Sample the Web

I should have done this weeks ago. Last night, I tweaked the instructions found here slightly to remove the 70Mhz cap on the front side bus on my Asus Eee PC. Why would you do this? Well, the 900Mhz processor sported by the Eee only runs at about 600Mhz with the FSB set at 70Mhz. Pushing it up to 100Mhz unleashes the full 900Mhz. I’m currently running my FSB at 95Mhz and as a result *everything* is running much much faster on the Eee. It’s palpably snappier. Video playback on high res videos is especially improved. I used to get some noise if I wasn’t running VLC at fullscreen, but now it’s chugging along without a hitch.

So here’s how you do it if you (like me), have installed Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon on your Eee:

1. Download the tar found here and unpack it: http://code.google.com/p/eeepc-linux/
2. Open a Terminal and navigate to the unpacked folder.
3. At the terminal type: cd module
4. Then: make
5. Then: sudo bash and type in your administrative password.
6. Then: mv eee.ko /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/kernel/drivers/acpi Note: depending upon what version of Ubuntu you have installed, you may have to replace 2.6.22-14-generic with a different name. Just navigate to /lib/modules/ and take a peek to verify this is the right title for it.
7. Then: depmod -a
8. Then: pico /etc/modules and add eee to the bottom of the file. To exit, type Ctrl+X and choose yes to save.
9. Download this script found here.
10. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the script, unpack it, and then: mv fsb.txt /usr/local/bin/fsb
11. Then : cd /usr/local/bin/ and then: chmod 777 fsb
*or*
Navigate to /usr/local/bin, select fsb and type Alt+Enter to open the file’s properties. Click on the Permissions tab and check the Execute box to make the script executable.
12. Reboot.

After you reboot, the new module should load automatically at start up. Now, anytime you want to speed up the FSB, all you have to do is launch a Terminal window and type: fsb

You will be prompted for your administrative password. Type it in and if everything worked nicely, the terminal will respond:
Current speed is 70Mhz.

The key to making this work smoothly is to slowly ramp up the FSB. If you jump straight to 100Mhz, most likely you will get vertical lines across your screen, the Eee will be unusable, and you’ll have to force a reboot.

So, type these bold commands and hit enter after each (the italics indicate what the Terminal will kick back):
fsb 75
Current speed is 75Mhz.
fsb 80
Current speed is 80Mhz.
fsb 85
Current speed is 85Mhz.
fsb 90
Current speed is 90Mhz.
fsb 95
Current speed is 95Mhz.
fsb 100
Current speed is 100Mhz.

You can type this fast and it should ramp up nicely without problem. I tend to only throttle up to 90 / 95 as when I get to 100 the fan starts running continuously and I’ve noticed some slight instability. You could probably script all this, but doing it manually seems to ensure that there is enough time to prevent any error. The fsb script has automated slow, medium, and fast settings that are supposed to automate ramping up. Whenever I’ve used those commands, I’ve had the vertical lines error and been forced to reboot.

In any case, I hope this helps some of you out there, and as always, do at your own risk, your mileage may vary, etc etc.

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Just got Shoutcast TV working on VLC on Ubuntu. It’s sort of cludgy where they have it hidden. First I searched for how to do it with no luck and found this Ubuntu forums thread where others were also confused and didn’t find out how it works. So, I figured it out and then joined the forums and told them how. Here’s how to do it:

It’s a little difficult to find, but Shoutcast support is built in. Launch VLC, then go to View and Playlist (or hit Ctrl+P).Once the Playlist window opens, go to Manage –> Services Discovery and check the boxes next to Shoutcast TV and Shoutcast. All the channels will load and you can start clicking and watching.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

C.K.
http://www.sampletheweb.com

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Here’s some video of my Asus Eee PC that I shot yesterday:

You can see the Eee next to my large orcish hands to give you an idea of how incredibly small it is. Also, I rather clumsily toggle through the screens to show you the cool cube effects that Ubuntu can support on the Eee. Also, while I was recording, Thatcher started barking and Misha started saying “Hello” repeatedly, so it’s half a gadget video and half a pet video. I promised Dave Caolo a video weeks ago, though, so no editing or re-shooting. Here it is in all its crappy glory.

Ubuntu is running great on the Eee. I’m really liking it. I managed to chat with Jason Ball yesterday via Skype with video and everything. Worked nicely for short bursts, but after a while (or if I had too many other things going on on the Eee), the call would drop / Skype would crash. I think if you’re going to do Skype with video calls on the Eee, you really need to devote the machine to that communication. Avoid opening multiple tabs in Firefox and switching back and forth from various virtual desktops.

For anyone considering installing the Eeebuntu LIVE installation, I’d advise just getting regular full-fledged Ubuntu and trimming it down to what you like (or build it up yourself if you have the expertise).

