Arch Linux

Jickel

Member

Registered: 2008-06-22

Posts: 47

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Discussing both 701/900 and 901/1000 issues in the same thread is starting to get confusing, imo. Maybe it's time we split the discussion up in different threads?

dninja

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2006-04-29

Posts: 374

Website

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Discussing both 701/900 and 901/1000 issues in the same thread is starting to get confusing, imo. Maybe it's time we split the discussion up in different threads?

I think we need a separate forum for the eee. There is a lot to discuss and this many pages makes finding info really hard.

jbooth

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 34

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Ideally we'd have eee packages that handle both types of machines. At least ACPI should, if they each have their own drivers for wireless/etc that's fine.

Jickel

Member

Registered: 2008-06-22

Posts: 47

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Has anyone installed virtualbox with toofishes' or ighea's kernel? There's a step where you have to compile a driver, vboxdrv, but is fails when running vbox_build_module: "ERROR: Unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again. Stop."

I tried extracting the vanilla linux source I get when building toofishes' kernel and then doing a export KERN_DIR="<directory to the vanilla kernel source>", but it keeps failing still. Do I need to get hold of the source code of the finished, configured and patched-up toofishes kernel? Does the directory name of the source, say, linux-2.6.26-eee, matter?

Last edited by Jickel (2008-08-05 23:00:12)

toofishes

Developer

From: Chicago, IL

Registered: 2006-06-06

Posts: 602

Website

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Has anyone installed virtualbox with toofishes' or ighea's kernel? There's a step where you have to compile a driver, vboxdrv, but is fails when running vbox_build_module: "ERROR: Unable to find the sources of your current Linux kernel. Specify KERN_DIR=<directory> and run Make again. Stop."

I tried extracting the vanilla linux source I get when building toofishes' kernel and then doing a export KERN_DIR="<directory to the vanilla kernel source>", but it keeps failing still. Do I need to get hold of the source code of the finished, configured and patched-up toofishes kernel? Does the directory name of the source, say, linux-2.6.26-eee, matter?

Take a look at how I build the modules in my eee packages tree. I don't actually install the kernel source along with the package in order to make it a lot smaller; but it is available on the host compiling system.

zodmaner

Member

Registered: 2007-07-11

Posts: 653

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Discussing both 701/900 and 901/1000 issues in the same thread is starting to get confusing, imo. Maybe it's time we split the discussion up in different threads?

I think we need a separate forum for the eee. There is a lot to discuss and this many pages makes finding info really hard.

Also, you guys should put as much informations on the wiki as possible (maybe creating a new 901/1000 section on Arch's Eee article on the wiki). Else you risk losing  all of the useful infos to the noises in the forum.

Rumor

Member

From: Albany, NY

Registered: 2006-07-07

Posts: 638

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Discussing both 701/900 and 901/1000 issues in the same thread is starting to get confusing, imo. Maybe it's time we split the discussion up in different threads?

I think we need a separate forum for the eee. There is a lot to discuss and this many pages makes finding info really hard.

Also, you guys should put as much informations on the wiki as possible (maybe creating a new 901/1000 section on Arch's Eee article on the wiki). Else you risk losing  all of the useful infos to the noises in the forum.

I'll second this. I received my 901 20G just last week. I have not taken the time to read through the 40+ pages of this thread to begin sifting the helpful info from the chaff. A separate eee forum section might be helpful for collecting and organizing threads on separate models / issues.

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Jickel

Member

Registered: 2008-06-22

Posts: 47

Re: Arch on Eee PC

I just wanted to mention I tried out toofishes' latest kernel, 2.6.26-1 , and while most hotkeys now seem to work fine I can't seem to be able to toggle wlan on or off. I'll investigate further.

Edit: EeePC 701, that is.

Last edited by Jickel (2008-08-07 16:15:09)

jbooth

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 34

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Which Eee, Jickel? I can't get wireless to go back /on/ on a 901. The ubuntu folks claim it works, so when they release their next installer with support for the 901 I'm going to try it and see what they did (if I can tell).

faelar

Member

From: Amiens (FR)

Registered: 2007-12-18

Posts: 232

Website

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Here with an eeepc 701, kernel 26-1, I turned the wifi off and on without any problem.
I tried this only once, but it worked well.

