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Ok, so you made the Live CD / USB Stick and want to install EeeXubuntu to the SSD.
Wo sind die Vorteile? Abgesehen davon, dass kein GIMP durch seinen Speicherhunger den EEE PC mehr zum Einfrieren bringt, weil man jetzt virtuellen Speicher hat: nur so kann man unter Xubuntu vergleichbar schnell booten - über die „Tiefschlaf“-Funktion (aka „Hibernate“ oder „Suspend-to-disk“. Dabei werden alle augenblicklichen Programme und Betriebszustände in der Swap-Partition gesichert und beim Hochfahren von dort wieder wieselflink geladen.
Der Kernel des Standard-EEE-Linux von Xandros ist so übersetzt, dass er die Tiefschlaf-Funktion nicht unterstützt; dafür ist das Xandros-Linux auch schneller. eeeXubuntu kann diese Geschwindigkeit beim Booten durch den Tiefschlaf zumindest ausgleichen (ein Vergleich hier). Gerade bei Geräten mit Flash-Disk ist dies geradezu ideal.
Wo liegen mögliche Nachteile? Abgesehen davon, dass die Konfiguration nichts für Feiglinge ist und ein halbes Gigabyte kostbaren Flash-Speicher abzwackt: es gibt Befürchtungen, eine Swap-Partition könnte die Lebensdauer des EEE PC drastisch verkürzen. Diese sind vermutlich überzogen, weil sie auf diversen Missverständnissen beruhen: zum einen nutzt der Kernel die Swap-Partition nur, wenn Anwendungen große Datenmengen verarbeiten - der erste Kandidat für einen Flash-Speicher-Killer ist also nicht die Swap-Partition, sondern das ganz normale Dateisystem. Zum anderen hat ein Flash-Speicher zwar tatsächlich eine Lebensdauer von „nur“ 100.000 Schreibvorgängen, diese beziehen sich aber nicht auf den gesamten Chip, sondern auf jede einzelne Speicherseite. Der interne Controller ist in der Lage, defekte Seiten auszuklammern und weiterzuarbeiten, ähnlich den „bad sectors“ einer Festplatte. Wer trotzdem beunruhigt ist, sollte die „swappiness“ herunterschrauben, die Neigung des Systems, den Swap-Bereich zu nutzen. (Details hier.)
Wann man auf Swap verzichten sollte Mit 1GB oder gar 2GB RAM bekommt man ein Problem, weil das System mindestens so viel Swap-Speicher benötigt wie internen Speicher. Da dies im internen Flash-Speicher allmählich zu Platzproblemen führt - 3GB sind für eine Xubuntu-Installation durchaus realistisch - sollte man u.U. eher darauf verzichten.
Den Tiefschlaf-Modus zum Laufen bekommen Zum einen: der Tiefschlaf funktioniert voraussichtlich nur zuverlässig, wenn man Xubuntu in den internen Flash-Speicher installiert, da der Schlafvorgang dazu neigt, USB-Geräte abzumelden - Pech, wenn Xubuntu von der SD-Karte oder vom USB-Stick läuft.
Zum anderen: Aufgrund eines Bugs im Ubuntu-Installationsprogramm Ubiquity (Details) funktioniert der Tiefschlaf in einigen Installationen nur, wenn man den Bootmanager grub anpasst. Sonst scheint jeder Tiefschlaf keinen Effekt zu haben außer dass nach dem (langsamen) Boot die Swap-Partition verschwunden zu sein scheint - kein Wunder, der „Suspend-to-disk“-Vorgang überschreibt ihre Signatur und sie kann nicht mehr gemountet werden.
Um den Fehler zu beheben, zunächst die Schäden an der Swap-Partition reparieren:
sudo mkswap /dev/sdaX sudo swapon -cv /dev/sdaX
(sdaX ist natürlich die Swap-partition, im internen Flash also meist sda5 - ein Kontrollblick auf die Ressourcen-Seite der Systemüberwachung zeigt, ob Swap läuft oder nicht.)
