When the Asus Eee PC came out last year, we found that the eeextremely eeenticing subnotebook had the potential to be a real game-changer. Indeed, the diminutive wonder has spawned countless imitation products from a wide range of other vendors.

Although the Eee is my favorite laptop for traveling, its Xandros-based Linux distribution is getting crufty and beginning to show its age. I was unable to install Firefox 3 on it, for instance, because it lacks a current version of the GTK+ toolkit. In preparation for OSCON, I decided to infuse my Eee with new life by installing Ubuntu 8.04. I used a community-driven derivative called Ubuntu Eee that is designed specifically for Eee laptops. It has nearly full hardware compatibility right out of the box, including support for suspend/resume, sound, and the built-in webcam.

No CD? Try SD

The Eee lacks an optical drive, so I had to use the SD slot in order to perform the installation. This is the trickiest part of process, but it is significantly simplified by UNetbootin, a user-friendly tool for putting ISO images onto flash media. I started by downloading the latest Ubuntu Eee installation image from the project's web site and also their custom build of UNetbootin.

The next step is using an Ubuntu desktop computer to prepare the SD card so that it can be used for installation on the Eee. This is where I ran into trouble and I had to try a few times before I got it to work right. I used the dd command to fix the SD card's MBR (substitute the bracketed text with the correct path to your SD device):

dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=[correct device path]



Now you have to erase the existing partitions on the SD card and create a new one that is formatted with FAT32 and set with the bootable flag. You can do this with any tool, but I recommend using gparted. After you have the SD card partitioned and formatted, you just have to write the image. I used a custom UNetbootin build that was created specifically for integration with the Ubuntu Eee distro.

I selected the disk image option and then specified the path of the ISO file. UNetbootin automatically detected the correct path of my SD card device, but some users may need to manually select a location from the Drive drop-down menu (do this with extreme care, because the target drive will be overwritten). I checked to make sure all of the options were correct, and then I hit the OK button to start the process. From there, everything else is fully automated. UNetbootin sets up the filesystem and and pretty much everything else.

To boot the Eee from an SD card, you have to hold the Escape key during startup and then select the USB option from the menu display (yes, you select USB even though it's an SD card). If you have done everything correctly, the LiveCD environment will boot from the SD. If you get a black screen with a flashing white line, then you might need to go back and try the process again. You might also need to go into the bios and toggle the "OS Installation" option.

Xandros out, Ubuntu in

In the LiveCD environment, you can launch the installer from the desktop to replace Xandros with Ubuntu. The installation will take a long time to complete, but when it's done you will be able to run Ubuntu directly from the Eee's internal storage. There are no special configuration options or anything that need to be selected in the installer; just install as you normally would on the desktop, and it should work.

After you have it installed, there are some customizations you can apply to make Ubuntu more comfortable on the small screen. For instance, you can follow the instructions provided in the wiki to install the Netbook Remix user interface packages. The Netbook Remix launcher don't work too well on the Eee yet because it is designed for a different resolution. The Netbook Remix's maximum window handler and the new window selection applet for the panel both work reasonably well on the Eee.

The Ubuntu Eee community has also documented some changes that you can make to increase battery life, optimize boot speed, and fix various minor issues.