XP. I know it's odd, because I actually like Vista, but XP is such a giant piece of crap on here that I struggle to use it day-by-day. Anyway, my question is this: which Linux distro should I run on it? Plain Ubuntu just doesn't have driver support. I tried Ubuntu-eee, which, to put it bluntly, does not work for me at all (slow, terrible battery life, even worse interface). I've heard that Jaunty Jackalope is going to have better netbook support, but that's all the way in April! Is there a distro out now that will free me from XP's terribleness without being terrible itself?" Getting wireless working on an Eee PC (though in my experience imperfectly) with stock Ubuntu is possible; for me it took some googling, though I've been told with great enthusiasm that it actually works "out of the box." What distros are you running on your netbook, and what problems do you find?

XandrOS or EeeOS?

[eldavojohn]

Disclaimer, I do not own an eeePC (keyboard too damn small) so I have not tried any of these things. Two things I found while searching around is the Linux OS that is shipped with the eeePC Linux versions and that is XandrOS, a debian based Linux [xandros.com]. You need to torrent it I think to avoid some $10 bandwidth fee [desktoplinux.com]. So search on your favorite torrent site.

Also there is EeeOS [eeeuser.com] which claims to be:

EeeOS is designed to be a minimalistic Custom Debian Distribution that provides a base system (drivers, system tools, Xorg) and nothing more. The idea behind such a release is so that users of Eee Linux OS can configure and build their own Eee experience ... an EeeXperience if you will :P While systems like Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse and Xandros are all amazing in their own right, they often come pre-configured and with a lot of bloat. Some power users prefer to have complete control over their systems and it is with these users in mind that Eee OS was created.

I was going to go on a lengthy explanation about how you could use Slackware [wikipedia.org] or Gentoo [wikipedia.org] to provide the optimal configuration you are interested in but after reading your summary, I doubt you're interested in this sort of devotion to squeezing your eeePC like a lemon over your enemy's eye.

... though I've been told with great enthusiasm that it actually works "out of the box."

Ubuntu has worked "out of the box" for two of my DLink WiFi cards. It worked on a no name CompUSA brand rebate PCMCIA card on my laptop but there were ... annoyances ... with lack of encryption options.

Also, why did you go with an Eee Ubuntu and not Xubuntu [xubuntu.org] ... which I guess would be more widely supported?

eeebuntu

[IMarvinTPA]

You may wish to try http://www.eeebuntu.org/ [eeebuntu.org] which is NOT the same as Ubuntu-eee.

It has worked decently on my 1000HD.

IMarv

Which distro? Debian.

[Anonymous Coward]

Powerful. Free.
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC [debian.org]

Xubuntu

[jfbilodeau]

For what it's worth, I've been running Xubuntu on my Eee ever since I got it. 100% happy with it, and used it to develop a little control panel for my Eee PC using Anjuta.

http://chronogears.com/2008/04/control-panel-for-eee-pc.html [chronogears.com]

J-F

Easy Peasy

[EverStoned]

It really is [geteasypeasy.com].

What driver issues?

[Andy Dodd]

What about the Eee 1000HA had hardware driver support issues?

The Intel Atom restricts the platform enough that there's very little hardware variance between units. WiFi and card readers are about the only thing that varies. I know the Atheros WiFi chipset used in the Aspire One series has some issues with "out of the box" Ubuntu support, but if you connect once via wired Ethernet you can apt-get a package that includes drivers that work. See the ath5k entry in the release notes - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810 [ubuntu.com]

The only hardware issues I've had with my Acer Aspire One and vanilla Ubuntu were:
1) The above wifi issue
2) Kubuntu's initial Bluetooth issues, this was resolved in the latest round of KDE updates. (This was with a third-party BT dongle, and KDE Bluetooth support was entirely broken on all systems with recent kernels.)
3) Um... I think that's it?

Re:XandrOS or EeeOS?

[evilkasper]

I have a eee701 I've found this to be a handy resource http://forum.eeeuser.com/index.php [eeeuser.com] Mostly I run Xandros on mine, just for convenience. I do however have several distros on thumb drives in case I feel like a change. Just curious because I'm used to people complaining about Vista and how they like XP, what about XP do you not like? Again just curious.

Re:Which distro? Debian.

[stevey]

Seconded.

I've been running Debian's Lenny release upon my Eee PC for the past few months. Everything works, from the power buttons, sound, video, camera, wireless.

