• Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 577

Topic: CrunchBang on the eee pc

EDIT: Cruncheee, a special CrunchBang for the eee pc, is now available (http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … ndidate-1/). However, this thread may still be useful for those wishing to install the Full or Lite versions of CrunchBang on their eee.

Disclaimer:
I tested these instructions using CrunchBang 8.04.2 and 8.10 testing on my Asus eee pc 900ha. I cannot guarantee these instructions will work on other models of eee or CrunchBang releases. The array.org portion of the process is subject to change, therefore I will link to those instructions rather than reprint them here.

Why CrunchBang?
CrunchBang is ideal for a netbook such as the eee pc because it makes efficient use of resources: ram, disk space, screen real estate, etc. The base installation fits comfortably on a 4gb drive.

Challenges:
The current version of the Linux kernel used by CrunchBang and other Ubuntu variants up to 8.10 does not support all of the eee's hardware (particularly the wireless). Therefore, we will need to install a custom kernel designed especially for the eee.

Step by Step

   1. Install CrunchBang to your eee using the normal process.
   2. (Assuming your wireless does not work) Connect to a wired ethernet network.
   3. Go to the http://array.org/ubuntu/ website and follow their instructions to install the appropriate eeepc kernel for your release (8.04 Hardy, 8.10 Intrepid, etc). Note: There is also an experimental eeepc-lean kernel that seems like a good fit with the CrunchBang philosophy, but is not guaranteed to be stable.
   4. Support for the eeepc kernel can be found here: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=46649
   5. You probably want to enable power managment. To do so, edit your autostart.sh file (gedit ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh) and add the following line: gnome-power-manager &

Last edited by snowpine (2009-01-02 18:51:10)

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 2,772

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Thanks snowpine, that is an awesome first post to these tips, tricks & scripts forums!

BTW, I need to get me one of those Eee PCs. I am hoping that I have been dropping enough hints for long enough that one might appear in my Christmas stocking big_smile

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corenominal's Website

  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

I have installed Crunchbang lite (love the name) on my Asus eee 4g 701. I also installed the array.org stable hardy kernel which gets the wireless and other hardware running. It also cuts the boot time from 1:24mins to 58 seconds. I made a few minor changes in conky. I like that fact that it is super light but has the hefty ubuntu repos behind it. I also dig screen shots so here is my desktop which shows the disk usage and idle ram usage. smile I also think the default theme is very "leet" which amuses me. smile i hate ugly default distro themes.

The battery line i added in conky is
Battery: $alignr${battery}

I will add more info here as i use it more.
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj147/warden1337/crunch.png

Last edited by warden1337 (2008-11-25 18:51:22)

  • kimme
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  • From: Tromsø
  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 5

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Thanks for this information, as I have now installed the latest CrunchBang distribution on my Eee 900, and will add the array repository to my setup to get the wireless working.

Kimme Utsi My Blog

kimme's Website

  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 577

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Warden, Kimme, thanks for sharing your positive experiences with the 701 and 900. It would be nice to hear from some 901 and 1000 owners too--maybe after the holidays?

When running any operating system from a solid state disk (SSD), USB flash drive, or SD card, it's a good idea to limit disk activity. Here are some tricks I've picked up; what are some others?

1. Don't use a swap partition. Drawback: Hibernate doesn't work.
2. Tweak Firefox preferences, for example set cache to 0mb.
3. Go into System->Services/Daemons and uncheck unneeded things like computer activity logger.
4. Mount /tmp folder to ram. You need to edit your fstab, be careful! http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/wiki/index.ph … ab_changes

Anyone have more tips to optimize for the eee?

Last edited by snowpine (2008-11-26 00:18:05)

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-26
  • Posts: 544

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

corenominal wrote:

BTW, I need to get me one of those Eee PCs. I am hoping that I have been dropping enough hints for long enough that one might appear in my Christmas stocking big_smile

Ha Ha Ha - and what would my present be in return, on a like for like value? I keep telling you, it's socks and slippers for you, and you WILL be grateful! tongue

Politeness, Respect, Trust, Humility - forum etiquette I abide by!
identi.ca
  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 2,772

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Trouble'n'strife wrote:

Ha Ha Ha - and what would my present be in return, on a like for like value? I keep telling you, it's socks and slippers for you, and you WILL be grateful! tongue

Hello babe smile For fear of hijacking this thread with a discussion about our Christmas shopping, I have now suspended your account and kicked you from the forums!

