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Hey!
As far as I know, the Linux OS of the EeePC is based on Xandros and some Open Source software. Because I like the (easy-mode) UI a lot, I'd be interested to know how to run it on a normal computer / laptop. As the kernel ships the hardware drivers and most of the software being licensed under GPL, this shouldn't be a big problem, should it? I'd be keen to get more information about this. Thanks!
Martin
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I agree - i think this interface would be great for public terminals etc
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Yeah, connected with something like a touchscreen.
When I have some free time, I am going to download the source code and have a look which parts have to be recompiled.
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1) You will need to recompile the kernel to add drivers for most hardwares because the stock kernel only has eeepc hardware drivers.
2) You will also need to rebuild the initramfs image as it only has device for sda and nothing else.
3) Probably you will also need to add some devices, e.g. hda, hda1 , ... etc to /dev because I think udev is only loaded at a later stage. [NB. We have no idea about this because this part is handled by fastinit for which the source code is not available]
For 2), I would suggest seeking the root partition and user partition by volume label passed on as kernel parameters from grub menu.lst. This would make life a lot easier. You can refer to what we have done for booting Xandros from USB (just omit the lines for loading USB modules and sleep to register USB) in this thread for default with unionfs and without unionfs.
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It has been Chinese New Year and with the 4 days holidays, I have proceeded to transfer Eeepc Linux to my desktop.
EDIT: LAN card problem has been fixed and audigy2 sound card has also been set up. Now my EeePC Linux on desktop is fully useable. Like what I did in this thread. I replaced atl2 with the correct module for my desktop LAN card and then it works.
So far, I have only half success: The system boots up alright into the Easy interface desktop, but I found that network utilities and sound card are not working. It seems that all the Xandros tools can only work with the default Eeepc hardware. Although LAN card is seen in the network connection wizard, and although I have a router that does not require any settings specific to connect to, it just can't connect! So, there is still tons of work before the system is really useful.
For those who are interested, here is a brief summary of what I have done:
1) Create a new partition (sda7) on my desktop and dd the SYSTEM partition (sda1 from the SSD) to it.
2) fdisk and create a new partition (sda8) on my desktop, format it to ext3, label: USER. [NB. In the end, I gave up unionfs and merge the 2 partitions on my desktop because I found that I need to heavily customize the system. So, this step is no longer necessary.
3) Download the Eeepc kernel source from Asus.
4) I also downloaded a linux kernel-2.6.21.5, extract the config file from it and use its defaults as a starting point, compare each line with /boot/config-2.6.21.4-eeepc of the Eeepc and come up with a new .config that has all the default drivers support + eeepc specific drivers.
5) Then I copy this new .config to a working Linux box on my desktop (mine is Debian etch. Alternatively, you can use a Linux live CD), unpack the Eeepc kernel source there and re-compile the kernel the usual way.
make make bzImage make modules make modules_install
This kernel should have IDE support and support for most hardware. In my case, the driver for my scsi controller is aic7xxx which is by default also compiled into the kernel.
6) Then I copy bzImage to /boot of sda7, and move the folder /lib/modules/2.6.21.4-eeepc to /lib/modules of sda7. I also move the folder /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.21.4-eeepc to /usr/src in sda8 (this step is optional).
7) Next I unpack /boot/initramfs-eeepc.img in sda7 and edit "init" to change the root partition and user partition to sda7 and sda8 which is passed on as kernel parameters from Grub menu.lst. Change these lines:
... USERPART=`cat /proc/cmdline | sed 's/.*user=// ; s/ .*//'` if ! mount -t ext3 -o rw $USERPART /mnt-user; then ...
[NB. Use the init in this wiki if you want to go without unionfs, of course, change sda1 to the correct partition you are installing EeePC Linux on your desktop.]
Also, mknod for sda7 and sda8 (or whatever drive you plan to put your Eeepc Linux onto your desktop) in /dev of the temp dir where you have unpacked the initramfs image.
8) Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst in sda7 and change these lines:
root (hd2,6)
kernel /boot/bzImage ... root=/dev/sda7 user=/dev/sda89) As I already have a boot manager in MBR, I transfer Grub stage1 to the superblock of sda7. Run /mnt/sda7/usr/sbin/grub:
grub>find /boot/grub/stage1 grub>root (hd2,6) grub>setup (hd2,6) grub>quit
10) Also edit formatuser.sh and scanuser.sh in /sbin of sda7 for the new root and user partition. Add the line "USERPART=..." as in "init" above and change all "/dev/sda2" to "$USERPART". [NB. Not necessary if you go without unionfs.]
11) Now my Eeepc Linux on desktop should be able to boot. But in reality, unless you are fortunate enough to have the same Intel display card on your desktop, X windows can not start. Having a Nvidia display card on my desktop, I download the driver "xserver-xorg-video-nv_1.2.0-3_i386.deb" from the Debian repository, unpack it and manually copy the files into sda7. EDIT: Finally, I use vesa driver instead of nv driver - better video quality and also vesa driver is installed by default. I only need to change xorg.conf and replace "intel" with "vesa", and change the "screen" modes to 1024x768, 800x600, etc for my desktop LCD display.
12) Then I edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf in sda7, copy the sections for the "Device", "InputDevice", "Monitor" and "Screen" from the xorg.conf my running Linux box.
13) Now reboot.
This is where I have come up to. In conclusion, you will need considerable Linux knowledge to do all these.
Last edited by albkwan (2008-10-29 9:58:13 am)
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Surely there must be an easier way to get a similar UI. I mean Ubuntu for netbooks is similar surely this would have more universal underpinnings as it's been designed to work with all the netooks on the market and any yet to surface.
Looks like they have made an easy mode for XP: http://eeesite.net/2008/03/easy-mode-for-xp.html
Another possibility:
shengchieh wrote:
I suggest downloading linpus lite. It has a liveCd - so you can see what it is
http://www.linpus.com/
http://www.linpus.com/xampp/modules/myd … php?cid=14
It also has an easy mode. Know nothing about the $$$.
Sheng-Chieh
This also might help: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=15105
Keep us updated as I've got a couple of projects where an interface like this would be really useful.
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LXLauncher (part of the LXDE project) might also be interesting -- it's (supposed to be) a clone of the AsusLauncher. It's easier than trying to run the same kernel, fastinit, etc., just to get the interface.
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I too want to do this, for simplicity and speed. We have 701's to use when out and about and Compac Evo desktops at home that currently run Puppy 109. This puppy is very stable but its getting a bit long in the tooth. i.e. Firefox 1.5 and some early flash.
Is it possable for you to post a link to your kernel and other work ? I have tried using a Debian Etch kernel but it didnt work.
I was thinking that I could install Etch and then use the drivers and setting from that to modify the Eee PC Xandros.
Thanks
Auda
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Auda wrote:
Is it possible for you to post a link to your kernel and other work?
The kernel is not big, but you will also need the loadable kernel module tree which is of comparable size.
It may be easier for you to download the config-2.6.21.4-desktop I use, and the the Eeepc kernel source from Asus, and compile the kernel yourself as per this wiki: Rebuilding the eee kernel on eeePC.
EDIT: I guess you should also read this post for legal issues
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=47547
Last edited by albkwan (2009-08-16 2:09:03 am)
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I have packed my kernel, initramfs image (no union filesystem), and all modules for desktop, grub menu.lst, and xorg.conf (for vesa display) into a package eeepc-kernel-desktop.tar.gz and uploaded it to www.mediafire.com for interested users. md5sum is 435e1bf0735430e3ec3185516820db0f
EDIT 2009/7/22: eeepc-kernel-desktop.tar.gz updated with modified initramfs-desktop.img adding device for agpgart
With these files, all you need to do is:
1) Dump the SYSTEM partition from your SSD to a partition you have prepared in your desktop.
2) Boot from another Linux and fix the partition size difference
e2fsck -fy /dev/sdxn resize2fs /dev/sdxn e2fsck -fy /dev/sdxn
Replace sdxn by the correct new partition no., e.g. sda7 in my case.