The only instructions I used were those on the wiki you link to.

Still this question is going to receive the obvious replies - everybody will suggest the distribution they know and like the best (the two are often the same).

I'd say "try a few, choose your favourite", but I suspect the better thing to do would just be to pick what you're using elsewhere, or whatever local people are using. Then if you have problems you'll have people to ask.

Ubuntu 8.10 + Netbook Remix

[GweeDo]

I have a Dell Mini 9 that I run stock Ubuntu 8.10 + the Netbook Remix interface on and love it. There is a good 3-4GB left on the 8GB SSD even with OpenOffice 3 and a few other bigger apps.

Re:eeebuntu

[oodaloop]

Seconded. I'm using it right now on my EEE 900HA. I'm using the Netbook remix, which I really like so far. It's the standard Ubuntu load, plus a netbook interface over the desktop. Looks cool too.

Re:eeebuntu

[lt. slock]

I'll second that. I've been using eeebuntu base on my 901 happily enough, battery life seems to be about 5 hours.

Re:XandrOS or EeeOS?

[Stormwatch]

Xandros and Novell signed those sick "covenant not to sue" deals with Microsoft.

So I'll sign a covenant not to touch their crap with a barge pole.

mandriva 2009.0

[marros]

I have a MSI wind and installed Mandriva 2009.0 and everything worked from the start. The hardware on the wind is almost the same as the eePC, and Mandriva was designed with netbooks in mind.

Re:Wait

[MrZaius]

It's like the event logs suddenly became human readable, the shell started to suck less, and a KDE-like start menu started letting me just type in what I want without navigating the typical Windows Start Menu hell. It's harder than you might think to go back to XP after a substantial period of time on an optimized Vista install.

Not that there's any way at all that I'll defend its astoundingly slow file transfers and deletion speeds, after a service-pack and years of patches. Still, it works well enough in-game and does have some strong points from an administrator's perspective, given modern hardware and well-written drivers. (Albeit not well enough to get me to use it more than 20% of the time.)

Re:Xubuntu

[Fungii]

I'm the same, I've got Xubuntu and compiz running and it's perfect, get some minimal window decorations and you're sorted.

Just do a standard installation, then head over to http://www.array.org/ [array.org] and follow the instructions to install the kernel which will get your wireless and hotkeys working.

http://www.eeeuser.com/ [eeeuser.com] is an excellent forum if you have any more questions. There are a few threads there that have step by step guides to installing and configuring Xubuntu, but there really isn't much to it beyond getting a custom kernel.

Use?

[mattpm]

What exactly are you using your EeePC for? If you are simply using it for email and internet I don't see how XP can be so frustrating. I use XP on my 901 and it works like a charm for what is essentially surfing, msn (with miranda client of course) and taking lecture notes. I find the secret to increased usability and efficiency with XP on a small screen is to disable all desktop icons, move the taskbar to the top and keep your start menu organized.

Stock Ubuntu

[jalefkowit]

I found stock Ubuntu Intrepid with a few tweaks to be easier to set up and more pain-free than any of the "easy/tuned" distros are. Once I had everything working (including wireless), I wrote up a HOWTO explaining how to go from bare metal to a fully working system [jasonlefkowitz.net] so that others wouldn't have to go digging through a dozen forums to find the info. Check it out, might be all you need to get up and going.

Re:XandrOS or EeeOS?

[Joce640k]

Just so you know ... EeePC 1000 keyboards are only 10% smaller than normal size.

Re:eeebuntu

[theaceoffire]

Like the others, I too support this version.

Not only does it work well, but it remembers your Wifi settings and doesn't pester you, so that when you walk close enough to one setting you set up before it will auto connect...

When I go from home to work, It swaps networks automatically.

wifi drivers, atheros and ralink

[bcrowell]

I bought a Eee, with Linux preinstalled to give to my wife for her birthday last week. The wifi didn't work. Called Asus tech support, and they figured out that the problem was that the machine had an RaLink wifi card, but the only one they had working drivers for was Atheros. They weren't able to offer any solution other than returning it, so I did.

Since they have RaLink on some of their machines, and they say they don't have working Linux drivers for RaLink, it sounds like some of the Windows versions have RaLink, and therefore the OP should check that before trying to switch to Linux.

