Install Debian On Eee PC

10 FEV 2015
+++ installer sur eeepc 701/901 debian +++

26/02/2014
qd meme ntressant le site wiki
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https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC ||| CL DebianEeePC_
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https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Model/701 |
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https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/FAQ ||| CL FAQ-f337
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https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/Software ||
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https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEe
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i https://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad
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Brasileiro - ?esky - Deutsch - English - Espaol - Franais - ?Magyar - Italiano - Nederlands - ?Norsk - Polski - Portugus - (Russkij) ?Svenska - ?Trke - Chinese - ?( Farsi) - ? (Tamil)
The Debian Eee PC project's goal is full support for the ASUS Eee PC in
Debian.
We make Debian itself run on your Eee. See this summary about what has been
achieved so far and where we are heading.
Download, installation, configuration

See /HowTo/Install. For upgrades, check out the /HowTo/Upgrade page.
News
See the Project blog.
1/3
DebianEeePC-feb70179d6d9517881c6d94742117ae2.html.tgz.pdf
Contact us
Discussion takes place on the IRC channel #debian-eeepc and the mailing list.
User
Supported
The following pages document the supported way to install, configure and use Debian on your Eee.
/FAQ
/FreeYourEee
/HowTo/Install
/HowTo/InstallUsingStandardInstaller
/HowTo/Configure
/HowTo/Wifi
/HowTo/Sound
/HowTo/Troubleshooting
/HowTo/Upgrade
/HowTo/UpgradeBIOS
/HowTo/InstallOnSDcardOrUsbStick
/Models
/Repository
/Software
Contributed
Not all of the things documented by contributors below are supported by this project, though that does not
make them any less interesting or worth doing.
/HowTo/SplashyWithDmcryptAndStandardGrub
/TipsAndTricks
/Boot
/HowTo/GetNativeConsoleResolution
/HowTo/UseUpstreamAtherosModules
/HowTo/ElantechTouchpad
Developer
/Todo
/Bugs
/Source
/Source/CustomInstaller
Project
Teams/DebianEeePC
/Status
/Accessibility
Alioth project site: http://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-eeepc
2/3
Translations
See the translations links at the top of each page. Please make sure if you add a translation that you or anyone
is also willing to update and maintain it.
Related
Related projects including Eee PC news, documentation, user support and development.
http://eeeuser.com/ (Eee-related news blog)
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/tuep:debianbase?s=debian (Etch-based base Debian install)
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/irc-channels
http://forum.eeeuser.com/ (A wide variety of Eee-related topics including original OS, other distros)
http://forum.eeeuser.com/search.php (for Debian-related threads: Keyword search: debian,
Search in: Topic subject only)
http://eeebuntu.org/ (despite the name, versions >= 4.0 to be directly Debian based)
CategoryLaptopComputer
DebianEeePC (last edited 2013-07-11 10:33:24 by BenArmstrong)
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Model
701
The model 701 (listed in Asus literature as the model 4G) and related models (2G surf, 4G surf, and 8G) are
the oldest models, and therefore most of this wiki was written with them in mind. Exceptions for newer
models are noted in each page where appropriate.
When Lenny released, the Atheros AR2425 wifi b/g chipset in these machines was only supported by the
non-free madwifi driver. The good news is that now you can ../../FreeYourEee by upgrading your kernel to
2.6.30 as per ../../HowTo/Upgrade, as the free ath5k driver in recent kernels supports the AR2425.
The 701 is sometimes confused with the DebianEeePC/Model/701SD which has a different wireless chipset.
If the installer freezes while trying to install Wheezy onto a model 701, press the tab button beside the
"install" option. Then edit the "vga=#" to "vga=769"
DebianEeePC/Model/701 (last edited 2014-07-06 04:34:44 by ?AaronBecker)
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FAQ
Translations: German, French, Italiano, Portuguese, Spanish
Contents
1. Links to basic knowledge
2. Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why do you make another fork of Debian to adapt it to the Asus Eee PC?
2. Do you provide a custom kernel specially adapted to the Eee PC hardware?
3. Do I need a swap partition?
4. What about hibernate if I have no swap?
5. How much RAM do I need?
6. How much disk space does the installation take?
7. Do I need the EFI partition or is it safe to delete?
8. Can I make a test install on removable media without changing the existing OS?
9. Can I install *to* a USB harddrive in an external case?
10. Can I put the *installer* on an external harddrive and start installation *from there*?
11. Can I install from an external CDROM drive?
12. Can I mount an SD card at boot time?
13. My system takes too much space on the flash drive. How can I make it smaller?
14. Suspend won't work. How do I fix it?
15. How do I listen to music with the lid closed?
16. How do I get wicd to automagically show me the networks available when my lxde desktop
starts?
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FAQ-f33747e34c1228c686d44d1aca659387.html.tgz.pdf
17. My fan won't start. How do I fix it?

18. Where can I get help?
19. Where is the latest version of this FAQ?
Links to basic knowledge

See ../HowTo/Install to learn how to install Debian on your Asus Eee PC.
See ../HowTo/Troubleshooting for answers to problems arising from the initial install & configuration
of Debian on the Eee.
See ../HowTo/Upgrade after an upgrade.
See ../TipsAndTricks to have many questions answered, before you even ask them.
Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you make another fork of Debian to adapt it to the Asus Eee PC?
We don't. DebianEeePC is pure Debian. It's a DebianPureBlends project to make Debian work
optimally on the Eee. Our repository keeps just a few packages which cannot (yet) be in mainstream
Debian for some reason.
Do you provide a custom kernel specially adapted to the Eee PC

hardware?
Maintaining a custom kernel for special hardware is much more work then just finding the right
configuration and compiling kernels. Think of backporting all mainstream and Debian patches and all
the related testing needed to really support such a kernel over some time. As we aim to fully support
the Eee in Debian itself and not a fork of Debian, we cannot depend on a custom kernel. Such a kernel
would never be a part of Debian.
Do I need a swap partition?

No, not really. The system works well without. The installer will try to convince you, that you do
need one, but it's up to you to decide. Putting more RAM into your Eee is often a better choice than
using swap.
What about hibernate if I have no swap?

Hibernate will not work without a swap space. However, it is possible to use a swap file created in the
following way:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/deletami bs=1024k count=512
This command creates a 512 MB swap file that can be used to hibernate the system. (Note that you'll
need a bigger swap file if you have more RAM).
How much RAM do I need?

Try it out. You will be surprised how much you can do even with 512 MB. But then, RAM is cheap
and does not drain too much battery power. So if you can upgrade to 1 G or 2 G it is certainly worth
it.
2/4
How much disk space does the installation take?

The aim is to provide a simple basic installation and let the user decide what he wants to add. A test
on 2008 April 10 with a base install, then package files cleaned and treated with localepurge needed
401 MB of disk space.
Do I need the EFI partition or is it safe to delete?

When Boot Booster is enabled in the BIOS data gets saved in the small EFI partition to speed up next
boot process. (See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFI_System_Partition). Its safe to delete that,
Debian wont need it. Leave it in place if a short boot time is important to you.
Can I make a test install on removable media without changing the

existing OS?
Yes. See ../HowTo/InstallOnSDcardOrUsbStick.
Can I install *to* a USB harddrive in an external case?

Yes. There are the same confusing device name changes as outlined in installing to USB flash media.
You will have to fix the installation before booting as outlined there. Booting with grub, you can press
'e' and change the disk where the kernel is loaded from.
Can I put the *installer* on an external harddrive and start installation

*from there*?
If you want to use your drive in superflopp mode (i.e. without partition table etc.) it should work.
But who would like to? Press <Esc> on bootup and select your external drive to boot from, if you
want to do it.
Can I install from an external CDROM drive?

Yes. Press <Esc> on bootup and select your cdrom drive.
Can I mount an SD card at boot time?

Yes. However, due to the order in which rc scripts are executed during the boot process, automatically
mounting file systems on an SD card cannot be done as part of a mount -a invocation. You should
add noauto to the options, and explicitly mount the file system later on in the boot process, e.g. from
the /etc/rc.local file.
My system takes too much space on the flash drive. How can I make it
smaller?
The Debian eeepc system leaves you all the freedom to install/uninstall the software packages you
want. Use Aptitude or apt-get to do that. For suggestions of lightweight packages see ../Software.
../TipsAndTricks gives instructions how to make your system's footprint smaller, like deleting
obsolete package files and localepurge.
3/4
Suspend won't work. How do I fix it?

The eee will not suspend unless your user is in the powerdev group. This affects users of power
managers (e.g. gnome-power-manager) as otherwise suspend is handled by acpid which runs as root.
How do I listen to music with the lid closed?

This is configurable in /etc/default/eeepc-acpi-scripts. Look for LID_CLOSE_ACTION and set it to
'nothing'. See /usr/share/doc/eeepc-acpi-scripts/examples for more information.
How do I get wicd to automagically show me the networks available

when my lxde desktop starts?
Add a desktop to your ~/.config directory with 3 lines saying
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=wicd-client -n
My fan won't start. How do I fix it?

It's probably a hardware fault. Disassemble your system, (caution, this may void your warranty,)
check if the fan is stuck, clean it and verify it spins easily again, reassemble your system. If that
doesn't work, see this post.
Where can I get help?

Your questions are welcome on our IRC channel #debian-eeepc at oftc
(irc://irc.oftc.net/#debian-eeepc ) or the mailing list. Please do read the information given in our wiki
pages first. Feel free to come back later and edit the wiki, if your question was not answered here.
Where is the latest version of this FAQ?

This FAQ is at kept up to date in our wiki due to the joint efforts of our developers and users like you:
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/FAQ
DebianEeePC/FAQ (last edited 2010-05-11 23:42:46 by ?JoshDrizin)
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HowTo
Install
Translations: French German Portuguese Italian Nederlands
1. Make a system backup.
Methods to backup and restore the Eee PC are found on the Tips And Tricks page.
2. Determine your model.
Please find the Model page for your exact model number and read it first. Asus releases new
models at a dizzying pace, often with deceptively similar-looking model numbers that have
entirely different hardware in them, so it is important to know what you have to choose an
appropriate install method.
3. Select an appropriate install method.
If you want to install Debian Wheezy (recommended), Use the Standard Installer HowTo.
This should cover most users, as you can install from the network or without, as well as
special needs like pppoe, lvm or crypto.
If you want to install to a USB key or SD/SDHC card, follow SD Card or USB HowTo.
If you have no USB key, external hard drive, SD/SDHC card or CD/DVD-ROM, for
some models its possible to boot the standard installer over the network (though you
currently need a USB ethernet adaptor). See Netboot HowTo.
DebianEeePC/HowTo/Install (last edited 2013-08-06 18:12:46 by GeoffSimmons)
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HowTo
InstallUsingStandardInstaller
Translations: French, German, Portuguese, Italiano, Polish
Contents
1. Select Stable "Wheezy" installer or Oldstable "Squeeze"
2. Preparation
3. Installation
4. Configuration
Select Stable "Wheezy" installer or Oldstable "Squeeze"

Newer models are supported by Wheezy and older by both Wheezy and Squeeze. For more details, see the
wiki page for your ../../Model. If your model isn't listed, Debian may still work on it. Check the pages for
models with similar specifications and/or contact us.
Note: even if you do have an older model that works with Squeeze, there are many advantages to using
Wheezy, which was released May 4th, 2013.
1/3
InstallUsingStandardInstaller-e4692af177b34e19305c0fa12cbb221d.html.tgz.pdf
Preparation
Stable "Wheezy" system using the standard installer:
1. Download the Wheezy netinst ISO image from http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ . Choose either
i386 or amd64, depending on your model.
2. Using an empty USB device, copy the image to the raw device (the ISO hybrid images can be copied
directly to the device; don't use unetbootin):
# cp debian-7.*-netinst.iso /dev/sdX
# where sdX is the device your USB media is using
3. Reboot and boot the netbook from the USB drive.

4. If your installer freezes after hitting "install", just hit "help" in the main installer menu, hit enter, wait
30 seconds and then enter again... this should work.
Oldstable "Squeeze" system using the standard installer:
1. Download the Squeeze netinst ISO image from
http://www.debian.org/releases/squeeze/debian-installer/ . Choose either i386 or amd64, depending on
your model.
2. Using an empty USB device, copy the image to the raw device (the ISO hybrid images can be copied
directly to the device; don't use unetbootin):
# cp debian-6.*-netinst.iso /dev/sdX
# where sdX is the device your USB media is using
3. Reboot and boot the netbook from the USB drive.

4. If your installer freezes after hitting "install", just hit "help" in the main installer menu, hit enter, wait
30 seconds and then enter again... this should work.
Installation
1. Boot the Eee PC using the USB device (press ESC during boot; if this fails to bring up a device menu,
press F2 during boot, disable "Boot Booster" in the BIOS and retry).
2. Follow the installer instructions.
3. Install the eeepc-acpi-scripts package for best results (additional hotkey support, etc. not provided out
of the box with base Debian install).
Wifi drivers status

The kernel in Wheezy and Squeeze should already include a wifi driver for your model, except as indicated in
../../Models where no driver is yet available in Debian, so our repository is no longer needed.
Configuration
After installing the base system and wifi drivers, you may need to configure the system for wifi, webcam,
hotkeys, etc. to work. On Wheezy and Squeeze, some of these steps may no longer be necessary.
DebianEeePC/HowTo/InstallUsingStandardInstaller (last edited 2014-06-17 03:10:50 by ?StuartPrescott)
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HowTo
InstallOnSDcardOrUsbStick
Translations: French German Russian
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Drawbacks
3. Installation on external flash drive: overview
4. Installing on SD cards or external flash drives
1. Starting installation
2. Partitioning a SD card or USB stick and mounting it
3. Installing the GRUB bootloader on an SD card or an USB stick
4. Fixing GRUB configuration and /etc/fstab
5. Fixing uswusp configuration
6. Inhibiting suspend
5. Booting external media
1. Common case
2. Booting from SDHC card
Introduction
1/7
InstallOnSDcardOrUsbStick-7d7a863d214deba1b57ba07320758a45.html.tgz.pdf
The limited storage capability of the Asus Eee PC is not adequate to keep multiple operating systems on the
internal flash drive. An SD or SDHC card (which can always stay in the built in card reader) or a USB stick
can be a very convenient medium to install another system and extended storage. This wiki page gives you
instructions how to do that.
This version of the page depends very much on the current versions of kernel, installer and the like; details
could change in the future. Please edit as needed.
?RobertEpprecht - This versions is based on Eee 701 models. Newer models have another disk layout.
Please give details if you try with other models. The page was written for 2.6.24 kernels and tested
succsessfully with the new 2.6.26 kernel version.
Tim_Auton - The default IO scheduler is cfq. There seems to be pathological behaviour on USB flash
and SD cards with this scheduler - it's slow and far from fair. Till this is fixed, use another scheduler.
Deadline appears to be the most effective. Add the kernel parameter "elevator=deadline" to the kernel
line in grub/menu.conf to use deadline as the default. Setting the fifo_batch parameter also helps
interactive response - batching reads or writes is good for minimising seeks, but is irrelevant for flash
with its constant access time. "echo 1 > /sys/block/sdX/queue/scheduler/iosched/fifo_batch".
ManfredWassmann - CHECK THIS: from what I googled you should use the noop scheduler with
SSD's (flash, SD cards etc.)
Drawbacks
A system on an external flash medium can be convenient and very usable. There are some drawbacks, of
course:
A system on a USB stick or SDHC card will be slower than on internal flash. Speed depends on
internal Eee hardware and the type of medium you use.
Never take out the card or stick before shutdown is complete; with a stick this could happen
unintentionally. Do not ask for a reboot (instead of shutdown) and remove the media between
shutdown and automatic reboot.
Some people had problems with the internal card reader. It is possible that newer models do not have
this problem any more or that it was caused by (non Debian) software or BIOS. Please report your
experience. (I am using a system on a SDHC card very intensively and did not see any problems so
far.)
Installation is not difficult, but device names keep changing in a very confusing way. (See 389881). If
you are doing it for the first time, the following step by step recipe tries to avoid this confusion.
For lvm or crypto, you may need to add rootdelay=10 to the kernel command line; see 366175 for
details.
Installation on external flash drive: overview

