eRacks Systems Tech Blog
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Asus eeePC: Hands-on from the Op Manager
Hello everyone out in the blogosphere (Look my vocabulary improved!) Allow me to introduce myself. I am Max, the Op Manager here at eRacks. Now that that’s out of the way, lets dig in!
I recently had the chance to lay my grubby mits on the latest ASUS eeePC, and am here to give my initial impressions. Now mind you, I am a very busy man (Darn starbucks being so far away!), so I only had a couple hours to play with this little PC, and I must say, I am impressed.
Now, Asus keeps a tight grip on the distribution of their eeePCs, and makes sure they get there asking price, so shopping around won’t net more than about a dollar in savings. I will chalk that up on the bad side of things. However, while a little on the high end of the price scale, for its functionality, let me tell you something that makes up for that 100x: it works flawlessly, it’s quick, and it gets a lot of looks (ladies, forget the new hairstyle. Pick up one of these bad boys and prepare for the geek onslaught!) The fact that I had no issues with it speaks volumes, because I always break something and have to have Tony, our Head Tech, come and save me.
It also comes with all the software you would need: open source applications, games, and media playing programs preinstalled and ready to go. You do have to sit through a quick registration screen at first to get to this, but hey, you have to do that with everything. When I started this mini-beast up, I was pleased to see that everything displayed quite nicely on the 7″ 800×480 res. screen. It even comes with a pretty nice Intel graphics chipset to boot. So, as far as visuals go, while you wont be seeing HD style graphics, you will get a clear, precise picture that makes working on it pretty easy. Not bad ASUS, not bad… But you could, ya know, boost the res up to maybe 1200? Maybe…please? C’mon…
Anyway, this is not by any means a replacement for a full fledged laptop, but it is a nice miniPC that will come in handy for a quick write up at a trade show, a place to store a few pictures, a checking of websites or emails from the airport or any number of road-warrior-like activities. The other thing it’s good for is KIDS! Kids love it; it comes in multiple colors, it plays games, it’s small, it’s neat, it makes noise on its 5.1 realtek HD sound card, it plays music AND it’s cool looking. The only problem I see with kids and this is that on the models we got, the keyboard is white (wash your hands, children, before touching it), so beware of dirty fingers! We actually had a customer call us and let us know that their children were hammering away on these things and that they stood the test of time (at that point, 1 week. But hey, it’s a miniPC and a child. Thats like platinum record status!) Another good feature is the card reader. This allows you to store plenty of files on the SD cards. Neat!
The few bad things I have to say are as follows: it only has 2 hours of battery life (I know, I know; laptops and such do not have amazing battery lives, but 2 hours?! I’ve had layovers longer then that on flights from OC to SF); it has no DVD or CD player, which is a bummer, even though I do understand that it’s a different category of PC — I still want to be able to throw a DVD in or listen to a CD I just bought (ok, that may be a lie; who really buys CD’s anymore, anyone? I admit it. I do. MP3’s be damned!); the graphics could be a bit better and the white keyboard is a parents nightmare, although at least the keys are stuck close enough together that food can’t hide in them. Overall, there weren’t enough bad things to warrant a bad review, or to take away from the coolness factor. 
In closing, I know this isn’t as in-depth or as technical as some people would like. But hey, I’m Max, and Max is allowed to write what he wants (you love the 3rd person, I know it!) Overall, I give this 4/5 stars for a mini pc on coolness factor, and 3.5/5 on tech factor. Take my opinion with a grain of salt though, for I am just an Op Manager doing my thing.
For the techies, here’s a rundown of the specs:
- Processor: Intel Celeron M Processor 353 (800MHz, 512KB L2 Cache, FSB 400MHz)
- Chipset: Mobile Intel 910 GML Exp ress
- Memory: 512MB DDR2-400 Memory
- Display: 7″ WVGA (800×4 80) TFT LCD
- Graphics Module: Intel GMA 900 Graphics Controller
- Hard Drive: 2GB Solid-State Disk
- Optical Storage Device: None
- Audio: Realtek ALC662 5.1-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC; Built-in Stereo Speak ers and Microphone
- Connectivity: 10Base-T/100Base -TX Fast Ethernet; 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
- Interface: 3x USB 2.0 Ports; 1x RJ45 LAN Port; 1x Headphone-out; 1x Microphone-in
- Card Reader: SD Card Reader, Support SD/MMC
- Camera: None
- Battery Pack & Life: 4-cell 4400mAh Li-ion Battery, Upto 2.8 Hours Life Time
- AC Adapter: Output – 9.5V, 22W; Input – 100~240V AC, 50/60Hz Universal
- Dimensions (WxDxH): 8.86 x 6.46 x 0.846~1.4 inch / 22.5 x 16.4 x 2.15~3.5 cm
- Color: Blush Pink, Blue, Green, White, Black
- Weight: 2 lbs / 0.92 kg
- Operating System: Linux
Visit www.eRacks.com for more info.