If you look at the Amazon reviews for the model I bought [amazon.com], you'll see a lot of people complaining that they bought the Linux version, installed Windows, and then Windows didn't work right. On all of those, I clicked the "NO" link next to "Was this review helpful to you?," because that's just silly. If you want Windows, you buy the Windows version. Installing an OS on a desktop tends to be a hassle, doing it on a standard notebook has many more pitfalls, and doing it on a netbook is even more difficult to get right. It's pretty silly that these people are blaming Asus when essentially they just bought the wrong model.

The OP seems to be making the same mistake, but in reverse, which seems even less sensible to me. It means that MS is getting a Windows tax from him for an OS he doesn't like and isn't going to use. Great way to support an illegal monopoly when you didn't even have to, as well as creating huge hassles for yourself. My advice at this point would be either to return it if he can, or sell it on eBay, and then buy one with Linux preinstalled.

BTW, a little googling will show that a lot of people are receiving Eees with nonfunctional wifi. I'm really looking forward to the day when Linux-based desktop and laptop machines are so cheap and good that it puts MS out of business. Unfortunately, that day hasn't come yet. The quality just isn't there yet. I've bought PCs with Linux preinstalled from a variety of vendors (Great Quality, WalMart, Asus) over the last 5 years or so. The best that ever happened was that the hardware was fine but the version of Linux that came preinstalled (ThizLinux, gOS) was lousy, so I wiped the disk and installed something else (FreeBSD, Ubuntu). The worst that ever happened was this experience with the Eee.

Mandriva 2009.1

[edit0r]

Mandriva 2009.1 everything works out of the box

Re:XandrOS or EeeOS?

[jon3k]

Actually it's like 7-8% smaller, they're 92% or 93% sized keyboards. Also the 901HA (or one of the 900 series) has the larger keyboard as well.

HP MIE

[sam.haskins]

The HP "Mobile Internet Experience" Distro, designed to be only used on their netbooks, but _excellent_ on others, including my Lenovo S10 is my recommendation. You install it by using HP's "recovery usb key" tool :) Get it at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2020&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=3860346# [hp.com] It's very usuable, and fits right into the idea of a personal device as a resource to you. Plus, it's Ubuntu underneath, so you can add whatever you want :)

Re:eeebuntu

[pmbasehore]

I use eeebuntu as well on my EEE 1000. I'm normally not a big *buntu fan, but this has exceeded all of my expectations. It took a little bit of fiddling to get my hotkeys to work, but that would be true of any laptop on any distro.

Works a darnsight better than that crap Xandros bastardization they OEM'ed it with!

Fedora has awesome power managment

[Anonymous Coward]

http://magazine.redhat.com/2008/02/14/fedora-eee-pc-eeedora/

Re:Ubuntu - Easy Peasy

[Repugnant_Shit]

I have the Asus 1000 (solid state drive) and use Easy Peasy (I think www.geteasypeasy.com). It works well with suspend/lid closing/wifi. I don't know if this is typical, but it even worked correctly with my Verizon Wireless EVDO aircard, so I'm happy.

Re:Windows 7

[wicka]

First off, I submitted this, my bad on forgetting to put in a name. The reason I can't use 7 is because the 1000HD graphics chipset doesn't support Aero, and using Vista/7 without Aero basically renders the OS useless (especially in the case of 7, where the vast majority of the new GUI features require Aero). I was trying to be concise in the submission so I didn't want to get off in a tangent about how pissed I am that Intel refuses to write WDDM drivers for the GMA 900.

Re:eeebuntu

[jaaron]

Another +1 for eeebuntu here. Has worked great.

Vanilla Ubuntu + Adamm's kernel

[lolocaust]

On my eeePC 901, I'm using the standard Ubuntu 8.10 install and then using a wired connection I have installed Adamm's kernel which fixes all the hardware issues. The instructions are simple to follow and are available at http://array.org/ubuntu/ [array.org] (if you can use apt-get you can follow these instructions).

Re:XandrOS or EeeOS?

[Tetsujin]

The 904 is the same size as the 1000 series, but with a 9" screen. Probably that's the one you're thinking of.

Stick with XP

[Anonymous Showered]

Stick with XP and just turn off the visual effects, unnecessary services (Indexing, BITS, Security Center, etc.) and see the machine fly. There are countless guides on the web that tell you which ones to disable.