Just kidding big_smile Seriously though, it is good to see you on here. I am so proud my woman is such a total geek!

Check us out on DistroWatch! - My webby profiles: Identi.ca | Last.fm

corenominal's Website

  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

anywho.. back on topic. smile

Congrats on the new release. its nice to see it on distrowatch. I am downloading it now and will install on my eee 701 today. I have notice one small issue with 8.04 crunchbang. Quite often on boot up it would hang at "loading hardware drivers", on my eee 701 everything before it says ok and then sometimes it just stops at hardware drivers and i have to reboot and then it loads properly. Hopefully this goes away in 8.10 crunch.

  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

ok small issue now. I have crunchbang 8.10 installed on me eee 701 and I also installed the array.org intrepid kernel. Everything is fine expect I can't run kismet!  sad

in 8.04 (any ubuntu 8.04) I would install the array.org kernel and wireless worked. Then I would install kismet and run it like so

kismet -c madwifi_g,wifi0,wifi0

and voila kismet running with me happy. Now when I go to run kismet with the same command I get this.. see pic. What am i doing wrong here?

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj147/warden1337/kismetissue.jpg

help smile

edit --- the above kismet command works in Backtrack 3 as well.

Last edited by warden1337 (2008-11-27 19:16:20)

  • kestrel
  • Species: F. sparverius
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  • From: Moscow, Idaho
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 167

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Hi all, got crunchbang 8.10.01 installed on my eee 1000. I love the responsiveness of this little guy.

I followed about the same procedure as outlined above only installed it to an 4g sd card and used my old /home. Added the same tweaks as snowpine.   

Reusing a /home partition cause a bit of a headache as me openbox config was not written to my home so when I rebooted I was faced with my old 8.04.02 menus and conky and who knows what else. Took a bit but got most things straightened about.

Now a couple of eee specific questions.
1. The trackpad is a little misbehaving. Over sensitive. The input curser moves unexpectedly. Ideas?
2. What are the 4 buttons above the keyboard used for and can they be remapped?

Will

My web activities: Twitter | Identi.ca | Facebook | Blog

kestrel's Website

  • From: Rochester, NY
  • Registered: 2008-12-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Hi all,

I just registered, but am terribly interested in getting this great distro setup as a dual boot on my Eee PC 1000HA.  I am going to give it a go tonight and will report back with my experience!

#! seems to have picked up quite a following in such a short period of time!  Kudos corenominal!

Xeon Zombie's Website

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 2,772

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Hi Xeon Zombie smile

Good luck with the installation, looking forward to reading about it.

Check us out on DistroWatch! - My webby profiles: Identi.ca | Last.fm

corenominal's Website

  • From: Rochester, NY
  • Registered: 2008-12-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

corenominal,

You've really done a wonderful job on this.  Thank you.

I am happy to write that I am posting this from my 1000HA/ 320GB/ 2GB/ Atom 1.6GHz. 

The live environment booted swiftly from a 4GB SD card I set up with Unetbootin. The default theme is both striking and unique.  This is my first foray into Openbox territory, and I don't know how I ever got by without trying this!  Install was as smooth as any Ubuntu based distro.

Out of the box:
* Correct resolution 1024x600
* Ethernet
* Multitouch scrolling
* Brightness ACPI keys
* Battery charge level and discharge time

After install of array.org eee kernel (not lean):
* Wireless (connected to 128bit wep)
* Sound (Had to increase volume via super+v)
* Webcam (works in cheese)
* Sleep (resumes very quickly w/ a touch of the power button)

Not working:
* Remaining ACPI Keys (wifi toggle, video keys, sysmonitor key, audio keys)
* The 4 "special keys"

I do not use any swap, so no word on hibernation.

I am going to have to give the Ubuntu ACPI scripts a whirl... have not used them before, but imagine they will only help restore some of the ACPI functionality.

