MINT on a Eeepc 701 4g

[killer_tank]

Successful main edition install with one minor problem.

Firefox 3 beta 5 (replacing Firefox 2) with all default plugins working.
Skype (newest version) with both video panels working as in you can see your video as well as other person.
overclocking working correctly.
all function keys working as well as external monitor.
madwifi driver working. (not useing ndiswrapper)

The only problem i have is the mint grub boot screen causes errors.
fix was just to comment it out in the menu list and use the standard grub one.
Its not as pretty but that doesn't bother me. If someone wants to look into it just send me a message and i will get a screen capture of the errors.

Anyone wanting a how to just leave a post here if more than few need one i will post my notes in the how too section for you.

[Husse]

I'll move this to the howto section

[xvedejas]

I'm very interested! (I'm seriously considering buying an Eeepc soon).

[yamawho]

I have a EeePC 701 4GB.
I am running Xandros on the SSD and have installed Mandriva 2008.1 spring (gnome) on a 16GB class 6 Patriot sdhc card.
Mandriva is the 1st distro to officially support the Eee out of the box and was released a few weeks ago.
I have installed grub on the sdhc card and have left the Xandros install untouched.
This gives me the option to boot to Xandros and if I want to boot into Mandriva, I press the esc key while booting to choose the SDHC card. Doing it this way is very flexible since I can install other distro's to other SDHC cards and just insert the one I want to use before booting.

It's important to note that besides supporting the hardware, the Eee has a custom res of 800 x 480.
Although Mint 4 does recognize it, the install and setup menus are not designed to run to 800 x 480 so the end result is that you are unable to see the buttons at the bottom of most. Although by holding the alt key, while you left click and hold and moving the menu around with the touchpad can expose these buttons, it does become a huge pain after a while.

There is also the issues of the Eee's function keys which are not fully supported along with wireless.
Although, there are ubuntu scripts that address most of the issues but anytime there is an update the scripts need to be run again ... another pain.

[killer_tank]

You are correct on the haveing rerun the scripts upon the first major update.
Unless you update the kernel or any of the modules the scripts load a rerun of them is unneeded.
xvvedejas you wont really be disappointed with it. I have had alot of fun hacking this box i even got os-x to run on it leopard.
But you have to accept that it is not a highend laptop.

But a always come back to mint because i can give almost anyone a live cd for them to test with and everything usally works out of the box.

and a update FireFox 3 beta 5 is way unstable still so id recommend just using firefox 2 from the repo.

[Husse]

Lately I've even seen reports on XP running on it

[yamawho]

I installed XP on mine last month.
Asus provides drivers on the dvd.
My goal was to then transfer the install to a sdhc card and boot from it but I was not totally successful so I gave up ... for now.

[killer_tank]

I have been thinking about buying a 2nd one of these but the xp version to get the restore disk so i can restore xp if i get tired of hacking linux on it. Would sell my linux version one and keep xp version but i dont want to waste time if the restore disk is the xandros restore.

anyone buy a xp version yet does it come with a restore disk for xp?

[Wolfen69]

I have been thinking about buying a 2nd one of these but the xp version to get the restore disk so i can restore xp if i get tired of hacking linux on it. Would sell my linux version one and keep xp version but i dont want to waste time if the restore disk is the xandros restore.

anyone buy a xp version yet does it come with a restore disk for xp?

mandriva 2008.1 natively supports the eeepc. no "hacking" needed. why would you want to ruin a perfectly good computer by installing windows on it?

[Nomad]

The EeePc XP version is sent with an XP restore disc. (A friend bought it. I have the Linux version lol)

[killer_tank]

Well my biggest reason is so i can actually play my game without tearing in the video.
FreeSpace 2 (SCP)

xp installed to ssd hard drive and mint running from 16gig sdhc card.
xandros is on ssd hd now with mint on sdhc card.

It would allow me to have a nice sanitized windows install for idiot customs at border.
Sad thing of it is IT'S not canada's customs i am worried but the US's.

But thats my reason game mostly but second is worth the consideration.

[yamawho]

I have the Mandriva 2008.1 installed on a 16GB sdhc card.

It would be nice if the Eee had removable SSD ...