Netbook OS

[Anonymous Coward]

I recently bought a Samsung NC-10 to replace a Panasonic toughbook for field use. It became necessary when I tried to scramble out the door on an emergency call with a 73 pound toolbag and got a back injury for my trouble. After a crash diet, the bag weighs 19 pounds. The point is that this netbook is not a starbucks commuter. It's heavily used in a gritty production environment... something the Samsung engineers would certainly call "non-ideal" as they twitched.

The office has standardized on Fedora10 on the desktop, and CentOS on the servers. The netbook came with XP home on it with two partitions already on the 160GB hard disk. One small adjustment in the stock setup menu, and I have an adequate XP partition and a blank 100GB partition. When installing Linux, or any OS for that matter, on a Laptop, I expect driver issues and I thought a netbook would be worse because of the integration. Without a CD or DVD drive, it's necessary to install using a flash drive. It's relatively easy to install a Fedora10 boot img on a flash drive if you RTFM.

Pop the USB drive in, punch the power button, enter the BIOS, set to boot from USB, reboot. Now for the hard part right?

Everything just worked. You read that right. Everything. Period. No setup other than the standard run through the menus, which I completed in a vehicle driving through the middle of nowhere with no internet access. It's almost like Samsung designed the NC10 with Linux in mind.

The only areas where I rolled up my sleeves and used the CLI was for the MP3 and DVD playback, stuff typical of Fedora / Redhat, and setting up some of the proprietory security for the office. These were things I had to do for every machine.

The only gotchas were some of the menus extend beyond the short screens. I am adjusting those as I come across them. They work fine in the office connected to an external monitor, mouse and keyboard.

Your mileage will vary. This is what worked for me. My back is happier, and I am able to move quickly and efficiently, though the back of my brain still thinks I left most of the tools behind. I'll get used to it, just like I'll get used to the delete key placement... eventually.

Re:Ubuntu

[OolimPhon]

Not so. My son got a 901 and the wired network worked out of the box. For the wireless, about 5 minutes googling found us the answer - a misconfiguration problem that updating a config file (I forget which one - this was 6 months ago) fixed.

Re:Vanilla Ubuntu + Adamm's kernel

[don.g]

Thirded! Most (all?) rehashes of Ubuntu for the Eee break things in fundamental ways, such that things like upgrading the kernel break your machine. The array.org method does things the right way (proper packages, proper repository), and things don't break.

Re:XandrOS or EeeOS?

[King_TJ]

I have an eee701 myself, and I played with several Linux OS's on it, but kept coming back to Xandros as well.

There's apparently a guy who has an ongoing project to take the original Asus distribution of Xandros for eeePC and tweak, update and improve it.

Links to his latest builds can be found over at http://www.xepc.org/en [xepc.org]. (Unfortunately for me, the site is basically a blog written in Chinese, that gets run through a translator when you ask for the English version with the /en on the end of the URL. So it's still hard to read at times.)

It doesn't look like he's posted anything new since the end of 2008 ... but if I understand it correctly, he's saying his last build of his customized Xandros was submitted to Asus to become an official update image at some point in the near future.

Re:wifi drivers, atheros and ralink

[cide]

Here's the rule of thumb I've followed... however I've only tested this with the Linux version. (I wasn't aware that Windows EeePC 901s use Atheros)

EeePC ==701SD: Realtek Wifi
EeePC <900A: Atheros Wifi
EeePC >=901: RaLink Wifi

As a result, the modules, depending on the version of Linux you're using varies.

Atheros Wifi on <=2.6.24: ath_pci (madwifi) external driver
Atheros Wifi on >=2.6.26: ath5k internal driver
RaLink Wifi on < 2.6.28: rt2860sta external driver
RaLink Wifi on > 2.6.28: rt2860sta internal driver*
Realtek Wifi on < 2.6.28: rtl8187se external driver
Realtek Wifi on > 2.6.29: rtl8187se internal driver

* Heres the crux, as of 2.6.28, the rt2860sta internal driver uses version 1.8.0.0, but this version has broken WPA/WPA2 support. If you somehow ended up with 1.7.0.0, it too has broken WPA/WPA2 support.

However, rt2860sta v1.7.1.1 appears to be good.

I've been working on porting the changes introduced in v1.7.1.1 into v1.8.x.x for 2.6.29. So far it works for me, but I still need to submit this as a patch into the kernel:

http://git.array.org/?p=kernel/stable/linux-2.6-stable.git;a=commit;h=ee8834f5551943b7bd2db49bbad9ba3c24ce6f67 [array.org]

I'm glad you asked!