The installation process is pretty much straightforward. Read ../Install before proceeding. The main
difference to a normal installation is that you need to manually fix the bootloader configuration and
/etc/fstab. Device names do move around in a very confusing way. So here is a very detailed recipe to
avoid confusion and to show how to fix the faulty bits after running the installer. Sorry if it sounds
overly complicated.
Precautions should be taken that you will not suspend such a system.
2/7
Installing on SD cards or external flash drives

Starting installation
1. Put the stick with the installer in the USB port on the left side.
2. Press <F2> to enter in the bios and disable bootboster, <F10> to save and exit - DavideCalcagnile.
3. Press <esc> while booting and select the stick to boot from.
4. Now put the SD or SDHC card into the built in reader. If you want to install to a USB stick put that
one in the second USB port on the right side, the first is closest to the plug ac.
5. Start installation until partitioning. Select manual partitioning.
?RobertSchuettler] On our Eee-PC 701 there was a problem recognizing the SD card during
installation (16GB Transcend if that matters). The only available disks showing up for partitioning
were the internal one and the USB device that the installer itself bootet from. My (easy enough)
solution was to take the SD card out of the internal reader and stick it into the USB-reader that came
with the card, then re-detect disks and voila.
Maybe this helps someone. Remember to check (and
probably edit) /etc/fstab if you do this though.
?Alexandru] It seems that if one puts first the root device (SDHC or USB) and after that the
installation media, the root device problem does not appear at all (no need to modify /etc/fstab). All
one needs is to change grub's menu.lst to point (hd0,0) for the SDHC / USB device with root
filesystem and (hd1,0) for internal SSD.
When I tried, I first enter in BIOS boot settings and changed devices settings (2-nd item) to show
SDHC card at the first line and the internal SSD at the second line. After that, I changed the boot
devices priority (1-st item) to boot from the installation USB-flash.
?RalfEngels] There are several people reporting problems with the internal SD card reader. The
symptoms are: stopping of the installation two thirds through. IO errors reported for the drive. The
partition is mounted read-only and remounting does not help. File system corruption.
These problems are caused partly by the SD-card reader, temperature, core voltage and an old bios.
This post goes into details: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=19216
Also the Bios 0802 is reported to solve the problem.
XTaran - Other SD card reader problems (throwing I/O errors, access is hanging) or hanging fdisk or
hanging grub os-detect can be caused by the BIOS setting "OS Installation". It seems as if must be set
to "finished" to make the SD card reader behave properly. See also
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-eeepc-kernel/+bug/301932/comments/12
Partitioning a SD card or USB stick and mounting it

1. Spot the device you want to install to: the internal card reader is easy to find, the stick might show a
brand label, size or something else from which you can tell which stick is which. If you have no clue,
then assume the installer stick is on /dev/sdb1 and the target stick on /dev/sdc1 (if you did put it into
the USB ports I told you to).
2. Write the name of the device down (It's very likely /dev/sdc1 with the current installer on a Eee 701).
You will need that device name later to know where to install the bootloader.
3/7
3. On a pristine stick or card you will see one fat partition, select and delete it.
DavideCalcagnile - This step is not present in the installation with the image ...eeepc.img (16MB
network-based installer image)
select the ext2 file system because the ext3 file system with journalling is not working properly in
some cases
bootable flag does not exist as an option
noted that to proceed with the partitioning
Rudy X. Desjardins - Note, if you follow the preceding suggestion of using ext2 (vs. ext3), you must
ommit the commit=120 option when editing fstab later, as the commit option is specific to ext3
filesystems and if left in, will
cause the system to fail remounting your final root fs as read-write. If you see a lot of failed startup
scripts for your default
runlevel (probably 2), and/or an error from the 'final' mount command, this is likely the culprit.
4. Now you will see free space. Select that, and create a new primary partition. Accept the default size
to use the whole medium. You could leave space for a swap partition, but on a flash device it might
be quite reasonable not to have a swap partition. The installer will protest, but you can safely proceed
without. (If your machine allows it, you should consider adding more RAM instead.)
5. Filesystem default ext3 is fine. Select mount option noatime (relatime does not work yet).
6. I would set a volume label like eeeSDcard or eeeStick.
7. Set the bootable flag.
8. Select 'Done setting up partition' and 'Finish partitioning and write changes to disk'.
9. The installer starts to protest that you should have a swap partition, but you can safely continue
without. There will be more warnings about missing swap later on, so just keep your own opinion.
Installing the GRUB bootloader on an SD card or an USB stick

1. Now let the installer do its thing until it wants to write the GRUB bootloader. Stop now. Do not
install the GRUB bootloader in the MBR.
2. To install the bootloader on your external media you have to give the name of the device as the
installer sees it during installation. So install it to the device (without partition number) you wrote
down in the partitioner. On a 701 Eee model it will probably be /dev/sdc (*NOT* /dev/sdc1).
You can double check this by switching to console 2 (press <ctr> + <alt> + <F2> and then
<return>) and use the 'mount' command. It's the device where /target is mounted (without
partition number). Switch back to the installer by pressing <ctr> + <alt> + <F1>.
You install GRUB on a device like /dev/sdc but this will show up as /dev/sdb when the
system gets booted. Don't get confused, it is confusing.
Fixing GRUB configuration and /etc/fstab

1. Continue until the installer wants to reboot, but don't do that yet. We must correct the faulty disk
and device names in /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab first. You can do that inside the installer
now, or you can decide to let the installer finish and mount the media somewhere else to fix things
there before rebooting the Eee. Next steps show how to do it in the installer.
2. Switch to console 2 (<ctr> + <alt> + <F2>).
4/7
3. The root of the installed system is mounted under /target during the instal. So if you edit the
files during installation make sure to edit the copy in the /target/ hierarchy! The other files in the
root filesystem are in the ramdisk and will be gone when youll reboot. Make a security copy,
something like
4. cp -a /target/boot/grub/menu.lst /target/boot/grub/menu.lst.INSTALLER.back
cp -a /target/etc/fstab /target/etc/fstab.INSTALLER.back
5. Check and edit the drive letter in /target/etc/fstab. / should be mounted on /dev/sdb1 (not /dev/sdc1)
nano /target/etc/fstab
it should look like this:

/dev/sdb1
ext3
noatime,errors=remount-ro
Or even better, see http://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/linux-on-flash.html

/dev/sdb1
ext3
noatime,commit=120,errors=remount-ro
6. Edit /target/boot/grub/menu.lst. The external media root should be on (hd0,0). Scroll down until
you see the entries for the installed system, it looks similar to this:
## ## End Default Options ##
title
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-686
root
(hd2,0)
kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-686 root=/dev/sdc1 ro quiet
initrd
/boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-1-686
...
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
Now change to 'root (hd0,0)' and '/dev/sdb1'. On a EeePC 701 it looks like:
title
root
kernel
initrd
title
root
kernel
initrd
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-686

(hd0,0)
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-686 root=/dev/sdb1 ro quiet
Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-686 (single-user mode)
(hd0,0)
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-686 root=/dev/sdb1 ro single
The internal flash drive should be on (hd1,0) and /dev/sda(x). So for default xandros on the internal
drive you would edit the entries (farther down) to look something like this:
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda1.
title
Normal Boot (on /dev/sda1)
root
(hd1,0)
kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21.4-eeepc quiet rw vga=785 irqpoll root=/dev/sda1
initrd
/boot/initramfs-eeepc.img
...
Now we must correct the entries for update-grub. They look like comments in the first part of the
same file. Edit the device in the kernel options to /dev/sdb1.
# kopt=root=/dev/sdb1 ro
and GRUBs root to (hd0,0)

# groot=(hd0,0)
5/7
7. Now change back to console 1 (<ctr> + <alt> + <F1>) and let the installer reboot.
See Booting external media for methods how to boot later.
Note by Kai Martens: On Eee PC 900 /dev/sdb will be the internal solid state harddrive. While all the (hd2,0)
instances mentioned above must still be altered to (hd0,0), the /dev/sdc1 instances should not be altered to
/dev/sdb1 (neither in fstab, nor in menu.lst). If it is rebooted with /dev/sdb1 after loading the kernel there will
be three messages that mount failed and then the message that there is no file /sbin/init - your cue that you got
the (hdx,y) stuff right (found the kernel and ram image), but the /dev/sdxy stuff wrong...
Note by RGM: if your primary partition is Windows XP then you may need to add a map (hd1) (hd0)
command in addition to modifying the root entry.
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify
savedefault
chainloader
(hd1,0)
+1
Note by Marcos Talau: I had problems with the device names on 701. I recommend the use of labels for
GRUB and fstab.
Fixing uswusp configuration

If you have made a swap partition on your medium, you will probably see:
resume: libcrypt version: 1.4.0
resume: Could not stat the resume file: '/dev/sdc2'
...
That's uswusp configured on a wrong device name asking for the right one. Just ignore the question
and boot. Then do as root:
aptitude purge uswusp
aptitude install uswusp
On next boot you wont be asked again.
Inhibiting suspend
Change the scripts under /etc/acpi so that they never do suspend. Otherwise you do risk integrity of
your filesystem, and you will see damage on files opened to write. If you're like me and have the habit
of saving your work very often or let your applications do that for you, you can use the following
hack for this which just does shutdown instead of suspend. It dosn't even ask, who would answer the
question when you just closed the lid anyway? Edit /etc/acpi/actions/suspend.sh
#!/bin/sh
# do nothing if package is removed
[ -d /usr/share/doc/eeepc-acpi-scripts ] || exit 0
if (runlevel | grep -q [06]) || (pidof '/sbin/shutdown' > /dev/null); then
exit 0
fi
shutdown -h now
Probably we will have a better method of avoiding suspend, see 474531.
6/7
Booting external media

First you have to set the Boot Device Priority in the BIOS. Press <F2> after power on to set BIOS
parameters. The following settings seem appropriate:
1st Boot Device
2nd Boot Device
3rd Boot Device
[Removable Dev.]
[HDD:SM-SILICONMOTI]
[ATAPI CD-ROM]
Common case
By pressing the <esc> key after power on, you can select the device to boot from.
Booting from SDHC card

If you have your system on an SD card that you always leave in the slot, you might want to boot from
it directly. The card must be in the slot for the BIOS to show this option. Press <F2> after powering
on to see the BIOS. Go to the boot tab. If the card is in the slot, you will find the option > Hard Disk
Drives. Change the card reader to be the first drive. (Leave Boot Device Priority as shown above.)
From now on the Eee will boot from your card without having to press <esc>.
Attention: If you ever boot without the card the BIOS will silently revert this setting.
CategoryFrGame
DebianEeePC/HowTo/InstallOnSDcardOrUsbStick (last edited 2011-08-07 11:45:41 by BenArmstrong)
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Contents
1. Repository
2. Model specific issues
3. Additional modules not yet in Debian kernels
1. Introduction to building out-of-kernel modules
2. Ethernet (atl2)
3. Bluetooth
4. Wireless (madwifi)
5. Webcam (uvcvideo)
6. Board, BIOS, ACPI (eeepc_laptop)
4. Power management & hotkeys
1. Scripts (eeepc-acpi-scripts)
2. Hotkeys
1. Notes
3. Power management
1. Super Hybrid Engine
2. Notes
5. Xorg
1. Fonts
1/12
Configure-1ef2e37f19834dfd12d9ec8996a560d4.html.tgz.pdf
2. DRI
3. Touchpad Scrolling
4. Display resolution and desktop size
5. Display panning
6. Multiple displays
7. AIGLX support for compiz
6. Hibernate (suspend-to-disk)
7. Graphical boot
1. Grub
2. Lilo
8. Troubleshooting
Repository
The new installer adds our ../../Repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list automatically. This includes some
packages required to take full advantage of hardware in the Eee PC which not yet suitable for inclusion in the
official Debian archives.
(The repository doesn't support squeeze, so I guess squeeze users don't need to add it?)
Model specific issues

Please go to ../../Models to find out about model-specific configurations.
Additional modules not yet in Debian kernels

Introduction to building out-of-kernel modules
The instructions below require you to install and compile module source packages using module-assistant.
This can be done on your Eee PC, but will result in the installation of a lot of development tools that you
might not otherwise need.
An alternative method is to do the installation and compilation of the modules on another Debian machine
(one that is faster and has more disk space), and then install the resulting module packages on the Eee PC.
If you decide to go this route, refer to the manpage for module-assistant. You will need to run
m-a build instead of m-a auto-install . Note that if your Eee PC is running a different kernel
version than your build machine, you will need to install the linux-headers and linux-kbuild packages
corresponding to the Eee PC's kernel, and use the -l option to specify that version when you invoke
module-assistant.
Note: m-a is an abbreviation for module-assistant which can be used as a command too. You can even
use m-a a-i for module-assistant auto-install on the command line.
Once you have successfully built a module, copy the resulting .deb to the Eee PC and install it there with
dpkg -i .
2/12
Ethernet (atl2)
This just works now. The old version of our installer had a bug which required a manual install of atl2 after
installation this is now no longer required.
Bluetooth
This uses the eeepc_laptop module, which is included with the latest debian kernels (Squeeze, for example,
includes it). You can toggle it manually by setting the value of /sys/class/rfkill/rfkill1/state, or
you can use eee-control. See http://hughperkins.com/techblog/?p=167 for details of installing and using
eee-control, or merge with this article.
Wireless (madwifi)
This is installed automatically by the new installer. See ../../HowTo/Wifi to set up wifi with or without
encryption.
If you have problems when trying to reactivate your Wireless connection with the hotkey, you may have to
ensure the module pciehp is loaded with the right options. See Power management & hotkeys
Webcam (uvcvideo)
Ever since kernel version 2.6.26 there is no need to build uvc module which is now included in.
Become root and type the following commands to enable camera in the BIOS:
echo "1" > /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/camera
The "uvcvideo" module should be loaded automatically.

