Hope wrote:

I have the 900.
Tried your method of copying over files to the sd card and was only partially successful.  Start button does not have the right icons, tabs are correct but  icons missing for everything I had installed.
Why did this not work?

You new SD installation are properly automatically updating softwares from Asus. DISABLE THIS AUTO UPDATE FEATURE IMMEDIATELY. They are known to cause icon missing.

Hope wrote:

Now,  I DID install Xandros on the sd card using a usb card reader and then copied the files when it was in the sd slot.
A lot seemed to be missing in the mounted sda2 - for instance "bin" folder was not there.

Do you mean missing in sdb2?

Since the unionfs overlay filesystems, there won't be every folder (as you have seen in File Manager) in sda2 (or sdb2). Only those you have modified will exist in the user partition (sda2 or sdb2).

zelig wrote:

Would this work.

Remove 80gig HDD.
Connect external DVD drive via USB
Insert 4gig sdhc card in slot.
Boot eeepc recovery DVD (xandros) and install to sdhc card.

The original bootscript of the recovery disk (whether DVD or USB) defaults install the revcovery image to sda. If you remove the 80 GB HDD, I am not sure if the SDHC will become sda or not. The SSD in my 4G is soldered, so I have not been able to test on this.

Even if you succeed to install the image to the SDHC like this, you still need to make it bootable from USB. You will need to do steps 6, 8, 10, 11, 12 as per the steps in  A rewrite of the steps for Windows users - boot Xandros from USB on Eeepc.

Also, the built-in SD card slot is very slow. It will take about 30 mins to do this compared with about 5 mins with an external SD card reader.

@albkwan
I don't find any fault at all with how you have designed this method.  I thank you for working so hard on it and it really works well.  Don't change anything. The problem about the password is so minor;  your fix for it worked great and took no time at all.
What I am having a problem with is trying to copy over my customized Xandros with many apps installed by me over to the sd card so that they WORK.  So what I need is a method of copying over EVERYTHING from my old Xandros installation to my new sd card installation so that everything works exactly the same.
I used the method you described in this thread:

sudo mkdir /mnt/sda2
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2

This left me with a Frankenstein where SOME customizations were moved over but none of my installs (Opera, Digikam, GoogleEarth, etc.) were working.  When I tried to reinstall them all,  most worked but I have some which gave installation errors.
I spent many many hours trying to get my headless gps to work on the Xandros and it was configured perfectly,  but now on the sd card,  it says that gpsd is installed but when I try to run it in the terminal it says it can't be found.  Also, xgps is installed but gives the same error.
One error I got over and over again is:   

E: msttcorefonts: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2

Don't change anything!  I am so grateful to you for writing this.  I have installed Windows XP on the main 4 GB drive of my 900 so my husband is happy and I have the Xandros on the sd card to make me happy.    Need an easy way to backup the sd card though.  Maybe I can try to figure out a way to use Acronis to do it....will puzzle that out later.
I DO need help with how to totally mirror the Xandros I originally had on my 4Gb eee drive though which was GREATLY customized.

I even had to go back and put entries into /etc/hosts and smb.conf to get my Windows netowrk to work which I should not have had to do if the copy procedure had worked.
Here's the error I just got while trying to install Digikam for the 6th time:

 Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Suggested packages:
  digikam-doc
Recommended packages:
  digikamimageplugins
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  digikam
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 43 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 4316kB of archives.
After unpacking 10.3MB of additional disk space will be used.
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
  digikam
Get:1 http://xnv4.xandros.com etch/main digikam 2:0.8.2-4 [4316kB]
debconf: Perl may be unconfigured (Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/share/perl/5.8/vars.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl/5.8/vars.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl/5.8/File/Spec.pm line 4.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl/5.8/File/Spec.pm line 4.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/lib/perl/5.8/IO/File.pm line 12.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/lib/perl/5.8/IO/File.pm line 12.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl/5.8/FileHandle.pm line 9.
Compilation failed in require at (eval 1) line 3.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at (eval 1) line 3.
) -- aborting
Fetched 4316kB in 53s (80.5kB/s)
(Reading database ... 76010 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking digikam (from .../digikam_2%3a0.8.2-4_i386.deb) ...
Setting up msttcorefonts (1.8) ...
Can't locate warnings/register.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.8.8 /usr/local/share/perl/5.8.8 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.8 /usr/share/perl/5.8 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/share/perl/5.8/vars.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl/5.8/vars.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl/5.8/base.pm line 4.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl/5.8/base.pm line 4.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Log.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Log.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Db.pm line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/Db.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 6.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/share/debconf/frontend line 6.
dpkg: error processing msttcorefonts (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Setting up digikam (0.8.2-4) ...

