27 replies to this topic

[wolfen69]

OK, it's not the regular full blown gnome desktop, but with only 2gigs to work with, it's a solution that works. This is also perfect for a lean and mean install on the 4G Surf as well.

Like many people, i have tried to get a "real" install of Ubuntu on my 2G Surf, but found myself reinstalling the default Xandros OS because of limited space on the SSD. The following tutorial will enable you to have an honest to goodness Ubuntu install that will do all the basic tasks you need.

What you will need:

1. Intrepid Ibex mini iso http://archive.ubunt...m/ubuntu/dists/ … t/mini.iso or Jaunty Jackalope mini iso http://archive.ubunt...etboot/mini.iso

2. A wired internet connection.

3. An external CD drive or get unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ and put the .iso on a flash drive.

4. Some spare time and patience. (took me about 4 hours)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Burn the mini iso to cd using your favorite burning app. There are other methods of installing this .iso, here https://help.ubuntu....community/Insta … omUSBStick is a link to get the iso onto a usb thumbdrive.

Make sure to have network cable connected before you begin the installation.

Connect external cd drive or usb with iso.

Immediately after turning on the EeePC, press Esc button a few times until a boot menu comes up. You should see a list with your cd or usb drive listed. Select it and hit enter.

After cd boots up, select language then select command line install. The installation after this point will be pretty straight forward, asking you the usual questions and requiring you to add a user name and password.

When you get to the part about partitioning the drive, you basically have 2 choices: Guided-use entire disk and manual. If you choose entire disk, be aware it will use more swap space than doing manual partitioning and you will be left with about 300mb of free space after the install is completely finished. If you choose manual, i recommend using about 128mb of swap space.

After install you will reboot and be left with a system without a desktop environment. That will be dealt with later in this tutorial.

Log in.

Do: sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

If you are using Jaunty, just replace intrepid with jaunty for the following lines.

The nano text editor will now open. With the arrow keys, navigate to the following line:
#deb http://us.archive.ub...repid-backports main restricted universe multiverse

Place the cursor over the # symbol and hit delete. Next, navigate to the following line:
#deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu intrepid partner

Delete the # as before. If the following line has a # in front of it, remove # also:
#deb http://us.archive.ub...ubuntu/intrepid main restricted

Use arrow key to go to the bottom of the file to create a new line. Type in the following:
deb http://apt.wicd.net intrepid extras

Do Ctrl-x, then y, then enter.

Do: wget -q http://apt.wicd.net/wicd.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
(keep in mind that -O- is the capital letter O, not a zero)


Then do: sudo apt-get update

Then: sudo apt-get install xorg

Then: sudo apt-get install xfce4

I chose xfce as the desktop environment simply because it is the smallest lightweight desktop environment that has features similar to gnome. And xfce will fit on the drive, gnome won't. Of course you are free to choose openbox or fluxbox as a desktop environment, but you are on your own as how to configure those. I will provide help for xfce only.

Let's get our apps installed next.

Do: sudo apt-get install xfce4-battery-plugin acpi-support gnome-terminal xdm firefox synaptic leafpad wicd wpa-supplicant alsa alsamixer alsamixer-gui thunar

After these apps install, simply do: startx to get to your new desktop.

Of note: wicd will be the app to handle our wireless access, leafpad is a text editor, and thunar is the file manager. If at any point a window is too big for the screen, you can move it around by alt-left click-mousepad. Or if you are using a mouse, alt-left click-move mouse.

OK, the fun begins. Let's get our desktop straightened out before we worry about wireless or sound. Right click desktop and go to settings>settings manager>panel. Select the fixed position button. Just below the button you just clicked is a pull down menu. Select full width. Auto-hide is up to you. In the settings manager you will notice that there are many things you can tweak, but i will let you have fun discovering what can be changed and tweaked.

Close the settings manager window and get back to the desktop. Right click your new taskbar and select "add new item". Select xfce menu and task list. Feel free to add any others you see fit. (volume control is also handy) After you install them, you can move them around by right clicking and select "move".

Tired yet? That's too bad, we're almost done ;-)

If, when you go to play music or have sound and it doesn't work, check alsamixergui (in the xfce menu) first. If it still doesn't work, the following is how i set it up:
sudo apt-get install module-assistant

Then: sudo m-a a-i alsa
This will recompile the latest alsa. (it may give an error at the end of compiling drivers, but disregard this and reboot) This may or may not be a problem for some people, but it worked for me. If you need more assistance, i'm sure the friendly people at eeeuser forums or ubuntuforums will be glad to help.