You should see messages about the camera being detected:
dmesg | tail
Next, install some software to test it works. Become root and invoke the following command:
aptitude install luvcview mplayer
As normal user you can now make use of your web cam tool:
luvcview -f yuv
or, using mplayer:

mplayer -vf screenshot -fps 30 tv://
You can use 's' to take a single screenshot and 'S' to toggle on/off a series of screenshots (as fast as the system
can keep up). Use this to play back that sequence:
mplayer -fps 30 mf://shot*.png
If you broke your webcam settings, use mplayer -fps 30 tv:// once to restore them.
3/12
Board, BIOS, ACPI (eeepc_laptop)

This kernel module is present in 2.6.26 and later.
Power management & hotkeys

Scripts (eeepc-acpi-scripts)
This package requires the eeepc_laptop kernel module and is installed automatically by the installer.
Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" users: the eeepc-acpi-scripts package conflicts with acpi-support; as root, you must
apt-get purge acpi-support: this removes all of the acpi-support scripts that would remain in /etc. If
you do not follow this step, you will cause conflicts.
Since eeepc-acpi-scripts 1.1.11 (Debian 7 "Wheezy" and later releases), this no longer conflicts with
acpi-support and now depends on it.
Enabling & disabling the wifi works like plugging & unplugging the PCI Express wifi card. If you have a
fresh install, this should just work. However, if you have an older install, ensure eeepc-acpi-scripts 1.1.0 or
newer is installed and 'pciehp' is not in /etc/modules (it'll be loaded automatically if needed).
If you're sticking with an older eeepc-acpi-scripts, then make sure that pciehp is mentioned in /etc/modules`. If
it isn't, run echo pciehp >>/etc/modules as root.
Read the doc in /usr/share/doc/eeepc-acpi-scripts/README.Debian and configure
/etc/default/eeepc-acpi-scripts as needed.
Hotkeys
Special keys
Key
< 10" 10"
Fn + F1
Fn + F2
Fn + F3
Fn + F4
Fn + F3 Fn + F5
Fn + F4 Fn + F6
Fn + F7
Fn + F5 Fn + F8
Fn + F6 Fn + F9
Fn + F7 Fn + F10
Fn + F8 Fn + F11
Fn + F9 Fn + F12
Function
Work, comment
sleep
Yes
wifi
Yes (read details below)
Touchpad on/off WIP (git only)
Change resolution
Panel brightness
Yes
Backlight off
Change screen
Task manager
Sound on/off
Yes (git only)

Yes
No (unused)
Yes
Volume
Yes
4/12
Notes
[Lutz] "Volume Up/Down/Mute" Solved - With kernel 2.6.25 and default ALSA installation I had problem
with audio hotkeys (alt + f7,8,9). Sleep and wireless button work fine but volume does not change. That's why
the Hotkey event is correctly handled, but the acpid action works on the ?LineOut Channel that, on my
eee701, is not present or has a different name. You can fix it by editing
/etc/default/eeepc-acpi-scripts and modifying this line as follows:
VOLUME_LABEL='Master'
You can also run amixer to have a look at channel names, so you can assign a different mixer channel to
volume hotkeys. The Mute key, simply set the selected channel as mute. [Jetxee] "Volume Up/Down/Mute"
did not work on my eeepc 901, kernel 2.6.26-1-686 and default alsa 1.0.16-2. Also the mic did not work
properly. After installing hda-intel drivers from alsa 1.0.18a both problems were solved. I didn't have to edit
eeepc-acpi-scripts, because with a new alsa the channel is named properly. I am using eeepc-acpi-scripts
1.0.9.
As of eeepc-acpi-scripts 1.1.1:
eeepc-acpi-scripts no longer manages lid events. If you don't use a power manager and want your
netbook to go to sleep when you close the lid, you can configure acpi-support accordingly in
/etc/default/acpi-support.
The default action for the volume keys has been changed to NONE. New kernels generate XF86
keyboard events that are properly handled by most desktop environments; if you prefer the old
behaviour, edit /etc/default/eeepc-scpi-scripts.
If your desktop environment doesn't handle the volume keys by default, you can probably
configure it to (e.g. if you have Openbox add keybindings to rc.xml:
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=40192).
[_ds_] If you use slim as your login manager and xtrlock to lock the X session, you should edit
/etc/slim.conf as shown following this paragraph. When going to sleep, eeepc-acpi-scripts 1.0.12 will
use xtrlock if possible (and other locking mechanisms fail); without this change, xtrlock will want the root
password unless you have a terminal window open. (Or at least I find that it does; it's to do with the X session
not having been registered in utmp.)
sessionstart_cmd
sessionstop_cmd
exec sessreg -a -l :0 %user

exec sessreg -d -l :0 %user
Power management
On some models, the battery info is not very precise (jumps from 10% to 100%, no rate information, etc.).
Apparently, this is normal. It appears that the userspace battery utilities expect the battery to report mAh, but
in fact it reports percentage. This is either a bug in the battery firmware or a bug in the BIOS; it is known to be
fixed with newer BIOS versions and kernels 2.6.25.
Super Hybrid Engine
As of kernel 2.6.30, the "Super Hybrid Engine" is supported: /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/cpufv
contains a value which is 256 the number of available settings plus the current setting; you write a number n
(0 n < number of available settings) to it to alter the setting.
On Celeron-based models, there are two settings.
5/12
On Atom-based models, there are three settings:

0. high speed (1.8GHz)
1. normal speed (1.6GHz)
2. low speed (1.2GHz)
This is fully compatible with cpufreq. For example, in low speed mode, Atom-based models are able to switch
between 600MHz, 800MHz, 1GHz and 1.2GHz as needed. However, cpufreq is unaware of the S.H.E. and
will report speeds as being between 800MHz and 1.6GHz.
As of version 1.1.2, eeepc-acpi-scripts supports these plus "auto" mode (which will, by default, try to
underclock when on battery), but no key is assigned by default
Notes
[?DamyanIvanov] Hibernation mostly works for me on current Sid with 2.6.24 kernel once I've set up swap
(and following the hints from ../../TipsAndTricks). There is some problem with the madwifi driver that does
not recover completely, but I think it is not hibernate-related as I see the same behaviour after
suspend/resume.
[SamMorris] suspend worked for me with 2.6.24 with the s3_bios and dpms_on quirks. I have sent a patch
upstream to hal@lists.freedesktop.org and also filed 469648.
Xorg
Fonts
Sub-pixel ordering (with some uncertainty) is red, green, blue from left to right. Observed by magnifying lens.
DRI
Install the package libgl1-mesa-dri so that DRI can be enabled, providing 3D hardware acceleration.
For the 901, at least, you'll also need to install "libglu1-mesa" to enable DRI.
Touchpad Scrolling
See SynapticsTouchpad, unless you're using lenny on a model with an Elantech touchpad.
Display resolution and desktop size

In /etc/X11/xorg.conf, make sure any "?HorizSync" and "?VertRefresh" lines are commented out or removed
from the "Monitor" section and set "Virtual 2048 2048" in the "Display" subsection of your "Screen" section,
e.g.
Section "Monitor"
Identifier
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier
Device
Monitor
"Generic Monitor"
"Default Screen"
"Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller"
"Generic Monitor"
6/12
DefaultDepth
24
SubSection "Display"
Depth
Virtual
EndSubSection
EndSection
24
2048 2048
After a fresh Lenny installation on a 1000HA, I found the GNOME text to be unreasonably large. Apparently
this is because X determines the DPI according to the screen resolution, 1024x768, and reported physical size
of the screen. The result on my 1000HA is 118 DPI:
$ xdpyinfo | grep resolution
resolution:
118x118 dots per inch
$
I used the temporary workaround from this bug report (510123) and added to the end of my gdm.conf:
[server-Standard]
name=Standard server
command=/usr/bin/X -audit 0 -dpi 96
flexible=true
Display panning
There is a good utility here to permit display panning on 701.
Multiple displays
If you plug in an external display and press Fn+F5, the desktop is shared between the LCD and external
display by default.
If you want, instead, to have one big desktop with the external display positioned above the Eee's own display,
ensure that you have set the Virtual size large enough to accommodate both displays as shown above and then
edit /etc/default/eeepc-acpi-scripts to set:
COMBINED_DISPLAY_SWITCHES="--above LVDS --auto"
See xrandr(1) and /etc/acpi/actions/vga-toggle.sh for other possible parameters.

If one setting is not working when you press Fn+F5, you might want to check for error messages: run
/etc/acpi/actions/vga-toggle.sh from command line.
Note that icewm (in lenny) currently has some problems moving a window between the two displays, see bug
512109 for details.
AIGLX support for compiz

The following were needed to get Compiz working. Compiz works for me with xfce, but its a bit choppy
rotating the cube to a workspace that has opened programs on it. (If you have a good working xorg.conf thats
different to this, please update)
Section "Device"
Identifier
Driver
BusID
"Configured Video Device"

"intel"
"PCI:0:2:0"
7/12
Option
Option
Option
Option
Option
Option
Option
Option
Option
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
Endsection
Section "Extensions"
Option
Endsection
"EnablePageFlip"
"on"
"AccelMethod"
"XAA"
"MigrationHeuristic"
"greedy"
"AccelDFS"
"true"
"DynamicClocks"
"on"
"ColorTiling"
"on"
"FBTexPercent"
"95"
"XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"
"AddARGBGLXVisuals"
"true"
"Composite"
"Enable"
Notes:
[cmang] When following the above instructions, I was unable to get any window borders and window
management when starting Compiz. In addition to the above, I had to install the
compizconfig-settings-manager package. Then I ran ccsm and made sure that the "Window
Decoration" plug-in was enabled. I then had to start compiz with compiz --replace cpp
[?AndrewSmart] The XAA method of acceleration had been dropped in recent versions. In the
xserver-xorg-video-intel package v2.21.15 the UXA render acceleration is default. UXA is lower
performing than the newer SNA, so try it out and check your Xorg log to verify it works. XvMC
hardware video acceleration is disabled by default (current support for MPEG2 MC on 915/945 and
G33 series). Here is my configuration (for Intel GMA 950 graphics, 945GSE chipset):
Section "Device"
Identifier
Driver
Option
Option
EndSection
"Device0"
"intel"
"AccelMethod" "SNA"
"XvMC" "1"
Xorg uses less CPU and the netbook runs cooler. I suggest you read the man page for intel(4) for
settings specific to your driver version. Also if you have a 915/945 chipset (other 3rd/4th gen appear
affected as well), you're probably prone to choppy 3D behaviour:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30364 Apparently wiggling the mouse or playing a
song (keeping the CPU busy) will keep the graphics smooth by keeping the CPU from entering a deep
sleep state. This is apparently a "known design feature of the power management hardware" and the
Intel DRI devs (Chris Wilson et al.) were unable to find an acceptable workaround.
Hibernate (suspend-to-disk)
[?DamyanIvanov] Hibernate worked for me just fine after I've set up a 256M dedicated SWAP partition.
Perhaps the same is possible using swap files too. The only glitch is that I have to quit memory-hungry
programs like Iceweasel before attempting hibernate, as otherwise the swap space is not enough. To hibernate,
run s2disk as root (from the uswsusp package). If you use gnome-power-manager you can just press the
power button (but remember to disable the button action in /etc/acpi/actions/power.sh installed by
debian-eeepc-scripts to avoid double prompts).
[?OzeLot] Hibernation (suspend-to-disk) is easy on Debian/lenny with 2.6.26-kernel, when a swap-partition is
active (eeepc 901). This is an example:
8/12
Create a swap partition of 512 MB:

cfdisk /dev/sdb --> New --> Type 82 Linux Swap --> write --> reboot
Make an entry in /etc/fstab, if sdb2 should be your new swap-partition:

/dev/sdb2
none
swap
sw
Format the swap space:

mkswap /dev/sdb2
Make active with:

swapon -a
(or just reboot the system).

Install acpid, eee-acpi-scripts (the latest version from sid), uswsusp and pm-utils. splashy is not nescessary at
this moment.
If you want to use the swap-partition primarily for hibernation, make this entry in /etc/rc.local (somewhere
before exit 0):
sysctl -w vm.swappiness=1
You should now be able to hibernate with the root-command s2disk. A compressed image of your
system-state is written to the swap and then the eeepc 901 shuts down. The image is loaded again by Power
ON.
Suspend and resume with s2disk last 15-20 seconds on my system.
[?ArturCzechowski] I'd like to confirm that suspend/resume on both: ram and disk work without problem on
901. Only path I haven't tested (yet) is: suspend to ram battery low automatically suspend to disk
resume. I'll test it this night (CET).
[Lancelot] Suspend-to-disk does not work for me, using the instructions provided by Ozelot above. s2ram
complains that "machine is unknown". s2disk and s2both both yield the following behavior: they do seem to
write to my swap partition and suspend normally, but upon pressing the power button, it does not resume but
instead goes through a normal boot sequence... EDIT: Yeah! I tried:
dpkg-reconfigure uswsusp
And then answered questions to the best of whatever very little knowledge I have. For some reason,
the dpkg-reconfigure provides a myriad of prompts that did not come with the initial aptitude
installation. Here is a config file that works for me:
# /etc/uswsusp.conf(8) -- Configuration file for s2disk/s2both
resume device = /dev/sdb1
compress = y
early writeout = y
image size = 239158312
RSA key file = /etc/uswsusp.key
shutdown method = poweroff
suspend loglevel = 1
9/12
max loglevel = 1
In the above, you'll probably have to change the name of the resume device to the name of your swap
partition.
This could have been this bug: 495319. Indeed, the config file I got after a clean install had 'platform' as the
shutdown method. Note that the "Shutdown method" option does not seem to be explained in the man page of
uswsusp.conf
s2ram still does not work, though I don't really care since I can just Fn+F1.
I still have a minor annoyance: upon resume, it complains that it can't stat my resume device and prompts me
for a device path. I have to type it by hand for it to resume.
[lancelot] It worked... yesterday. Since then, I tried a couple of configuration changes, which I don't think are
the cause for my current problems, and I also did a normal reboot. The latter has been the start of my new
issues. Now, everytime I try to make a suspend-to-disk/resume, it does not resume but I get a message that
recovery is required on readonly filesystem (this ought to be my root filesystem /dev/sda1), then it proceeds
with a "successful" recovery instead of resuming, then does a normal boot. But on the next resume attempt
exactly the same thing happens, recovery is again required on the readonly filesystem. it looks like I did
something faulty which severely messed with my internal flash drive. I can only hope the drive is not
physically damaged. I think I will just attempt to reformat /dev/sda1 and reinstall debian completely... maybe
tomorrow, more probably in a couple of weeks, months, I don't know, when I have the time. This leaves me
discouraged about running Linux on those flash drives.
See also Hibernation and perhaps more importantly Hibernate without swap partition
Graphical boot
This splashy package will enable a graphical status boot screen for your EEE, which is far pretier than that
bunch of characters scrolling up the screen (OK, for a server, not for a mobile workstation). It may not work
with KMS.
To install splashy:
aptitude install splashy
Now it is time to configure your boot loader.
Grub
With grub, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst file and add
hiddenmenu
to avoid showing that blue screen. Also remove the timeout, changing the timeout line to:
timeout 0
You will find a commented-out line similar to this:

# defoptions=quiet
10/12
With Intel graphics, the panel's native mode will be selected as soon as the i915 module is loaded if
KMS is active. With xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.10, KMS is required since support for XAA and EXA has
been removed.
Add these (read below):
# defoptions=quiet splash vga=788
the vga=788 stands for 800x600, suitable for 900 model. Previous models should try vga=785, which stands
for 640x480. There is a black magic way to make it work at native resolutions, which if you know, please
write it here. Some ugly hack, at least for kernel 2.6.25, is described here: Splashy and native resolution of
Display.
With Intel graphics, the panel's native mode will be selected as soon as the i915 module is loaded if
KMS is active. With xserver-xorg-video-intel/unstable 2.10, KMS will be required since support for XAA
and EXA has been removed.
To update the changes, run:
update-grub
Thats it. You should have your graphical boot working. Also try the splashy-themes package for some other
themes. (There are Debian themes in the package. splashy_config --info will show the available
themes and splashy_config -s themename will set a theme. Remember to run
update-initramfs -u every time you change the theme.)
If at install time you have chosen grub-pc instead of grub, you should edit default config file,
/etc/default/grub, adding this variable:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash vga=788"
[?JohanLaenen] GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash vga=788" works like a charm but is

deprecated. I had no success changing GRUB_GFXMODE. See 536453 for more info.
and setting
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
as well. Then update config changes executing 'update-grub2'. NOTE: For my 4G, vga=788 doesn't work,
vga=786 seems to work fine.
[?LuizGuaraldo]: I was successfull with usplash, no vga option needed. Just need to put insmod intelfb
right over insmod png on /boot/grub/grub.cfg (grub2 - grub-pc).
Lilo
With Lilo edit /etc/lilo.conf:
Find the line with "vga" and write:
vga=788
11/12
the vga=788 stands for 800x600, suitable for 900 model. Previous models should try vga=785, which stands
for 640x480. There is a black magic way to make it work at native resolutions, which if you know, please
write it here. Some ugly hack, at least for kernel 2.6.25, is described here: Splashy and native resolution of
Display
Find the line with "append" and write:
append="quiet splash vga=788"
To update the changes launch lilo.
Troubleshooting
If you have problems with any of the steps above, see our Troubleshooting HowTo.
DebianEeePC/HowTo/Configure (last edited 2014-12-11 16:22:51 by ?AndrewSmart)
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HowTo
Sound
Translation(s): French German Portuguese
Sound for most Eee PC models with Alsa should just work. The following are tips to make it work optimally
for certain applications or to work around problems with specific models.
Contents
1. Model 900A, 901, 1000, 1000H, and 1000HE front Microphone
2. 1001PX [a.k.a. R101 in Germany] built-in microphone
3. Alsamixer
1. ALSA configuration
4. Install an updated Alsa driver
5. Testing your updated driver
6. ALSA OSS
7. Alternate versions: updated kernel or upstream source for Alsa driver
8. Skype (and any other application which only uses Left channel of Front Mic.) Workaround
9. KMix and other mixers for your desktop
Model 900A, 901, 1000, 1000H, and 1000HE front

Microphone
1/11
Sound-a81e650f66f44eb926dd34a954a1626d.html.tgz.pdf
See Install an updated Alsa driver below.
1001PX [a.k.a. R101 in Germany] built-in microphone

With Linux 2.6.32-29, built-in microphone of my 1001PX did not work (it recorded just a noise). How I made
it to work: install Linux 2.6.37~rc7-1~experimental.1, boot to the original Windows XP, record there some
sound and play it; then reboot (without turning the PC off) to Linux 2.6.37, record there some sound (it
worked now but the audio playing was broken now); reboot Linux 2.6.37: now and after any other reboots
both playing and recording worked.
for me worked Out-Of-The-Box with kernel 2.6.37-trunk-686 from the experimental repo without any trick,
config or workaround. external mic NOT tested, maybe working with "options snd-hda-intel model=fujitsu" in
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
Alsamixer
If youre setting up your system to use an application like Ekiga to do VoIP/video conferencing then you will
probably want to know how to use alsamixer utility to access the low-level mixer channels on your audio card.
There are GUI versions of alsamixer, but the alsamixer program is almost always installed by default. It is
provided by the alsa-utils package.
To use it open up a terminal and use the 'alsamixer' program. It has three views (Playback settings, Capture
settings, all settings) and you can switch between them with the tab button. You can press left arrow key or
right arrow key to move from mixer to mixer and up arrow and down arrow key to change volumes. The m
button will toggle mute for the devices that support it and space bar will toggle capture status for settings that
support that (be sure to enable this, or the microphone will not work). The '?' button will show the help dialog
for more controls.
For the EeePCs microphone youll probably want to adjust these settings: use the tab button to select the all
view.
Arrow over to the capture setting and toggle it on using the space bar. Make sure the volume is around 70 %.
Make sure that i-mic (internal mic) is selected as the input source. (If i-mic doesnt appear, try Front Mic.)
Press up and down arrow to select input device.
Arrow over to the i-mic mixer settings. Set the volume at 70 % and then set the i-mic boost to 33 %.
That should give a good basis for playing around with your own settings till you get it perfect. The i-mic boost
should be set to zero or 33 %. Anything above that and I get horrible sound distortion through Ekiga.
For testing audio performance Audacity is a good choice. Make sure that you go through the preferences and
it is setup to use ALSA.
GNOME Sound Recorder application from gnome-media is ok for doing recording. You just have to make
sure that the codec it uses is either WAV, ?MP3, or speex when doing the recording. The default is to use
Ogg/Vorbis and the EeePC isnt quite fast enough to do that encoding in real-time leading to very bad sound
quality.
2/11
ALSA configuration
This can improve performance for your sound system when playing multiple sounds, recording to multiple
programs, playing games, or watching videos on your EeePC.
For more details on what this file is and what to do with it see http://alsa.opensrc.org/.asoundrc.
pcm.my_card {
type hw
card 0
# mmap_emulation true
}
pcm.dmixed {
## This provides software mixing for audio out
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "my_card"
## period_size and buffer_size
## can be modified to reduce
## latency or add more 'cusion'
## through the buffer
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096
rate 44100
}
}
pcm.dsnooped {
## this provides software mixing for audio in
type dsnoop
ipc_key 2048
slave {
pcm "my_card"
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096
rate 44100
}
}
pcm.asymed {
## this plugin allows you to bind both
## the dmix and dsnoop plugins together
type asym
playback.pcm "dmixed"
capture.pcm "dsnooped"
}
pcm.pasymed {
## if you do not want to use use
## mixing by default, you can delete
## !default entry below and direct
## apps to use this 'device' as a
## extra option
type plug
slave.pcm "asymed"
}
pcm.dsp0 {
## this allows most OSS-only apps
## to use this mixing stuff
## through the use of the aoss wrapper
type plug
slave.pcm "asymed"
}
pcm.!default {
3/11
## this makes alsa apps default

## to use this config
type plug
slave.pcm "asymed"
}
Install an updated Alsa driver

A convenient way to update your Alsa driver is to use the alsa-source package from testing (1.0.20+dfsg-1 as
of the time of writing). Set up installs from testing using ?AptPinning and:
aptitude install module-assistant
m-a prepare
aptitude -t testing install alsa-source
m-a build alsa
m-a install alsa
Or instead of using ?AptPinning, just download the deb for alsa-source directly from your mirror, use
dpkg -i to install it, and then module-assistant as per above.
Testing your updated driver

After updating the alsa driver, you need to reboot or, alternatively you exit all audio applications (including
any mixer application) and unload the old kernel modules. Then load the newly installed modules by hand
(the commands were tested on EeePC 901):
rmmod snd_hda_intel snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore snd_page_alloc
modprobe snd_hda_intel
After the new modules are loaded either because of reboot or you loaded it by hand, have a look at your mixer
settings with alsamixer or the gnome-volume-control, the channels have changed from the stock driver. Note
that if you loaded the modules by hand you need not to do it again after a new reboot.
The contols of the stock driver looks like this in alsamixer:
4/11
The controls of the updated drivers looks like this in alasamixer:
5/11
6/11
FixMe: the following advice is in dispute. We need to correct it, simplify it and/or fix it in the
eeepc-acpi-scripts package.
Playback: PCM. this is the master volume for the speakers
Playback: ?LineOut. this is the volume for the headphone socket
Recording: Capture. this is the record level for the front mic. it only seems usable at about 30%
otherwise its just really distorted
Recording: Digital. this is the record level for the external mic in. Its a lot quieter than the front mic
even at 100%, perhaps were missing some ?MicBoost like the stock driver has.
To get your hot keys to work again you need to edit /etc/default/eee-acpi-scripts and change the mixer labels
VOLUME_LABEL='LineOut'
VOLUME_LABEL='iSpeaker'
to
VOLUME_LABEL='PCM'
VOLUME_LABEL='LineOut'
[psyche] Are you sure there should be two VOLUME_LABEL keys? I think for the second item should be
HEADPHONE_LABEL='?LineOut'
[?TimoZimmermann] After installing eeepc-acpi-scripts 1.0.10 the following steps were unnecessary for me.
You also need to add the line
I_SWITCH_LABEL='iSpeaker'
This should get the volume keys working again.

To get the mute key to work you need to edit /etc/acpi/actions/hotkey.sh. Comment out the line (around line
number 50)
status=$(amixer get $VOLUME_LABEL | sed -n '/%/{s/.*\[$on\|off$\].*/\u\1/p;q}')
7/11
and add this line underneath it

status=$(amixer get $I_SWITCH_LABEL | sed -n 's/.*\[$on\|off$\].*/\1/;ta;d;:a;p;q')
Further down in the # Fn+F7 -- mute/unmute speakers section, comment out the line
amixer -q set $VOLUME_LABEL toggle
and add instead

amixer -q set $I_SWITCH_LABEL toggle
You should now be all set.
ALSA OSS
On my system the oss_mixer did not work at all (using i.e. wmmixer as ?DockApp in fvwm2). The reason
seemed to be the mapping of ALSA to OSS by kernel module snd_mixer_oss. It can be seen in
/proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer. On my system i saw no matchings:
eee1000:~# cat /proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer
VOLUME "" 0
BASS "" 0
TREBLE "" 0
SYNTH "" 0
PCM "" 0
SPEAKER "" 0
LINE "" 0
MIC "" 0
CD "" 0
IMIX "" 0
ALTPCM "" 0
RECLEV "" 0
IGAIN "" 0
OGAIN "" 0
LINE1 "" 0
LINE2 "" 0
LINE3 "" 0
DIGITAL1 "" 0
DIGITAL2 "" 0
DIGITAL3 "" 0
PHONEIN "" 0
PHONEOUT "" 0
VIDEO "" 0
RADIO "" 0
MONITOR "" 0
The right mappings can be written to the file when booting by adding these four lines to the end of
/etc/init.d/rc.local file:
echo
echo
echo
echo
'VOLUME "PCM" 0' > /proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer

'LINE "LineOut" 0' > /proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer
'MIC "Capture" 0' > /proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer
'PHONEIN "Digital" 0' > /proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer
Afterwards we have a working configuration:

eee1000:~# cat /proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer
8/11
VOLUME "PCM" 0
BASS "" 0
TREBLE "" 0
SYNTH "" 0
PCM "" 0
SPEAKER "" 0
LINE "LineOut" 0
MIC "Capture" 0
CD "" 0
IMIX "" 0
ALTPCM "" 0
RECLEV "" 0
IGAIN "Capture" 0
OGAIN "" 0
LINE1 "" 0
LINE2 "" 0
LINE3 "" 0
DIGITAL1 "" 0
DIGITAL2 "" 0
DIGITAL3 "" 0
PHONEIN "Digital" 0
PHONEOUT "" 0
VIDEO "" 0
RADIO "" 0
MONITOR "" 0
Alternate versions: updated kernel or upstream source for

Alsa driver
Although the alsa-source from testing should be sufficient to solve the front mic issue, if you are interested in
trying new things, you may instead use a more recent kernel or get the latest alsa driver from upstream.
TODO: List reasons why a user would want to do this instead of just using the recommended testing
alsa-source.
Linux kernel 2.6.28-rc1 and later contain a sufficiently-recent ALSA driver. If you have that version or
later (if you're using a stock lenny kernel, you don't), there is no point in you rebuilding the driver.
Otherwise, grab the upstream source from here: ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/. At the time of writing,
alsa-driver-1.0.18a.tar.bz2 is current. We have verified that 1.0.18rc1 works as well.
You will need the appropriate linux-headers package installed.
Next you need to unpack it somewhere like /usr/src/ then build it. You may want to backup your old driver
first
/lib/modules/2.6.26-1-686/kernel/sounds/pci/hda/# cp snd-hda-intel.ko snd-hda-intel.ko.stock
/usr/src/alsa-driver-1.0.18rc1# ./configure --with-cards=hda-intel --with-options=all
/usr/src/alsa-driver-1.0.18rc1# make
/usr/src/alsa-driver-1.0.18rc1# make install
/usr/src/alsa-driver-1.0.18rc1# ./snddevices
According to the INSTALL file in alsa-driver, the last step is unnecessary when running udev. That file also
recommends using 'make install-modules' rather than 'make install', assuming that the Debian alsa-utils and
alsa-base packages are already installed.
You can verify your new driver with
9/11
ls -l /lib/modules/2.6.26-1-686/updates/alsa/
Check that the date on the snd-hda-intel.ko is about the time you compiled it
Now follow the rest of the instructions from Testing your updated driver.
Problem with no sound on eee PC 900 running linux-image-2.6.30-1-686 kernel can be solved by upgrading
the laptop`s BIOS. Files with new BIOS can be found at http://support.asus.com/download . A good manual
about how to update: http://www.blakeanthonyjohnson.com/?p=170 If you are following this manual and
getting errors "USB Device not found" while updating, try using another flash-drive (for me it worked with
512Mb Transcend JF160). After updating and loading the system press Fn+F7 keys to turn the sound on (even
if mixers show that sound is unmuted).
Skype (and any other application which only uses Left

channel of Front Mic.) Workaround
On my EeePC 901 ([?JesseWyant]), the "Front Mic." is a stereo channel, with the Left channel appearing to
be the difference of the left microphone and the right microphone, and the Right channel representing the sum
of the two microphones. (At least, using Audacity to capture sound clips using the stereo Front Mic., and
comparing the two channels, leads me to this conclusion.) The end result is that the Left channel is very quiet,
and the Right channel has the expected loudness.
Unfortunately, some applications (like Skype) only use the Left channel of the Front Mic., and as a result the
microphone audio is too quiet.
Here's an example .asoundrc snippet which illustrates a means to swap the Left and Right channels from the
Front Mic. Then, from within Skype's Audio settings menu, you may select the "skype" audio capture device
(to use the Right channel):
pcm.skype {
type route
slave.pcm "hw:0,0"
#slave.pcm "dsnooped"
ttable.0.1 1
ttable.1.0 1
}
# Also worked.
Which would be preferable?
KMix and other mixers for your desktop