Errors were encountered while processing:
 msttcorefonts
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
---- An error occured during the DigiKam install. Check the Live Shell Feed for the error message, or ask the users on eeeuser forums for help with the error.

Can you help me with some of these problems?  Did I not follow the copy procedure correclty?  Help!  I'm so close...

@albkwan
My SD card seems to be excellent.  The speed of Xandros is almost the same as when I had it installed on the 4 GB partition.  It seems I did not copy the correct files over or it miscopied files is why I had all my installed apps go missing.  This does not explain why the originally installed gpsd and xgps don't work, though.
Hope you don't mind some very basic questions?
I am totally confused about the structure of the original Xandros partition system and the partition system on the new albkwan-sd card.
First of all,  There were 2 main partitions on the 4 GB drive and 2 small ones on that drive.  Then there is the 16GB SSD card,  right?
When I am booted into the original Xandros partition with the albkwan-sd card in the media card slot in the EEE,  what are the NAMES of the partitions and exactly what partition do I copy over to WHAT partition to get a mirror copy of my customized installation (all kinds of apps, wallpaper, tab setup, etc.) onto the albkwan-sd card?
There's sda2, sdc, sdb...whatever...I'm totally confused with the naming of these partitions and THEN you have drive D: and drive E: to add into the mix.  On my albkwan-sd card, when installs fail, it often mentions drive E:.  Is that the albkwan-sd card card??
Also, what are the benefits and the downside of getting rid of the unionfs system?  I know I would not be able to do f9 to get the original config back,  but, on the up side, would I then be able to use the 16GB ssd card in Windows XP for apps or storage?  What would happen to all the Xandros files on the ssd card.../home/user/My Documents for instance?  Would I essentially have just a totally self-contained Xandros on the albkwan-sd card with none of its files on the 16 GB ssd card (unless I threw something on there like music files)?

Another question...any way to use the 16GB card in my multi boot situation with both Xandros and XP if I DON'T remove unionfs??  It is only recognized now in the albkwan-sd card Xandros mode because of its type of format,  I guess.

Heh,  should I throw in the question of Advanced mode???  I would LOVE to also have Advanced Mode back as an option.  Guess I can't have my cake and eat it too,  right?

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.  I appreciate it.
I already have the start button enabled in Easy Mode.  It's just that I liked the appearance and some of the features of the Advanced Desktop.  (I'm easily amused...I liked the slideshow desktop and being able to have a tab-less environment with just a few icons...nothing I can't live without.)

The only problem I have now is the GPS software not working at all.  Gpsd and XGPS show they are INSTALLED but will not execute from the command line.   Any ideas?

I have not tried printing over the network yet either.

I deleted Windows XP temporarily (did an Acronis backup so I can restore it) and went back to my original Xandros Easy Mode/Advanced Mode setup and my GPS works great in that setup just does not work from the albkwan-sd card card environment because gpsd and xgps don't work.

Maybe at some future date I will redo the entire procedure to see if something went wrong in the initial writing of the Xandros files to the sd card...don't have the energy right now to tackle that.  Are you sure gspd and xgps weren't somehow left out when you created your setup files?  Do those work on your sd card?
I found that Digikam works even though there were errors when I reinstalled it so "I think" that everything works except my GPS.