I'll update again once I have had some time to tinker with this a bit! big_smile

Last edited by Xeon Zombie (2008-12-02 05:01:19)

Xeon Zombie's Website

  • kestrel
  • Species: F. sparverius
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  • From: Moscow, Idaho
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 167

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

One area where I have trouble with #! on eee is with an external monitor. I can set up the correct resolution and the window decorations and the panel and the menu are correctly sizes but all the text is way big. The text is sized like I'm looking at 600X400. Except as above and also in Thunar which is correctly displayed. Running openbox on a Ubuntu 8.04 on this eee and everything display great. I've not been able to google anything of value.

Ideas?

My web activities: Twitter | Identi.ca | Facebook | Blog

kestrel's Website

  • From: Rochester, NY
  • Registered: 2008-12-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Well, I used the ACPI scripts outlined here: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=49081

So far the wifi toggle sort of works.  One of the video keys and one of the "special keys" work, though they both put the computer into some sort of drunken looking sleep. 

Upon further investigation, it looks like I may need to be running Gnome or KDE to get these working.  I might be wrong, but I know I had near 100% support for my hardware, including ACPI w/OSD on a vanilla install of Intrepid w/Gnome.

I would really like to get this working though... I really like CrunchBang! 

If anyone has any ideas, let me know.  As far as I know the 1000HA I am using is the same as the 1000H, just different wireless (I have an AR5007EG carg -b/g) and no bluetooth. 

Thanks!

Xeon Zombie's Website

  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 577

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Xeon Zombie wrote:

Well, I used the ACPI scripts outlined here: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=49081

Hi Xeon,
Clicking on your link, I couldn't help but notice the following disclaimer:

Supported models:

   * EeePC 900A
   * EeePC 901
   * EeePC 1000
   * EeePC 1000H

WARNING: Do not install these scripts to a model which is not in the list! It will cause huge problems with the frequency control...

I tried the scripts on my 900HA, which also is not on the list, and had many problems. smile

I really do not think it is an Openbox vs. Gnome/KDE issue.

  • From: Rochester, NY
  • Registered: 2008-12-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Good morning snowpine!

Yes, I too read that blatant warning, LOL.  However, as the 1000H and the HA seem to be effectively the same (same motherboard, etc, w/only the wifi and bluetooth being the difference, I thought I'd give it a shot.  My initial expectation was that the wifi toggle would likely not work, as I have a different card than the H model, and that the bluetooth toggle wouldn't work, since I lack the BT module. 

Wouldn't be the first time I was wrong, and sure won't be the last.  I just figured that maybe the scripts depended on some components of Gnome or KDE that are not found in Openbox. 

I do know a trick or two, and have been tinkering with Linux since the Hoary Hedgehog days, but that is still a short period of time, and compared to my knowledge of Windows, I am still a relative NooB, so I really appreciate you guys being here to help troubleshoot such things!

Thanks! smile

Xeon Zombie's Website

  • From: Rochester, NY
  • Registered: 2008-12-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Just an FYI, I tried the Elmurato ACPI scripts on a vanilla install of Ubuntu 8.10 running the array.org eee kernel.

Everything work.  Even my 4 hotkeys.  They only function that does not work are bluetooth (as expected, since the HA has not BT module).

I also get a double OSD when using my volume and mute keys, but I think I know how to fix that.

I wish I knew why these don't work on CrunchBang... after using #!, vanilla Ubuntu feels like a fat cow.

Any ideas?  I used the same kernel both times (standard, not lean)

Xeon Zombie's Website

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 2,772

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Xeon Zombie wrote:

I wish I knew why these don't work on CrunchBang... after using #!, vanilla Ubuntu feels like a fat cow.

LOL big_smile I may have to use that last bit in my signature! I just wish I had an Eee PC, that way I could at least try to help find out why this is not working. Anyhow, good luck with it and please keep us informed of any progress.

Check us out on DistroWatch! - My webby profiles: Identi.ca | Last.fm

corenominal's Website

  • From: Rochester, NY
  • Registered: 2008-12-01
  • Posts: 8

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Hahaha... feel free!

I have crossposted this at the Eeeuser.com forum, asking the creator of the scripts if he has any ideas.  I am assuming he will, lol.  I know they can be used on a variety of 'buntu's but all I have seen have used Gnome or KDE, so we shall see.

Will let you guys know what I find out.

Xeon Zombie's Website

  • Registered: 2008-12-03
  • Posts: 16

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Great distro for the eeepc.