If you use a mixer for your desktop (such as KMix on KDE), you may need to change the channel shown to
match the name of the channel that is displayed when you press the volume keys. This name differs from
model to model and it is indicated in your /lib/init/rw/eeepc-acpi-scripts.sound (variable
DEF_SOUND_LABEL).
For instance, on 4G model and KMix, Select Master Channel... --> Line-Out
CategorySound
DebianEeePC/HowTo/Sound (last edited 2011-02-04 15:21:52 by ?LucaGentile)
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TipsAndTricks
Translations: French, German, Spanish, Portuguese
Contents
1.
1. Extending flash memory life

2. Text Mode
3. Desktop environment
4. Accessing the Asus Restore Image
5. Make a complete disk image
1. Backup
2. Extract some files from the image
3. Restoration
6. Freeing Disk Space
7. Software Control of the fan speed
8. Speed up boot process
9. Turn off the internal display when using VGA out
10. Speed up X11
11. Fixing iPod file reading
12. Custom Compiled Linux
1. Outstanding Issues and Questions
13. Visual state and switching of Cam, Wlan and Card reader on the tray
14. Models with a slow SSD
1. Speed up sluggish Iceweasel/Firefox 3
1/11
TipsAndTricks-9a50af61ce8e6eac3a747b0f3b1ee25c.html.tgz.pdf
2. Slow Vim writes

15. Slow intel rendering
2. Wireless
1. Workaround RT2860sta crash on suspend
1. RT2680STA authentication timeout (WPA2)
Extending flash memory life

It is a commonly accepted view that SSD devices can only be written a limited number of times before they
die, and while that may have been a concern for earlier generations of devices where that limit was relatively
low, modern SSDs, such as the one in the Eee increase that number sufficiently so that they will last many
years before they die, outlasting any HDD. Before you spend herculean efforts to extend your Eee's flash
lifespan, consider this article: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ssd_write_limit. Nevertheless, many tips are easy to do
and at the very least are harmless, or have other benefits (such as less time spent doing IO making your system
more responsive,) so here are a few.
Open /etc/sysctl.conf and set vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 1500. This will prolong the life of your
SSD by writing to the disk every 15 seconds instead of 5.
Probably many of the tips useful for Linksys on NSLU2 can be applied to the EeePC.
Use tmpfs for directories whose content doesn't need to be preserved over shutdown/reboot:
/tmp
echo 'tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0' >>/etc/fstab
/var/run & /var/lock
set RAMRUN=yes and RAMLOCK=yes in /etc/default/rcS
/var/cache/apt/archives
echo 'tmpfs /var/cache/apt/archives tmpfs defaults 0 0' >>/etc/fstab
(but note bug 523920)
Mount your disk-backed filesystems with the 'relatime' option.
Switch off journalling (if using ext3 or ext4), or mount ext4 filesystems with the
journal_async_commit option.
Text Mode
Ive included some notes below (based on the instructions listed at this site.).
Upgrade grub-pc to 1.96+20090709-1 or later.
Run 915resolution -l
eee01:~# 915resolution -l | grep 800x480
Mode 3c : 800x480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 800x480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 800x480, 32 bits/pixel
Add the following lines to /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I put it at the end of the 00_header section:
915resolution 3c 800 480
#915resolution 4d 800 480
#915resolution 5c 800 480
To figure out your vga number, add 0x200 to the mode. i.e. for 8 bit mode: 0x200 + 0x3c = 0x23c =
57210
Add vga=572 to the kernel line in the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file.
2/11
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.24-1-686" {
linux
(hd0,1)/vmlinuz-2.6.24-1-686 root=/dev/sda3 ro vga=572
initrd (hd0,1)/initrd.img-2.6.24-1-686
}
menuentry "Debian GNU/Linux, linux 2.6.24-1-686 (single-user mode)" {
linux
(hd0,1)/vmlinuz-2.6.24-1-686 root=/dev/sda3 ro vga=572 single
initrd (hd0,1)/initrd.img-2.6.24-1-686
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
Desktop environment
If you use a Gnome desktop on your Eee, here are some ways to make better use of the limited screen height:
Enable the autohide property on the Gnome panels at the top and bottom of the desktop, so they get
out of the way unless you mouse over them. To do this, right click on a blank part of the panel, then
choose Properties, and go to the General tab. Unfortunately, Gnome's idea of "hidden" may not match
yours (or the dictionary's); it still leaves a bar several pixels wide. In lenny, the remainder can be
removed by using gconf-editor to set
/apps/panal/toplevels/{bottom,top}_panel_screen0/auto_hide_size to 0. [For an older version of Debian, the
following seems to apply: You can reduce that to 1 pixel (but not to zero) by using gconf-editor to change
/apps/panel/toplevels/panel0/auto_hide_size (you have to do this for panel0, panel1,...).]
In many applications, like gnome-terminal and firefox (iceweasel), you can use the F11 key to toggle
a fullscreen mode that provides even more area than simply maximizing the window.
In metacity you can set up the F11 key to toggle fullscreen mode for all applications by selecting
System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts. Find the "Window Management" section, select the
"Toggle fullscreen mode" item (which is disabled by default), and type F11 to set it.
You can change workspaces without exiting fullscreen mode by using Control-Alt-Left_arrow and
Control-Alt-Right_arrow.
You can move your application under Xfce, KDE and Gnome with alt+left_mouse ( press alt before
left_mouse ) and move your mouse. Very useful for applications bigger than the screen, like Gnome
Evolution (Mail).
With Alt+F7 you switch to "move screen" after pressing those two keys you can use the keyboard
arrows to move the window around.
Firefox:
Use the F11 key to toggle a fullscreen mode that provides even more area than simply maximizing the
window.
Install the CompactMenu2 extension to gain few pixels taken by the menu, and some minimalistic
theme (like Littlefox) or microfox to gain even more.
Using vimperator extension improves a lot the space to display pages provided that you are familar
with Vim editor.
You can also stop using tabs and use Alt+Tab to switch from a window to an other. Use the
KeyConfig extension to bind Ctrl+T to "New window".
Activate the Use Small Icons checkbox in the Customize Toolbar panel
You can move the url:address window into the top toolbar and switched off all other toolbars. There's
room for the back/fwd & stop buttons in the top toolbar as well.
To give more screen space, undecorate the window your browser is in.
Using Ctrl + and Ctrl - to zoom in and out of webpages is useful especially in the 700 series
small-screened eeepc's.
Opera:
3/11
Use F11 to get into full-screen (this is the presentation mode, you'll not have any bars unlike as in
FF).
Use the "Fit to width" feature on huge pages.
KDE/Kwin:
Each window can be made fullscreen with a right click on the window decoration. You can also use
keyboard shortcuts to make a window fullscreen in the control center > Regional & Accessibility >
Keyboard Shortcuts > Make Window Fullscreen or Hide Window Border.
Put the panel on the left or right side instead of bottom/top, as you have more room in width than in
height. Also choose Tiny for the panel size, and take a look at the auto/manual Hiding
functionalities.
OpenBox:
Use:
<keybind key="F11">
<action name="ToggleFullscreen"/>
</keybind>
in ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml to get the application to real full-screen (no panels etc.) via F11.
See http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Help:Upgrading_to_3.4#Desktop_cycling_dialog to get rid
of the desktop switch dialog
Accessing the Asus Restore Image

Here is a way to access the files that were on the original Xandros system before you installed Debian on your
Eee PC. You need the Asus Support DVD that came with the machine, and a Linux machine with a DVD
reader and about 2.5G of free disk space (so you probably don't want to do this on your Eee).
Insert the Support DVD and extract the disk image of the Xandros system:
sudo mount /dev/dvd /media/dvd
zcat /media/dvd/P701L.gz > ~/restore.img
sudo eject /media/dvd
Now you can mount the Xandros image on your desktop whenever you want by doing:
sudo mount -t ext2 ~/restore.img /mnt/img -o ro,loop,offset=32256
(The offset of 63*512 = 32256 skips over the partition table in the disk image.) The original filesystem is now
mounted, read-only, under /mnt/img/. When you're finished accessing it, don't forget to do
sudo umount /mnt/img
Make a complete disk image

The Debian Installer provided in the ../Howto/Install can be used to make a disk image and to send it over the
network. This trick can sometimes provide a way to restore the (nearly) original Asus EeePC system before
playing with new Debian installation as in some countries, you do not have the Asus Restore Image shipped
with the laptop.
4/11
Backup
This method uses dd and nc provided by the Debian Installer and another computer located on your local
network:
First, boot the debian installer on your USB disk
Then be sure to activate network and configure it, same thing for the disk (Do not partition it)
Open a console shell (Alt+F2 or from the Debian Installer menu)
On the backup computer:
get its IP adress (ifconfig)
start a listening nc session on port 9000:
nc -l -p 9000 | gzip -1 -c > ./eeepc.img.gz
With netcat-openbsd installed this line should read

nc -l 9000 | gzip -1 -c > ./eeepc.img.gz
On the EeePC shell:

dd if=/dev/sda | nc -w 5 computer_ip_adress 9000
Wait some minutes (about 35)... and you get a eeepc.img.gz with about 900Mb
Extract some files from the image
The compressed image contains the entire disk image including the boot sector and partition table. However,
these cannot be mounted directly. First, we need to decompress the image. Next, we need to use fdisk to
determine the offset of the partition so we can mount it as a loopback device using that offset.
FixMe: The following assumes the user did not repartition the system when they installed Debian. This is not
the recommended way to install Debian, as it wastes space by leaving the Xandros restore partition intact.
Redo the backup using an all-in-one-partition Debian system and show the resulting fdisk output (plus now
we can drop the Note at the end about extracting from the second partition).
extract the compressed disk image:
gunzip eeepc.img.gz => got & 4Gb eeepc.img
As root (or sudo), setup a loopback device:

losetup -f eeepc.img
view of the partitions:

fdisk -ul /dev/loop0
Disque /dev/loop0: 4001 Mo, 4001292288 octets
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 486 cylinders, total 7815024

Units = secteurs of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3c173c16
Priphrique Amorce
Dbut
Fin
Blocs
Id
/dev/loop0p1
63
4819499
2409718+ 83
/dev/loop0p2
4819500
7775459
1477980
83
/dev/loop0p3
7775460
7791524
8032+
c
/dev/loop0p4
7791525
7807589
8032+ ef
secteurs
Systme
Linux
Linux
W95 FAT32 (LBA)
EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
1 sector = 512 bytes, you want to mount partition 1 which starts at sector 63 => 63 sectors * 512 bytes
= 32,256 bytes
5/11
Partition 1 starts at 32256 bytes.

Use the same command from the last tips:
sudo mount eeepc.img /mnt/img -o ro,loop,offset=32256
if you want partition 2 use 4819500*512 = 2467584000 bytes offset:

sudo mount eeepc.img /mnt/img -o ro,loop,offset=2467584000
Note: The first partition is the restoration partition and is ext2 filesystem, the second partition is your "active"
partition and is ext3 filesystem. So if you want to find some of your files, try to search them under the second
partition...
Restoration
Here is a restoration procedure with the debian installer:
On the Asus EeePC, launch the debian installer, config network (get the IP adress) and detect disks
then get a shell.
launch the restoration command:
nc -l -p 9000 | dd of=/dev/sda
Then on the computer with the image file:

zcat ./eeepc.img.gz | nc <eeepc_ip_adress> 9000
Wait some minutes...

