eeeXubuntu is a custom version of the Xubuntu 7.10 Live CD with fully-integrated hardware support, including native wireless drivers, functioning Ethernet support, tweaks for low-resolution desktop environments, and other miscellaneous fixes. Wherever possible, these changes are incorporated using custom .deb packages rather than spewing assorted files all over post-install.

(Screenshot)

The goal of this project is to maintain a easy-to-install Xubuntu Live CD image for the eeePC, allowing for a reliable base Xubuntu install. One strong advantage of development for the eeePC is a common hardware platform shared by all users. (Those who are missing a miniPCI slot may, of course, disagree.)

If you're just looking for an easy way to get Xubuntu installed on your eeePC, welcome. Hit up the eeeXubuntu forum, ask questions and feel free to help out.

A broader goal of this project is to assist the Ubuntu community in supporting the eeePC hardware, with an eye towards other Dynabook-like form factors like Everex's Cloudbook and the OLPC XO-1.

• Video: eeeXubuntu on eeePC

Please use the torrent if you can, you'd be surprised how much bandwidth hosting a 500mb+ iso can burn.

• RELEASE 3 eeeXubuntu-7.10 release 3 (ISO) (December 28th, 2007) (md5: 26a82f7a2e6b1d9cdf675e896ef7135a)
  • torrent hosted by linuxtracker.org. Registration is required to download.
  • torrent hosted by The Pirate Bay.
  • (mirror: sitzmar.com)
  • (mirror: microdoof.net) location: Germany
  • (mirror: 3eportal.com)
  • (mirror: tech-rant.com)
  • (mirror: stephenh.me.uk) location: USA
  • (mirror: hostza.co.za) location: USA speed: 100Mbit

• RELEASE 2eeeXubuntu-7.10 release 2 (ISO) (December 11, 2007) (md5: 28c22d735f7626fc4aa4dd75d89e7eaf)
  • (mirror: sitzmar.com)
  • (mirror: bigpond.com)
  • (mirror: boess.nl)
  • (mirror: mikeh269.com)

• RELEASE 1 eeeXubuntu-7.10 release 1 (ISO) (December 3, 2007) (md5: 877AE9ACEB9FA5ABCC8F8758C3F9F111)

There are two different ways of installing eeeXubuntu. One is to use a Live CD and an external CD drive. If you have an external drive, this is probably the easiest way.

However, for users without an external drive , a program is included on the Live CD itself to create a bootable USB flash drive (the Cruzer u3 line is not compatible, due to special partitioning). Overall, the process is:

1. Download the latest eeeXubuntu release, and burn it onto a CD-R to create a traditional bootable Live CD.
2. Use this CD to boot a typical workstation and create the USB flash drive installer.
3. Finally, use the USB flash drive installer to install Xubuntu on your eeePC.

Either way, once you have a way of booting the eeePC, the process is the same.

Note: if you have VMWARE on your workstation you can create a blank VM and boot the ISO in the blank VM instead of burning a CD.

Note 2: If you have a Surf 2G, you may run into problems installing.

(installing directly from a CD? Skip ahead.)

Although these directions refer to a USB solid-state flash drive, any USB mass storage device like an external hard drive can be used. The only firm requirement is that ~600mb of free space is required for installation files.

• Download the eeeXubuntu ISO, and burn it to a CD.
  • For Windows users, IsoBurn is an excellent open-source utility.
• Reboot your “everyday” computer (with a CD ROM drive) using the eeeXubuntu CD. Select “Start or install Xubuntu” at the boot menu.
  • Note: If you're new to Linux, this may seem scary, but no permanent changes will be made to your computer. “Live CD” is literally that – just a CD that's running live, or in real-time.
• Once the Xubuntu desktop appears, open a terminal window. (Applications –> Accessories –> Terminal)
  • A Small Caution: The operations performed by the script are mild and generally safe. However, creating the bootable installer fundamentally involves modifying partitions on block devices, and this is not without risk. On the eeePC, '/dev/sda' is generally, if not always, the internal SSD drive; and '/dev/sdc' is the first attached USB mass storage device. On a desktop computer; however, things are much more varied. In other words, if you're new to Linux, this is probably not the best time to experiment wildly, but follow along and you should be fine. (Experienced users should still watch for fat fingers.)
  • Tip If you are unsure of the USB drive's identity then plug it in and in the terminal do:

sudo fdisk -l

This command lists all mass storage devices on the workstation and it should be clear which are the native hard disk(s) and which the USB device (the USB will be last).

• As of release 3, an '–autodetect' option has been added to the script which creates the USB installer. To use autodetect, connect your device before running the script with that option. The script will ask you to

Remove your flash drive and press <enter> to continue

It will then “attempt to disable automount”: if that works, it will ask you to

Please insert your flash drive now

at which point it should detect it. Hence running the script as follows is probably the best method for most users:

sudo /cdrom/mkusbinstall.sh --autodetect

• Any errors about not being able to copy files due to permission issues are normal. As long as the script reports success, things should work ok.