On to wi-fi. (the following was only tested in intrepid, and may or may not work in jaunty)

Do: sudo apt-get update

Then: sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic

Then: sudo modprobe ath5k

Then: sudo -s

Then: echo blacklist ath_pci >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Open gnome-terminal and do: sudo leafpad /etc/default/halt

Add a new line to this file with the following: rmmod snd_hda_intel
(this fixes a shutdown issue where the eeepc appears to shutdown, but power light stays on)
Save file.

Reboot.

By simply going to Menu>Network>WICD, you should be able to see available wireless networks. The rest is easy.

For those that want a quick helper to install flash in firefox, go to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ and download the .deb file for ubuntu 8.04+

Put that file into your Home folder. Open terminal and type: sudo dpkg -i install_flash_player_10_linux.deb

Restart Firefox if open.

I am not going to get into installing multimedia codecs and such, because i will assume that most if not all of you are familiar with using synaptic. But for those that do need help with restricted formats, see this webpage: https://help.ubuntu....strictedFormats

I hope this document is of some value to people out there who were looking for a "real" desktop on a 2G Surf. (and we all know our choices are very limited) Also be very mindful of how many apps you install and how many files you save. At this point, you should have 300-450mb of disk space left. Just use a thumbdrive to save files and you are good to go.

And yes, i know i did not instruct- sudo apt-get upgrade. My feeling is that if it aint broke don't fix it. At least for netbooks. But that is your decision whether to use that command. Plus there's not much room to work with in the first place.

If anyone has any corrections or suggestions to what I wrote, please PM me and i will make the necessary adjustments, giving you credit. Thanks.

Edited by wolfen69, 09 May 2009 - 01:42 AM.

[wolfen69]

OK, it's not the regular full blown gnome desktop, but with only 2gigs to work with, it's a solution that works. This is also perfect for a lean and mean install on the 4G Surf as well.

Like many people, i have tried to get a "real" install of Ubuntu on my 2G Surf, but found myself reinstalling the default Xandros OS because of limited space on the SSD. The following tutorial will enable you to have an honest to goodness Ubuntu install that will do all the basic tasks you need.

What you will need:

1. Intrepid Ibex mini iso http://archive.ubunt...etboot/mini.iso

2. A wired internet connection.

3. An external CD drive or get unetbootin http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ and put the .iso on a flash drive.

4. Some spare time and patience. (took me about 4 hours)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Burn the mini iso to cd using your favorite burning app. There are other methods of installing this .iso, here https://help.ubuntu....on/FromUSBStick is a link to get the iso onto a usb thumbdrive.

Make sure to have network cable connected before you begin the installation.

Connect external cd drive or usb with iso.

Immediately after turning on the EeePC, press Esc button a few times until a boot menu comes up. You should see a list with your cd or usb drive listed. Select it and hit enter.

After cd boots up, select language then select command line install. The installation after this point will be pretty straight forward, asking you the usual questions and requiring you to add a user name and password.

When you get to the part about partitioning the drive, you basically have 2 choices: Guided-use entire disk and manual. If you choose entire disk, be aware it will use more swap space than doing manual partitioning and you will be left with about 300mb of free space after the install is completely finished. If you choose manual, i recommend using about 128mb of swap space.

After install you will reboot and be left with a system without a desktop environment. That will be dealt with later in this tutorial.

Log in.

Do: sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

The nano text editor will now open. With the arrow keys, navigate to the following line:
#deb http://us.archive.ub...repid-backports main restricted universe multiverse

Place the cursor over the # symbol and hit delete. Next, navigate to the following line:
#deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu intrepid partner

Delete the # as before. If the following line has a # in front of it, remove # also:
#deb http://us.archive.ub...ubuntu/intrepid main restricted

Use arrow key to go to the bottom of the file to create a new line. Type in the following:
deb http://apt.wicd.net intrepid extras

Do Ctrl-x, then y, then enter.

Do: wget -q http://apt.wicd.net/wicd.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
(keep in mind that -O- is the capital letter O, not a zero)


Then do: sudo apt-get update

Then: sudo apt-get install xorg

Then: sudo apt-get install xfce4

I chose xfce as the desktop environment simply because it is the smallest lightweight desktop environment that has features similar to gnome. And xfce will fit on the drive, gnome won't. Of course you are free to choose openbox or fluxbox as a desktop environment, but you are on your own as how to configure those. I will provide help for xfce only.

Let's get our apps installed next.

Do: sudo apt-get install xfce4-battery-plugin acpi-support gnome-terminal xdm firefox synaptic leafpad wicd wpa-supplicant alsa alsamixer alsamixer-gui thunar

After these apps install, simply do: startx to get to your new desktop.