If you restore the original Asus image from the DVD, don't forget to make /dev/sda2 with fdisk and
after rebooting factory reset by pressing F9 at boot.
Reboot your computer!
Freeing Disk Space

See FreeSpace
Software Control of the fan speed

EeePCs hardware fan control is highly energy inefficient. Fan is turned on on need and usually never turned
off (even if temperature reaches a normal value).
From 2.6.26 linux kernel includes eeepc_laptop module which provides a fan control interface in
/sys/class/hwmon/.... It is not yet supported by eeepc-fancontrol (see below), but future versions of
eeepc_laptop might be supported by lm-sensors if http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11520 is fixed.
Manual fan control can be enabled using echo 1 > pwm1_enable and fan speed can be changed via
echo n > fan1_pwm (n being a number between 0 and 255).
Kernel 2.6.26: You cannot switch back to automatic fan control without rebooting. After suspending your
EeePC fan1_pwm will be reset to zero and your fan will not run until you manually activate it.
Kernel 2.6.28: You can switch to automatic fan control by echo 0 > pwm1_enable from manual mode.
To check if automatic fan control is working just type in a terminal yes. This will put load full load on the
CPU and start the fan. Press Ctrl-C to stop the program yes.
Kernel 2.6.30: fan1_pwm is 2.6.28 is just pwm1 in 2.6.30.
6/11
I added the following to my /etc/acpi/powerbtn.sh to switch the fan to manual control (which will turn
the fan off) and after a second change to automatic control (so that it will come back if necessary).
cd /sys/class/hwmon/....
echo 1 > pwm1_enable
sleep 2
echo 0 > pwm1_enable
Now basically I press the power button to reset the fan. There is basically no harm in this, as the fan would
automatically start, when there is heavy load in the system. This assumes that you have KDE or GNOME to
catch the press of power power button to launch the logout/Switch user/shutdown/restart dialog. If you are
running an unsupported window manager then comment the shutdown command in the last line as shown
below.
#/sbin/shutdown -h now "Power button pressed"
eeepc-fancontrol There is a highly experimental tool available that monitors temperature and adjusts fan
speed according to it. It is written in Perl by ?RaimoRadczewski and called eeepc-fancontrol. You can get it at
http://code.google.com/p/eeepc-fancontrol/ Additionally you must install the eee.ko module
(http://code.google.com/p/eeepc-linux/). You can adjust values by editing the daemon with your favorite text
editor. Attention. There is no warranty for this. It works quite good, but remember on REAL heavy load the
daemon might not be executed.
Fan control without extra modules The lm-sensors package has a fan control script
/usr/sbin/fancontrol that is started at boot by /etc/init.d/fancontrol and reads its settings
from /etc/fancontrol. aptitude install lm-sensors to get this installed. The script pwmconfig
should make /etc/fancontrol for you, but failed on my Eee PC 1000HE with 2.6.30. So I wrote this one:
/etc/fancontrol:
INTERVAL=5
FCTEMPS=hwmon1/pwm1=hwmon0/temp1_input
FCFANS=hwmon1/pwm1=hwmon1/fan1_input
MINTEMP=hwmon1/pwm1=55
MAXTEMP=hwmon1/pwm1=70
MINSTART=hwmon1/pwm1=50
MINSTOP=hwmon1/pwm1=50
Names should be different for 2.6.28 I think. I made these numbers up and the fan seems to be sensible. If
anyone knows what they should be, do post the answer here. Anyway, try it out by running fancontrol as
root. When you are ready, run invoke-rc.d fancontrol start to start fancontrol off in the
background. It will automatically get started at boot.
It seems that a bug in the pwmconfig script when checking for gnuplot prevents the configuration file to be
created properly. Installing gnuplot and telling the script to draw the results allows the creation of the
configuration file with the obtained values. Here is an explanation of the different parameters in the fancontrol
configuration file https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fan_Speed_Control
Speed up boot process

Install dash and make /bin/sh point to dash by dpkg-reconfigure dash
Remove nfs-common, because it starts portmap daemon. (as root:
aptitude remove nfs-common)
Workaround hwclock timing out by setting HWCLOCKPARS="--directisa" in
/etc/default/rcS
7/11
Disabling eth0 and ath0 in /etc/network/interfaces can save about 4secs.

../Boot is a more thorough approach for speeding up the boot process, provided youre willing to do
without certain standard Debian packages such as cron, sysklogd, etc.
For more ideas see http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Booting_Debian_in_14_seconds.
Turn off the internal display when using VGA out

Open "/etc/acpi/actions/vga-toggle.sh" in your favorite editor
In the case statement on line 26:
Insert "xrandr --output LVDS --auto" after the first "xrandr --output VGA --off", line 29
Insert "xrandr --output LVDS --off" after the second "xrandr --output VGA --off", line 33
Speed up X11
On the EeePC 2D-acceleration seems to be better with XAA instead of the new EXA. You can manually
choose the old acceleration method by adding Option "AccelMethod" "XAA" to the Device section of
your graphics card in xorg.conf. Some 2D operations measured with 'x11perf -all' will be several times faster
than with EXA. But notice that those improvements are only theoretical ones and haven't been confirmed in
real usage. While most operations have small speedups between factor 1.0 and 1.5, there are some others that
are even 20 times faster with XAA. Though some operations are slower, the difference is there only a few
percent.
Results of x11perf: EXA, XAA, x11perfcomp result
Fixing iPod file reading

Access to iPod files by any of the music managers (Rhythmbox, Amarok) that make use of the iPods music
data base will fail reading the file. You will receive some sort of message that indicates the file does not exist.
If you look on your iPod you will convince yourself that it does exist, however, the case is different. The
7/31/08 version of the kernel uses a default for the vfat file system type (the file system on your iPod) which
forces short file names to always be lower case. The iPod files and the iPod DB have short file names in upper
case, thus the error.
To fix this you must override the default setting shortname=lower to shortname=mixed. If you are
using the GNOME desktop you can do this by using gconf-editor to change
/system/storage/default_options/vfat. You will see the shortname mount option.
Once you change this to mixed your iPod will work with your music manager.
Custom Compiled Linux

The attached file contains a configuration option basis for compiling Linux. Use it with make allnoconfig as
described in the Linux documentation. all.config
Outstanding Issues and Questions
Sound did not function in 1 test.
The MMC/SD drive on Eee PC works by USB, therefore MMC/SD card support is deselected.
If you do not use ext3 as your root filesystem, you may need to compile in another filesystem.
8/11
All things almost certainly to be needed in a user session (between when you switch the computer on
and off) are compiled in, not modules.
Although Atheros5k WLAN module and PCI Hotplug are compiled in, it does not function.
Visual state and switching of Cam, Wlan and Card reader on the tray
This is a simple way to have a visual feedback of the state of the webcam, wireless card and card reader on the
eeepc. It uses zenity to show three state icons that change colour and tooltip message every time we click on
them. By using gksu, the script can remember the password for the root privileges needed to perform the
various:
echo "1" > /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/wlan
You can put the contents of the following archive in any directory you want, but please update the paths...
eeetray.tar.gz
Please note that if you change the state of the peripherals by pressing some hotkeys, the state will not be
automatically updated...
This script was tested on Debian Lenny with kernel 2.6.26 and on Fluxbox, but given its extreme simplicity it
can be adapted to any system.
Thanks to <SynrG> for the tip about using zenity!
Models with a slow SSD

The following tips are for EEE models with two SSDs (such as the 1000).
On these, you probably end up having /home on the secondary bigger but much slower disk.
Speed up sluggish Iceweasel/Firefox 3
This setup in combination with Iceweasel/Firefox 3 will most likely give you a sluggish web browsing
experience.
Firefox 3 saves a lot of internal state information during surfing, which results in frequent disk writes and thus
delays from the slow disk. An efficient workaround is to move your .mozilla directory to the smaller but faster
disk as suggested on:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=438135
or
http://www.marengo-ltd.com/blog/?p=65
This was tested to improve the browsing experience a lot on the EEE 901.
Alternately, a small quantity of ram can be used as a ramdisk using the tmpfs system. This results in
significant improvements in performance, as firefox utilises disk access very heavily
9/11
Adding a cron job to synchronise the ramdisk with the cache may prevent bad shutdown errors from erasing
firefox history or addons. Furthermore, it may be advisable to reduce the firefox "offline storage"
(advanced->network) cache in the preference dialog from the default (50M) to something smaller.
Additionally, and entirely non-scientifically, it is reported that enabling HTTP pipelining can speed up firefox
rendering performance, even on fast connections. This can be achieved by navigating to about:config in the
URL bar and adjusting "network.http.pipelining" to "true"
Slow Vim writes
By default, Vim will sync files to disk on write using fsync(). This can take a couple of seconds, which makes
the edit-compile cycle much more painful.
It is possible to turn this off by putting the following into your .vimrc :
set nofsync
set swapsync=
Writes may still get bogged down under heavy I/O, but much less often.
WARNING: since the file is not immediately synced to disk, this may increase the chances of data loss.
Slow intel rendering

Running the newer intel drivers (2:2.3.2-2+lenny6) on a 901, I (eeeuser) experience reduced performance and
X stability compared to earlier versions. By modifying my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, video perfomance seems to
improve and so far, no ring buffer crashes. This improved behaviour has not been confirmed.
Section "Device"
...
Option
Option
...
EndSection
"tiling"
"AccelMethod"
"false"
"UXA"
This might improve perfomance, most notably during compositing. Some discussion is available at
http://keithp.com/blogs/Sharpening_the_Intel_Driver_Focus/
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/IntelPerformance
Wireless
Workaround RT2860sta crash on suspend
If you have a RT2860sta based wireless laptop that fails to resume if suspended with wireless enabled, one
can work around the wireless crash by disabling wireless before suspend. Simply add the following to your
ACPI function scripts. Specifically, modify the file /etc/acpi/actions/sleep.sh by adding a
command to disable the wireless.
--- sleep.sh.orig
2010-01-02 12:56:38.000000000 +1100
+++ sleep.sh
2009-12-26 15:48:45.000000000 +1100
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
. /usr/share/acpi-support/policy-funcs
10/11
+/etc/acpi/actions/wireless.sh off
# If powersaved is running, let it process the acpi event
if pidof powersaved; then
RT2680STA authentication timeout (WPA2)

If connecting to a WPA2 network does not function, or only functions intermittently, and wpa_supplicant
running in debug mode gives the error
Authentication with 12:34:56:78:9a:bc timed out.
then updating to the 2.6.37-rc5- (at time of writing, this requires enabling the experimental repository) kernel.
Less than or equal to Kernel 2.6.32 does not work. Intermediate kernels were not tested.
DebianEeePC/TipsAndTricks (last edited 2013-02-20 12:16:51 by ?RainerWasserfuhr)
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Software
Translations: French German Portuguese
Installation of software packages

To install/uninstall software on the EeePC use one of the Debian tools for package management like Synaptic
as graphical front end or Aptitude as a text front end.
You have to be root (or use sudo) to be able to install/uninstall packages.
Software suited for the Eee PC

While in Debian there are thousands of packages a user could choose to install, some software is better suited
for the Eee PC Model 701 given the constraints of the system, notably the small display size of 800x480,
limited processor speed and storage. So we list here some software users have found particularly well suited to
the Eee. For a broader overview of available Debian software, here are a few links:
http://debtags.alioth.debian.org/cloud/
http://wiki.debian.org/Software
Be aware that packages normally depend on some libraries and other files which will be installed at the same
time as the requested package. What exactly is installed will vary according to what you have already got,
1/2
Software-e43a1b1560b027a2dbaf48e87a82dc03.html.tgz.pdf
because some libraries are shared.
Categories
The following pages give software suggestions for different tasks:
../Software/DesktopEnvironment
../Software/Productivity
../Software/Multimedia
Means to save disk space

Other than selecting software without bloat there are some other means to regain disk space. See Tips and
Tricks Remove unused locales and Clean up obsolete downloaded package file.
When you install software all the dependencies are installed first. If you try out software and remove it later,
the dependencies might be obsolete but still eat your precious disk space. The deborphan program can help
you finding them. If you use Aptitude as package manager it will automagically take care of that and remove
unused, automatically installed software dependencies. (FixMe: I dont know about Synaptic. Please fill in if
you know it). If you use Synaptic, look "custom filters". There you have or you can make filter "orphaned".
And there you can see these unused packages and delete them.
DebianEeePC/Software (last edited 2009-04-26 19:50:57 by JohnPinkerton)
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DesktopEnvironment
Translations: Deutsch
Desktop Environment
While full Desktop Environments like KDE or GNOME run well on the Eee, some people prefer a more
minimal desktop environment or just a window manager, especially if they have a model with a smaller flash
drive. Here are some of our users' choices, particularly slanted towards these needs.
Minimal xorg
Whichever Window Manager / Desktop Environment you choose, you need Xorg as well. For a minimal Xorg
install for the Eee we suggest:
aptitude install --without-recommends xinit xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserve
And if you also want 3D support:

aptitude install libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri
1/2
DesktopEnvironment-3035a630b3362a36fef6b34366142a40.html.tgz.pdf
Window Managers / Desktop Environments

GNOME: you may want to install gnome-core and gdm rather than the whole of gnome to save space
KDE: similarly, consider kde-core and kdm instead of all of kde
Xfce : Fast, lightweight, visually appealing and easy to use desktop environment. You can install it by
installing the xfce4 meta-package.
LXDE : Lightweight desktop environment fit for the need of the EeePC. Here are some configuration
tips.
ratpoison: Keyboard driven window manager with no window borders or title bars, Keybindings very
similar to screen(1). Takes no single pixel for unnecessary window frames, title bars or buttons.
Windows are resized to fullscreen by default. Doesn't need you to use the touch pad or an external
mouse.
flwm: Fast and Light Window Manager (the name says it all)
FVWM : F Virtual Window Manager. There's nothing you cannot do with this thing and it's one of the
fastest window managers, but it needs some time to configure and quite some disk space.
awesome: fast and light tiling window manager
i3: Lightweight tiling window manager written from scratch.
Note: You don't need to install a login manager (e.g. gdm or kdm). If you don't, just ensure that xinit was
installed (see minimal xorg install above; it's in 'xinit') and login on the console and run 'startx' to start the
window manager / desktop session.
System Tray / Panel

trayer: Lightweight system tray from the FVWM-Crystal project and based on fbpanel. (In
comparison to fbpanel a system tray only)
fbpanel: Lightweight panel (Taskbar, System Tray)
stalonetray: Lightweight system tray
xmobar: textual system bar which needs not much screen space.
dzen2 + i3status: textual system bar plus information feeder which needs not much screen space.
DebianEeePC/Software/DesktopEnvironment (last edited 2010-05-27 12:10:11 by BenArmstrong)
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Productivity
Translation(s): English - Deutsch
Productivity
An overview of packages that fit the properties of the Eee PC. Packages should be lightweight, due to the
limited capabilities of the Eee PCs hardware; and also should be easily navigable without a mouse, due to the
restrictions imposed on some by the trackpad.
Applications
Desktop Managers
lxde: Very lightweight desktop manager with good interface and features.
PDF Viewers
xpdf: Lightweight and has a nice fullscreen mode with zoom.
epdfview: Lightweight pdf viewer based on popular libs
1/3
Productivity-aea7bc36e81d0ee2c396d33d56b1a295.html.tgz.pdf
Word Processors
abiword: A perfect fit for the Eee PC, its lightweight and lets you edit and save some standard
formats (.doc, .rtf, .pdf,...) no .odt though unless you install the plugins (~10MB).
scite: Lighter-weight than abi-word. Scite is a GTK-based Programming Editor, tabbed and
feature-ful.
Web browsers
iceweasel: Debians version of Firefox, the same in all but branding due to licensing issues. Very
configurable for the small screen. Recommended is the backport of iceweasel.
netsurf: Small, but modern webbrowser in development. No tabs yet though.
links2: Lightweight Webbrowser with text-mode, SVGA and X support. No CSS support.
Opera: Non-free, efficient webbrowser with full-screen mode, needs less disk space than
Iceweasel/Firefox, etc. but is faster and more featureful (if you dont count addons).
iceweasel-vimperator: Iceweasel plugin that gives Iceweasel vim-like keybindings and removes most
GUI functions.
lynx: Lightweight text-based web browser.
chromium: is debian's version of Google's Chrome and works well in the eeepc.
Chatting
ayttm: Lightweight multi-use client.
irssi: Light text only IRC client. Very extensible and scriptable.
linphone: VoIP video-phone. Like skype, but open-source. Free calls to other users, or create an
account and pay for calls to house and mobile phones worldwide.
bitlbee: added to irssi or other irc client this will connect to most messengers, icq, fb, etc.
?Skype: Non-free Available and runs well. Download and install manually.
Office Work
gnumeric: Lightweight spreadsheet software which does most of the more common functions well and
will cope with many formats of spreadsheet files. Depending on your system it may need a few of
gnome's libs.
LibreOffice: The replacement for OpenOffice and seems to be not too big in it's basic form.
Mail/News Aggregators
mutt: Powerful, customizable e-mail client. Feature-rich, lightweight, and runs in a CLI. Quite
lightweight.
rsstail: Very minimalist RSS aggregator. Acts pretty much like tail for RSS feeds.
nrss: Ncurses RSS feed aggregator. Single pane design, fast, and lightweight.
newsbeuter: Another CLI rss aggregator. Similar keybindings to mutt. Easy to navigate through
quickly only using a keyboard.
canto: Flexible ncurses Atom/RSS newsreader for the console with great usability.
icedove: Mailclient based on the mozilla model firebird.
Map Applications
foxtrotgps: lightweight and fast map and gps application, keyboard shortcuts, made for small screens,
offline map use of openstreetmap, openaerialmap, maps-for-free.
2/3
Screen Shots
gpe-screenshot: Lightweight and simple screenshot application.
Download & Torrent

transmission: free, lightweight BitTorrent client with GTK graphical interface.
Games
frozenbubble: lightweight game of shoot the bubbles.
Misc.
virtualbox: runs ok for small virtual machines not using X or at least minimal X. Most eeepc's have
1Gb RAM, but if that is extended the virtualisation improves dramatically.
DebianEeePC/Software/Productivity (last edited 2013-07-11 13:25:31 by JohnPinkerton)
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Software
Multimedia
Translations: ?German
Multimedia
An overview of packages that fit the properties of the eeepc.
GUI
It follows a list of programs with a GUI.
smplayer (default used by Xandros)
VLC
CLI
This is a list of programs for the CLI.
mplayer (audio/video)
cmus (audio)
cplay (audio)
1/2
Multimedia-cb55ac8510391c685525df5c8aafa1f0.html.tgz.pdf
orpheus (audio)
clive (audio/video) - Downloads media from most urls.
Using the web camera

