The Asus Eee PC - A Portable Toolbox

My Eee PC has turned out to be a really handy machine, satisfying a a niche that I had tried to deal with for ages. My efforts below note the different attempts to satisfy it, and why none of them were quite right.

First, the Eee PC has a keyboard and a pointing device. This means that it can be used for taking notes quickly while on the move. I can type up documents while on the tube, preparing new Squidoo lenses and Orionrobots articles. While I cannot give full details, I have been working on a number of tools to make offline lens creation very easy.

The Eee PC can network up at wifi hotspots, that means at some stations I wait in, I can connect to local facilities (like the handy one at Westfield) and browse the net, or sync files with home occasionally.

The Eee PC runs a real OS - that means I can install programs I need. using either Windows or Ubuntu meant I can use plenty of the software I like, my own choice of browser, mail client, text editor as well as games.

Because it has a keyboard and a real OS, I can use it to try out coding ideas. This means that I can test out perl or ruby scripts, as well as HTML + CSS ideas. It is perhaps a bit much to run a small http server on it, but it handles it,p so even PHP stuff can be tested and tweaked on the go.

It can be used to sync up and read my mail on the go. If I then link it with RSS feeds, I can also read news and other interesting things like my favourite web comics offline when on the train.

It can play games, so I can pass the time on the train.

Because the display is quite readable, I can use it to read eBooks on the train or just about any pdf/html document.

Netbooks tend to be smaller in memory, drive space and CPU power than desktop or notebook cousins. Because of this, choosing an OS and paring it down is essential to running one smoothly and quickly.

If the netbook comes with Windows XP, I recommend keeping it, but looking at the many ways to slim it down, if it has not already been slimmed properly. This includes removing unnecessary Windows components, ensuring unnecessary services are not running, removing example bitmaps and sounds and so on. This must all be done safely - removing any old file or component without knowing what it is used for is a dangerous tactic and may cause a computer not to boot without a reinstall.

A number of netbooks come with Linux based OS's. generally, the ones preinstalled tend to be awful. Xandros was particularly useless as it was configured for some of the eee PC series. I recommend replacing it with either Windows XP or Eeebuntu.

Installing Windows XP on a Netbook which previously did not have it installed can be a little complicated. Actually getting it into a state where it will boot from the install disks correctly and so on is a solved problem, but will require external hardware. Installing Windows from a USB drive or flash memory card is quite fiddly, but can be done. Once you are past this stage, driver support tends to be pretty good, and the netbook manufacturers normally have installers for Windows drivers and tools bundled up. The steps to perform this are detailed below.

Installing Eeebuntu still requires a bootable thumbdrive, but comes wtih the fact that running an installer off one is totally a supported option (less of the hack it is with Windows). Running this means you are less compatible with some software on the net, but most tools are available for it. Netbook driver support is very close to the Windows experience, and the netbook desktops are very handy with some neat quick launchers. Always check for driver availability on your hardware before installing this - if there is already a version of Linux running then this is a good sign. Eeebuntu just tends to have much more polish and user friendliness than other Linux distro's. There are other Ubuntu based distro's for Netbooks - all are relatively good.

Some users have managed to get OS X running on their netbooks. This is neither legal nor recommended. The user experience will be buggy and support limited. Apple explicitly do not allow this use of their OS.

First find and attach a Bluetooth dongle unless your netbook has one internally. The Eee pc 900, my model, have does not have internal bluetooth. As there are not too many USB Bluetooth chipsets, it should be easily recognised.

As it took more than one attempt to successfully pair it, it was worth noting the steps which ensured that the Eee PC could see the phone and the Phone could see the EeePC.

The steps that worked are:

• Start the eee PC bluetooth manager - make sure it is visible.


• Enable bluetooth on the phone - also make sure it is visible.


• On the phone - add a new paired device, select the eee pc. The phone will wait for a passcode.


• On the eee pc - click add a new paired service, select the phone, and click next. The eee pc will give you a passcode to enter into the phone.


• click next- the connection will be made, and the phone will ask you to authorize the pairing.

Windows XP gives huge flexibility to the Eee PC, but will need some customisation and trimming to keep it performing well. Plus, without a CD Rom, installing from USB, to the SSD drive can be a bit of a trick.

However, some clever folks at ModMyEee.com have it all figured out.
Before I whisk you away to the article - here are some provisos:

• You should have a legit XP CD/License - although they suggest an image to download which has many of the mods and drivers streamlines into it, you should use a real key and license with that.