I installed #! 8.10.01 on my eee 701 yesterday.  Having just learned of it now, I am not using the array.org kernel,   To get wireless working I blacklisted ath_pci and loaded ath5k from Ubuntu backports, as explained here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC/Fixes

  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 577

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Interesting tidbit for eee users: rumors that Atheros is switching to open source for their wireless drivers, opening the door for Ubuntu to support eee wireless out-of-the-box: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1000028

  • Registered: 2008-12-03
  • Posts: 13

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

I'm trying to install to an Eee 901; using UNetBootIn to create a bootable USB works, but installing from Live does not, and the Install option at boot gives an error and reboots.
I've tried formatting and rewriting the USB a number of times, and I've downloaded the ISO several times, from different sources, and it's always one thing or another.
So I'm trying to use the Ubuntu 8.10 Minimal installer (Command Line Expert Install) and it's not detecting my networking hardware.  I've found that the Eee PCs use an Attansic L2 network interface card, but it's not on the driver list.
Please tell me someone can help me..

  • Registered: 2008-11-24
  • Posts: 577

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

Mecharuva wrote:

I'm trying to install to an Eee 901; using UNetBootIn to create a bootable USB works, but installing from Live does not, and the Install option at boot gives an error and reboots.
I've tried formatting and rewriting the USB a number of times, and I've downloaded the ISO several times, from different sources, and it's always one thing or another.
So I'm trying to use the Ubuntu 8.10 Minimal installer (Command Line Expert Install) and it's not detecting my networking hardware.  I've found that the Eee PCs use an Attansic L2 network interface card, but it's not on the driver list.
Please tell me someone can help me..

Hi Mecharuva, I'm afraid I don't have a lot of ideas, but I'll try to help you anyway! smile

First things first, have you checked the md5 sum to rule out the possibility of a bad download/burn?

I've had mixed success with Unetbootin. It seems a little picky sometimes, for example one flash drive works fine but another doesn't. Or I'll get a bad burn 1 time out of 5. I've actually had better success with the Windows version of Unetbootin for some reason, so that might be worth a try, or try using a different USB or SD device to eliminate that variable from the equation.

If you can copy the installation error message here, that would be helpful.

Regarding the minimal install disk, I think unfortunately one of the reasons it is so minimal is that it doesn't include as many drivers. You might try an CLI install using the Alternate CD; the alternate CD is capable of a full install as well, so hopefully it has the ethernet driver you need....

  • Registered: 2008-12-03
  • Posts: 13

Re: CrunchBang on the eee pc

snowpine wrote:
Mecharuva wrote:

I'm trying to install to an Eee 901; using UNetBootIn to create a bootable USB works, but installing from Live does not, and the Install option at boot gives an error and reboots.
I've tried formatting and rewriting the USB a number of times, and I've downloaded the ISO several times, from different sources, and it's always one thing or another.
So I'm trying to use the Ubuntu 8.10 Minimal installer (Command Line Expert Install) and it's not detecting my networking hardware.  I've found that the Eee PCs use an Attansic L2 network interface card, but it's not on the driver list.
Please tell me someone can help me..

Hi Mecharuva, I'm afraid I don't have a lot of ideas, but I'll try to help you anyway! smile

First things first, have you checked the md5 sum to rule out the possibility of a bad download/burn?

I've had mixed success with Unetbootin. It seems a little picky sometimes, for example one flash drive works fine but another doesn't. Or I'll get a bad burn 1 time out of 5. I've actually had better success with the Windows version of Unetbootin for some reason, so that might be worth a try, or try using a different USB or SD device to eliminate that variable from the equation.

If you can copy the installation error message here, that would be helpful.

Regarding the minimal install disk, I think unfortunately one of the reasons it is so minimal is that it doesn't include as many drivers. You might try an CLI install using the Alternate CD; the alternate CD is capable of a full install as well, so hopefully it has the ethernet driver you need....

I can't find the md5 sum to check it against anywhere..
I've been using the Windows version of UNetBootIn, and it's always worked with other images.
I only have this one USB drive unfortunately..
The Error I get when trying to do Live > Install is "Error #5:  Input/Output Error - Try burning the disc at a lower speed"...
I'll have to get the Alternate disc and try the CLI on that..