Now that Mandriva has released 2009.0 there is no need to use the procedure described on this page. Mandriva 2009.0 fully supports eeePC models 901 and 1000

When Mandriva 2008.1 was released the only model of eeePC available was the 701. Mandriva did an excellent job of ensuring 2008.1 installed on the eeePC701 “out of the box”.

Then along came a whole slew of new eee products using bleeding edge hardware that was not supported in any linux distro so the “out of the box” tag is no longer true for the newer models like 901 and 1000. Hopefully the soon to be released 2009.0 release will resolve that issue.

In the meantime it is still possible to install Mandriva 2008.1 on eeePC 901 and 1000 models by following a fairly simple procedure. Read this guide in conjunction with the general instructions for installing Mandriva on an eeePC.

There are three principle methods of installing Mandriva on an eeePC.

1. From a 'One' edition Live CD. - The 'One' edition is a single CD that can be booted directly into a running Mandriva 2008.1. One is available in three versions. A KDE 3.5 version, a Gnome version, and an XFCE version. Once running it is a simple matter to install Mandriva 2008.1 on your SSD, an external USB stick, or an SDHC card. In order to use the 'One' edition you must have access to an external USB connected CD drive. Because the 'One' edition is a single CD there is limited space for applications. Therefore there are no compiler tools on the CD.
2. From the 'Free' edition - The 'Free' edition is a single DVD or a three CD set. It contains the full Mandriva 'main' distribution which means it constains KDE, Gnome, XFCE and a number of other desktops, lots of applications and a full set of compiler tools. Use the 'Free' edition if you have access to an external CD or DVD drive.
3. From a network install - Mandriva release a bootloader called all.img which when loaded on a USB stick enables an eee to boot and automatically find an online ftp repository of all the Mandriva packages. It will download and install the same installer used by the 'Free' edition. Installing in this manner is exactly the same as installing the 'Free' edition but will take longer because of the delays involved in downloading the packages. Use the network download if you do not have access to an external CD/DVD drive.

The eeePC 901 and 1000 models use a different Ethernet chip and a different wireless chip to the 701. Neither of the required drivers are on any of the installation media for Mandriva 2008.1. A network install is therefore impossible. The only ways to install is using an external CD/DVD drive, or by putting a copy of the 'One' edition on a USB Flash stick.

Follow this procedurecontributed by lordikc. For instructions in English scroll down to the comments.

Once you have installed the 'One' or 'Free' editions using an external CD/DVD or the USB Flash method you will find that neither your Ethernet or Wireless interfaces work. The wireless interface can be made to work quite easily by using 'ndiswrapper' to use Windows drivers. Run through the GUI in Mandriva Control Centre to Add a Wireless connection, and when prompted tell the GUI where to find the '.inf' file of the Windows driver.

Once Wireless is working you will have connectivity to the internet and can set up the online Mandriva repositories. Do this by Opening Mandriva Control Centre (Menu>Tools>SystemTools>ConfigureYourComputer) Select Software>ConfigureMedia. Select 'Add' and when prompted 'Full set of sources'. You will then be asked to pick a mirror site to use. Sources will be added for 'main' 'contrib' and 'non-free' sources. Once you have done this then you are able to install software online.

At this pont you should install the packages kernel-laptop-latest and kernel-laptop-devel-latest These packages are 'meta' packages that point to the latest kernel package, and the latest kernel devopment files need for compiling kernel modules.

Reboot. You will notice the grub boot menu is different and a new item has appeared. The default will be to boot the new kernel.

Once you have wireless working then you can install a package to get Ethernet working. The package dkms-atl1e is not an official Mandriva package. A dkms package contains the source code of a kernel driver. When it is installed the dkms service running on your computer will compile the package and install it on your kernel. Any time you install a new kernel the package will be automatically compiled on the next boot and will automagically be installed on the new kernel.

In order to work the dkms package requires a number of things.

• dkms must be installed and running.
• Kernel source files to match the running kernel.
• A compiler

All of the required items are on the online repositories or the 'Free' edition DVD/CDs. Simply clicking on the dkms-atl1e file with Konqueror or Firefox will cause the required components to be installed automagically.

None of the required components are on the 'One' CD so you will need to have Wireless work via ndiswrapper so they can be obtained online.

Once the dkms-atl1e package has finished compiling you can run the GUI at ManrivaControlCentre Network>SetUpaNewNetworkInterface and it will find your Ethernet.

If you are using the 'One' edition (NOT the 'Free' edition), and cannot get ndiswrapper working to get your wireless connection online, then there is still a way to get Ethernet working. This file is a binary driver for the kernel supplied with the 2008.1 'One' edition. Copy it to the location /lib/modules/2.6.24.4-desktop586-1mnb/kernel/drivers/net/atl1

Then in a terminal enter 'su' (without quotes) to become root user and issue the command depmod -a

Your Ethernet will now work.

DO NOT DO YOUR UPDATES YET If you do your software updates before installing the dkms-atl1e package then on the next boot your Ethernet will stop working. Install the kernel-laptop-latest and kernel-laptop-devel-latest packages and the dkms-atl1e packages first.

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