Asus EeePC 1005PG and Linux

[Bas Roufs]

Hello Amichai

>...  Asus 1005PG (built in 3G GPRS modem) (.... )Any of of has experience with this
> specific model? With installing Ubuntu on it? ... using the built in 3G modem?

In February 2010 I bought a similar netbook: Asus 1001 HA.

> My other question is in regard of the pre-installed Windows 7 (Starter Edition, I think) and
> the Linux based fast boot OS that comes with their latest models. I forget it's name:

The software configuration coming with my netbook was similar to yours
as it is now: Win7 Starter Edition pre-installed, a recovery partition
and also with traces of some Linux distro Asus has been using before
for this type of machine - I forgot it's name also. My netbook did not
come with a 3G modem, but the software configuration was the same or
similar. Moreover, I use now both inbuilt hardware for LAN and WLAN
and an external 3G modem for mobile internet. All this hardware works
now perfectly acceptably : with *Ubuntu 10.04 as well as with *Ubuntu
10.10.
>
> Should I wipe out all the existing partitions and use the whole hard drive for Ubuntu 10.04 UNR? or Should I dual boot with Windows 7 and leave the Recovery Mode partition untouched?
>
> I despise Microsoft prudocts (....)

Perfectly well, I understand this feeling. But my practice experience
reveals that Windows is still necessary sometimes - in less than 1% of
all my working sessions, that OS is unavoidable. That's why I have
maintained now 23 GB as a Windows partition - which is less than 10 %
of the total 250 GB at the HD. But I have wiped away the remaining
recovery partition - if you would use that one, it would wipe away the
installed *buntu configuration and set the HD back to the original
state as it has been delivered.

What I have done is the following:

February/ March 2010
================
Inside Win7, I have removed/ uninstalled space consuming software for
which I use good Linux alternatives anyway - notably Adobe and and MS
Office.
Still inside Win7, I went to the configuration panel - there I managed
to shrink the space used by the Windows OS until about 15 GB out of
the total 250GB. At the Kubuntu users forum, someone with a similar
netbook with a similar software configuration- has urged me to do so -
otherwise it seems to be very difficult to minimise the Windows
partition.
I left the "recovery partition" as well as some other small, unclear
partition intact.
At the biggest of the remaining partitions, I installed Kubuntu 9.10.
First I experimented with an ISO file at a USB stick. But than I
bought a cheap, but perfectly well working external CD/DVD writer:
"LaCie". In that device, I put an ISO CD and started the installation
procedure - in the automated, "guided" way.
As a matter of result, the "bootloader" and a package like "GParted"
showed a very fragmented configuration at the hard disk: apart from
*buntu 9.10 and Win7, at least 2 other partitions showed up in the
list.

May 2010
========
After saving all the data files to an external HD, I did a fresh
"manual" install from a Kubuntu 10.04 LTS iso CD. I did maintain the
Windows configuration, but shrunk it a bit more in the beginning of
this installation procedure. In the same stage, I erased the recovery
partition and another unclear one. As a matter of result I got a much
more clear and practical configuration: SDA1 (23GB, NTFS/DOS/WIN7) and
SDA2 (209,6GB, extended). The remaining 17,11 GB apparently contains
some boot and firm software.
I have subdivided SDA2 in 3 partitions:
SDA5, with /, ext. 4, 93,13 GB, data partition;
SDA6, with ext. 4, /home, 93,13 GB, OS partition.

November 2010
===========
An upgrade to Kubuntu 10.10 was a good decision. Several packages
function considerably better now.
A still outstanding issue is the Windows partition: the Win 7CD that
came with this netbook, is not a "normal" installation CD, but
contains recovery software that would wipe away the whole *buntu
configuration. That's why I keep an open eye for some cheap
installation CD of some, whichever Windows distro that I can install
inside a virtual environment, so that I can wipe away the remaining
Windows partition.

Summary
=======
Shrink the Windows partition - first via Windows, than in an initial
stage of the manual install procedure.
Buy an external CD/DVD writing and reading device, like "LaCie";
Make an iso image CD of Ubuntu or Kubuntu 10.10 - the latest versions
of the *buntu distro's contain better software enabling you to work
with all present day kinds of 3G and other modems.
Wipe away the one or two other smaller partitions and merge them with
the 2 remaining partitions at SDA2: the data partition and the OS one.

Finally - take care of installing after the installation restricted
and "Medibuntu" multimedia software.

This is it for now. Respectfully yours,

Bas.