13 replies to this topic

[zandi]

i just got an asus eee 1201HAB (i believe it's a newer model), and was wondering what distro i should try on it. i'm mostly worried about hardware support, like recognizing the wireless adapter and injection working for it, as well as acceptable battery life, but efficiency is also a concern.

i did a bit of research on my own, and as far as specialized distros are concerned, i think i'm split between crunchbang linux and ubuntu netbook remix. does anyone have experience with these, or any suggestions?

[tweeks]

Zandi, with the specs you showed the UNR looks like the way to go. I havent used either but between crunchbang and the UNR, ubuntu seems to be more directed to it. would mean more of the updated drivers, etc. as afr as the way that UNR handles im not too sure. Post back when you install, im looking to get a nice netbook and that asus looks real nice

i just got an asus eee 1201HAB (i believe it's a newer model), and was wondering what distro i should try on it. i'm mostly worried about hardware support, like recognizing the wireless adapter and injection working for it, as well as acceptable battery life, but efficiency is also a concern.

i did a bit of research on my own, and as far as specialized distros are concerned, i think i'm split between crunchbang linux and ubuntu netbook remix. does anyone have experience with these, or any suggestions?

[dinscurge]

personally id just go with sidux lighterweight than ubuntu + its still debian. it works fine on my netbook accept jumbo frames no idea why but ath5k doesnt support jumboframes. everything else works fine.

[systems_glitch]

I use Arch Linux with my Acer Aspire One. The main reason I initially installed it was for the bleeding-edge kernel that comes standard with Arch installs -- the Atheros card and the PCIe SD reader weren't supported in any of the current kernels in Debian, Ubuntu, or SuSE. While compiling a custom kernel isn't hard, my netbook is for university work, and employment work, and I wanted a distro with a current kernel by default, so I don't have to worry about getting the latest source and compiling a new kernel when I want to do maintenance updates.

After my experience with Ubuntu and the Network Manager troubles of, IIRC, 8.10, I've decided to stay away from Ubuntu and its branches. Arch Linux is a lot more involved, during initial setup, than Ubuntu, but there are a lot of step-by-step guides out there to get you started. If you've played with Linux before, I don't imagine installing Arch Linux would be much trouble. There are specific guides for installing Arch on several popular netbooks, with tips for optimizing your install to make the most of the available processor speed and battery life.

Anyhow, Arch Linux with XFCE as the WM performs very well with the AAO. I'd definitely choose it again, if I had to start over.

[zandi]

i've used the laptop for a bit, but i've ran into some issues with the ubuntu install.

the dual boot is set up and working, but ubuntu has pretty bad hardware support. first, the atheros ar9285 card isn't recognized, so i've got to compile the drivers for that. I download the compat-wireless-2.31-rc7 tarball from here and try to make the package, but the make (and make install) fails. i'm not sure why exactly it's failing, but i could post a log if anyone wants.

second, the GMA 500 is apparently one of the few intel graphics chips that has terrible support in linux. using the default GUI with ubuntu netbook remix is absolutely painful. i was hoping to install the wireless card drivers and then work on installing a driver for this, but that obviously didn't pan out. i'm going to get back to work on it now though, so hopefully at least that will get fixed.

if i knew getting linux hardware support was going to be this frustrating i probably would've picked a different netbook. for the time being i'm going to keep working though.

[zandi]

on second thought, i think this might just be too much of a clusterfuck to even bother with anymore, specifically because the GMA500 has garbage for linux support. the only light at the end of the tunnel is coming from AdamW's blog with the news that fedora 11 seems to have a working driver:
http://www.happyassa...compiz-support/
http://www.happyassa...x.php?s=gma 500

i think i'm going to shop around for better supported netbooks now. thanks to intel/tungsten graphics, this netbook is almost completely unusable for me. any suggestions for something that will work properly with linux?

Edited by zandi, 27 December 2009 - 12:17 AM.

