If you have video that you transfer to your iPod (from your desktop) that you want to watch on your EeePC, you'll find that, out of the box, it'll play the audio but not the video.
The reason is that it uses the h.264 codec, which Xandros/Eee PC has stopped including in their product, due to licencing issues. A previous version of the MPlayer software includes the needed codec. Downgrading hasn't caused any reported issues.
sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main non-free contrib
(copy from here and paste in kwrite by right-clicking and choosing paste)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mplayer=1.0~rc1-12etch5
(if your console window has a white background, you can copy from here and right-click in the console window to paste). NOTE: The character between the 0 and rc1 in the package name is the tilde (”~”) character, not the dash character. The tilde is produced by using the shift and ` key to the right of the Esc key.
sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main non-free contrib
and put # (a hash or number sign) in front of it. This will disable the debian repository, so that you don't accidentally install incompatible software.
You could install VLC, which supports h.264 video. MPlayer includes a plugin for Firefox, which will need to not be replaced by VLC using this method.
Follow all of the steps above, but in step 6 above, type
sudo apt-get install vlc
