The following steps are needed to get gcc and friends running on your eeePC (¿which eeePC models does this apply to?)

1. start eeePC
2. get a shell by typing ctrl-alt-T
3. become superuser by typing sudo su -
4. browse to http://www.debian.org/mirror/mirrors_full and select a mirror near to you. You might want to use netselect to find which one has the best connectivity but netselect is outside the scope of this post. Also apt-spy might be usable.
5. edit /etc/apt/sources.list (by using sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list in terminal) and add the following line:
   deb <your mirror goes here> stable main contrib non-free
   As I am in NL I entered

   ftp://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian

   at the place where it says <your mirror goes here>, but if you are not in NL you should find a closer mirror (could also be an http mirror). Note that the < and > symbols should be removed so for NL the line should read:

   deb ftp://ftp.nl.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

6. run apt-get update This will update the packages lists. (btw, I use apt-get from the command line; you might also try to use synaptic)
7. apt-get install build-essential (press Y when asked to install tings)
8. log out of your superuser bash by ^D or exit; then cd /tmp; create a file hello.c with the obvious content, then gcc hello.c; ./a.out

Alternately you may want to go for these:

• http://update.eeepc.asus.com/p701/pool/gcc-4.1-base_4.1.1-21_i386.deb
• http://update.eeepc.asus.com/p701/pool/cpp-4.1_4.1.1-21_i386.deb
• http://update.eeepc.asus.com/p701/pool/libc6-dev_2.3.6.ds1-13_i386.deb

The above instructions do not state which model they apply to, and do not work on at least one Surf 2G (Black). However, with modification, they are close. Specifically:

1. the p701 URLs at the bottom of the preceding section do not work (the first two appear to work, but GCC is not installed; the third fails to install)
2. the longer sequence does work after modification; in the step that suggests
   

   apt-get install build-essential

   this simply gives warnings; it is still needed but one must then enter the command
   

   apt-get -f install

   and then (after that installs some packages) re-enter the command:
   

   apt-get install build-essential

After that installs more packages, GCC is available from the command line and works. (Reply Y to questions from above commands.)

You can create applications for linux, mac and windows using the REALbasic IDE. The version 2006r4-2 is not the most recent one but working (www.geekconnection.org). It runs under Xandros (the default Eee-PC OS) and the linux version seems to be free of charge.

1. open a terminal window (ctrl + alt + T) or launch console in advanced desktop mode
2. using vi editor add the line: 'deb http://www.geekconnection.org/ xandros4 main' (without quotes) to the file /etc/apt/sources.list as root and start synaptic (or aptitude,..)
3. search for “realbasic” and install
4. 226 MBytes of disk space are used for this installation. RAM was expanded to 1GB on the G4 under test.