EDIT : I have updated the wiki, acpi is fixed now on the latest toofishes' kernel.
I also added a part about disabling modules' autoloading
I would be glad if someone can confirm that I didn"t forget anything. If so, feel free to edit the wiki directly

Last edited by faelar (2008-08-07 20:15:14)

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ArchServer

inf

Member

From: Vantaa, Finland

Registered: 2006-07-18

Posts: 102

Website

Re: Arch on Eee PC

So what stuff doesn't work with EEE 901?

UPS is gonna bring me one today, and was thinkin i'll install Arch on it. So i would like to know what hiccups will I encounter?

mastapsi

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 14

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Right now, using delcake's ath1e, jbooth's eeert2860 AUR or ndiswrapper packages and the vanilla acpi+acpid stuff, the ethernet, wireless, and sleep all work.  Not working is any of the other ACPI stuff, volume buttons, suspend to disk, that sort of thing.  Jbooth mentioned he had most of ACPI working, but I imagine he will wait till it is all working before he releases his package. 

Also of note is that the BIOS Boot Booster is easy to fix if you break it by reformatting.  All you need to do is reserve a small EFI partition (I used 7 cylinders and the partition type is EF in cfdisk).  The BIOS should automatically detect it.  Just a word of warning, I have no personal experience with the 901, since I have a 1000H, so the SSD drive varients might not do it the same way.

Pretty much all you need to do is to make sure you use the core .img to install arch, and to have the ethernet package (along with unrar and unzip) on a flash drive so that you can get network working.  Then you can pretty much proceed normally.  Make sure to not use ext3 as well, since it is journaled and the 901 has a SSD.

jbooth

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 34

Re: Arch on Eee PC

I can post my acpi-eee901 later today (shamelessly stolen from ighea and edited for the 901) -- wireless on/off doesn't work. Or rather, wireless on doesn't work. Off works fine. On doesn't come back. I'm starting to think this may be a 2.6.25 or 2.6.26 problem, because it seems to "just work" for the ubuntu people.

I was hoping to use 2.6.26 to just get the integrated eeepc_laptop acpi driver, but I guess not.

Internal microphone also doesn't apparently work. I haven't heard of the ubuntu folks getting it working yet.

I may actually install ubuntu once they get ubuntu-eee 8.04.1 out with netbook-remix interface, etc.

What exactly is boot booster? I've seen folks talk about it, but...

mastapsi

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 14

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Boot Booster is a BIOS feature that basically makes you boot straight to your boot loader.  When you turn it off, you will get the standard BIOS splash screen for a few seconds before boot.   I imagine what it does is delay POST tests until later, or perhaps simply skip them and only perform them only after the laptop has booted a  number of times.   

It shaves atleast 2 seconds from boot time, most likely more.  It requires a small partition on the hard drive.  If you delete the EFI partition, you can make a new one (type EF in cfdisk, about 7 cylinders in size) and then reenable the option in the BIOS.  I do not know if the 901 uses it, but the 1000H does.

What kernel is ubuntu using right now in their newest release?

jbooth

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 34

Re: Arch on Eee PC

2.6.24 probabaly with lots of patches so I'm not sure how well that maps to our 2.6.24.

Well, fn+f2 works in ubuntu. Maybe I'll leave it on there instead of Xandros. Certainly a step up, even if I'd rather have arch.

Edit: I should mention I'm using someone's custom eee kernel. The guy who makes it has a 70x gen machine and just got a loaner 901.

Last edited by jbooth (2008-08-08 20:20:14)

Rumor

Member

From: Albany, NY

Registered: 2006-07-07

Posts: 638

Re: Arch on Eee PC

2.6.24 probabaly with lots of patches so I'm not sure how well that maps to our 2.6.24.

Well, fn+f2 works in ubuntu. Maybe I'll leave it on there instead of Xandros. Certainly a step up, even if I'd rather have arch.

Edit: I should mention I'm using someone's custom eee kernel. The guy who makes it has a 70x gen machine and just got a loaner 901.

Are you using the one from array.org? I can't get wired ethernet working using his. When I try to insert the module into the kernel, I get an error saying it is an invalid format.