• They suggest a set of steps to prepare the USB Key. If you are on Windows XP in 32 bit mode, you should have no problems with this. In Vista or Windows 7, you will need to run them with administrator privileges (start explorer with them), and you can not do this in 64-bit mode. In 64 bit mode, some unsigned drivers will not be installed and the process can not continue.


• Have a USB key around that is at least 1Gb and no more than 2Gb for the process.


• To mount the XP image, I recommend Virtual Clone Drive.


• Have plenty of time - this is not a quick process, first there are a number of steps to prepare the drive, then it will take some time to install to the SSD.

The process is described well at ModMyEee.com | Install windows XP using a USB Stick on your Netbook.

The process however ends abruptly without pointing you to drivers. Drivers for the Asus Eee PC 900 (and other models), can be found at ASUSTeK Computer Support. You will need to download these on another computer, install them onto a USB stick along with an unzip tool (7zip is recommended for this), and shuttle them across to the Eee PC.

The Eee PC has a few quirks related to its small stature, which mean that Firefox will require a little tweaking to run at its best.

The first is the display - the Eee PC has a small display, and if you want to read things clearly, you will want to do away with some of the extra bars and buttons that suit a desktop better.

Read Mobile Computer - Optimizing Firefox For The Eee PC for details on clearing the display up a little, giving you more readable space. The advice of one of the commenters, MamiyaOtaru makes sense, I opted for keeping the menu and removing the bookmarks bar so I did not need the extra add-on.

The next thing to consider is that if like the Eee PC I use, you choose one with an SSD, you will want to limit the number of SSD writes to prevent slowdowns. Trust me when I say that the internet is mostly now faster than cache read/writes on an SSD device.

The article Howto: Get the Most Out of Your SSD - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net details optimizing both Linux, Windows and Firefox for use on the SSD. Combine that with Making XP pro SSD friendly - OCZ Forum which has some really brilliant tips, especially the dskcache one.

Windows XP comes bundled with Outlook Express, which may not be that useful on the Eee PC. If you are not using it, you can remove it partially by using the Windows components wizard - Select Control Panel->Add remove Programs->Windows Components, untick Outlook Express and hit apply.

Unfortunately a lot of the stuff for it still remains. If you are determined to do a more through removal, Tweak XP has this guide: TweakXP.com - Uninstall Outlook Express.

This will make a minor saving in space, but with this machine, every byte counts, and it saves components of the app loading in background when you start up - so should be a faster experience.

Ubuntu Linux actually installs really easily on the Eee PC, and they have a specialist distribution - the Netbook Remix which is ideal for use on the machine.

The great thing is that this is a surprisingly easy install, including getting a USB drive set up to do it. One thing worth noting for the 900 is to leave the Install flag in the BIOS set to Finished.

Getting installed is as easy. Start by downloading it - Get The Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
First follow this guide Install Ubuntu 9.10 to a Flash Drive from Windows | USB Pen Drive Linux - you need only download two file, have an empty pen drive ready and then run the wizard on a Windows box (this works on XP and Windows 7)- a nice easy Windows app.

Once this is done, boot the Eee PC from it, which will bring up an Ubuntu live GUI. In the options here, there is an "Install to hard drive" option, which will present a wizard to set it up on your drive. The Webcam, Wireless, Touchpad and audio work out of the box on the 900.

Although I think the Eee PC is great, it is not all plain sailing. There are some flaws, and it is worth being honest about them. These apply to my current model - the Eee PC 900.

First is the left mouse button. On my machine, and that of an acquaintance, it became non responsive to the point of needing a lot of force to get it to operate. This meant getting to know the touchpad (and the cool multitouch features) very well. It was a fairly low-cost machine, however, it is a shame this wore out so quickly.

The next is the keyboard layout. On newer machines this has been rectified, but on my 900, the right shift key is too short, and I end up hitting cursor up instead, also the numeric keys are wrong too with the additional key at the top left missing. This makes touch typing, especially for passwords, a bit annoying. You do get used to it though.

The disk space is low, but this is necessary on the lighter models - at 0.8kg's a real hard disk would add a penalty to weight, cost and battery life. The Solid state drive is 16Gb, a bit small for todays apps, but for the lightweight uses mentioned on the eee PC, it seems reasonable.

