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Ubuntu Netbook Edition on Asus Eee PC 4G (701)

2010, May 13 - 6:06pm — vyvy

I have just installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition [www.canonical.com] 10.04 Lucid Lynx on my Eee PC 4G (701) (Hardware specification [wiki.eeeuser.com]). In short, it works perfectly and flawlessly out-of-box!

This is a 2-year-old laptop with a 'slow' 900MHz Intel Celeron processor and a 'small' 4GB SSD. What else besides a good GNU/Linux distro can resurrect it?

Installation

  • Base System. Download the CD Image of Ubuntu Netbook Edition [www.ubuntu.com] and prepare it on a USB stick. Install it.
  • Better web experience.
    • Adobe Flash and Java Applets. From the Ubuntu Software Center, install 'Adobe Flash plugin' and 'Standard Java or Java compatible Runtime' (default-jre).
    • Compact Themes for Firefox. There are several compact themes for firefox [addons.mozilla.org] which are more suitable for devices with small screen. Install one.
  • Complete Chinese support -- More Fonts and Input Methods. Chinese characters can be displayed correctly with the default installation. If you need more fonts and input methods, use System -> Language Support to do it. Support for other languages can be installed similarly.
  • Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Filesystem Defragmentation, System Crash Monitor/Analyzer/Recovery, ... Not required and not available!

I have tested several laptop-specific features and they simply work perfectly out-of-box. E.g., the Wi-Fi, the webcam (use 'Cheese' to test it), and the Fn hotkeys (for controlling Wi-Fi, LCD, volume, etc.).

The PC was pre-installed with Xandros when I just bought it, but I was not used to its interface. I thus replaced the OS with Xubuntu. That time, Xubuntu worked fine but required some customizations to make the Wi-Fi and the Fn hotkeys to work properly. So I'm so glad that the latest Ubuntu Netbook Edition (10.04 Lucid Lynx) just works perfectly on it.

Comments

2010, June 6 - 6:38am — Gunstick (not verified)

webcam with flash

strange, wanted to use webcam in flash. But no image.
Test in Cheese: crash
Stop firefox, start cheese: after some wait, there's image.
stop cheese, start firefox: it works.

2010, June 11 - 8:53am — vyvy

I see. I didn't experience

I see. I didn't experience such problem.
I have upgraded the RAM of my asus eee pc from 512MB to 1GB. That's probably why I can start both Cheese and firefox together.

2010, June 9 - 1:39am — Anonymous (not verified)

Thanks for your experience

Thanks for your experience with ubuntu netbook edition (10.04) on this device :)

2010, June 13 - 5:43pm — Anonymous

Thanks too =) our church asus

Thanks too =) our church asus just went kaput... so instead of reinstalling Xandros I'll try Ubuntu on it instead ;)

2010, December 8 - 3:14pm — Anonymous (not verified)

screen display issues by installation

hi, I tried the latest 10.10 but the screen menus are bigger than the available screen and got stuck at keyboard choose, not able to continue installation.. did you get also similar issues? how did you manage it?

thanks for any info!

2010, December 23 - 5:46pm — webnaam (not verified)

ubuntu netbook on a 4g eeepc

I experience the same problems. It isn't possible for me to change the screen resolution to 800 x 480 (7 inch screen). The menus are bigger then the screen and therefor it's impossible to change resolution. Is it possible bij terminal (CRT_ALT-t) to change the x server? Does anyone know?

2010, December 30 - 11:00pm — vyvy

You can first press and hold

You can first press and hold the 'Alt' key, point your mouse cursor to some 'empty' space of the window, click the mouse's left-button to drag and move the window. :) That should do the trick.

2010, December 30 - 11:03pm — vyvy

Just to add one more point:

Just to add one more point: This way of moving the windows works due to the support from the Gnome desktop. So if you have Ubuntu or a Gnome desktop, you can try this 'trick' on your box first.