Als nächstes grub anpassen:
sudo mousepad /boot/grub/menu.lst
Der Eintrag für den Start von Xubuntu sieht in etwa so aus:
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxx ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic quiet
In die ganz lange Zeile „resume=/dev/sdaX“ (sda2, sda5 etc.) ergänzen, so dass der Eintrag lautet:
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxx resume=/dev/sdaX ro quiet splash initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic quiet
Trying to install a custom language (e.g. German localization) on the minimum 2GB partition mentioned above will fail. It requires up to 3GB for the initial installation! This disk usage can be reduced to about 1,2GB later on by removing language-support-en and other packages.
When the install is over and you have rebooted for the first time, the first thing to do is connect to your network. If you're plugged into a wired network it will auto-start. If you're connecting to an unprotected wireless network you will need to select the network to connect to by clicking the network symbol in the far lower right. If you are connecting to a protected network, you will need to enter the password.
Next, Xubuntu will need to download lots of updates (103 as of Feb 08, 2008) which will require yet another restart when it is done. This could take from 10 minutes up to an hour depending on your connection, or even how busy the servers are. Be patient. Don't start patching the system until after all the updates are in place. From the applications menu, select system and update manager. Run a check, then ensure everything is checked and click to install updates.
This is not working if you're behind a firewall and need an http proxy to go into the internet.
Since I'm very new to the *ubuntu scene I've found no way to set the proxy for the GUI update tool, so I've opened
a terminal, set the environment variable http_proxy to the proxy server and then did a „sudo apt-get update“ and „sudo apt-get upgrade“.
Maybe there's a better way, then somebody who knows it should write it down ;)
Now we are at the Out-Of-the-Box (OOTB) experience for EeeXubuntu. The Fn keys for screen brightness, mute, volume up/down should work, with On-Screen-Display (OSD). glxgear (alt-F2, glxgear and check run in terminal) will produce 70-90 fps. Ctl-Alt-left/right will move between the 4 desktops. Ctl-F1/F2/F3/F4 will take you to the respective desktops as well.
There is still plenty to do but this is our baseline.
SD Cards wont mount, can't toggle wireless on/off (it will after some updates and reboots) there is no audio and the camera may not be available.
If nothing else DON'T JUST RUN THE UBUNTU SCRIPTS, only a few seem to work (acpi). While it is my goal to re-create the scriot approach for Xubuntu for now we have a live CD and this approach. Hopefully this wiki page along with the EeeXubuntu developers page will help codify what is needed for a fully feature Xubuntu experience on the Eee.
The default installation leaves a line at the top of /etc/apt/sources-list that references the Xubuntu CD. It has a „cdrom:“ URL. This means that if you try to install some packages (g++, for example), apt-get will fail because it can't find the CD. To fix this, edit that file as root
sudo mousepad /etc/apt/sources.list
and put a '#' in front of the cdrom line. That will comment it out, and apt-get will now refer to the web for all package downloads.
After installing eeeXubuntu, the fstab file contains a line which assumes that any external device you plug in is going to be a CD ROM drive. Ooops! So, to get external devices to mount:
sudo mousepad /etc/fstab
And comment out ( put a # in front of ) the /dev/sdb1 line and/or /dev/sdc1 line (whichever you have.) The example below shows the line commented out. It's the line that contains /media/cdrom0.
# /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 # /dev/sda1 UUID=10d03d2a-7732-4f6f-924f-541b39dd9559 / ext2 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 #/dev/sdb1 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0 0
If there's a /sdc1 line, comment it out too.
You may also need to turn off „Volume Management“ in Thunar (File Manager) settings ('Misc' tab).
Now external USB devices, USB flash drives, USB hard disks and SD cards should auto mount.
Suspend: In order for some USB storage devices to continue to operate normally after suspend, it is necessary to unmount them first. For example, supposing you mount an SD card on /media/sdram, then the following edits will allow it to survive suspend.
Create the file /etc/acpi/suspend.d/12-umounts.sh
#!/bin/sh umount /media/sdram
and also the file /etc/acpi/resume.d/89-mounts.sh
#!/bin/sh mount /media/sdram
Something similar is probably needed for hibernate.
Note that if the umount command fails (typically because a program stored on the medium was running), the remount won't work. In such a case, the usb storage device must be disconnected and reconnected, and also manually remounted if you aren't using volume management.
WARNING! If you installed&run eeexubuntu on a SD card, after suspend mode your ubuntu won't boot at all I have done this operation twice with same result — Gennady G. Marchenko 2008/02/25 11:37
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=5984.
