Review: Ubuntu 9.04 on my ASUS Eee PC 901
I first reviewed the ASUS Eee PC 901 when I was getting frustrated with the Xandros Linux customized installation that it came preinstalled with. Within a couple of days, I immediately installed Easy Peasy over it and had a significantly better experience. And while Canonical was pushing their Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), I recently decided to install the desktop release and have my netbook run the standard 9.04 release of the Ubuntu distribution. Below are the results to my experience.
Now before I get into the details, I know that this is an appliance and should be used as such. My problem is, that I am used to multitasking and being efficient. Some of the netbook based operating systems restrict the user’s ability to multitask. It does not mean that it is not possible. It just means that it becomes increasingly difficult when every application you open full screens and cannot be adjusted. This is why I wanted to try out the desktop version. This multitasking becomes much easier when I connect the VGA output to my 47″ 1080P HD TV. There is a lot of desktop space to work with. Note that I am familiar with UNR’s desktop switcher. I still wanted to try the desktop version.
I downloaded the ISO from the Ubuntu website and then used unetbootin to convert the ISO image to my USB flash drive. I plugged in the flash drive and powered on the netbook. Before anything, I verified the device boot order in the BIOS. The installer loaded from the USB flash drive and the installation began. The installation was simple and I experienced no problems. After the installation, I removed the USB flash drive and rebooted the PC. All loaded without any problems. This included device drivers. The only thing additional that I had to install was Cheese as my webcam application. Seeing how this was not Easy Peasy or the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, it would not have been configured to install by default.
With regards to performance, this operating system seems to run smoothly. During my customization of the installation, I went ahead and enabled the enhanced 3-D rendering while also installing gDeskCal, Avant Window Navigator, GNOME-Do and Conky. I also modified my startup applications to load all at login.
Two weeks I have been playing with this and have experience nothing but positive results. Visually there are differences between 9.04 and previous releases as you start seeing fancier looking transparent windows informing you that the wireless device has connected to a broadcasting signal. I do not remember how the previous releases handled audio configurations but it seems somewhat intuitive in 9.04. Normally I would go back to my wife’s PC to check this out as she used to run on 8.04 but that too has recently been upgraded.
The most noticeable change is boot time. It is super quick! After grub loaded the kernel image, it takes 20-25 seconds for me to be logged in and working on my desktop. Another few seconds go by and I get a message that my wireless is connected. Wow! Fedora 11 Leonidas (just released 2 days ago) has also sped up boot times to about 20 seconds. This is probably in response to all those instant-on PC setups such as the Splashtop, etc. The focus being: get me to my desktop and working in as little time possible. I wonder how Microsoft will compete with that on Windows. Even when I tried the Release Candidate of 7 for the 2 days I virtualized it through VirtualBox, it still took some time to load the OS and get me to my desktop.
I believe Canonical is doing an excellent job with this distribution. I just wish I could see more laptops sold with a customized version of Ubuntu pre-installed. As Mark Shuttleworth had pointed out in the past, Canonical’s first focus is to go up against Apple. Apple is well known for its visually appealing hardware and software. The only way for Ubuntu to get its chance is to have its distribution pre-installed on capable hardware where it can then be pre-customized with whatever 3-D rendering and applications are required.
I found the same thing, was disappointed that the “customised” distros for netbooks
just pander to the people who view netbooks as a toy, when they are still capable of
practically everything except for the lack of optical drive (although with the right
configuration, can mount network shares to make up for it). That is exactly what the
“other” OS maker wants, for netbooks to be dismissed as underpowered toys, when they
in fact have similar specs to a desktop computer available at the release of XP.
I’d suggest you also install the tray utility from http://greg.geekmind.org/eee-control/
Comment by Mick — 11. June 2009 @ 15:12
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the 901 have a 4gb + 8gb drive? If so how did you install to the main (faster) 4gb partion using the iso - just that I tried ubuntu 9.04 on a 4gb usb key and it complained it was to small (needed 4.2gb min)?
Comment by Paul — 11. June 2009 @ 16:13
Paul,
The 901 has a 4GB (sda) + 16GB (sdb). I customized the drive layouts.
sda: 512MB SWAP and the rest /
sdb: the entire drive is allocated for /home (in the past I used to throw /usr on here also)
The installer never complains. Note that SWAP is small because I also upgrade my RAM to 2GB. Technically it could be a little smaller.
Mick,
Thank you for the suggestion! I will download it shortly and check it out.
Comment by admin — 11. June 2009 @ 16:33
That’s one sweet-looking desktop!
I couldn’t get Ubuntu 9.04 to recognize my WPA encrypted WiFi network, so I’m making do with a NBR-based variant of 8.10 (Easy Peasy 1.1), for now…
Comment by AC — 11. June 2009 @ 18:37
Did you have to use the array.org custom kernel???
I have a 901 (Xandros 4+16) too, but my wireless does not work with the standard kernel.
I am still using Xanros right now because I can’t figure out how to turn off the wireless/bluetooth arial with any other distro :( (I.e. I want the light to go off, to preserve battery)
Also most of the other distros seem to have a worse battery life than Xandros
I don’t mind Xandros as an OS but essentially it is now abandon-ware :(
Comment by lukerazor — 11. June 2009 @ 21:13
By the way the netbook remix is really great. I have not tried other netbook distros but i will tell you that UNR is extremely well suited to netbooks. I don’t know what they do in the kernel or what, but it takes up less ram than the desktop counter part. They did change the ui in the fact that you don’t have to hit enter blindly because of the resolution issue. The other great part is that it does not restrict the software. Of course there are many good things about UNR, if you have the time try it, you’ll probably use it on netbooks cause i sure will.