Also, I’ve moved from continual tinker mode with the Eee to actually using it as a laptop computer on a very consistent basis. I have to say it works great. This + iPhone = TEH AWESOME. Now I just need to tether them together and get iTunes for Windows running in Wine.

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If you followed all the steps in my last post about the Asus Eee PC, then you have a persistent and fully functional copy of Ubuntu on a USB stick. The problem with this (besides that USB stick jutting out the side of the Eee all the time)? Boot time is slow. Since the USB stick install is also an Ubuntu Live install , you can easily install Ubuntu onto the primary drive of your Asus Eee PC. The majority of this info is remixed from this page at the Eee User Wiki. Here’s how:

Step 1: Boot into Ubuntu Live and click Install on the desktop.—Make sure that you have a live Internet connection (it can be wireless for now, but when you reboot into the actual installation, you will need to have a live Ethernet connection nearby and ready for you to plug into, as you’ll lose the wifi that we set up in the last installation).
Step 2: At the partitioning screen choose manual.—Using the Guided option will work, but it set’s you up with an ext3 partition and some swap space. Since the Eee sports a flash-based drive, we want to avoid swap space, b/c it writes to the drive too much. Some people are saying you should avoid ext3 partition b/c it’s journaling and also does more writes. Most people advise ext2, but the Eee’s default installation uses ext3 for one of the partitions. Choose the internal drive (it’s the one whose partitions = 4GBs), choose to format it as a single partition , choose a format for the partition (I chose JFS b/c it’s supposed to perform well on processor light systems and it’s journaled; you could also go with ext2 or ext3. Some people are recommending JFFS b/c it’s good for flash drives, but I haven’t seen any “I did this and it works great” reports yet so I steered away from it). Set the mount point to / and ignore the warning that pops up about there not being any swap space.
Step 3: Go with the defaults for everything else—Click on through, set up the defaults for your username and password and start the full install. After it’s done, run your Eee over to your wired Ethernet internet connection and reboot. When it says Eject the CD at the end of shutdown, remove the USB stick. Notice that the boot time off the internal disk is about 52 seconds. Nice.
Step 4: Draggable Windows, Screen Real Estate, and Updates—After you reboot the machine into Ubuntu, log in with the account info you set up in the previous step. You’ll most likely get a “Your battery may be broken” error, a pop-up about an Atheros Restricted Driver, and another pop-up about Updates being ready to install. Ignore and dismiss the first two and ignore the updates message (but leave it there temporarily). This new install lacks the draggable windows we set up on the USB stick, so repeat step 4. Now (taking some ideas from here) go to System—>Preferences—>Appearance and click on the Fonts tab. Change the Application font, the Desktop font, and the Window title font from 10 to 8 size fonts. Next click on the Interface tab and change Toolbar button labels from Text Below Items to Text Only, then close the window. Now go to both the top and bottom panels on the screen, right click on them and choose Properties. Under Size, lower the pixels to 19. Now things aren’t crowding the screen that shouldn’t. Go ahead and start installing the updates.
Step 5: Post install command line clean up and tweaking—While the updates are installing, go ahead and navigate to Applications—>Accessories—>Terminal. At the command prompt, type:
sudo pico /etc/fstab
Type in your password. Find the line that reads:
/dev/sdc1 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0 0
Type a # at the beginning of that line to comment it out. Type Ctrl+o to write the file, hit Return to use the same name for the file and then type Ctrl+x to close pico.
Back at the command line type:
sudo pico /etc/apt/sources.list
Type in your password. Find the line that reads:
deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 7.10 _Gutsy Gibbon_ - Release i386 (20071016)]/ gutsy main restricted
Type a # at the beginning of that line to comment it out. Type Ctrl+o to write the file, hit Return to use the same name for the file and then type Ctrl+x to close pico.
Both of these two above fix post install problems where Ubuntu will look for the Ubuntu Live CD when you are trying to update packages over the internet using apt-get or Synaptic Package Manager.
Back at the command line type:
sudo pico /etc/fstab
Add the following lines to that document:
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

Type Ctrl+o to write the file, hit Return to use the same name for the file and then type Ctrl+x to close pico.
This helps limit writes to the hard drive by keeping /var/log, /tmp, and /var/tmp in a RAM disk.
Back at the command line type:
sudo pico /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
Add the line:
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack-dig at the beginning of the options section.
Type Ctrl+o to write the file, hit Return to use the same name for the file and then type Ctrl+x to close pico.
This will make the internal mic on the Eee work.
I ignored most of the information in this section of the Eee User Wiki, but I did replace /etc/X11/xorg.conf with the version listed in that section. To replace your copy simply sudo pico /etc/X11/xorg.conf
And delete everything and paste in the code from over there. However, I recommend at the end of the file you change one bit. I changed:

Section "Extensions"
# You may want to enable this.
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

to
Section "Extensions"
# You may want to enable this.
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection


This preserves all the pretty effects of Ubuntu while maximizing the rest of the video.
Follow all the steps in this section to fix Suspend and Resume issues (hibernate won’t work b/c we didn’t set up any swap space) and then skip ahead to the solution to the shutdown / poweroff problem.
Step 6: Now that you’ve changed all these things and the updates have finished, reboot.
Step 7: After reboot—Now that you’ve rebooted all the above tweaks should be in place and we can start downloading some extra updates. Repeat Step 5 from my last Eee post to enable the Wifi

After you complete all these steps everything should be working as right as rain (except no flash in the browser yet; go to Adobe and download from there and follow the instructions). There are some other tweaks that can be done mentioned in this post, but I haven’t done any of them yet (although this was where I got the idea to use JFS).

I’m in day two of using this machine to do a *lot* of stuff. I typed this entire post on it. I’ll have more follow up tips for maximizing screen real estate in Ubuntu next time I manage one of these posts (which probably won’t be until next week. Busy week ahead).

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I’ve been combing over various guides and instructions online for installing Ubuntu on the Asus Eee PC, and I ran into a few kinks along the way since I don’t have a USB CD-ROM to install from and opted for a USB flash drive instead, so I thought I’d write the process out in this post in the hopes of helping those of you out there who are thinking about taking the plunge, but unsure of how it’s going to work. All of this information is available elsewhere, but I found it somewhat scattered, so I’m documenting it all here for my future self.

Step 1: Make a bootable Ubuntu USB Pendrive—First thing I did was follow all the instructions over at Pendrivelinux.com for installing Ubuntu 710 Gutsy Gibbon to a USB flash drive. I recommend printing out the full page and checking off each step as it is completed. The really great thing about this USB pendrive installation solution is that the install remains persistent. You can make changes to it, save changes, and it can always serve as a backup drive for your Eee or as a fully functional Ubuntu install that you load from time to time. To take full advantage of that we’ll activate the WiFi on the Eee PC for this pendrive install in a few steps.
Step 2: Make sure you have an active Ethernet connection—With the completed USB pendrive install completed, plug the USB drive into one of your Eee PC’s open USB ports. IMPORTANT: Make sure your Eee PC is plugged in to an active Ethernet connection via the Ethernet port. The WiFi doesn’t work right away (we’ll fix that in a few steps) and the Ethernet connection needs to be present at boot for Ubuntu to have an active internet connection.
Step 3: Boot into Ubuntu Live Persistent mode—Start up the Eee and hit the Escape key (ESC). This will bring up a dialogue asking which drive you want to boot from. Choose your USB pendrive and hit enter. It will take very little time to boot to the Ubuntu Live option page. Select the first choice (Persistent mode) and hit Return. Ubuntu will start unpacking the kernel and this can take a few minutes.
Step 4: Make those windows draggable—The most important tweak to do is to make sure all the windows in Ubuntu are draggable, so that windows that default to a taller size than the Eee PC’s default screen can be moved into a useable position. Fortunately, there are some pretty useful instructions for doing this on the Eeeuser wiki that I found via this helpful blog post. Launch the Terminal by navigating to Applications—>Accessories—>Terminal via the menu bar at the top of the screen. At the command line type in gconf-editor and hit Return. This will launch a GUI window with a long list of items in the left side bar. Follow this path:

apps
—>compiz
——>plugins
———>move
————>allscreens
—————>options

Then uncheck constrain_y
As soon as you do this, you should be able to hit the Alt key while clicking on any window to drag it wherever you like. Since we did this on persistent mode, your USB pendrive will remember this setting whenever you use it again, however, you will need to repeat this step after you install Ubuntu onto the Asus Eee PC itself.
Step 5: Enable the WiFi—To enable WiFi on the Asus Eee PC running Ubuntu, you simply need to follow the instructions found here:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

wget 'http://madwifi.org/attachment/ticket/1679/madwifi-ng-0933.ar2425.20071130.i386.patch?format=raw'

wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-ng/madwifi-ng-r2756-20071018.tar.gz

tar zxvf madwifi-ng-r2756-20071018.tar.gz

cd madwifi-ng-r2756-20071018

patch -p0 < ../madwifi-ng-0933.ar2425.20071130.i386.patch?format=raw

make clean

make

sudo make install

reboot


After rebooting repeat step 3 above to get ready to install.

This post was getting pretty long, so I decided to split it up into sections. This above post includes all the introductory steps. If you stop at this point, then you already have a pretty nice Ubuntu alternative to your default Xandros installation that you can boot to via USB whenever you like.

Update: For instructions on installing Ubuntu to the internal drive see Part 2.

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