[malevolentjelly]

Well, I've been fooling with a much smaller and lower-end Eee over the last week or so (the $200 900a), and I'm just brimming with nasty experiences to share.

First and foremost- if you are a fan of Windows and your Eee has a non-SSD HDD, you really need to be using Windows 7. They are still passing out serial numbers and the disk images themselves are easy to find on bittorrent sites. It's honestly fantastic. Everything you like about Vista is just better in Windows 7 and most of what you didn't like is gone- plus the performance, damn.

Second, let's talk linux: running Linux on the EeePC is a real Monkey's paw sort of experience. With every upside is a cruel and awful downside-- and such. For instance, you can run Ubuntu Netbook Remix which uses Intel's LPIA architecture instead of i386-- that's really cool because it does a lot of static scheduling (I believe) and SSE3 optimization that is really great for the Atom processor... but it's not going to support you hardware perfectly. It's an OEM product so no time has been devoted to working out issues with the Asus ACPI. Basically, you're supposed to be paying Canonical for a working branded experience like HP and Dell did... unless you feel like doing the work yourself.

Easy Peasy 1.0 has all the hardware support down, but once more you're going to be running Ubuntu Netbook Remix's interface. I mean, let's face it- The EeePC 1000 is not just a device, it's a full computer. You probably want to treat it like an actual system not a toy. UNR's interface is really attention deficit and designed for serial single-tasking. Besides, I like to stay away from custom spins and stay on the mainline to receive better support and more timely upgrades/security updates. I'd rather not my system's health be dependent on some random stranger's freetime.

Honestly, you need to look into Mandriva. It's a fantastic and very pretty home distribution with full official support for the EeePC. I would recommend keeping a tiny FreeDOS partition (or usb key) around for bios updates, which come pretty frequently and often work in concert with system updates on Mandriva. You really should try it-- it might be just what you're looking for if you want solid support and to avoid headaches. Furthermore, if you want to get really creative you can always set up a custom system with LXDE-- I can link to a guide if anyone asks.

Personally, I run Asus Xandros on my machine with unionfs disabled to conserve diskspace (I only have 4 gb!). It's a well adjusted distribution with full support for the ACPI and a great CPU frequency profile. Also, it comes with all the codecs you'll need and uses all mplayer by default (no gstreamer, no pulseaudio-- simple and practical). The only downside (on the 900a) is that the touchpad's tap functionality is just awful when using the elantech X driver. I am not sure if it would be the same case on a 1000. If you want the Xandros distribution, you can probably torrent it- it doesn't use CD keys or anything.

Alternatively, you could also try HP's MIE image (Mobile Internet Experience). It's pretty close to an Eee 1000, so just get the support tool from HP that's designed to make a "recovery image" for you and just "recover" your EeePC. That's a custom spin of UNR + software and codecs-- not a bad way to go.

So, in conclusion:

1. Windows 7 (as supported as Vista)
2. Xandros (if you have it) (fully supported)
3. Mandriva 2009.0 (Gnome) (fully supported)
4. HP MIE (possibly supported)
5. Ubuntu Netbook Remix (partially supported)
6. Easy Peasy 1.0 (fully supported but crappy)

And there ya go.

Re:ArchLinux?

[polemistes]

If you want an optimized system, Arch Linux is not more difficult than any other distro. You just don't have the choice to install a complete desktop system with lots and lots of things you don't want, configured in ways you don't like, so that you can uninstall almost everything and then install what you want, from obscure package repos, so you get library confusions etc, for then to reconfigure almost everything, so it works the way you like it to.

The Arch Linux installer lets you:

1. Install a very basic system
2. Configure the most important things in one simple configuration file (or a few more if you want or need to)

Then you boot into your basic system and:

1. Update your system with one command
2. Install the programs you need. The package manager will take care of all dependencies.
3. Configure them the way you want them
4. Enjoy!

Of course, I agree, this is more difficult than letting someone else make all the choices for you.

By the way, I use Arch Linux on a Eee 901, and it works perfectly. There are some tricks to speed it up. Mounting the /tmp and /var/log and /var/tmp as a ram disk makes it a lot more responsive. Turning off disk cache in firefox is also a good idea.
Driver support isn't a problem for me at least. Everything works. You might need to install a customized kernel package for the wireless card, but from 2.6.29 there will be support for the card in the kernel (This is for the 901, I don't know about the 1000HD).