On machines with a swap partition add the following to
sudo mousepad /etc/rc.local
Put these two lines just before the „exit 0“ statement at the end:
sysctl -w vm.swappiness=1 # Strongly discourage the swapping of application data to disk sysctl -w vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50 # Don't shrink the inode cache so aggressively.
This reduces the likelihood of the actual applications, or directory listings, from being paged out. Disk page cache is not nearly as important as random access SSD reads are faster than on HD. As a bi-product the above will improve the responsiveness for interactive use (which is the primary use of the EEE), although reducing the overall performance of the system.
Alternatively you can change /etc/sysctl.conf and change the last line to be
vm.swappiness=1
and then add line
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
This way you do not need to change the script.
By default Linux ext2/3 keeps a tab on access times for every file on the system. This leads to more writes than we need. Add „noatime“ to the options for the / mount as shown below.
sudo mousepad /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 # /dev/sda1 UUID=10d03d2a-7732-4f6f-924f-541b39dd9559 / ext2 defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1 #/dev/sdb1 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0 0
You will need to reboot or run …
sudo mount -o remount /
To have the various log and temporary files written to RAM instead of to flash, you need to edit /etc/fstab again
sudo mousepad /etc/fstab
then add these lines to the end
# enable RAM-based temporary file systems tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs noatime 0 0 tmpfs /tmp tmpfs noatime 0 0
This also means anything stored in /var/tmp or /tmp won't survive a reboot, so if you're debugging a problem where you need to preserve those files, you might want to comment out those lines.
Since Xubuntu uses Thunar for a file manager it doesn't natively support browsing a Windows network out of the box.
Here is a link to a How To at Ubuntu Forums. This works for eeeXubuntu installs as well.
Sound has been interesting, it may require running Totem or even playing a file before everything shows up but the short story is to add the Volume control to the panel.
Alternatively you can load ALSA-Mixer (gtk not Gnome) and set the Volume control to run gamix, but that is not covered in this walk through.
This has been already implemented in Release 3. For earlier releases, you can perform the steps below. I don't believe it's true. In fact, I installed release 3 (not an update from previous releases), and I HAD TO do following to get my Eee PC shut down.
I apologise. It appears however, that this could have been an addition to the official reposistories. A fresh install last night proved that the file did not exist, however after retrieving all updates rc.localstop contained a new entry with a comment, containing this addition. Will need to look into this more - StealthCP
If you've installed Release 3, you already have this in your system. However, you need to re-instate it's invocation. A „sudo update-rc.d rc.localstop stop 01 0 6 .“ (with the end period) will fix this and permit a proper shutdown. - STrRedWolf
The Eee PC won't shut down completely after using the sound module. At the end of the shutdown procedure you will see the green power light still lit with nothing happening.
Edit the file /etc/rc.localstop:
sudo mousepad /etc/rc.localstop
The end of the file should look like this:
# workaround to prevent hang on system shutdown (eeePC) rmmod snd_hda_intel exit 0
It seems that recently this change was added to the official repositories, so if you fully updated your system recently as advised above this should already be done. If not, then simply add 'rmmod snd-hda-intel' just before 'exit 0'. Save the file.
Source: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/faq#how_can_i_get_my_x_eee_ubuntu_to_shutdown_completely
You can test if this is nessesary by running the program glxgears. On the eee PC properly configured, glxgears should run at over 400 frames per second. Without 3d acceleration it runs at 30 to 40 frames per second. To test, simply open a terminal window and type glxgears. A graphic of spinning gears will appear, and after a few moments, the frames per second rate will be displayed in the terminal window. If your number is under 100, you need to follow the instructions below.
If you want 3D games to work well like they did on Xandros, or if you're interested in installing the uber-cool compiz-fusion 3d desktop, follow these instructions to enable direct rendering in three easy steps:
Open a new terminal (menu: Applications→Accessories→Terminal) and…
sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa
NOTE: thats libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa - be careful of 1's and l's!
Type in your user password if it asks you for it, and answer Y when it prompts you with a question to install the packages.
sudo mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Once again, enter your user password if it asks for it. This will open a text editor to edit your configuration for the foundation of Linux's graphical interface. Ignore the message about potentially harming your system because you are root (don't worry, nothing bad will happen).
