Jan 04 2009

Netbook’s arrival

Hello all,

I have received my Asus eeePC 1000HA, and worked on it a little bit. Since I can’t stand that legacy operating system that is Windows, I started researching what I would need to do to get Linux on it. Seeing as there is no optical drive on the machine, I had to install the SystemRescueCD onto a USB flash drive, and then install Gentoo from within that environment. I currently have a base system installed, and am doing the initial update/rebuild using my USE flags. I still have a HUGE amount of things to do and bugs to work out before the netbook will have a nice working environment under Gentoo. A brief list would be:

1. Get wifi working with the crappy Atheros card.
2. Get the function keys working.
3. Install the X server.
4. Choose my window manager / desktop environment.
5. Find an appropriate battery monitor.
6. Write my ACPI scripts for acpid.
7. Install all the programs I will use daily.

So there’s really a lot to do, and I’m frustrated with most of it right now because I’ve been working on it most of the day. However, I think that I will soon turn the frustration into determination, and that will help me to kill off these problems one by one.

|:| Zach |:|

Dec 30 2008

Quick update on the netbook

This is just a quick update on the netbook situation. I have received the RAM upgrade, and after checking with the delivery company, it seems like my order made the cut and will be here on Friday, 02 January 2009. I thought that it wasn’t going to ship out in time, and that it would arrive sometime early in the week of 05 January. Anyway, that’s all.

|:| Zach |:|

Dec 30 2008

I’ve made the netbook decision

After a few months of looking at specs, reading reviews, trying a couple out for myself, and looking at lspci outputs, I have finally chosen a netbook. In the final analysis, it came down to the Asus eeePC 1000HA and the Samsung NC10. I ended up choosing the Asus because I couldn’t justify spending the extra money for a standard-sized right shift key, and because the Asus is easier to upgrade the three major components (RAM, HDD, and WiFi card). I’ve already ordered a 2GB stick of PC5300 (G.Skill that supposedly has amazing timings of 3-3-3-10 @ 667MHz [I will let you know if this claim is true]). I’m thinking that I might upgrade the WiFi card from the cheap, relatively poor quality Atheros card to the Intel 5100 or maybe even the 5300 if I experience connection or packet problems. The 160GB 5400 RPM HDD might be replaced with a 320GB 7200 RPM one down the road if I really fall in love with this machine.

Anyway, I will post some more information after I have received the Asus eeePC 1000HA and have had a chance to play with it for a while.

|:| Zach |:|