The eeePC comes with lots of more or less useful applications. Removing those, which are not really needed can free up a lot of space.

For example I have removed all games, Open office, Thunderbird and a few more, and now only 1.5 Gbyte is used out of the 4 GB SSD. That leaves me plenty of space to install my own applications.

This tutorial will show how to do this.

In order to remove applications, one needs to eliminate the unionFS filesystem (otherwise the applications are not really removed, and no space is freed up when removing them).

Doing so requires two steps.

First a new initram file needs to be created (on the second - user - partition), then this file needs to be copied to the first partition. These two steps effectively eliminate the unionFS filesystem, and therefore give the user full control over the eeePC.

But before providing the details, please note, that I am just a newbie on the eeePC. All of this (or 99% of it) is from Kibobo ( see the thread here: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=1891) Thank you Kibobo!

Ok. So first, lets create a new initram file.

The current file can be accessed in the boot folder:

1. Start the console
2. Sudo bash
3. cd /boot
4. create a new folder with any name you like within /boot ( for example: kibobo)  by typing: mkdir kibobo
5. copy into the kibobo folder from the /boot folder the initramfs-eeepc.img  file by typing: cp initramfs-eeepc.img /boot/kibobo
6. cd kibobo
7. gunzip < initramfs-eeepc.img | cpio -i
8. delete from the kibobo folder the initramfs-eeepc.img  file
9. use the nano text editor to edit the init file   ( the init file will be in the kibobo folder) -> type nano init
10. edit the file to have the following content:

Code:
#!/bin/sh
mount -t proc proc /proc

if [ -n "$XANDROSBOOTDEBUG" ]; then
    /bin/busybox sh
    set -x
fi

ROOT=`cat /proc/cmdline | sed 's/.*root=// ; s/ .*//'`
#VERSION=`cat /proc/version | cut -f3 -d" "`

mount -t ext2 -o rw,noatime $ROOT /mnt
if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then
    echo Could not mount OS on $ROOT. Starting debugging shell....
    /bin/busybox sh
fi

#if [ -n "$XANDROSSCAN" ]; then
#    exec switch_root /mnt-system /sbin/scanuser.sh
#fi

#if [ -n "$XANDROSRESTORE" ]; then
#    exec switch_root /mnt-system /sbin/formatuser.sh
#fi

#if [ -z "`grep nosplash /proc/cmdline`" ]; then
#    echo -n ""
#    cp /mnt-system/boot/startup.fb /dev/fb/0
#fi

#if ! mount -t ext3 -o rw /dev/sda2 /mnt-user; then
#    echo Error mounting user partition. Must run filesystem scan!
#    exec switch_root /mnt-system /sbin/scanuser.sh
#fi

# Factory auto-format functionality
#if [ -f /mnt-user/.autoformat ]; then
#    umount /mnt-user
#    exec switch_root /mnt-system /sbin/formatuser.sh -- --auto
#fi

#insmod /mnt-system/lib/modules/$VERSION/kernel/fs/unionfs/unionfs.ko > /dev/null

#mount -t unionfs -o dirs=/mnt-user=rw:/mnt-system=ro unionfs /mnt
#if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
#    echo Could not mount unionfs. Starting debugging shell....
#    /bin/busybox sh
#fi

#mount --move /mnt-system /mnt/mnt
#umount -l /mnt-user

umount /proc

if [ -n "$INIT" ]; then
    if [ -n "$XANDROSBOOTDEBUG" ]; then
    exec switch_root /mnt $INIT </mnt/dev/console >/mnt/dev/console
    else
    exec switch_root /mnt $INIT </mnt/dev/null >/mnt/dev/null
    fi
else
    exec switch_root /mnt /sbin/fastinit "$@" </mnt/dev/console >/mnt/dev/console
fi

echo
echo Init Failed. Starting emergency shell....
/bin/busybox sh

-----

Be very careful that you do all the changes exactly as explained.

Close nano and save the file ( ctrl - x, type Y, hit enter)

11. verify, that the changes were done correctly
12. cd /boot/kibobo
13. find | cpio -H newc -o | gzip -9 > ../kibobo.img


If you did all correctly, you should have the new boot image, which will disable unionfs. The file name is kibobo.img, and it is in the /boot folder.

Now it is time to move to step 2: copying the modified file to the first partition

1. Reboot your eeePC
2. During the boot press F9: the grub console should show
3. On the first item of the grub console press 'e'
4. On the second line  of the window that pops up, press 'e' (the line starts with /kernel/boot/vmlinuz)
5. Go to the end of the line, and add to it " XANDROSBOOTDEBUG=y ".
6. Press enter
7. Press b to boot

You should now be on the rescue console

8. mount the two filesystems:
- mount /dev/sda1 /mnt-system
- mount /dev/sda2 /mnt-user

9. go to the new kibobo.image file:   cd   /mnt-user/boot
10. copy the file to the first partition cp kibobo.img /mnt-system/boot

11. just to be sure, check that the copy worked: cd /mnt-system/boot       The kibobo.img file should be there

Reboot your eeePC ( with the power button - hold it for a long time)

1. Reboot your eeePC
2. During the boot press F9: the grub console should show
3. On the first item of the grub console press 'e'
4. On the third line of the window that pops up, press 'e' ( the line starts with initrd )
5. replace in the third line the initramfs-eeepc.img name with kibobo.img
6. press enter
7. press b

If you did everything right, your eeePC will now boot - and without the unionFS filesystem

We are nearly done, but not 100% yet.

You need to change the menu.lst file ( under /boot/grub ) so that it automatically boots the kibobo.img file next time.

Do this:
cd /boot/grub
nano menu.lst

In the first entry replace the initramfs-eeepc.img name with kibobo.img

Save the file ( ctrl-x, Y, enter)

Finally, you need to merge the two first partitions:

You need to boot now the eeePC from a liveCD or a USB stick ( try for example faunos - that is what I have used) (This is the only time Faunos has to be used - all other changes are done directly on the eeePC)

Using gparted, you can remove the second partition , and the first partition can be enlarged (do not change the small third and fourth partitions - they are needed for bios updates)

Now we are done. Shut down the eeePC and  remove the liveCD or the Faunous stick.

Restart the eeePC and do the last step if you wish (this not required, but reduces the probability of a possible data loss down the road)

If you want, you can convert the ext2 filesystem to ext3 ( this is recommended) the following way:

1. tune2fs -j /dev/sda1      -> this will turn ext2 in ext3
3. tune2fs -c 0 -i 0 /dev/sda1   -> this will disable the otherwise scheduled file system checks
3. you MUST change your initramfs file too (as it expects by default ext 2)

See what we have done in the first step above. But start now with the kibobo.img file. The kibobo folder is probably still there, so you can copy kibobo.img to it, extract it (as above), and edit the init file:
Change the line:
mount -t ext2 -o rw $ROOT /mnt
to
mount -t ext3 -o rw $ROOT /mnt
Delete both kibobo.img files ( one in /boot the other in /boot/kibobo) and rebuild kibobo.img (as above)

And you are ready to roll!!!

Reboot your eeepc to see if all went well, and change and remove applications to your hearts content...



I hope that helps.

Any questions: just ask. I will try to answer, and if I cant, I am sure Kibobo can.

And dont worry: you dont risk anything. If you mess something up, you can always return to the factory setup using the DVD or a USB flashdisc ( I had to do this 4 times, before I figured everything out...)

Good luck - and power to the eeePC!!!

Last edited by Gadgetguy (2007-12-13 8:08:04 am)