Scroll down to the very end of the file, and add this text:
Section "Module" Load "glx" Load "dri" Load "dbe" EndSection Section "DRI" Mode 0666 EndSection
(Make sure the file ends with a blank line. The cursor needs to be TWO LINES below the last print. Failing to have a blank line will bork your xorg.conf)
Save and quit.
That's it! After you reboot and log in to your system, you can check if 3D acceleration is working by running glxgears. To do this, use the Alt-F2 combination in xubuntu to bring up the run dialog, type glxgears in the textbox, check run in terminal and hit run. Now you should see ~400fps!
While you're in xorg.conf, you can uncomment the entries for the Wacom tablet if you want as well.
Note: Some users report that upon performing this step, the volume control function keys (fn-f8 and fn-f9) quit displaying the on-screen display although they continue to work.
The camera is not enabled in the bios by default. This is to conserve power. Therefore, before testing to see if the camera works, you will either need to enable the camera in the bios (press f2 when asked in the boot sequence, select advanced, select devices, and enable the camer) or you will need to „turn the camera on“ after booting.
For details about enabling and disabling the camera, see Controlling the built-in webcam.
To run the camera to capture shots, or video, install the ucview application which came with the original eeePC. To install ucview you first need to set up the unicap repository following the instructions here:
http://unicap-imaging.org/using_repository.htm
Then from a terminal
sudo apt-get install ucview
There seems to be an issue with ucview that image capture produces a black jpeg file. A possible solution was posted here
Some people may find the scrolling and tap button behavior on the touchpad annoying. The scrolling can make a web page or document you are working on suddenly start scrolling up and down wildly, and the tap button behavior often causes the cursor to suddenly appear in the wrong place in a document or text edit field. Generally, this is because a stray thumb or palm has hit the touchpad.
One approach to tweaking these settings is to add synclient commands to your autostart applications. Synclient is a command line application that can change settings for the touchpad. To add commands to autostart applications choose „Autostarted Applications“ from the settings menu. For each command click the Add button. You can put whatever you want in the name field, but it's good to be descriptive, like „no vertical scroll“. You can leave the description blank if you want. Put the command in the command field. The changes will be applied the next time you restart. You can test out the commands in terminal first if you want.
To turn off vertical scrolling on the touchpad add this command to your autostarted applications:
synclient VertScrollDelta=0
To slow down but not disable vertical scrolling add this command to your autostarted applications:
synclient VertScrollDelta=25000
(You can experiment with the number to find a speed that works for you. 25000 is pretty slow.)
To turn off tap button add this command to your autostarted applications:
synclient TapButton1=0
This should be auto-done by installing the xubuntu-restricted-formats under codecs below. If it isn't please refer to the forum's Original thread which had reference to this page for getting flash and Java 7 to work.
Ubuntu provides a single point install of restricted codecs, several applications including Java and Flash and etc. To install it simply:
sudo apt-get install xubuntu-restricted-extras
sudo apt-get install libxine1-ffmpeg xine-plugin
this Adds DivX, Xvid support to Totem and get the Mozilla plug in
Have you installed the nonfree win32 codecs for mplayer/xine? I don't know if Ubuntu supplies a .deb for them, but for most distros you have to download them from mplayer.hu and untar the archive to /usr/lib/codecs. With these codecs installed you should be able to play any video in existence including the newest Windows Video VC1 videos.
It is „unofficially“ suggested to download the nonfree codecs from the medibuntu repository.
See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu for instructions
??I'm a total linux newb, I just installed MPlayer and the Mozilla Plugin from Add/Remove.
I added all of the extra codecs (wmv, xvid etc) by downloading the codec files from http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
and installing them to usr/local/lib/codecs - this is wonderful guide _> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOeBcWQDOKk.??
On login, nm-applet will prompt for the keychain password, unless wireless roaming is disabled. This is annoying as, even if your keychain password is the same as your login password, you will always need to enter your password twice.
This is a common problem but the recommended solution does not work http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-503976.html
When the instructions are followed, on subsequent reboot and login a non-dismissible 'access denied' prompt is displayed. An eeexubuntu specific solution is needed.
Addressed in .3 release of EeeXubuntu Out of the box Fn plus the following should work:
F2 doesn't work in original eeeXubuntu install. However, you can fix it by either of following two methods.
