Which one for EEEPC900?

[Manfred]

Hi folks

I'm new here and have Mint 13 on my home Laptop and love it. Now I'm looking for a suitable version for my EEE PC 900 (4GB + 16GB). Mint 13 installation has interrupted because of insufficient space on disk.
Then I have tried Lubuntu 12.04 (doesn't have touchpad adjustments and keeps asking for password every time I access the 16GB) and Xubuntu 12.04 (very nice), but both of them install 1.1GB swap and use 2,5GB of the remaining 3GB. So after the initial updates there is no room for other changes in the software packages. I suppose Ubuntu would be even bigger on the harddrive. I have tried EasyPeasy 1.6 which is supposed to be designed for EEEPC but that one installs about 250MB swap, 250MB extended and uses 3GB on install, there is hardly enough space for the initial updates!!!

Can I install Xubuntu without the 1.1GB swap partition - I don't want to use Hybernate anyway?

I do have the original linux recovery disks for EEEPC900 from 2009 but don't know how to use them?? There is no recovery partion on the drive because I had WIN XP installed.

What do you guys run on your EEEPC 900?

Thank you Manfred

[cwsnyder]

Of first importance: Swap space. Swap is used to keep your applications from crashing when you run out of RAM when you open too many applications or tabs in your browser, but doesn't work well in flash drives, so you can leave it out.

Secondarily, I don't think your EEE has the resources to run Mint well. You might try the Linux Mint 12 LXDE version for the lightest installation, but many of your applications won't run and update well in less than 4G HDD space unless you are careful to use 'lightweight' applications.

You will probably need one of the external, USB CD/DVD drives to boot from the Xandros recovery disks to re-install Xandros. http://speedbreeze.com/2009/01/06/the-e ... table.html comments that Xandros uses extra partitions to hold things like a copy of the BIOS and other things, but definitely uses ALL of the 4G.

Have you considered using one of the distros designed to work in limited resources, such as Puppy Linux ( http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PuppyVersion/ ), Slitaz ( http://www.slitaz.org/ ), or simply install a base Debian install with a minimal DE and only the applications which you require on your netbook?

[Manfred]

Thanks for that info about the partitions.
Actually I have managed to change the partitions to use the full 4GB for the install (ext4 mounted on /), then on the 16GB drive created a 1.6GB swap and the rest ext2 mounted on /home for all the documents. Installed Lubuntu and now have 1.9GB free before the initial updates. I'm quite proud of myself because I'm not an IT guy, just an ex WIN user.

1) Now back to the swap partition. In the link that you added, I read the comment of "....using the swap partition would trash the flash memory of the drives". Is that true and would that shorten the life of my just regained EEEPC? I don't mind doing a reinstall without the swap partition, I'm still looking for the most suitable Linux version anyway?

2) What would a minimal base Debian installation be and how would I go about there?


Thanks Manfred

[cwsnyder]

Thanks for that info about the partitions.
Actually I have managed to change the partitions to use the full 4GB for the install (ext4 mounted on /), then on the 16GB drive created a 1.6GB swap and the rest ext2 mounted on /home for all the documents. Installed Lubuntu and now have 1.9GB free before the initial updates. I'm quite proud of myself because I'm not an IT guy, just an ex WIN user.

1) Now back to the swap partition. In the link that you added, I read the comment of "....using the swap partition would trash the flash memory of the drives". Is that true and would that shorten the life of my just regained EEEPC? I don't mind doing a reinstall without the swap partition, I'm still looking for the most suitable Linux version anyway?

2) What would a minimal base Debian installation be and how would I go about there?


Thanks Manfred

The swap partition would be used a lot more than the rest of the drive and might cause premature failure of at least the swap area, since the drive is probably rated at less than 1 million write cycles.

The best way I know to get a minimal base Debian installation is with the network install disk ( http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst ) which requires that you have a high speed Internet connection. The network install disk has just enough to start the installation on a CD, often as small as a 50M installation .iso file, written to a CD to boot your system from, and begin the installation. It asks you the normal beginning installation questions (timezone, keyboard, etc.) then gives you the option to install sets of packages (desktop, laptop, server, office, program development, and so forth) or just leave with a minimal, command-line only installation. If you stay with a command line only installation, you should know how to use aptitude, or apt-get package managers from the command line to install Bash shell, X-server, possibly LightDM, IceWM (or OpenBox or LXDE or Enlightenment 17, or your choice of lightweight desktop environment), a browser, and whatever applications you will use. You can get a (slow) desktop running in 64M with minimal applications. Ubuntu's Minimal Install CD ( https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Insta ... MinimalCD/ ) is also available. More information on Ubuntu's Minimal Install is available at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1155961 .

You could also look at http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/ , but it is designed more for the moderately advanced user, like Arch Linux, with its own package management system.