Of note: wicd will be the app to handle our wireless access, leafpad is a text editor, and thunar is the file manager. If at any point a window is too big for the screen, you can move it around by alt-left click-mousepad. Or if you are using a mouse, alt-left click-move mouse.

OK, the fun begins. Let's get our desktop straightened out before we worry about wireless or sound. Right click desktop and go to settings>settings manager>panel. Select the fixed position button. Just below the button you just clicked is a pull down menu. Select full width. Auto-hide is up to you. In the settings manager you will notice that there are many things you can tweak, but i will let you have fun discovering what can be changed and tweaked.

Close the settings manager window and get back to the desktop. Right click your new taskbar and select "add new item". Select xfce menu and task list. Feel free to add any others you see fit. (volume control is also handy) After you install them, you can move them around by right clicking and select "move".

Tired yet? That's too bad, we're almost done ;-)

If, when you go to play music or have sound and it doesn't work, check alsamixergui (in the xfce menu) first. If it still doesn't work, the following is how i set it up:
sudo apt-get install module-assistant

Then: sudo m-a a-i alsa
This will recompile the latest alsa. (it may give an error at the end of compiling drivers, but disregard this and reboot) This may or may not be a problem for some people, but it worked for me. If you need more assistance, i'm sure the friendly people at eeeuser forums or ubuntuforums will be glad to help.

On to wi-fi.

Do: sudo apt-get update

Then: sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic

Then: sudo modprobe ath5k

Then: sudo -s

Then: echo blacklist ath_pci >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Open gnome-terminal and do: sudo leafpad /etc/default/halt

Add a new line to this file with the following: rmmod snd_hda_intel
(this fixes a shutdown issue where the eeepc appears to shutdown, but power light stays on)
Save file.

Reboot.

By simply going to Menu>Network>WICD, you should be able to see available wireless networks. The rest is easy.

For those that want a quick helper to install flash in firefox, go to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ and download the .deb file for ubuntu 8.04+

Put that file into your Home folder. Open terminal and type: sudo dpkg -i install_flash_player_10_linux.deb

Restart Firefox if open.

I am not going to get into installing multimedia codecs and such, because i will assume that most if not all of you are familiar with using synaptic. But for those that do need help with restricted formats, see this webpage: https://help.ubuntu....strictedFormats

I hope this document is of some value to people out there who were looking for a "real" desktop on a 2G Surf. (and we all know our choices are very limited) Also be very mindful of how many apps you install and how many files you save. At this point, you should have 300-450mb of disk space left. Just use a thumbdrive to save files and you are good to go.

And yes, i know i did not instruct- sudo apt-get upgrade. My feeling is that if it aint broke don't fix it. At least for netbooks. But that is your decision whether to use that command. Plus there's not much room to work with in the first place.

If anyone has any corrections or suggestions to what I wrote, please PM me and i will make the necessary adjustments, giving you credit. Thanks.

Edited by wolfen69, 10 January 2009 - 06:01 AM.

[lagagnon]

I haven't tried your post but it could be very useful to many - placed in the wiki would be even better! Thanks for your great contrib to the community. Makes a nice change from the lazy, inane questions often posted on these forums ;-)

Edited by lagagnon, 23 December 2008 - 03:00 AM.

[wolfen69]

I noticed awhile ago that there were some frustrated 2G users that could not get a decent desktop environment with only 2gb to work with. Me included. I searched for a mini ubuntueee install, but it doesn't exist. 2G users are at a serious disadvantage as far as what we can put on our machines. Sure, there is Pupeee and maybe a couple others, but in the end, there's not much to choose from. My tutorial may not be suitable for total noobs or anything, but then again they are probably happy with the default OS. I wasn't one of those. I am not by any means a linux expert, nor claim to be. But I feel I have just enough experience to help someone else who feels like I did. Someone that wanted more than the stock OS. I have installed and tested what i wrote in my tutorial, and I confirm it works.

To all the lifelong geeks out there, yes this is just a command line install of ubuntu tweaked slightly for the eeepc, but I'm sure I'm not the only one that would have benefited from something like this. I'm just doing what I can to help.

Thanks lagagnon for your kind words, I havent typed this much in years. I have my own PC repair business and most of my customers are windows users, but 7 of them are also linux users. So I kinda have to know linux too. Like I said, I havnt typed this much since Jimmy Carter. My responses/fixes are usually quick. Just used to the forum stuff.

Edited by wolfen69, 23 December 2008 - 04:35 AM.

