Differences between revisions 61 and 62
Revision 61 as of 2010-05-11 11:43:31
Size: 6567
Editor: ?JoshDrizin
Comment: fix the bit about playing music while the lid is closed
Revision 62 as of 2010-05-11 23:42:46
Size: 6662
Editor: ?JoshDrizin
Comment: i needed to add more information for the "music with the lid closed" tip
Deletions are marked like this. Additions are marked like this.
Line 43: Line 43:
 . This is configurable in /etc/default/eeepc-acpi-scripts. Look for LID_CLOSE_ACTION  . This is configurable in /etc/default/eeepc-acpi-scripts. Look for LID_CLOSE_ACTION and set it to 'nothing'. See /usr/share/doc/eeepc-acpi-scripts/examples for more information.

Translations: German, French, Italiano, Portuguese, Spanish

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you make another fork of Debian to adapt it to the Asus Eee PC?

  • We don't. DebianEeePC is pure Debian. It's a DebianPureBlends project to make Debian work optimally on the Eee. Our repository keeps just a few packages which cannot (yet) be in mainstream Debian for some reason.

Do you provide a custom kernel specially adapted to the Eee PC hardware?

  • Maintaining a custom kernel for special hardware is much more work then just finding the right configuration and compiling kernels. Think of backporting all mainstream and Debian patches and all the related testing needed to really support such a kernel over some time. As we aim to fully support the Eee in Debian itself and not a fork of Debian, we cannot depend on a custom kernel. Such a kernel would never be a part of Debian.

Do I need a swap partition?

  • No, not really. The system works well without. The installer will try to convince you, that you do need one, but it's up to you to decide. Putting more RAM into your Eee is often a better choice than using swap.

What about hibernate if I have no swap?

  • Hibernate will not work without a swap space. However, it is possible to use a swap file created in the following way:

    • dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/deletami bs=1024k count=512
  • This command creates a 512 MB swap file that can be used to hibernate the system. (Note that you'll need a bigger swap file if you have more RAM).

How much RAM do I need?

  • Try it out. You will be surprised how much you can do even with 512 MB. But then, RAM is cheap and does not drain too much battery power. So if you can upgrade to 1 G or 2 G it is certainly worth it.

How much disk space does the installation take?

Do I need the EFI partition or is it safe to delete?

Can I make a test install on removable media without changing the existing OS?

Can I install *to* a USB harddrive in an external case?

Can I put the *installer* on an external harddrive and start installation *from there*?

  • If you want to use your drive in “superflopp” mode (i.e. without partition table etc.) it should work. But who would like to? Press <Esc> on bootup and select your external drive to boot from, if you want to do it.

Can I install from an external CDROM drive?

  • Yes. Press <Esc> on bootup and select your cdrom drive.

Can I mount an SD card at boot time?

  • Yes. However, due to the order in which rc scripts are executed during the boot process, automatically mounting file systems on an SD card cannot be done as part of a mount -a invocation. You should add noauto to the options, and explicitly mount the file system later on in the boot process, e.g. from the /etc/rc.local file.

My system takes too much space on the flash drive. How can I make it smaller?

  • The Debian eeepc system leaves you all the freedom to install/uninstall the software packages you want. Use Aptitude or apt-get to do that. For suggestions of lightweight packages see ../Software. ../TipsAndTricks gives instructions how to make your system's footprint smaller, like deleting obsolete package files and localepurge.

Suspend won't work. How do I fix it?

  • The eee will not suspend unless your user is in the powerdev group. This affects users of power managers (e.g. gnome-power-manager) as otherwise suspend is handled by acpid which runs as root.

How do I listen to music with the lid closed?

  • This is configurable in /etc/default/eeepc-acpi-scripts. Look for LID_CLOSE_ACTION and set it to 'nothing'. See /usr/share/doc/eeepc-acpi-scripts/examples for more information.

How do I get wicd to automagically show me the networks available when my lxde desktop starts?

  • Add a desktop to your ~/.config directory with 3 lines saying

    [Desktop Entry] 
    Type=Application
    Exec=wicd-client -n

My fan won't start. How do I fix it?

  • It's probably a hardware fault. Disassemble your system, (caution, this may void your warranty,) check if the fan is stuck, clean it and verify it spins easily again, reassemble your system. If that doesn't work, see this post.

Where can I get help?

  • Your questions are welcome on our IRC channel #debian-eeepc at oftc (irc://irc.oftc.net/#debian-eeepc ) or the mailing list. Please do read the information given in our wiki pages first. Feel free to come back later and edit the wiki, if your question was not answered here.

Where is the latest version of this FAQ?