To see live output from the webcam:
mplayer -tv driver=v4l2 -vo xv tv://
To record from the webcam:

mencoder -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc -o foo.avi -tv driver=v4l2
tv://
DebianEeePC/Software/Multimedia (last edited 2009-04-26 20:18:01 by JohnPinkerton)

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FreeSpace
Translation(s): Deutsch - English - Italiano
Freeing Disc Space

Disc Usage or Occupied Space
To determine degree of usage of discs and partitions, but not directories, see DiskFull .
Much of the content is this article is redundant in theme or content with ReduceDebian.
Tools to see which directories are using the most disc

space
baobab in package gnome-utils
Command line program du of package coreutils
/usr/bin/du --total --summarize --human-readable --one-file-system
See also ncdu.

1/7
FreeSpace-2687bf497b3acf8d6d3108541b5fcb0f.html.tgz.pdf
Ncdu is a ncurses-based du viewer. It provides a fast and easy to use interface and allows to browse through
directories, to show percentages of disk usage and to delete unwanted files.
Command line tools to see seldom used files

These function only if file systems are usually mounted with option strictatime.
agedu
findutils : /usr/bin/find
/usr/bin/find
The following options are of special interest
-mtime
-atime (if your system has atime enabled, which is not default in Linux)
-size
See which packages are using the most disc space

Command line
kernel packages are large; older versions are not removed automatically for your safety.
To list packages that take up most of the disc space with aptitude into visual mode, select Views New Flat
Package List (this menu entry is available only after etch version), press l and enter ~i, press S and enter
~installsize, then it will give you nice list to work with. Doing this after upgrading aptitude should give
you access to this new feature.
In lenny, aptitude has "why" and "why-not".
aptitude why package1
shows why package1 may have been installed.

aptitude why package1 package2
tries to work out why installing package1 would drag in package2.

"why-not" looks at conflicts.
These commands only provide one possible explanation. Check /var/log/aptitude for definitive
information.
Using aptitude to list uninstalled recommended or suggested packages:
aptitude search '~RBsuggests:~i!~i'
To list upgradeable packages:

aptitude search '~U'
2/7
To list manually installed packages:

aptitude search '~i!~M'
To install without recommends but not uninstalling other recommends:

aptitude install -R -o Aptitude::Keep-Recommends=true
To list packages in increasing order of size:

aptitude -F '%I %p' search '~i'|egrep '^[0-9]+[\.,]?[0-9]*[MG]B'|sort -n
Remove some cruft

Purge obsolete configuration files:
aptitude purge ~c
Take a look at the Debian Cleanup Tips at http://raphaelhertzog.com/mastering-debian/.

Using dpigs (debian-goodies):
dpigs -n50
Using wajig :
wajig size
Sort installed packages by size:

dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Installed-Size} ${Package}\n' | sort -n
Graphical Interface
synaptic, go to installed packages and click on the size column.
Find things to erase

Categorically Expendable Directories
Temporary
/tmp
/var/tmp
Contents of these directories are only intended to be used in the short term or while a program is running and
are generally expendable.
Logs
/var/log
3/7
Cache
packages in /var/cache/apt/archives usually eats some space. As root or using sudo, you can
get rid of them with:
apt-get clean
or
aptitude clean
Use apt-get autoclean if you want to remove old packages for which you also have the last package.
Spool
Things in
/var/spool
are intended to be processed but may be expendable.
Duplicate Handling
When you find duplicates, you can hard link them, if they are on the same file system, or remove duplicates to
make them unique.
Finders
duff Can compare full file contents, but not default.
fdupes Can remove. Does compare full file contents.
fslint also does other maintenance and size reduction tasks.
hardlink Can convert from duplicates to hard links.
rdfind Can hard link or remove. Does not compare full file contents. Warning: uses MD5 by default to
compare. May produce false matches. Can specify SHA1 instead.
files you do not want

bleachbit (Squeeze and later)
localepurge
packages you do not want

debfoster
deborphan The textual user interface is provided by the program orphaner.
gtkorphan GUI for deborphan
popularity-contest Requires file system option strictatime, local e-mail server. run
popularity-contest | sort > popcon
Tools to alter files to reduce them

strip (binutils)
eg. strip --strip-unneeded foo
4/7
Stripping dbus-daemon exposes a bug in BFD. Executing in

find /usr/bin -not -name strip -and -not -name dbus-daemon -execdir strip --strip-unne
reduced the size of contents of the directory in a Squeeze installation from 140MB to 120MB.
upx-ucl Ultimate Packer for eXecutables
Do not compress bash or your scripts will crash. Compressed executables may require more memory when
run.
Convert spaces to tabs

Can reduce the file size of text files, though the difference is usually slight. For this example you need the
commands find of findutils; unexpand of coreutils; and rewrite, which is at http://oss.ezic.com but not
packaged.
find -type f -writable -name '*.txt' -exec rewrite '{}' 'unexpand --all' \;
Reduce data creation

Use the following line as your /etc/rsyslog.conf configuration file in order to not save logs but output
them on virtual terminal 12:
*.* -/dev/tty12
Output to what would be files can be caused to go to /dev/null in some cases where a symlink does not work
as in this example redirecting output from .xsession-errors: mknod .xsession-errors c 1 3
On systems that have been running for some time you might consider removing or compressing old log files.
logrotate can assist
File Systems
ReiserFS can pack multiple small files and the ends of larger files into shared blocks, which saves space.
For file systems have blocks and which do not put parts of more than 1 file in a block, such as Ext4FS: using a
different block size for the file system may save space depending on the size of the files stored on the file
system. A block size of 1KB reduces space useage compared to 4KB for a Debian installation.
The following file systems provide compression.
Application Level / User Space

GVFS Zip format archives can be mounted by GVFS.
fuse-utils There are many file systems which offer compression and operate through FUSE.
In Linux
squashfs read-only
5/7
No high confidence of high reliability

These file systems might not be reliable enough to store critical data.
Reiser4FS
BTrFS
Turn Off Reserved Blocks on ExtFS
By default, ExtFS reserves 5% of the file system for the user 'root' as a safety measure. To turn this off:
tune2fs -r 0 /dev/sda2
This can be done on a mounted filesystem.
Off Line Storage

You may move data to off line storage, such as removable optical discs or discs on an external data bus (such
as Firewire or USB).
If you have a read-only source like a write once optical disc, an overlaid unifying file system like aufs or
Linux's "union mount" can save changes in a writeable filesystem, saving the user the space of the unchanged
portions. The same could be accomplished with a snapshotted filesystem as with Linux Volume Manager
(lvm2).
File Compression
The following packages provide programs which losslessly compress data and can operate by a pipe or on
files.
BZip2 format
bzip2
lbzip2
pbzip2
GZip format
gzip
pigz
plzip
lzop
xz-utils
External article on parallel compressors
Wish list
lossy compressions.
using Quota as usrquota groupquota waringquota in quota
FreeSpace (last edited 2012-09-29 14:28:56 by BeatriceTorracca)
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Boot
Contents
1. DebianEeePC/Boot
1. net.agent
2. sleep
3. udevsettle
4. hwclock
5. Bootchart: hwclock disabled
6. Bootchart: net.agent disabled
7. Bootchart: original
2. Finit
3. sysvinit-ng
4. Boot Booster
5. gparted
Translations: French German
DebianEeePC/Boot
Note: In the approach discussed below, the removal of some standard packages that are included in a base
Debian install is suggested. Because these packages are only Priority: important, not essential, it is perfectly
valid to do so, but you need to be aware that some packages may not function as intended without them (e.g.
1/13
Boot-56bfee0f868961b1783c7dd4554085f5.html.tgz.pdf
cron handles regularly scheduled tasks, sysklogd keeps logs of various system activities, logrotate rotates
those logs and cupsys manages communication with printers on your network). Therefore, this is not an
approach supported by the debian-eeepc team. However, so long as you're aware of these limitations of the
approach, you're welcome to try it out. For a brief list of less intrusive changes, see tips and tricks. Also, have
a look at BootProcessSpeedup, which is the source for those tips. An EeePC 901 with a booting time of 5
seconds was demonstrated at the Linux Plumber Conference 2008. Efforts and instruction to do this are
collected on From_Naught_to_Sixty_in_5_Seconds.
I've created a bootchart for the EeePC boot up. This EeePC is running EeePC Debian and I have removed the
following packages as I don't need them on such a small computer:
cron
logrotate
cupsys
sysklogd
By doing a apt-get remove cron logrotate sysklogd cupsys
I'm using GDM to start an XFCE environment. Currently the EeePC takes 31 seconds to boot as is shown in
the chart below. After some tweaks I was able to bring this down to roughly 20 seconds, a 10+ second
improvement!
Currently I see a few sore spots:
net.agent
sleep
udevsettle
hwclock
Some seem udev related. I don't know the ins and outs of udev, but I've tried the following:
net.agent
net.agent sits in /lib/udev/
A don't have that file on my Ubuntu system, is it really needed on the Eee?
I've put an exit at the top of the file and rebooted. This had no effect on the actual booting of the Eee, but it
removed the sleep I also saw.
sleep
This sleep looks to be coming from the net.agent, which I handled in the previous bullet point.
udevsettle
udevsettle can optionally have a timeout. So /etc/rcS.d/S03udev can be edited . A --timeout 5
can be added to the udevsettle call. Again I have no idea what would happen to the booting of the EeePC.
I have not made this change (yet).
2/13
hwclock
> Why does this take so long? > Why is it needed?
It is needed to set the system's clock to the hardware's clock.
By running sudo chmod -x /sbin/hwclock you disable the startup scripts as they check the executable
bit on hwclock. Doing so DROPS the boot time a full 10 seconds, down to 20 seconds. See Bootchart: no
hwclock
Btw: why are there two hwclock init scripts?
/etc/rcS.d/S08hwclockfirst.sh
This one is needed.
/etc/rcS.d/S11hwclock.sh
This one isn't, unless you use --adjust (but you probably already know what hwclock is and what the
difference between those two script is if you use --adjust).
. [BenArmstrong] See this less invasive way to accomplish the same thing by avoiding the error that causes
hwclock to stall out.
Bootchart: hwclock disabled
3/13
4/13
Bootchart: net.agent disabled

I'm seeing no adverse effects, BUT it still takes 31 seconds.
5/13
6/13
Bootchart: original
7/13
8/13
Finit
Finit is Eeepc fastinit reimplementation
Homepage: http://helllabs.org/finit/
Fastinit is a proprietary and much simplified init(8) replacement written by Asus to help the Eeepc to boot
faster. Finit is a fastinit reimplementation based on fastinit system calls.
Warnning: This haven't been well tested. It doesn't start up syslogd, cron ...etc and it doesn't run rc6.d
rc0.d scripts for shutdown/reboot. It might damage your data or mess up your filesystem.
Finit's purpose is to build upon the general workings of fastinit and improve/optimize it for Xandros or
alternative distributions running on the Eeepc. Finit comes in three flavors: finit is a replica of the Asus
fastinit, finit-mod is an improved drop-in replacement for fastinit, and finit-alt is a generic replacement for
other systems.
Looking at the screenshot it seems that finit-alt has been ported to Debian. Booting in 9 seconds!
9/13
10/13
sysvinit-ng
sysvinit-ng is boot scripts based on dependencies and parallelizing services startup.
See how to enable this at BootProcessSpeedup.
Looking at the screenshot it seems that sysvinit-ng only 4sec different than finit but much safer. Booting in 13
seconds!
11/13
12/13
Boot Booster
The Eee Pc bios has a feature called Boot Booster, which seems to do some caching to shorten the time
needed to execute grub, saving up to 3 seconds.
To enable it from the bios menu, you need to have a dedicated EFI partition on you first SSD (/dev/sda); if
you have deleted it while installing Debian, you'll need to shrink the existing one(s) to make room for it. The
Eee ships with a 16Mb partition, but there are several reports that 8Mb are enough; it has to be type 0xef and
can be either the first or the last (or most probably in any position).
gparted
gparted is a software that will let you shrink ext2, ext3 and reiserfs partitions. Note that you won't be able to
shrink your root partition while using it; you can boot with a live usb system and use gparted from there.
DebianEeePC/Boot (last edited 2013-07-11 10:37:00 by BenArmstrong)
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BootProcessSpeedup
Desktop workstations commonly tend to be rebooted more frequently than servers, and laptops more often
than either. A few simple steps can do a lot to shorten the wait while the machine gets from power-on to login.
Contents
1. Using readahead to load files from disk
2. Using a faster system shell
3. Using sleep mode
4. Using kexec for warm reboots
5. Using Systemd
6. Parallelizing init.d scripts
7. Eliminating unnecessary services
8. Defining extra runlevels
9. Analyzing the boot process
10. Tests results of users
11. Use Linux Kernel as bootloader
12. See Also
Using readahead to load files from disk