Comment by NH — 12. June 2009 @ 00:06
“I couldn’t get Ubuntu 9.04 to recognize my WPA encrypted WiFi network, so I’m making do with a NBR-based variant of 8.10 (Easy Peasy 1.1), for now…”
I’ve had that same problem with every 9.04 based distro… i thought it would be a driver incompatibility issue but it turns out switching from NetworkManager to Wicd fixed the issue. I find Wicd much better in every aspect, does not rely on any Gnome/KDE library and i get the benefits of all the 9.04 improvements.
Comment by Buzz — 12. June 2009 @ 02:30
I’d recommend removing the swap partition. SSD drives will eventually die after too many writes and swap is going to be hammering that part of the flash drive. My girlfriend’s 901, and her sister’s one too are both running UNR and have no problem running without a swap partition.
Comment by Martin Eddington — 12. June 2009 @ 03:52
My experience too. My brother-in-law purchased an eeepc 901. Despite searching hi and lo he couldn’t find one with Linux pre-installed (like his original seven inch eeepc), so he got one with XP and asked me to replace it. I installed standard 9.04 Ubuntu. Everything worked like a dream including enhanced 3-D rendering.
This is a good example too of why Linux notebooks sales are low - They are not being offered for sale. I have tried to buy one and get the same old story from the shops. “They only come with XP”, or “What’s Linux”, or “Nobody is buying Linux notebooks”. Obviously not if they aren’t being offered. I finally ordered an Agora 10inch netbook from Kogan Technologies, where they come by default with Linux (GOS).
Comment by James Bush — 12. June 2009 @ 04:06
Luker Azor,
>>Did you have to use the array.org custom kernel???
Ubuntu 9.04 and UNR 9.04 (I believe uses kernel version 2.6.28-11, will verify later) have the device drivers already integrated for the Eee PC 901. Everything was recognized immediately and I never had to do anything extra.
Martin,
You bring up a good point with the SWAP on SSDs. Although the drive does have built-in wear-leveling so it will not continuously write to the same regions of the drive. Also with the higher amount of RAM, there is less reason to go to SWAP.
Comment by admin — 12. June 2009 @ 07:23
As far as I remember the machines I was talking about both had the standard 1GB memory, and neither seem to suffer from the lack of a swap partition. Mind you they’re for simple use - if you need to render the CGI for the next Terminator film on them it may be a different story… :-)
Oh, I forgot - this is the WPA2 fix I installed on the girl’s machines.
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A solution involves downgrading the RT2860 driver to version 1.7.1.1
1) Get the driver from http://www.array.org/ubuntu/dists/intrepid/eeepc/binary-i386/rt2860-dkms_1.7.1.1_all.deb
2) Go to terminal, and move the pre-installed driver so it won’t get loaded.
cd /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/kernel/drivers/staging/rt2860/
sudo mv rt2860sta.ko rt2860sta.bak
3) Install rt2860-dkms_1.7.1.1_all.deb. It will also install dependencies needed to compile the driver. If it doesn’t retrieve the right packages, make sure “build-essential”, “linux-header-generic” and “dkms” is installed. Let it run and it should complete without a problem.
4) Restart. The new driver should work automatically.
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I’ve also been told off as apparently I should also have mentioned that the girlfriend “Loves the little machine, which works perfectly and has never gone wrong.”
Comment by Martin Eddington — 12. June 2009 @ 08:37
Just a small tip…
There is a small utility in the repos called eee-control.
With that you can very easy control the hardware and configure all the hotkeys on the 901.
Comment by Hans Nesse — 12. June 2009 @ 12:20
Hans:
The utility in the repository has dependencies on Mono, which is the first thing to be uninstalled whenever I do an install, rather have my disk space back. I seem to recall that it didn’t control bluetooth either (could be mistaken), and had a poor selection as the tray icon, I find eee-control much better for my needs.
Comment by Mick — 12. June 2009 @ 17:40
I have already installed the remix on my 1000HE. Do you think the 3d rendering and the rest of the appls you implemented will work or should I just reinstall 9.04 Desktop?
Thanks.
Comment by Paul — 30. June 2009 @ 22:30
Paul,
I do not know how Canonical has tuned their UNR and if it is possible to enabled 3D rendering with it. Have you tried to switch into “desktop mode” and navigate to System->Preferences->Appearance (under the tab Visual Effects)? I remember with Easy Peasy this whole tab was disabled. The idea for the netbook device is to keep things appealing yet simple and Compiz with all its 3D rendering can really work the hardware. Just recently, I have noticed at times that my Eee PC 901 will get a little warm on the one side.
Comment by admin — 1. July 2009 @ 06:36
I was going to mess with the desktop switcher but read a bunch of nasty posts about problems. I was curious if you had yet seen signs of strain in the hardware on your 901. I also have a 901 and had a problem with Easy Peasy on it (don’t recall it’s on the shelf for now). Anyhow, I may leave things alone since I have TrueCrypt, GNUPG and a bunch of other stuff already configured and not sure I want to redo all that for a maybe thing. Thanks for the article and the pointers though.
Comment by Paul — 1. July 2009 @ 08:13