• Or you can simply mount the eeeXubuntu ISO on /cdrom/ and execute the mkusbinstall.sh: (No cd burn needed)

sudo mount eeeXubuntu.iso /cdrom/ -o loop

cd /cdrom/
sudo /cdrom/mkusbinstall.sh --autodetect

Note: The mkusbinstall.sh script was written to run from a running instance of the liveCD (probably also an installed Xubuntu desktop). While it may work on a non-Xubuntu system, it may or may not work. The following issues were discovered running this method from a Gentoo box:

• The script seems hardcoded to assume the image is mounted on /cdrom…I think the only safe assumption should be that the script is in the root of the cdimage, so it should use “basedir ${0}” to find out where it really is, instead of assuming /cdrom.
• The host system needs the following programs in the path:
  • parted
  • awk
  • hexdump
  • mktemp
  • syslinux
• You need to have root access
• Assumes DBUS is installed and working
• There is an overall lack of error handling in the script, but at least the script puts errors to stderr, instead of supressing them. If you get an error while running the script, your USB key may or may not work…This script is definately safe enough in that it shouldn't permanently brick your USB drive.

Can the following be adapted for eeeXubuntu? http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/09/28/usb-ubuntu-710-gutsy-gibbon-install/ It allows for persistent install of ubuntu on USB. Key files missing from eeeXubuntu CD making the procedure fail. -ucffool

Once you have created your installation medium of choice, contine the installation process.

• Reboot the eeePC.
  • (Note: Holding down <Esc> while restarting will bring up a boot selection menu where you can choose your USB flash drive.)
  • (Note: Check the wireless is enabled (using function key) before shutting down the xandros os, Xubuntu won't detect or install the wireless if it starts disabled. )
• Once the Xubuntu menu appears, select option=“live/eeepc”. From this point on, it's pretty much your standard (X)ubuntu install.
• Detailed install instructions for choosing with or without swap partitions can be found on the eeeXubuntu customization page. Note that a swap partition is only required for hibernation: see comments by mkrishnan in this thread:
  • “All variants of Ubuntu can run in 512MB without Swap. It's not always pretty, but it does work.”
• Enjoy Xubuntu Live, install it on your eeePC if you'd like by opening the installer located on the desktop.

• The Ubuntu graphical installer (Ubiquity) is still too large to fit the screen in its entirety. However, holding down <alt> and dragging the installer around works fine. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix. (See Ubuntu bug #38442 for details.)
• After partitioning, the windows that should show the progress bar of the installation could be showed like a little square (so the installation may seems stuck). Be patient, the installation is going on and can take up to 20/30 minutes. To see the installation progress open a terminal and type: tail -f /var/log/messages.
• More information about installing Ubuntu is available in Ubuntu community installation docs

See this page for detailed info

eeeXubuntu is intentionally picky about including tweaks that, in reality, many users may find useful. Beacuse it is based on Xubuntu, it follows the Ubuntu guidelines on inclusion of additional software packages, and is missing some pretty neat stuff. (aka Skype videochat)

And of course, tweaking is oh-so-fun, and every pixel is oh-so-valuable.

• eeeXubuntu customization – A growing list of tweaks, including some ideas that could probably be used to improve future eeeXubuntu releases

• Your wireless should work out of the box in eeeXubuntu. If you cannot seem to get wireless to work check if your wireless light is off or on on your eeepc. If the light is off that means the wireless cannot function. Currently, you cannot use the Fn+F2 key combination to turn on/off your wireless. To turn on your wireless open a terminal and type

echo 1 > /proc/acpi/asus/wlan

After, double check that your wireless light is on and reboot. Your wireless should work now.

• Compared to the default Xandros install, it's really slow to boot. ASUS says EeePC boot time is under 15s, my eeeXubuntu system takes 40-50 seconds. This may be related to eeeXubuntu not using ASUS's fastinit. An option for the next release?

Until I can finish more complete documentation, here is a rough changelog:

• Packaged (deb) custom madwifi drivers based on the recent eee specific patch
  • Removed restricted-drivers module packages … they also provide madwifi and directly conflict
• Compiled/packaged atl2 binary module for Ethernet
• Incorporated suspend/hibernate/clean poweroff configs
• Tweaked alsa for microphone support
• Added gnome-power-manager
• Created a decent XFCE desktop configuration as a low-resolution default
• Reduced swappiness using sysctl. Swap and hibernation is good… Churn on SSD devices is at-best superstitiously bothersome, and at-worst harmful.

Since this is pretty much a typical Xubuntu installation, you can quite easily install another flavour of desktop (With respect that the installation will take up more room on the SSD)

To install either startup synaptic and search for Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu or other. So far much succes is reported with ubuntu-desktop.

To install via shell

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

you will be asked if you want to download everything, and proceed.

A note: Once Ubuntu-dektop in up and running it maybe pertinent to remove things like Evolution if you don't plan on using that for you e-mail client. Note about installing via gnome-desktop packages… although it works some have had difficulty with it. It is much easier to install the ubuntu desktop packages rather than figuring out a gnome setup, and the plus of installing via “desktop” is that you get most of the packages that make up a minimal version of that particular buntu distro. Note that Ubuntu Studio's RTkernel doesn't seem to work out of the box, so don't temp trying unless you know what your doing.

Known Issues:

*Default Xubuntu theme for GDM causes X.org to crash. -Change your default GDM theme to something other than the default.