The readahead package runs at boot and populates the kernel disk cache with the files that are going to be
needed during boot. To activate it, install readahead, touch the file /etc/readahead/profile-once
and reboot once. The profiling boot is very slow, and will tune the list of files loaded to match the list of files
1/6
BootProcessSpeedup-539519ceaa450135fefb1abc4131b63b.html.tgz.pdf
used during the profile run.

aptitude install readahead
touch /etc/readahead/profile-once
In squeeze, this is /.readahead_collect
Using a faster system shell

*now default*
The standard system shell /bin/sh was once provided by bash. Bash is very slow at startup, because it does
quite a lot of things before it starts to process shell statements. During bootup, a lot of shell scripts are
executed, and using to a quicker shell has a noticeable impact. To switch /bin/sh to point back to bash, use
dpkg-reconfigure.
dpkg-reconfigure dash
Using sleep mode

It is also possible to take advantage of the system's swap space to obtain very fast booting via sleep mode.
This can give a boot process that completes in as little as five seconds after BIOS initialization. However,
using sleep mode may require nonfree hardware-specific setup utilities, and/or poorly documented
kernel-patching voodoo; and you still need to wait for hardware initialization before swap becomes available.
Using kexec for warm reboots

When your system is performing a warm reboot rather than being powered on in the morning, there's a way to
avoid the wait while your computer pointlessly checks and re-initializes its hardware. Rather than go through
the BIOS and bootloader, your system can simply go to a minimal runlevel, load the new kernel image into
memory, and come back up. This requires a kernel configured with CONFIG_KEXEC=y (standard for Debian
kernels) and the package kexec-tools.
Using kexec can save a lot of time if you frequently need to do warm reboots to try a new /vmlinuz, but
don't let it set itself up as the default restart-handler if you more often want to reboot into a different O.S. (that
is, on dual-boot systems).
You can set up kexec as the default restart-handler using dpkg-reconfigure.
dpkg-reconfigure kexec-tools
If you've just installed kexec-tools and set it up as the default restart-handler don't reboot. kexec will try
to execute without having a kernel loaded in memory and reboot will fail. There are two ways to fix this:
1. Power off and then start the system. kexec automatically loads the kernel into memory during init.
2. Explicitly load the kernel into memory using kexec. For more information on this consult the kexec
man page.
2/6
Using Systemd
systemd
Parallelizing init.d scripts

The order in which scripts run at startup is controlled by the RunLevel system. From Lenny onwards, it is
possible to reorder the boot scripts according to the script dependencies. Some init.d scripts can then be
launched in parallel during startup and shutdown, so that (for instance) the boot process won't have to stop
dead while it waits for the Internet connection to come up. This can be especially important for slow ISPs, or
slow DHCP servers!
There are several ways to achieve this.
Using insserv
To enable dependency-based boot-ordering, install the package insserv, and use dpkg-reconfigure to
activate it.
aptitude install insserv
dpkg-reconfigure insserv
Parallel concurrent booting (using startpar) should now be active by default. Check that
CONCURRENCY=makefile is set in /etc/init.d/rc.
Reorder it manually
insserv does not know about your preferences what services should be started fasted, like your login manager
for example. Reordering it manually you can influence this.
Eliminating unnecessary services

It's quite possible that the services that are taking all the time to start are ones you don't need in the first place.
This is particularly likely for neophyte users who have simply accepted every installation suggestion their
chosen desktop environment task dragged in. What's needed is a way to distinguish between the services you
really need and the ones you don't; the surplus packages can then be purged (or their services disabled).
The problem is that documentation for free software is often not very easy for novices to understand, or even
find; in particular, scripts in /etc/init.d may contain comments, but they don't provide anything
resembling a standard --help option. Fortunately, for most init.d scripts the service name is the same as the
package name, so you can find out about it by running apt-cache show <servicename>. If they aren't
the same, the script is likely to be named after the daemon it launches, so you can try just checking directly for
man <servicename>. Alternatively, dpkg -S /etc/init.d/<service> will give the name of the
package that owns that file.
Defining extra runlevels

The Debian system by default uses RunLevel 2 and doesn't define any special function for levels 3-5. If you
have services that you want to run only on rare occasions, you can avoid the wait while they start up by
declaring that they don't start in the default runlevel, but do in some other runlevel. For instance, you might
3/6
keep databases you use occasionally on runlevel 3 and a slow MUD server you almost never use on runlevel
4.
You can then switch these sets of extra services on and off by running init (even under X) - for instance,
sudo init 4 to activate the MUD server.
Reorganizing runlevels can be carried out "manually" or via interactive runlevel editors such as (the package)
sysv-rc-conf. The precautions required for ensuring your changes are not automatically overwritten are
not particularly intuitive; for a start, if you delete all of a service's rc.d symlinks, the next package upgrade
will put all of them back in "factory default" locations. See man update-rc.d for details.
Analyzing the boot process

You can analyze the boot process and where time is spent using Bootchart2.
aptitude install bootchart2 pybootchartgui
This may suggest services that can usefully be eliminated or reordered.
Tests results of users

5 Second desktop by -- [[Jelle de Jong]]
<<DateTime(2009-06-23T19:22:32+0100)>>
http://wiki.debian.org/BootProcessSpeedup?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=5-second-desktop-bootchart-v0.1.2j.tar
remaining issues: grub2 and bios integration can be better, grub2 currently flashes through some screens
My 5 second boot, it takes around 1 additional second for the grub2 to start the kernel and less then one
4/6
5/6
system: Asus eeepc 901 Linux edition

I use:
- bluetooth keyboard
- bluetooth mouse
- bluetooth speakers and headsets
- usb gigabit ethernet (5 MB faster then build in Ethernet)
- sshfs remote online storage systems, contact me if you want to help out with sshfs-storage.org for real
- debian xfce based pct-desktop-environment, please contact me if you want to help get it into Debian pre
- usb dvb-t digital tv and radio (not used during 5 second bootchart)
- custom thunar action systems and key bindings, please contact me if you want to help out with the thuna
I don't use:
- DRI or GLX
- GNOME
-- ?Jelle de Jong 2009-06-23 18:22:32
Use Linux Kernel as bootloader

On a system which has UEFI , you can bypass all traditional bootloaders(like Grub,Lilo,syslinux etc) and
make the UEFI boot the kernel. You can also support multi-boot with UEFI this way. A simple setup to try
out the Linux kernel as direct bootloader in UEFI is by installing the package
aptitude install efibootmgr
Then issue the efibootmgr command as documented on this page and this page
See Also
An article about improving Debian boot speed:
http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Booting_Debian_in_14_seconds
Do read the comments as well as the article itself in ordeer to see all the ideas.
CategorySystemAdministration | CategoryBootProcess
BootProcessSpeedup (last edited 2015-01-31 22:05:05 by Bhavesh Patel)
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From_Naught_to_Sixty_in_5_Seconds
Introduction
On the Linux Plumbers Conference in 2008 it was shown in a talk how to boot an ASUS EeePC 901 in five
seconds. The slides are available too.
A Fedora 9 system and a Moblin system were used for demonstration.
This page is dedicated to give instructions how to port and implement the used techniques on a Debian
GNU/Linux system.
Remark
There are already some other pages available in this Wiki dealing with shortening the booting time. In the end
the results of this page, which are not suitable implementing in a standard Debian installation should be
incorporated there or be linked from there.
BootProcessSpeedup
DebianEeePC/TipsAndTricks
DebianEeePC/Boot
On the list for the DebianEeePC some work was already done.
1/3
From_Naught_to_Sixty_in_5_Seconds-3c5693865a757baef495ab937540414f.html.tgz.pdf
Mailinglist
It is thought about to set up a dedicated list for this task on for example Alioth. If someone wants to go ahead
please do.
Implementation
Different means were used in the talk, which can be seen on the slides, and time limits were set for each
component.
Splash Screens
Kernel (1 second)
Early Userspace (1 second)
X.org (1 second)
Desktop/GUI (2 seconds)
Splash Screens
Debian does not use any, so nothing to do here.
Kernel
Use of sReadAhead.
?Build a custom Linux kernel image with no modules and no initrd. An example config file for an
ASUS Eee PC can be found at DebianEeePC/TipsAndTricks.
Early Userspace
Use of sysvinit. That is the standard in all Debian releases until now.
Use persistent entries in /dev/ to save time, that udev does not need to regenerate everything each time
booting. See also this post.
Use a new version of HAL, where some algorithms were optimized.
X.org
Let Linux kernel setup the video hardware.
Reuse keyboard mappings.
Desktop/GUI
Do not use GDM. Or just use the simple theme.
Boot directly into a user session. (How-To in the Wiki?)
please, rename this page with a standard and explicit name... and/or just merge this page in
BootProcessSpeedup. -- FranklinPiat 2008-10-19 14:02:15
From_Naught_to_Sixty_in_5_Seconds (last edited 2009-03-16 03:35:01 by anonymous)
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Bugs
Translations: German Nederlands
Contents
1. Bugs relating to the Debian Eee PC project
2. FixMe: Migrate the following bugs from old HowTo/Troubleshooting
1. Shutting down fails
2. System freezes displaying 'Setting the system clock'
3. Wireless not working (using wpa_supplicant)
4. Keyboard on 901
Bugs relating to the Debian Eee PC project

Please do not use this page to track bugs. This is what the Debian Bug Tracking System (BTS) is for.
However, we have provided a few summaries where workarounds are known and are difficult to dig out of the
bug reports, each cross-referenced to the Debian bug numbers.
Read /About to learn how this project tracks bugs.
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Bugs_action_show_redirect_DebianEeePC%2FHowTo%2FTroubleshooting-83e934f62de361a9136f0
Bugs in packages maintained by the debian-eeepc team.

All bugs with our usertags
FixMe: Migrate the following bugs from old

HowTo/Troubleshooting
The following bugs need to be classified as one of:
no longer an issue (delete)
non-bug issue (mention the issue on some other page: ../FAQ, ../TipsAndTricks, ../HowTo/Configure,
etc.)
real bugs (must have debian bug# against the appropriate package(s) and usertag them)
Shutting down fails

There is an issue surrounding shutting down (confirmed even in 2.6.25). The system appears to halt, but the
fan continues to run (sometimes also the wi-fi light stays on) and your SSD drive may not be cleanly
unmounted. The reason is the sound module doesn't close correctly, but there is a fix! Edit /etc/default/halt as
root with your favourite text editor and add the line
rmmod snd_hda_intel
at the end. Then it will power off correctly!

900A: This bug does not seem to exist when running Lenny (linux-image-2.6.26-1-686 version 2.6.26-8 on
2008-10-31).
900: Can't reproduce this bug with Lenny (linux-image-2.6.26-1-openvz-686 version 2.6.26-17lenny1).
dieselnutjob: Just installed Lenny onto a 701. The bug is there. Kernel version 2.6.26-21lenny4 on
2010-03-12.
System freezes displaying 'Setting the system clock'

Try the following and please do give us feedback if it does not work for you.
Become root and say:
echo "HWCLOCKPARS=--directisa" >> /etc/default/rcS
900A: This workaround is still necessary when running Lenny (linux-image-2.6.26-1-686 version 2.6.26-8 on
2008-10-31).
900: Can't reproduce this bug with Lenny (linux-image-2.6.26-1-openvz-686 version 2.6.26-17lenny1).
Wireless not working (using wpa_supplicant)

If you get strange errors (for me: WPA not working at all, WEP only working for 8 seconds followed by 30
seconds of "network unreachable" and no key shown in iwconfig ath0) you can try the following workaround:
As root use this command:
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killall wpa_supplicant && sleep 5 && wpa_supplicant -i ath0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

(Perhaps you can deamonize wpa_supplicant, never tried...)
and on another console you have then to start dhclient (sudo dhclient) to get a DHCP lease (if you don't have
static settings)
Keyboard on 901
?RaulFerriz:
Win key doesn't work: Does any one have a solution? ( I refer the key between Fn and right Alt, but
the key between ?AltGr and left Control doesn't work also) Ctrl + Alt + Arrows doesn't seem to
respond under any window manager I tested (gnome, fluxbox and twm). Any advice? Ctrl + Alt +
F1-F9: Doesn't do nothing ...
DebianEeePC/Bugs (last edited 2010-03-13 19:37:59 by ?dieselnutjob)
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+++ installer sur eeepc 701/901 debian +++

Download, installation, configuration

17. My fan won't start. How do I fix it?

Links to basic knowledge

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you provide a custom kernel specially adapted to the Eee PC

Do I need a swap partition?

What about hibernate if I have no swap?

How much RAM do I need?

How much disk space does the installation take?

Do I need the EFI partition or is it safe to delete?

Can I make a test install on removable media without changing the

Can I install *to* a USB harddrive in an external case?

Can I put the *installer* on an external harddrive and start installation

Can I install from an external CDROM drive?

Can I mount an SD card at boot time?

Suspend won't work. How do I fix it?

How do I listen to music with the lid closed?

How do I get wicd to automagically show me the networks available

My fan won't start. How do I fix it?

Where can I get help?

Where is the latest version of this FAQ?

Select Stable "Wheezy" installer or Oldstable "Squeeze"

# where sdX is the device your USB media is using

3. Reboot and boot the netbook from the USB drive.

# where sdX is the device your USB media is using

3. Reboot and boot the netbook from the USB drive.

Wifi drivers status

Debian Wiki team, bugs and config available.

Installation on external flash drive: overview

Installing on SD cards or external flash drives

Partitioning a SD card or USB stick and mounting it

Installing the GRUB bootloader on an SD card or an USB stick

Fixing GRUB configuration and /etc/fstab

it should look like this:

Or even better, see http://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/linux-on-flash.html

Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-686

and GRUBs root to (hd0,0)

Fixing uswusp configuration

On next boot you wont be asked again.

Probably we will have a better method of avoiding suspend, see 474531.

Booting external media

Booting from SDHC card

Model specific issues

Additional modules not yet in Debian kernels

The "uvcvideo" module should be loaded automatically.

or, using mplayer:

Board, BIOS, ACPI (eeepc_laptop)

Power management & hotkeys

Yes (git only)

exec sessreg -a -l :0 %user

On Atom-based models, there are three settings:

Display resolution and desktop size

See xrandr(1) and /etc/acpi/actions/vga-toggle.sh for other possible parameters.

AIGLX support for compiz

"Configured Video Device"

Create a swap partition of 512 MB:

Can I install to a USB harddrive in an external case?

Can I put the installer on an external harddrive and start installation