[Dez]

Thanks for this, this is just what I needed. Although I don't have an external USB drive. Do you think it would work if I just put the .iso on a USB drive and change the boot settings accordingly? Or would I get the dread 'NTLDR is missing' error message again?

[burning_rave]

i think this is a really good tutorial, but i don't have a CD drive. Although i have a 4G, im pretty paranoid about disk space, and i have the last ubuntu version. can i use unetbootin or something like that to install it from a pen drive?

[ZilverZurfarn]

burning_rave said:

can i use unetbootin or something like that to install it from a pen drive?

wolfen69 said:

There are other methods of installing this .iso, but i'll leave that up to you if you decide to go in another direction. (think google)

In other words - yes. Instead of burning the ISO to CD, create a bootable USB stick from it as per usual.

/Zilver

[wolfen69]

i have added a link in the tutorial to get the iso onto a thumbdrive for installation. https://help.ubuntu....on/FromUSBStick

[wolfen69]

here https://help.ubuntu....on/FromUSBStick is a link to get the iso onto a usb thumbdrive.

[Dez]

Thanks for updating it, but is the mini.iso meant to be just 9.9MB?

EDIT: Tried it and got 'NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart'

Edited by Dez, 23 December 2008 - 09:03 PM.

[snowpine]

Quote

Thanks for updating it, but is the mini.iso meant to be just 9.9MB?

Yes; it downloads the rest of the files from the web in a process known as a 'netinstall.' (This is why Wolfen says you'll need a wired internet connection.)

Edited by snowpine, 23 December 2008 - 08:56 PM.

[Dez]

OK, thanks, but I can never seem to get it to work. Anyone got a fix for the NTLDR error? I have a feeling it might be my memory stick ...

[wolfen69]

acpi-support added as well.

[bjf]

IceWM is a very good lightweight window manager - works perfectly on < 128 MB RAM. and is available by copying a few files from the /etc/directory. This is a good compromise if the Xandros default install is by and large "good enough", and you just want to have some extras.

There are a number of KDE apps available, such as Konsole, and are available from the default menu.

Operations - to do as ordinary user - not as root!

cd /etc/X11/icewm
cp * /home/user/.icewm # note the dot in front of icewm!

Press ctrl-alt-backspace and you have a full window manager.

Examine the file .icewm/user. You will see a large number of entries that do not show up in the menu. Icewm checks for the existance of the executable on the fly before putting up the menu. You can add other programs manually. One tip is to run it first from Konsole or Terminal. If something is missing, the error messages will give most of the necessary info.

I have a couple of special programs and menu entries for playing certain radio stations for a script that changes the screen resolution automatically when connected to an external TV for watching BBC iplayer.

You see I am too mean to buy an external DVD drive.

[claude j greengrass]

wolfen69: How fast does it boot?

[thornomad]

Quote

Make sure to have network cable connected before you begin the installation.

Connect external cd drive.

Immediately after turning on the eeepc, press Esc button a few times until a boot menu comes up. You should see a list with your cd drive listed. Select it and hit enter.

After cd boots up, select language then select command line install. The installation after this point will be pretty straight forward, asking you the usual questions and requiring you to add a user name and password.

I tried this with a 900A and can't get passed the detecting network hardware part -- says it can't find my network hardware ... get a big red screen ... I tried to adjust the bios to allow the LAN port in secureROM (or something like that) as well as tried it with wireless enabled and disabled ... however, still get the error. Can't find any networking devices. Not sure what else to try (I do have an ethernet cable plugged in and it works in the xandros os).

Any thoughts? I will download eeebuntu and see if that works ...

[wolfen69]

i have not tested this on a 900. perhaps the mini iso just doesn't have the driver. this tutorial was specifically written for the 2G surf (4G surf will work as well), so i make no promises about any other models.

[wolfen69]

Quote

wolfen69: How fast does it boot?

i will admit that it is not the fastest around. it is actually alot slower than the default OS. i have not timed it, so i can't give you specifics. next time i boot it, i will time it and post back.

but once the OS is loaded, it runs very fast and you have a normal desktop to work with. a plus in my book. i can live with a little extra time booting.

[thornomad]

Quote

i have not tested this on a 900. perhaps the mini iso just doesn't have the driver. this tutorial was specifically written for the 2G surf (4G surf will work as well), so i make no promises about any other models.

No worries - just wondered if there was something I was missing (like how it's F2 on the 900A and not ESC to get to the boot menu ... that took a while!).

Appreciate it.

[wolfen69]

bump for the couple people i saw asking about command line install.