The Linux models come with Xandros Linux which seemed to me to be a bit unsuitable. I have used eee-ubuntu as mentioned above, and have also used Windows XP. It takes a bit of effort without an external CD, but it is worth swapping the distribution or OS if you bought a Linux edition.

The eee PC and similar netbooks are not really designed for full on gaming, but it does support some games and can be used to play instead of work on the tube.

The first thing to do is to play games that do not require heavy graphical or CPU usage. Also, if on the move, something that requires network access to play is probably not appropriate - these games have to be single player. They have to be the kind of games that are not too "twitchy" and can be quickly saved and put down as you reach your stop. Small games that run well on Linux or Windows are a fair selection, and older games can run if they can be set up without their CD's.

• Nethack - Nethack is a single player RPG. It requires very little resources to run. For a new player, I suspect a graphical front end like nethack-qt or nethack-gtk would help. For more info on nethack - visit The Best Free Linux Games Ever|Nethack. It is turn based, and can be saved easily. Watch out though - it is incredibly addictive.


• Enigma - Enigma is a puzzle game which involves moving a ball around a screen to navigate levels. At its simplest, hit the stones to unlock them - hitting pairs of the same colour will unlock them and a level is complete. However, the levels then throw in things like different floor types, trapdoors, hazards, monsters, doors to make that a little difficult. The stones also do not usually reveal their colour until hit. It starts off simple, but can be incredibly challenging and addictive. Progress is saved between games. Enigma Homepage


• Simutrans - Simutrans is a transport/train simulator, a great big train set. With a small world size, it is quite playable on the eee pc. Smaller pak sets make sense for the small screen too. For more information check out OpenTTD vs Simutrans | The Linux Transport Simulation Showdown. It can be paused and saved at any moment.


• Mame - Mame is an arcade machine emulator. There are thousands of games that will run in it. These games tend to be twitchy arcade games, and do not save well, but offer instant gratification. Some games are more demanding than others.

How I got hibernate to work in Ubuntu.
Getting scale plugin on the go.
getting thinking rock installed.
My app suite.
getting the camera on the go.
The eeebuntu, ubuntu and eee pc communities.
Links to "how I built an Eee pc Bot"

http://forum.eeebuntu.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1161&p=8069#p8069 - Hibernate

When I was a child, I was a geek kid, and loved everything related to computing. One of my dreams at the time was portable computing. In fact I actually once dreamt of a machine with a dial that would then emulate any of the machines of the day. That was the 80's. As we hit 2000, these machines started to appear. Spurred perhaps by mobile phone technology, PDA's began to get cheaper, develop colour screens, internet connectivity and so on.

I tried many PDA's, finding that many of them suffered some flaws. The systems were often esoteric, crippled and incompatible with most things. Palm OS had a completely different memory and 2nd storage set up and Windows mobile was not the same as Windows on a desktop. Touch screens were nice, but a keyboard would be better.

I spent years trying to find the right kind of tool for me to be able to do things on the go. My search meant I spent hundreds of pounds buying such devices only to find they would sit on a shelf until I sold them again because they were still not quite what I was looking for. Every time one looked promising, there would be some problem or some shortcoming that would restrict me from using them as a general tool.

Laptops always seemed a bit cumbersome, designed for those with bigger laps than me, and to weighty to carry in a backpack on the tube to work. I needed something small enough to be portable anywhere, but functional enough that I could write articles, try out code on them, do a little gaming and so on. There were some early Sony machines that fit this bill, but they had very large pricetags, outside of my budget, and not particularly great battery lives.

Then there were devices like the Archos appearing, Linux running on a handheld with huge storage, I read up about it, checked the specifications, but it would still not quite work. By now I was building robots, and being able to be a USB Host was an important feature.

Then the tiny computer ideas designed for developing countries showed up. These had long battery lives, reduced specifications but real OS's. I wanted a piece of that, and this slowly evolved into the netbooks.

When the Eee PC caught my eye, it was almost the holy grail I was looking for. It was a real computer, compatible with Windows or Linux and much of the other software I had with them, and by this time, it had a camera, Wireless Networking as well as being a USB host and having great battery performance. As soon as I had the cash and had cleared it with my wife, I bought a brand new Eee PC 900.

Since it arrived, it has become a regular thing for me to use it on the tube and a sidekick to my desktop sometimes. It has been useful enough not to gather dust somewhere. Perhaps when the time comes I will buy the latest and greatest model, but this one will serve me well for a few years to come.