@albkwan
Got everything fixed,  I think....something always pops up when you try to use it a week after the changes and surprises you.  :-)
BUT,  I made a mistake and copied the contents of the /usr folder onto Disk E: (which appeared to be the location of user files on the sd card)  while I was in Advanced Mode and then when I booted up from the sd card I got the Advanced Mode desktop!  Oh, well, now everything works INCLUDING, my gps and Roadnav,  networking to my Windows desktop,  printing to my Windows desktop, Opera, Digikam, etc.  Everything I had installed on my customized Xandros.
The ONLY problem is that I can't shutdown AD gracefully.  The shutdown dialog appears and when you click on restart or shutdown it shows it received the click but it won't shut down.  So I have to do a hard shutdown.  No big deal,  I guess,  but I will try to troubleshoot it to fix it.

Then I reinstalled my Windows XP full version with sp3 slipstreamed Acronis backup to the 4 GB space on the EEE and it booted right up.

I think I originally copied the wrong files to the wrong place the first time because these partitions are very confusing.

Off to get my flu shot...

Thanks,  albkwan.

Last edited by Hope (2008-10-03 10:12:00 am)

The script /sbin/fastshutdown.sh does nothing on my sd card system at all except close the network and cause the inability to access the terminal or any apps.  It doesn't initiate shutdown.
I checked the content of it and it seems to have the standard content.
Will continue to try to puzzle it out.

Hi albkwan,
Just got my 1000H with XP preinstalled. Thanks for your instruction for booting Xandros from SDHC.
I've successfully followed your procedure and can boot from SD with WiFi etc working except..for on problem.

Running Windows XP, my C: drive (39.9 GB / 30.8 GB free) is installed with XP and my D: drive is for data (258 GB) - I installed a 320 GB Seagate SATA HDD and upgraded to 2GM RAM. I formatted the Partitions as NTFS. Data drive D: is currently empty i.e. 258GB free 

Booting up from Xandros  from a 4GB SDHC card inserted into the built-in card reader, Disk Utility shows Total Disk space 305245, Used: 304805, Available 400MB. File Manager does not seem to show and HDD . My Home has; Bluetooth Exchange Folder, My Documents, Pictures,Trash, Videos
The other My Eee PC items are; Printers, Windows Network and NFS Network. I can access Windows Network and read /write to and from my network computers (windows XP based with NTFS HDD)

Question:
How can I assess the D: data drive when running Xandrox. It would be a waste of all the free HDD if I can't.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the tips albkwan! As this helps me a lot. Although I find learning Linux very tough and every step to do something simple, you have to spend hours of research just to do it. Sure wish I got into Linux back in '92, as maybe it would be easier by now. Although I was too busy with DOS, CP/M, and GEOS back then too. Now look at them! :-(

rickhan wrote:

I created folder in D: drive under Win and named it linux.
BTW my D: drive is labeled ASUS_DATA and C: drive is labeled ASUS_APPS

The I checked the web for "How to mount ntfs" and from this site http://www.swerdna.net.au/linhowtontfs.html#locate I gathered that I should use /dev/sda5 and ntfs-3g

then from you reply and the information from the web I did and got the following:

...

/home/user> sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda5 /linux
mount: mount point /linux does not exist
/home/user>

Please suggest what I'm doing wrong. Thanks

1) The mounting point should exist in a filesystem that is already mounted. If it is in your D: but D: has not yet been mounted, how can the system mount the drive to a folder it is not accessible?

You can create the folder "linux" in "My Home" after you boot up your Xandros in USB with default File Manager. Then the mounting point in above command should be /home/user/linux.

2) The default Xandros of the EeePC is not using ntfs-3g for mounting NTFS drives. It should be ufsd. See this page for details: http://free.ntfs-linux.com/options.htm

Hello

I've created a script from your wik to automate creation of the SD Card.
It's alpha, not yet tested, but may you have a look at this ?