max May 2nd, 2008
Posted In: New products
Tags: Asus, laptop, linux, New products, Review
Ubuntu Install for Compal IFL90 laptop
Ubuntu 7.10 Installation on the Micro Express IFL90 Laptop 1. Go into the BIOS by hitting the F2 key during post and make sure it can boot from CD 2. Insert the Ubuntu CD and reboot the system (make sure you use the amd64 version, since Intel's Core 2 Duo is x86_64.) 3. When the install menu for Ubuntu comes up, choose "Safe graphics mode install." DO NOT try the normal install, or the system will hang. 4. Once the LiveCD is fully booted, you will see a desktop with an icon labeled "Installer." Double click on it and wait for the installation application to open. 5. You will be presented with a series of questions related to the configuration of the system. Making sure you setup the proper timezone and the sysadmin username, leave everything else at their default values. When it tells you it's ready to install, click "ok" and wait for it to finish. 6. When the installation is complete, click on the "reboot" button. The disk will be ejected, and the system will boot from the CD. 7. When you have booted successfully from the hard drive, and are presented with the graphical login prompt, hit ALT-F1 to drop down to virtual terminal and login as sysadmin. 8. As the sysadmin user, type the command "sudo passwd root." Enter sysadmin's password when prompted to do so, then enter the root password for the system (eracks.) 9. Logout of the virtual terminal and hit F7 to go back to the graphical console and login as sysadmin. 10. You will be notified that there are updates available. Go ahead and install them. 11. You will be notified that there are "restricted drivers" available. Click on the little icon on the top right that looks like a little circuit board and click on the "Restricted Drivers" tab. 12. Make sure the intel wireless adapter is enabled, and also enable the Nvidia accelerated graphics driver. 13. On the system menu at the top, click on "System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager" 14. Install the package "linux-backport-modules." This is required to make the sound card work. 15. Edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base, and add the following line at the bottom: "options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba" 16. Reboot the computer, and make sure to test the wireless adapter and sound card (by playing a sound) You're done!
admin March 31st, 2008
Posted In: Laptop cookbooks
Acer Aspire 3690 Laptop with FreeBSD cook book!
How to Install FreeBSD 6.2 on an Acer Aspire 3690
First Step: Install a fresh copy of FreeBSD 6.2
1) Getting the sound card to work:
The soundcard uses the snd-hda module, which is not supported by the 6.2 kernel. However, the latest snapshot of the 6.x series kernel does support it, so we must update our kernel. To do so, do the following:
1. Create a CVS sup called supfile file with the following:
*default tag=RELENG_6 #(do NOT use RELENG_6_2, or you won’t get the new kernel)
*default host=ftp.freebsd.org
*default prefix=/usr/local
*default base=/var/db
*default release=cvs delete use-rel-suffix compress
src-sys
2. Now, issue the command ‘cvsup supfile’
3. When the updated kernel source tree is fully downloaded, copy /usr/src/sys/crypto to /usr/local/src/sys/crypto (for some reason, this subdirectory is missing from the more up-to-date version of the kernel source tree, which results in compile-time errors.)
4. Edit the file /usr/local/src/sys/conf/newvers.sh and change ‘RELEASE’ from 6.3 to 6.2 and ‘BRANCH’ from PRERELEASE to RELEASE. This is a rather clumsy hack, but it’s the only way to ensure that the user will continue to be able to download packages for the 6.2 RELEASE version of FreeBSD, since, while the userland is 6.2, the OS’s version is determined by the kernel’s version.
5. Copy /usr/local/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC to /usr/local
src/sys/i386/conf/ERACKS
6. Open the ERACKS kernel configuration file and do the following:
– delete all the ‘cpu’ directives at the top except for I686_CPU
– change ‘ident GENERIC’ to ‘ident ERACKS’
– disable unneeded device drivers (be careful to only disable those you know for a fact won’t be used; you can get rid of the serial and parallel port drivers for example, since there are no serial or parallel ports on the laptop)
7. When the source tree is prepared, move /usr/src/sys to /usr/src/sys.old, and move /usr/local/src/sys to usr/src/sys
8. cd to /usr/src and type the command “make buildkernel KERNCONF=ERACKS”
9. If the build was successful, type the command “make installkernel KERNCONF=ERACKS”
10. Reboot the computer and make sure it comes up successfully
Now, the sound card should be working.
2) Getting the wireless to work:
Unfortunately, there are no native FreeBSD drivers for the wireless. However, there is an ndis wrapper in the FreeBSD kernel that will allow us to use Windows drivers for this card.
1. Download the file http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R94827.EXE. Just in case this link doesn’t work, a copy of this driver will also be kept at eRacks. Even though the laptop is an Acer, trying to use the Acer driver will fail (not sure why.) The Dell driver, while intended for another laptop, supports the same wireless chipset, and will suit our needs.
2. On a Windows machine (or with WINE), run the self extracting archive, and copy bcmwl5.inf and bcmwl5.sys to the FreeBSD laptop (these files will be extracted when you run R94827.EXE.)
3. In the directory where the two above mentioned files are stored, issue the command “ndisgen bcmwl5.inf bcmw5l.sys”. Accept all the defaults, pressing enter for each one, and a resulting .ko kernel object will be built. This is the “FreeBSDized” Windows driver that will support the wireless card.
4. Copy the resulting object file to /boot/modules
5. Edit /boot/loader.conf and add the following line: “bcmwl5_sys_load=”YES”
6. Reboot the machine, and verify the wireless card is working by issuing the command “ifconfig -a.” Observe that there is a device named ndis0.
That’s it! All the other devices are supported out of the box. The only exception is that the graphics adapter is only supported through generic VGA. The Intel 945GVM is supported in FreeBSD 7.0, but that is currently unstable.
admin March 31st, 2008
Posted In: Laptop cookbooks