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| A cacophony of ASUS Eee Linux PC tips and tricks |
| 摘自: www.itwire.com 被阅读次数: 211 |
由 yangyi 于 2008-02-03 19:14:09 提供 |
Congratulations to all the new Christmas owners of the year's hottest subnotebook, the ASUS Eee, putting Linux square in the mainstream and right in the hands of the masses. Here's a collection of tiny – but dead useful – hints and tips to help you get the most out of it. First, a little update on my Eee. Regular readers will remember I originally had difficulty sourcing one. Finally, a Myer store in my area let me buy the last remaining stock item which, they said, had been on hold for someone else who failed to pick it up. I gleefully went by right then and there. It was a lovely white 7A model. However, it was also a mongrel of a machine. Periodically I'd start it up to be greeted by a boot-killing disk fault. Restarting didn't help; the only option seemed to be making a bootable USB stick with the original factory image and then restoring. Unfortunately, I'd only get a few uses before the exact same thing happened again, requiring yet another restore. Actually, this is my first tip for today – after my experience, I bought a cheap 1Gb USB flash drive and put a copy of the boot image on it. Hopefully I won't need it again, but I know that in the event of disaster – whether a genuine fault or just too much tinkering on my part – I always have a means of getting back to the original state, right at hand. You can read how to do this here. Given the interest people have in loading other versions of Linux – or even, surprise, Windows XP – I think it's definitely worthwhile doing likewise. Knowing you can restore the Eee at will to a good state gives great peace of mind. Back to the story – I took my Eee back to Myer who kindly swapped it then and there for a brand new replacement. I was happy with this, my original Eee had already been used before I turned it on for the first time (because the first-use wizard had been run by someone else) and for all I know it had been dropped and the internal solid-state drive harmed. My original Eee also had a single bright pixel stuck on. While not a huge problem it was disappointing. I checked ASUS' web site for their dead/bright pixel policy and it turns out they do not offer a zero pixel fault warranty on the Eee; instead I needed several pixel problems before a replacement could be issued. Happily, the new Eee from Myer has no pixel issues so I'm better off. My new Eee is black – and I think I prefer the white a bit more, but black is still cool – but it also is a different series. Firstly, it has firmware 0401 already loaded and secondly the serial number begins with 7B which, according to some hardware hackers, means it is missing an internal expansion slot that the first model had. To be honest, though, I'm too chicken to remove the sticker underneath which voids my warranty if removed. Nevertheless, I'm back in action. I'm also curious to know if my problem has been experienced anywhere else. Was it mishandling by Myer or a bad batch of drives? Anyone else got a similar story? But for now – onto the tips; let's make the Eee sing. Change the OpenOffice language English (US) may suit you – however, if you're not writing for a North American audience, you'll get better spell-check results by telling OpenOffice the dialect of English – or any other language – that suits you better. Start OpenOffice Writer by clicking the Work tab, then Documents. Click the Tools menu, then Options. Select Language Settings, then Language. Here you can adjust the default language to any other of your choice – such as English (Australian) or even Greek, Finnish or whatever is appropriate for you. The spell check and other language tools will now correct your spelling as appropriate for your region; it will no longer suggest you replace “colour” with “color” if that doesn't suit you. Call up a shell prompt I've mentioned this previously, but it is so important it has to be re-stated: you are not locked into the Eee interface; you have the full power of Linux under the hood. Press Ctrl + Alt + T to bring up a BASH shell prompt at any time. You can now probe the file system, run commands and perform any action you like. Sensibly, the shell is non-privileged, but if you need to do anything as the superuser, you can prefix commands with sudo. For a longer session of superuser commands, call up a new BASH prompt as root via sudo bash. Listen to Internet Radio Chill out with some ambient music while you work. There's an Internet Radio button on the Internet tab but it needs a little fixing due to some software changes after the ASUS Eee was first built. First, update it to the latest version using Add/Remove Software on the Settings tab. Next, open the Web browser back on the Internet tab. Click the Bookmarks menu and select the provided MediaWrap bookmark. When the page options, click to install the MediaWrap add-on. Firefox will tell you it is unsigned but that's ok; highlight MediaWrap and elect to Install. You'll be prompted to restart Firefox. Now you can use the Internet Radio applet; double-click it and choose your country and/or genre and play radio stations of your choice. To maintain a list of your favourite radio stations you'll need to register for a free account with MediaWrap, unfortunately these are saved on their web site and not locally. Add a splash of Bluetooth The Eee doesn't come with built-in Bluetooth; this is no major loss because it certainly comes with a great range of other features like built-in ethernet, WiFi and three USB 2.0 sockets. However, being a device so clearly geared for mobility, Bluetooth can definitely be handy for syncing with a mobile phone on the go or for driving a Bluetooth travel mouse or keyboard. USB Bluetooth adapters are easy to find, but a bulky stick protruding from the svelte Eee isn't so aesthetic. Never fear, you can find really tiny Bluetooth adapters which suit the Eee look so well, like this beauty . You wouldn't even need to unplug it when you put the subnotebook back in its carry bag. Now for a really cool trick that will absolutely transform your Eee! Advanced mode As nice as the famed ASUS Eee interface is – which, make no mistake, is great for children, inexperienced computer users, people who want reliable functionality more than they want to dabble, and most of us in general – you can absolutely transform the Eee into a real live Linux workstation with just a couple of steps. Think of the default interface as “simple mode.” Here's how to turn on “advanced mode.” First, call up a BASH prompt – Ctrl-Alt-T, remember. Enter these commands to load some extra software; you'll need a working Internet connection for this. The first command does not change anything on your system, but merely causes the Aptitude program manager to update its list of available packages from ASUS: sudo aptitude update Next, instruct Aptitude to load on two new items; ksmserver and kicker. sudo aptitude install ksmserver kicker Aptitude will do its stuff, but will prompt you to confirm you're sure you want to load these modules on, like so: The following packages have been kept back: amarok amarok-engines amarok-helix amarok-xine frozen-bubble libscim8c2a scim scim-modules-table scim-tables-zh xandros-scim xlex The following NEW packages will be installed: kicker ksmserver 0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded. Need to get 1988kB of archives. After unpacking 5644kB will be used. WARNING: untrusted versions of the following packages will be installed! Untrusted packages could compromise your system's security. You should only proceed with the installation if you are certain that this is what you want to do. kicker ksmserver Type Yes and press enter, and Aptitude will continue. Selecting previously deselected package kicker. (Reading database ... 72460 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking kicker (from .../kicker_4%3a3.4.2.201-1_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package ksmserver. Unpacking ksmserver (from .../ksmserver_4%3a3.4.2.201-1_i386.deb) ... Setting up kicker (3.4.2.201-1) ... Setting up ksmserver (3.4.2.201-1) ... To remove any fear of magic let me explain: ksmserver is the KDE session manager, part of the KDE graphical user environment. The default ASUS interface uses KDE, stripped down, and with a simple window manager called ICEWM. What we're doing is beefing up KDE a bit more. The other package, kicker, is a launchpad for KDE and provides application icons on menus on the desktop screen. You can see an effect of loading these right away: click the Settings tab page, then Personalization. A new option shows up, asking how you want your desktop to appear on boot. The default is the simple mode, but you can now select full desktop mode. Go on – do it. When you save and close the dialog, it will confirm you have changed the login mode. Reboot your Eee and be impressed by the transformation. Don't be afraid to experiment: if you don't like it, you can simply click Launch and Easy Mode to go right back again; there's no risk of being stuck. Enjoy! And be sure to keep checking out The Linux Distillery here on ITWire for more ASUS Eee tips. |