I fear that I've made some mistakes, particulary on steps in your wiki that references "sdb" (9 and above) that I understand it stands for "sdX"

Here it is :

#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -ne 2 ]
then
  usage();
  exit
fi
if [ "$1" -eq "901" ] || [ "$2" -eq "701" ]; then
  usage();
  exit
fi

function usage() {
  echo "Usage: `basename $0` <EEEPCModel=901|701> <TargetDriveToInstall>"
  echo "Where : "
  echo "   * EEPCModel : if Xandros is intended to be used on EEEPC 901 ou 1000H, use 901 ; otherwise use 701";
  echo "   * TargetDriveToInstall : Tells the drive where Xandros will be installed on ; Example : sdd";
  exit
}

echo "Ready to Install Xandros on SD Drive /dev/$2, for a $1 EEEPC Model";
echo "Are your sure about this ? (y/n)";
read SURE;
if ["$SURE" -neq "y"] then
  echo "Aborting !"
  exit;
fi

if [ "$1" == "901" ]; then
    #Réglage 901 et 1000H :
    export SD_DRIVE=sdc
else 
    #Réglage 701 :
    export SD_DRIVE=sdb
fi
export INSTALL_DRIVE=$2
export INSTALL_DRIVE1=`echo "$INSTALL_DRIVE"1`
export INSTALL_DRIVE2=`echo "$INSTALL_DRIVE"2`

sudo -i
mkdir xandros
for dDev in `mount | grep $INSTALL_DRIVE | awk '{print $1'}`
do
    umount $dDev
done
mount -o loop ../ISO/eeepc901_xandros.iso xandros
cat .
#format first partition of target SD Drive if needed and then extract MBR and SYSTEM partition onto
mkfs.ext2 /dev/$INSTALL_DRIVE1 2>/dev/null
gunzip -c xandros/P701L.gz | dd of=/dev/$INSTALL_DRIVE

#Fdisk to create new primary partition (1Go) on target SD Drive
fdisk /dev/$INSTALL_DRIVE << EOF
n
p
2
401
+1024M
w
EOF
# Format new partition /dev/sdX2 to ext3 filesystem:
mkfs.ext2 /dev/$INSTALL_DRIVE2
tune2fs -j /dev/$INSTALL_DRIVE2
e2label /dev/$INSTALL_DRIVE2 USER

# Mount /dev/sdX1, create a temp dir in /boot, and unpack the initramfs image there:
mkdir $SD_DRIVE
mount -t ext2 /dev/$INSTALL_DRIVE1 $SD_DRIVE
mkdir $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp
cd $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp
gunzip < ../initramfs-eeepc.img | cpio -i
cd ../../..

# Copying the needed kernel modules from the root drive of our new SD card/USB stick into our custom kernel image
cp $SD_DRIVE/lib/modules/2.6.21.4-eeepc/kernel/drivers/usb/storage/libusual.ko $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/modules
cp $SD_DRIVE/lib/modules/2.6.21.4-eeepc/kernel/drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage.ko $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/modules
cp $SD_DRIVE/lib/modules/2.6.21.4-eeepc/kernel/drivers/usb/host/ehci-hcd.ko $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/modules
cp $SD_DRIVE/lib/modules/2.6.21.4-eeepc/kernel/drivers/usb/host/uhci-hcd.ko $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/modules
cp $SD_DRIVE/lib/modules/2.6.21.4-eeepc/kernel/drivers/usb/core/usbcore.ko $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/modules

# Backup the file "init", and modify to load USB modules at bootup:
cp $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/init{,.ori}
sed 's/sda/'$SD_DRIVE'/g' $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/init > tmpfile && mv tmpfile $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/init
head -n1 $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/init > init
echo "
#load USB modules - this won't work unless you have 
 #copied them into the image
 echo loading USB modules
 insmod -f /modules/usbcore.ko 
 insmod -f /modules/ehci-hcd.ko 
 insmod -f /modules/uhci-hcd.ko 
 insmod -f /modules/libusual.ko
 insmod -f /modules/usb-storage.ko 
 #Need time to register things. Depending on the speed of your SD card/USB stick, you may need/want to adjust your sleep time longer or shorter.
 sleep 6

">>init
tail -$((`cat $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/init|wc -l`-1)) $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/init >> init
cp init $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/init