[zandi]

triple post. For those interested, I returned the 1201 for the 1005 and everything works fine. i'm running ubuntu netbook remix off the live CD right now and not only does wireless work, but the video drivers are working spectacularly. i'm only worried about whether injection is supported for this card or not, but i'll find out soon, and if it isn't, i can always get a USB dongle that's supported.

[gLi7cha]

I have a EEEPC 1005HA and I'm rocking CrunchBang (not Cruncheee (the eee vers)) and everything works just fine.... Got msf, fast-track, and aircrack all up and working. As far as hardware, that's on you. I have an athos card in mine and I also use a netgear 111v3 usb card. Took a little bit of tweaking (very lite) but I'm no 'nix guru (by a long shot) but I was able to get everything up and working with a little bit of help from the #! forums. Great help. So far I've had ubuntu,nubuntu,bt4-pf,mint,cruncheee,netbook remix (or something like that....it's a watered down ubuntu for eee's), and now standard #! (crunchbang) and I must say, #! on a netbook is the only way to go. Hope that helped. ;-)



-gLi7cha

Edited by gLi7cha, 03 January 2010 - 10:59 AM.

[haxple]

I have a EEEPC 1005HA and I'm rocking CrunchBang (not Cruncheee (the eee vers)) and everything works just fine.... Got msf, fast-track, and aircrack all up and working. As far as hardware, that's on you. I have an athos card in mine and I also use a netgear 111v3 usb card. Took a little bit of tweaking (very lite) but I'm no 'nix guru (by a long shot) but I was able to get everything up and working with a little bit of help from the #! forums. Great help. So far I've had ubuntu,nubuntu,bt4-pf,mint,cruncheee,netbook remix (or something like that....it's a watered down ubuntu for eee's), and now standard #! (crunchbang) and I must say, #! on a netbook is the only way to go. Hope that helped. ;-)



-gLi7cha

Hi, sorry for bothering you but i have a problem.
I have everthing exactly as you do, just one little difference.. Im unable to properly connect to wireless networks.
Injection works, Cracking works, Scanning networks works, drivers ok..
The problem is, dhclient doesnt.
It seems i am unable to get an ip (it says "no dhcpoffers").
How did you make it work?.

Info:

I have tried several routers, everyone of them has dhcp on.
I have tried to put the ip manually.
It doesnt work even when i try to use wicd.

$ lspci
Network Controller: Atheros Communacations Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

$ lsusb
ID 0846:4260 NetGear, Inc. WG111v3 54 Mbps Wireless [realtek RTL8187B]

Linux bt 2.6.29.4

[gLi7cha]

Hey.... Sorry, I for got about that lol..... the athos card is a small fix, here ya go:

http://www.ubuntugee...-in-jaunty.html

Also, I really did love my time with #!crunchbang, and I will always have it pretty close on standby, but as of yesterday I'm running ubuntu 10.1, pretty impressed with it! ..... So if openbox turns out not to be your thing, then you can always come back to the orange side ;-) lol




-gLi7cha

[gLi7cha]

And it looks like the "*Nix of the week" this week is the new BT4 release! lol.

-gLi7cha

[MrGreggie]

I'd have to double check, but I think Ubuntu 8.04 LTS supports GMA 500 (Intel/PowerVR, grr). It's what's in the fitpc2, which supports Linux. Why new versions don't support it is beyond me.

UNR's interface requires something other than VESA to worp properly, so it is gonna suck unless you get a video driver working.

I have an Everex Cloudbook that refuses to run any mainstream distro without major problems, so I feel your pain.

[Aghaster]

I'd say either Ubuntu Netbook Remix or Sidux.

[frogbong]

Try crunchbang linux. It's a ubuntu based distribution(which is based on debian). I find it has the best out-of-box setup including an easily customizable desktop.

Edited by frogbong, 16 January 2010 - 07:42 PM.