Out of the box, my foot
So, decided to try dual booting Eeebuntu and WinXP last night. As part of that, I tried out Eeebuntu without installing it. Worked great except for that whole unable to find my wireless card thing. You know, which Linux is supposed to work out the box. Not so much. Seems that it requires a kernel upgrade, which you can’t really do because you have no internet connection. And this is an OS designed specifically for the EeePC. That’s a failure.
No problem. I’ll try EasyPeasy. Except that their boot from USB doesn’t work. PC finds the USB boot. Then it says hit enter to boot or wait ten seconds and it will boot. When I hit enter, it just starts the counter over. I let the counter go to zero and it just starts over. Odd problem this time since I had tried EasyPeasy before with not problems.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:51 am
Hook it up hardline. Just FYI, that’s not a problem with Ubuntu, but the kernel itself. The kernel is what provides the hardware support. However, if you can get the .deb packages downloaded and transfer via thumb drive or something, you can install the new kernel with this: sudo dpkg -i filename_to_install.deb
May 21st, 2010 at 10:56 am
i have no idea what you just said.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:03 am
I am not sure about Eeebuntu but I know Ubuntu is not as friendly and as “out of the box” as it should be.
If I were you I’d download Linux Mint (linuxmint.com) and make a live CD and try that. I am running version 8 at the moment on 2 PCs and a laptop. It is great. It is based on Ubuntu – it is basically what Ubuntu should have been.
When I installed on my laptop it had full hardware driver support from the get-go. Keep in mind, there are so many different pieces of hardware out there that your wireless MAY NOT be supported (yet).
If your Eeething can handle win XP, it’ll run linux mint really well.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:13 am
Sorry, uncle. The kernel is the CORE of a computer. Windows has one, Linux, and OSX. It’s also what defines what hardware is available that it knows how to support. When it said you could get the new kernel through an update, all it’s doing (behind the scenes) is downloading a file that says something like new_linux_kernel.deb That’s just how it packages it. Instead of doing the automagic install through a pretty interface, the command I gave above would install it manually, but still require no input from you besides the initial command. It would give you your new kernel without having to be hooked up to the internet.
Or just hook into a wired connection and do the update, then try wireless.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:17 am
I know what a kernel is. just didn’t know what the sudo dpkg -i filename_to_install.deb is.
If I wire it, how do I find and install the appropriate kernel?
May 21st, 2010 at 11:20 am
Open a terminal window and type the sudo command, hit enter. It’ll pretty much do the rest.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:22 am
I should probably thoroughly read before I comment, don’t listen to what I said in comment #6 lol
May 21st, 2010 at 11:22 am
how do i find the right kernel?
May 21st, 2010 at 11:23 am
This may help:
http://forum.eeebuntu.org/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=4652
May 21st, 2010 at 11:29 am
If a wired connection works, you might try opening terminal and running these 2 commands
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
May 21st, 2010 at 11:43 am
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.34-lucid/
Uncle, go there. Download these files:
linux-headers-2.6.34-020634-generic_2.6.34-020634_i386.deb
linux-image-2.6.34-020634-generic_2.6.34-020634_i386.deb
Download them to your home directory (/home/uncle or whatever)
Open a terminal window (in Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
Type this:
sudo dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.34-020634-generic_2.6.34-020634_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.34-020634-generic_2.6.34-020634_i386.deb
Then type ‘exit’ and reboot. That’s it.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:47 am
Uncle, sent you an email with a better solution. Ignore the above post.
May 21st, 2010 at 12:56 pm
In case you haven’t seen it yet: http://xkcd.com/456/
May 21st, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Be sure to read the alternate text for the XKCD comic Josiah linked (properties in IE or view image info in Firefox). Heh.
Maybe Linux isn’t the droid you’re looking for Uncle. *shrug*
May 21st, 2010 at 1:24 pm
“Maybe Linux isn’t the droid you’re looking for Uncle. ”
LOL. I’d run android on a netbook.
May 21st, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Heh … and this is always the problem with LINUX.
It is not ready for prime-time … i.e., an intelligent non-computer pro can’t just use it out of the box.
I suggest either buying a Mac if you want UNIX + ease of use, or just biting the MS bullet and going to Windows 7, which is ready for prime-time ( avoid Vista like the plague it is ).
If you load Windows, tell the installer app that the name of the main user is “admin”, and then set up a separate non-admin user account for yourself once you get everything installed and your applications loaded.
May 21st, 2010 at 4:03 pm
“Prime time” doesn’t mean anything Kristopher.
You back this up by suggesting Win7 and then following with a paragraph of how to swing it. The only difference between that paragraph and the earlier one about Linux kernel upgrades is the dialect used to swing.
Every OS sucks in its own unique way. Thankfully, the suck/usage overlap is also different for each user so the majority can find an island of value somewhere in the ocean.
May 21st, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Which version of Eeebuntu are you using, and which model netbook?
May 21st, 2010 at 4:16 pm
1005HA and Eeebunt 3.0.
May 21st, 2010 at 4:46 pm
The above mess is a good example of why I don’t recommend Linux to anyone anymore.
I suggest you investigate OSX. Supposedly it will run on many netbooks, and it’s really a very nice OS. I say this as a Windows user. If you’re going to put in the work, might as well go with the best user experience.
You have barely scratched the surface of Linux. It does not get any better once you have basic functionality. Upgrades, new features, they all go that way in my experience.
Until Linux gets these problems corrected, it will never be a seamless migration. That’s a deal-killer for 90% of users.
May 21st, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Okay, here’s one possibility: http://forums.eeebuntu.org/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=4899
Here’s another, based on the same issue in Ubuntu: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1219931&highlight=eeebuntu+wireless+install
You may want also to look at Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 or later (current is 10.04)- an update at the top of that second link mentions that they got it working out of the box.
May 21st, 2010 at 4:52 pm
I dunno, I’ve got an Ubuntu 1005ha and it works just fine out of the box. It has since 8.10
May 21st, 2010 at 5:03 pm
I have a 1000HE and it worked fine out of the box with EEEBuntu as well. I’m not aware of any real differences between the two machines. I’m currently running opensuse 11.2. I don’t recall having to do anything special to get everything working on it. Just load and go.
I’m sorry you had that experience, but it doesn’t reflect the experience of many others. Honestly, even if it did, Windows comes with spyware, adware, viruses and dozens of other annoyances. Is that really any better? For my money, or lack of since I got it for free, I’ll take at most a few minor issues over having to deal with constant updates to anti-adware, anti-spyware, anti-virus softwares any day. Of course, that doesn’t count when all those anti-* bits fail, and you get infected with whatever. Speaking for myself.. I’ll pass.
May 21st, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Linux is the best operating system in the world. Unless you have a girlfriend. Then it’s just a huge waste of time.
May 21st, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Yep, pretty much the same experience I had with it.
May 21st, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Ubuntu may be too complex. I’d start with the simpler unix OS Knoppix, which is available on a disk and can be booted, then mounted from same. The disk is available with the purchase of a certain computer magazine, but I don’t remember which one right now. Google it up.
May 23rd, 2010 at 3:39 pm
aczarnowski: I used the term, and then defined it in the very next sentence. You are apparently only reading what you want to see.
I have used the Mac OS ( The new Mach Kernel UNIX version, and well as the old pre OSX stuff ), Win dows from the beginning, and LINUX. Hell, I am even good with SCO UNIX.
Ive been doing this stuff since the mid ’70s, when I got started by helping build an IMSAI 8080 microcomputer.
All Operating Systems have their strengths and weaknesses.
Your OS bigotry is blinding you.