#Create device sdb1 and sdb2 in /dev of the temp dir:
cd $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp/dev 
mknod -m 644 sdb1 b 8 17 
mknod -m 660 sdb2 b 8 18 

mknod -m 644 sdc1 b 8 33
mknod -m 660 sdc2 b 8 34
cd -

# Now pack the initramfs image:
cd $SD_DRIVE/boot/temp
find | cpio -H newc -o | gzip -9 > ../initramfs-usb-eeepc.img
cd -
# Backing up & Edit the file scanuser.sh:
cp $SD_DRIVE/sbin/scanuser.sh{,.ori}
sed 's:/dev/sda2:/dev/'$SD_DRIVE'2:g' $SD_DRIVE/sbin/scanuser.sh > tmpfile & mv tmpfile $SD_DRIVE/sbin/scanuser.sh

# Backing up & Edit the file formatuser.sh:
cp $SD_DRIVE/sbin/formatuser.sh{,.ori}
sed 's:/dev/sda2:/dev/'$SD_DRIVE'2:g' $SD_DRIVE/sbin/formatuser.sh > tmpfile & mv tmpfile $SD_DRIVE/sbin/formatuser.sh

# Edit the file /usr/sbin/services.sh (Optional):
cp $SD_DRIVE/usr/sbin/services.sh{,.ori}
sed 's/modprobe uhci-hcd/#modprobe uhci-hcd/' $SD_DRIVE/usr/sbin/services.sh > tmpfile
sed 's/modprobe uhci-hcd/#modprobe uhci-hcd/' tmpfile > tmpfile2
sed 's/modprobe usb-storage/#modprobe usb-storage/' tmpfile2 > tmpfile
rm tmpfile2 & mv tmpfile $SD_DRIVE/usr/sbin/services.sh

# Edit grub boot menu to change root to /dev/sdb1:
cp $SD_DRIVE/boot/grub/menu.lst{,.ori}
cp $SD_DRIVE/boot/grub/menu.lst{.ori,}
sed 's/root (0x80,0)/root (hd0,0)/' $SD_DRIVE/boot/grub/menu.lst > tmpfile
sed 's:root=/dev/sda1:root=/dev/'$SD_DRIVE'1:' tmpfile > tmpfile2
sed 's:initramfs-eeepc.img:initramfs-usb-eeepc.img:' tmpfile2 > tmpfile
rm tmpfile2 & mv tmpfile $SD_DRIVE/boot/grub/menu.lst


# The End :
echo " Reboot. Press [Esc] at startup and select 'USB: USB2.0 Card Reader SD0' as first boot device."

Thanks !

Last edited by demzed (2008-11-16 7:30:51 am)

Hi demzed,

This is an interesting script. Actually this is something I plan to do for Mount SD card as part of the unionfs but never found the time to do it.

Have a quite look at your script. Some points I have noted:
1) The if clause for checking 901 or 701 seems to be wrong, it should be else usage()

2) You don't need to format first partition of target SD drive. A complete filesystem for the SYSTEM partition is included in the P701L image.

3) For fdisk to create USER partition, user partition for 701 and 900 models start at 301 (instead of 401) and I don't know about the 2G surf model (should be even less). Also, +1024M may be too small for the USER partition.

4) In case you are still using default Xandros in sda1/sda2, it is better to use a different volume label for the USER partition on the SD. [NB. In this case, you should also change this in /sbin/formatuser.sh]

5) The step to edit /usr/sbin/services.sh is not necessary.

demzed wrote:

And, to end, does anybody found a suitable idea to the password pb ?

There are quite a no of solution to this depending on whether you want to keep sdb1 as HOME partition or not.

CASE 1: If you are not going to keep sdb1 as HOME partition (which is what I prefer), then you should edit the hex file /sbin/fastinit to remove the line for mounting sdb1 as /home

sed -i 's@/bin/mount -onoatime -L HOME /home > /dev/null 2>&1@                                                   @' /sbin/fastinit

Then the problem will be solved automatically.

CASE 2: If you want to keep sdb1 mounted as HOME partition, then the easiest solution I have figured out is to change the default location of /home/user/.firstrundone to /root. Then when the SD Xandros boot up, it will automatically run the first run wizard and set up everything as usual. I have forgotten where we set this. I have to look into my notes. Will revert later.
EDIT: I've found it. It is in /usr/bin/startsimple.sh

albkwan

Last edited by albkwan (2008-11-18 6:53:18 am)