3) Install grub to the superblock of the new partition or MBR (depending on whether you already have a multi-boot loader.
4) Extract eeepc-kernel-desktop.tar.gz to the root folder of this new partition
5) Edit grub menu.lst and change the lines "root (hd1,6)" and "root=/dev/sda7" with the new partition device no
6) check "dmesg" to verify your correct Ethernet Driver:
dmesg | grep 'Ethernet driver'
and edit required files as per this thread: Howto: Fix network problem using 1000H iso on a 4G.
7) Check correct audio driver by:
lspci -v | grep -i audio
Then run:
sudo alsaconf
[i][NB. Setting up audio may be complicated.]
Last edited by albkwan (2009-08-16 2:11:46 am)
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Thanks for this. I have tried it on 3 different computers and get basicly the same problem.
after this :
22.988 input: ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse /class/inout/input2
the screen starts blinking and it slowly continues to boot then stops.
The computer I want to get working is a Compaq Evo D51s:
Motherboard Intel 845G Chipset with Integrated 4X AGP
Integrated Intel PRO/100 VM Network
Intel Extreme Graphics (integrated with Intel 845G chipset)
I have copied some of the Xorg.conf from a working Puppy linux and i810.so but that is no better. However if I muck up the Xorg.conf ( I had default screen rather than screen0 ) then the boot goes further and I get a terminal on Alt-F3 which I can login to and run Midnight commander :-)
I have run Xorg -configure but that didn't work either.
Suggestions please.
Thanks
Auda
Last edited by Auda (2009-07-21 3:49:00 pm)
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It works.
Sound was easy I just ran
sudo alsaconf
and it worked.
To get the network going I had to run
sudo modprobe e100
Getting Xorg going was the hard part I had to modify initramfs-desktop.img and make agpgart in /dev
First unpack initramfs-desktop.img
gunzip < initramfs-desktop.img | cpio -i
Then change to /dev and type
mknod agpgart c 10 175
I dont know what this actually does I found the line on the net and it worked. I'll read up on that later.
Repack initramfs-desktop.img with a new name so you dont get confused
find | cpio -H newc -o | gzip -9 > ../initramfs-desktop-agp.img
Modify grub to use the new initramfs-desktop-agp.img and way it goes.
Using the vesa driver is very slow on my machine so I will be looking at that after I get the network running on boot without having to type modprobe e100 each time.
Auda
Last edited by Auda (2009-07-21 3:49:33 pm)
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Auda wrote:
Using the vesa driver is very slow on my machine so I will be looking at that after I get the network running on boot without having to type modprobe e100 each time.
You can check the different xserver-xorg-video-* drivers in http://packages.debian.org/etch/x11/ and select the proper one for your display card. [NB. For my desktop, vesa actually runs better than the open source nv driver.]
For fixing network driver problem, refer to my other post: Howto: Fix network problem using 1000H iso on a 4G.
BTW, the xorg.conf I have included is for: pc104 keyboard, PS/2 mouse, and vesa compliant monitors. This should suite most modern desktop PCs. But notebooks are something different: keyboards may require special driver, but many are pc101 compliant.
I have modified the initramfs-desktop.img as per Auda's suggestion and updated the package eeepc-kernel-desktop.tar.gz. Any more suggestions?
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I haven't had a chance to look at the EeePC this week I think that the kernel needs to have agpgart support built in.
I had a go at dloading your file, config-2.6.21.4-desktop, but it comes up as a blank page. Could you repost the link please ?
Thanks
Auda
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Auda wrote:
I had a go at dloading your file, config-2.6.21.4-desktop, but it comes up as a blank page. Could you repost the link please ?
The file config-2.6.21.4-desktop is included in the package eeepc-kernel-desktop.tar.gz.
Last edited by albkwan (2009-08-16 2:12:36 am)
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Ok long time too busy. I have got the video working modprobe intel-agp did the trick. However now KDE Wallet doesn't work and kmail has a pop3 error of some sort. I will check the actual error tomorrow.
Getting there slowly.
Auda
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