Debian for eee PC
Wednesday, 2. September 2009 12:53 - daniel - Other - 2 Comments
I used fluxflux for quite some time on my eee Pc, but I didn't really like the PCLinuxOS it was based on. It worked quite well for some time, but the last release is kinda aged and after upgrading the OS I had some serious problems. Since I prefer Debian based systems anyway I took a quick look at Debian Lenny and Ubuntu.
Ubuntu has a special version for netbooks called Ubuntu Netbook Remix. It's not as heavy as a full Ubuntu install, but it's still quite big. Also I has a few problems with the eee 701.
Debian on the other hand can be installed with only a minimum system that uses very little space (I know, ubuntu can do that too with it's alternate installer CDs) and supports pretty much everything on the eee 701 thanks to the work of the DebianEeePC Project.
Installing it is very simple. Just follow the steps of the HowTo. I installed just the standard system and later added the x.org, gnome-core, gdm, network-manager and iceweasel by hand. After that the OS install is just about 1 GB and some stuff even is optional. For example you can skip gdm and network-manager tofree a few MB if you don't need a fancy graphical login and manage your connections manually.
The only thing that doesn't work at the moment is changing the volume with the function keys, but I don't really need that anyway.
To sum it up, Debian on the eee PC is very nice. Boot time is lightning fast and the hardware works "out of the box". If you think about installing another OS on your eee PC, Debian would be a good choise.
Comments
Marvlarv - Wednesday, 21. October 2009 17:51
You should check out eeebuntu which is what I am currently running. It is based on ubuntu as u can tell by the name. I am sure u will love it cause it is just as fully loaded as ubuntu. eeebuntu 3.0 is based on ubuntu 9.04 http://www.eeebuntu.org/
Daniel - Thursday, 22. October 2009 12:42
One of the reasons why I like debian so much is because it comse w/o anything. I only need a web browser and a ssh client for my eee. Oo.o or a mua or anything else is overkill for my needs.
But I like Ubuntu on my normal notebook, because it coms with everything I may need ;).