Method 1: Both the wifi update below and the enabling of F5 (external monitor toggle) can be done. Follow these instructions these instructions. No need to cut and paste large amounts of text from this wiki. — Francis Turner 1 Feb 2008
If your Eee PC is non-US model, you will need to modify xorg.conf file to restore original keyboard layout setting. You can find correct settings in xorg.conf.backup file (you must have made it!).
Here's an example fro UK (GB) keyboard:
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Generic Keyboard" Driver "kbd" Option "CoreKeyboard" Option "XkbRules" "xorg" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbLayout" "gb" EndSection
Method 2: The Wifi Hotkey Fn-F2 can be fixed as follows:
1. Create the file /etc/acpi/events/eee-wifi-on
sudo mousepad /etc/acpi/events/eee-wifi-on
and put the following
# ASUS eeePC Wifi Hotkey (Fn-F2) event=hotkey ATKD 00000010 action=/etc/acpi/eee-wifi-on-off.sh on
* I had to use „ATKD 00000090“ here to make this work on my EeePC. - Petaramesh, 2008/02/15
2. Create the file /etc/acpi/events/eee-wifi-off
sudo mousepad /etc/acpi/events/eee-wifi-off
and put the following
# ASUS eeePC Wifi Hotkey (Fn-F2) event=hotkey ATKD 00000011 action=/etc/acpi/eee-wifi-on-off.sh off
* I had to use „ATKD 00000091“ here to make this work on my EeePC. - Petaramesh, 2008/02/15
3. Create the file /etc/acpi/eee-wifi-on-off.sh
sudo mousepad /etc/acpi/eee-wifi-on-off.sh
and put the following
#!/bin/sh
#FILE: /etc/acpi/eee-wifi-on-off.sh
# main wifi toggle script (loads/unloads modules)
. /usr/share/acpi-support/key-constants
# The sequence here *is* important.
unload_modules() {
rmmod ath_pci
rmmod ath_rate_sample
rmmod ath_hal
rmmod wlan_ccmp
rmmod wlan_tkip
rmmod wlan_wep
rmmod wlan_acl
rmmod wlan_scan_sta
rmmod wlan
}
# At least this one's straightforward.
load_modules() {
modprobe ath_pci
}
wifi_on() {
# Force PCI Express Hotplug to reinit
rmmod pciehp
sleep 1
# pciehp_force may be unnecessary; Xandros did it.
modprobe pciehp pciehp_force=1
sleep 1
# Switch on the hardware
echo 1 >/proc/acpi/asus/wlan
sleep 1
load_modules
}
wifi_off() {
unload_modules
echo 0 >/proc/acpi/asus/wlan
}
case $1 in
on)
acpi_fakekey $KEY_PROG1
wifi_on
;;
off)
acpi_fakekey $KEY_PROG2
wifi_off
;;
toggle)
STAT=`cat /proc/acpi/asus/wlan`
if [ "$STAT" = "1" ];
then wifi_off;
else wifi_on;
fi
;;
esac
Note: My eee is downclocked to 57 MHz FSB. I had to increase the sleep time for pciehp in wifi_on() a bit, otherwise wlan would fail. Martin Hinterberger 28 Feb 2008
4. Make the file /etc/acpi/eee-wifi-on-off.sh executeable (open a shell and type the following)
sudo chmod +x /etc/acpi/eee-wifi-on-off.sh
This solution was found here.
Added Conzi 04.02.2008 It seems that the OSD does not work ootb with eeeXubuntu. Graves has released the 'eeeXubuntu ASUS OSD Scriptpack v2.0' whitch fixed this issue for me. Detailed Information about this can be found here and here (in german).
The eee has a really neat built-in BIOS upgrade utility. Just put the new BIOS on a USB stick, rename it to 701.ROM, hold Alt-F2 at boot, and it will perform a BIOS flash automatically. The utility is built into the BIOS itself. Or you could make a bootable DOS USB stick, put the flash utility and BIOS image on it, and boot from it. There's no need to with the built-in utility, though.
Getting the famous cube, wobbly windows and all is easy, and works fine on an stock g4 with 512 meg of ram (amazing at that may seem.) It's a little too long to post here, so please visit How to setup Compiz Fusion on eeeXubuntu. Definitely worth doing!