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jbooth

Member

Registered: 2006-12-29

Posts: 34

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Yes but I haven't tried the wired ethernet.

inf

Member

From: Vantaa, Finland

Registered: 2006-07-18

Posts: 102

Website

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Has anyone got Arch to work with the 901?

It's pretty damn hard to get anything working if the network isn't workin. I have tried many modules found from AUR but with no luck

Rumor

Member

From: Albany, NY

Registered: 2006-07-07

Posts: 638

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Yes but I haven't tried the wired ethernet.

Posting now from the eee (901 20G). I am using Adamm's kernel from this thread: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=38030

Wired ethernet works fine. I will have to wait until Monday when i get back to the office to see if wireless works.

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mastapsi

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 14

Re: Arch on Eee PC

delcake's atl1e AUR package will work for wired internet.  Jbooth's eeert2860 will work for the wireless.  Read the last couple of pages, since that has been where we have been talking about getting stuff working.

kjon

Member

From: Temuco, Chile

Registered: 2008-04-16

Posts: 398

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Hello there, nice potty reading here it took me more than an hour to figure out that what I needed wasn't here
(eee specific forum +1)

I'm another eee 900 user (whoa! that might explain why I'm writting here) and I managed myself (after hours of head-against-the-wall cracking) to setup a simple, but efective xfce environment.

Now, the problems:

1 - Why gnome can't mount my sdhc card while ubuntu does? I used the same setup of my good n' ol' 701 and nope... It didn't work.
2 - Why the 701's touchpad worked flawlessly while 901's work like sh*t? I mean, I can survive without tap2click or dtap2drag... but, without virtualscrolling my life seems senseless . I've read that the touchpad of the 900 series is a piece of hardware named 'elantech' (or something like that). I would like to know how to deal with this pointing device, due to synaptics driver doesn't like it at all...

thanks guys.

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They say that if you play a Win cd backward you hear satanic messages. That's nothing! 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs windows.

mastapsi

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 14

Re: Arch on Eee PC

First of all, which eee do you have, you say that you are using a 900 at first, but later say that you have a 901.  Which is it?  This does make a difference, since there are major hardware differences between the two.  Also, you mention that you are running xfce, but later mention that gnome won't mount your SD card.  You need to be more clear with your descriptions

1.  Your SDHC card issues are likely  due to the fact that you forgot to install HAL.   Do "pacman -S hal".  Then add hal to your DAEMONS in rc.conf and start it by issuing "/etc/rc.d/hal start" as root.  Or, if you don't mind mounting it each time, you can just use mount to remount it.

2.  If you are using a 901, unistall synaptic and it  should work just fine.  The touchpad should work with a vanilla 2.6.25 kernel.

kjon

Member

From: Temuco, Chile

Registered: 2008-04-16

Posts: 398

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Hey oh man! don't get toasted!

Sorry if I wrote wrong. Actually:

1. I own a EEE 900 and a 701.
2. I *did* install hal. On both computers -- Same instalation (tar over here, tardump over there)
3. In fact, SDHC (on EEE900) works well after a few more hours of brain-cell-toasting. In most cases, the reader needs to be "cycled" in order to operate normally. That is place a 0, sleep 1, then 1 on /proc/acpi/asus/cardr and issue solved.
4. I discovered that I can manage, in certain way, with this 'elantech' touchpad. One finger for click, two for middle click and three to right click. Oh yeah! --- I recovered the functionality of a standard mouse... (but I want my virtuallscrollng back! )

Sorry mastapsi, I didn't want to toast you

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They say that if you play a Win cd backward you hear satanic messages. That's nothing! 'cause if you play it forwards, it installs windows.

mastapsi

Member

Registered: 2008-07-27

Posts: 14

Re: Arch on Eee PC

Sorry if I sounded harsh.  Didn't think I came across that way.   I suppose I might have.  I am moving tomorrow, so I am a little stressed.

Glad you got the reader working, and figured out your touchpad.

JazzplayerL9

Member

Registered: 2006-03-31

Posts: 109

Re: Arch on Eee PC

just upgraded to kernel 2.6.26.  Fair warning for anyone on an Eee 901 that forgets...you'll need to recompile atl1e and rt2860sta...and in rt2860sta you'll need to uncomment 3 lines in the PKGBUILD.  Works like a charm now!