Customizing the Asus Eee

Here I am day 3 of having my Asus Eee I got at Target an my first impressions of this box are pretty good. As long as you remember what this little netbook was designed for you won’t be disappointed. Just what exactly is it designed for, well web surfing, simple documents and spreadsheets a few light weight games, does web applications like a champ, and perfect for troubleshooting wireless networks (at least that’s what I’ll be using for).

Here is a list of some of the stuff on this little box:

• 8.9″ Notebook Computer with TFT, WSVGA LCD Display and 1024×600 Pixel Resolution
• Loaded with Linux, 4GB Solid State Disk and 512MB DDR2 Memory
• Intel Mobile Processor
• RJ-45 Port, USB 2.0, 3 USB Ports
• 802.11b/g Wireless Connectivity , 10/100 Ethernet LAN Network Card
• Intel UMA Graphics Card

The two main issues I have is, it’s got a Celeron M processor I would have loved if it came with the Atom, and it only has 512MB of RAM. I’m sure these are the factors however that kept the price below $300.00, so you really can’t complain to much. Also I was able to upgrade to 1GB of ram for less than $30.00 and Asus could not have made upgrading any simpler.

To upgrade the RAM in the Asus Eee you will need 1GB or 2GB of DDR2 667Mhz memory.  Remember folks all of this stuff is very sensitive to static electricity so be sure you’re grounded one stray zap and your out of luck. All you have to do is flip the netbook over ( be sure and power down first) and unscrew the two screws holding the bottom plate and remove. To remove the memory that shipped with your Eee, use your fingers to lever the clips outward. The memory module will pop upward when it is free of the clips. Remove the module from the slot, taking care to touch only the very outside edges of the module (that static thing again).

Insert the new memory module, press downward you should here a nice little snap, replace the screws and you’re good to go.

Next time to change to installed Operating System.

The Eee comes with a really good customized version of xandros (you can get it with WindowsXP but why?) it’s really nice has a super fast boot time (15 seconds), tons of installed applications, and is simple to use especially for the first time Linux user, and I removed it the second I got my box home. Hey, I’m an Ubuntu member, heavily involved in my Local Ubuntu Users group, and give Ubuntu presentations all over the country. So as you might have guessed I had to get Ubuntu on this little box just to see if I could.

Lucky a group has done the hard part and created Ubuntu eee. They have a complete list of documentation and instructions. I did have one issue. Once I installed and removed the USB stick the reboot kept giving me and grub error 21, basically it was looking for the right boot path. All I had to do was leave the USB stick in the computer so it would boot, then just edit my /boot/grub/menu.lst file and change anywhere it said (hd1,0) to (hd0,0)

Your file should look something like.

title           Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=00ec9f26-a6a0-448a-8762-408ff
6e4d235 ro quiet splash
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title           Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=00ec9f26-a6a0-448a-8762-408ff
6e4d235 ro single
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title           Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

Once that change is made (make it as root so it will save) just save and reboot, pow! you got Ubuntu. If you don’t like the fancy start up menu that Ubuntu eee gives you go into session manager and remove “Maximus” and “UME Launcher”, you can also remove those packages to free up more memory.

The good news is that Eee has a  Multi-Touch Trackpad, the oversized touchpad works similar to the Macbook Air. Using two fingers, a person can zoom in and out of documents and photos, scroll up and down, and more. The installation of Ubuntu eee keeps this funtion intact, a very cool thing indeed.

The bad news is installing Ubuntu eee dramatically increases boot time to a whopping 52 seconds and really that is to long, I’m going to do some digging around to see if I can get it around 30 seconds.

For the most part I’m really happy with my investment, it does what I want it to, and the portability of the Eee sure makes it a fun thing to carry around.