The OOTB Xubuntu GDM theme has a small glitch on a screen as small as the Eee's where the text-box for your username and password does not quite fit correctly. This can easily be fixed by editing the XML file that describes the theme's layout. First make a backup copy:
sudo cp /usr/share/gdm/themes/xubuntu/Xubuntu.xml /usr/share/gdm/themes/xubuntu/Xubuntu.xml.bak
Then open up the original XML file and browse to line 125 (you can check your current position in nano by hitting ctrl+C)
sudo nano -w /usr/share/gdm/themes/xubuntu/Xubuntu.xml
The line you are looking for should read:
<pos width="160" height="24"/>
You need add x=“+4“ and change width to 134. The corrected line should look like this:
<pos x="+4" width="134" height="24"/>
Hit ctrl+X → Y →[enter] to save your changes and Voila! The Xubuntu GDM theme will now look normal!
Note: This was based off my own install of eeeXubuntu; I followed the wiki and noticed this problem and this was how I fixed it. It should be the same for other Eee users but I haven't noticed reports of it elsewhere. — Nate Weibley 2008/02/25 14:50
GIMP is installed by default.
Inkscape is a very good Vector graphics program http://www.inkscape.org/
you can install it with apt
sudo apt-get install inkscape
to be able to use it in 800×480 you need to use the Clearlooks compact GTK2 theme. http://www.google.hu/search?hl=hu&q=clearlooks+compact&btnG=Google+keres%C3%A9s&meta=
GQView is installed and usable as an image viewer. You will have to go into the preferences and set it to scale the image to window size as it defaults to showing them full scale.
Evince is installed by default as the MIME application for reading pdf files. Unless you need advanced Acroread features there is little point in going to the bother of installing Adobe Acroread as its interface is not as snappy (e.g. cluttered, not as fast, buffers keypresses).
EeeXubuntu includes just the word processor part of Open Office and ignores the other parts (presentation, spreadsheet etc.) which seems a bit silly. You can easily install the rest using the full openoffice.org package using apt-get or synaptic and at the same time remove Gnumeric (for spreadsheets) and Abiword (for text). This appears to be roughly neutral in terms of storage space used but adds the ability to use presentations too.
Alternatively you can uninstall all of Open Office and stick with Abiword and Gnumeric for a reasonable saving in disk space
If you want to made video calls with Skype then you need to download the beta 2.0 version from the Skype Garage. It won't install however until you install libqt4-core and libqt4-gui. The latter won't install because it can't find an installation candidate for libaudio2. this thread on ubuntuforums.org explains how to install that.
Synaptic shows libaudio2 in the Xubuntu repositories since version 4…, as is libqt4 core and gui. you have to install libqt-gui to install eeeCamTray, so you may already have that, but all 3 of these are just in synaptic or can be gotten just by doing an apt-get
after downloading, I was told „All dependencies are satisfied“ on xunbuntu, but I had previously installed libqt for eeecamtray — Rick Boatright 2007/12/29 00:06
You may find it easier to simply enable the medibuntu repositories (see below for getting codecs that way) and install Skype from there as this is now the 2.0 version. — Francis Turner
There has been much discussion in the Xandros sections concerning setting the behaviour on battery exhaustion, opening and closing the lid etc. Under xubuntu the way to access the GUI interface for these options is to right-click on the battery icon in the system tray (Xandros requires manual mods to the scripts, apparently).
Provided you have enabled a swap partition you can, for example, set the EEE to hibernate instead of shutdown. This reduces boot time, allows you to carry on from where you left off and reduces your chances of losing work due to an unanticipated shutdown
When you're done downloading and installing packages with apt-get, it's a good idea to run
sudo apt-get clean
to flush the package cache. This should free up some space on your SSD by clearing out all of the *.bin and *.deb files that are in /var/cache/apt and /var/cache/apt/archives.
When sudo apt-get remove xxxxx is run, it does not remove all of the files off of your system. The configuration files and the installation files still remain. The configuration files are typically very small, so they don't pose a threat to your overall disk space, but the installation files do. Clearing the apt cache removes these installation files.
| Program | Space Saved | Apt Removal | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Openoffice.org (All) | ~250 MB | sudo apt-get remove openoffice-core | Openoffice.org is the Microsoft Office replacement software. This includes Writer (Word), Calc (Excel), and Impress (Power Point). Consider using AbiWord as a replacement for Writer as it also opens Microsoft Word Documents also. |
| Gimp | ~11 MB | sudo apt-get remove gimp | Gimp is a graphic editor similiar to Adobe Photoshop. |
| Mozilla Firefox | ~27 MB | sudo apt-get remove firefox | Firefox is the default web browser in EeeXubuntu. Using the Opera browser instead gives you a net savings of around 14 MB |
| Mozilla Thunderbird | ~33 MB | sudo apt-get remove thunderbird | Thunderbird is an email client similiar to Microsoft Outlook. It has the ability to access POP3/IMAP/RSS and more. However, if you only check your email through your web browser (i.e. hotmail, gmail, etc.) consider removing this to save space. |
This removes one row of icons from the top. Combine this with a small icon them like the Littlebird theme to save quite a bit of space.
If you want more working space for your programs… you can install theese two themes.
For GTK2 Clearlooks Compact. This makes almost all the controls smaller. http://martin.ankerl.com/2007/11/04/clearlooks-compact-gnome-theme/ Screenshots are provided on the page.
For xfwm the Prelude-4 theme. wery small… still usable. http://www.xfce-look.org/content/show.php/prelude-4?content=69300
This will reduce the number of writes to the SSD, save SSD disk space, and very slightly improve system performance by keeping some temporary information in memory instead of reading/writing it to the SSD.
To have the various log and temporary files written to RAM instead of to flash, you need to edit /etc/fstab again
sudo mousepad /etc/fstab
then add these lines to the end
# enable RAM-based temporary file systems tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs noatime 0 0 tmpfs /tmp tmpfs noatime 0 0
This also means anything stored in /var/tmp or /tmp won't survive a reboot, so if you're debugging a problem where you need to preserve those files, you might want to comment out those lines.
You can test if this is nessesary by running the program glxgears. On the eee PC properly configured, glxgears should run at over 400 frames per second. Without 3d acceleration it runs at 30 to 40 frames per second. To test, simply open a terminal window and type glxgears. A graphic of spinning gears will appear, and after a few moments, the frames per second rate will be displayed in the terminal window. If your number is under 100, you need to follow the instructions below.
If you want 3D games to work well like they did on Xandros, or if you're interested in installing the uber-cool compiz-fusion 3d desktop, follow these instructions to enable direct rendering in three easy steps:
Open a new terminal (menu: Applications→Accessories→Terminal) and…
sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa
NOTE: thats libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa - be careful of 1's and l's!
Type in your user password if it asks you for it, and answer Y when it prompts you with a question to install the packages.
sudo mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Once again, enter your user password if it asks for it. This will open a text editor to edit your configuration for the foundation of Linux's graphical interface. Ignore the message about potentially harming your system because you are root (don't worry, nothing bad will happen).
Scroll down to the very end of the file, and add this text:
Section "Module" Load "glx" Load "dri" Load "dbe" EndSection Section "DRI" Mode 0666 EndSection
(Make sure the file ends with a blank line. The cursor needs to be TWO LINES below the last print. Failing to have a blank line will bork your xorg.conf)
Save and quit.
That's it! After you reboot and log in to your system, you can check if 3D acceleration is working by running glxgears. To do this, use the Alt-F2 combination in xubuntu to bring up the run dialog, type glxgears in the textbox, check run in terminal and hit run. Now you should see ~400fps!
While you're in xorg.conf, you can uncomment the entries for the Wacom tablet if you want as well.
Note: Some users report that upon performing this step, the volume control function keys (fn-f8 and fn-f9) quit displaying the on-screen display although they continue to work.
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=5984.
On machines with a swap partition add the following to
sudo mousepad /etc/rc.local
Put these two lines just before the „exit 0“ statement at the end:
sysctl -w vm.swappiness=1 # Strongly discourage the swapping of application data to disk sysctl -w vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50 # Don't shrink the inode cache so aggressively.
This reduces the likelihood of the actual applications, or directory listings, from being paged out. Disk page cache is not nearly as important as random access SSD reads are faster than on HD. As a bi-product the above will improve the responsiveness for interactive use (which is the primary use of the EEE), although reducing the overall performance of the system. GT
