?TableOfContents
Extending flash memory life
It is a commonly accepted view that SSD devices can only be written a limited number of times before they die, and while that may have been true for earlier generations of devices, modern SSDs, such as the one in the Eee extend that lifespan long enough so that they will outlast any HDD. Before you spend herculean efforts optimizing your Eee, consider this article: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/ssd_write_limit. Nevertheless, many tips are easy to do and at the very least are harmless, or have other benefits (such as less time spent doing IO making your system more responsive,) so here are a few.
- Open /etc/sysctl.conf and set vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 1500. This will prolong the life of your SSD by writing to the disk every 15 seconds instead of 5.
Probably many of the tips useful for [http://www.cyrius.com/debian/nslu2/linux-on-flash.html Linksys on NSLU2] can be applied to the EeePC
Mount a tmpfs over /tmp to never write its contents to SSD: echo "tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0" >>/etc/fstab. You can probably do that for other directories like /var/tmp, /var/lock, etc.
Text mode
- You may want to add vga=785 to your kernel boot line to get more space for your screen in text mode. This is 600x480 (16 bit), there is no vga code for 800x480.
Desktop environment
If you use a Gnome desktop on your Eee, here are some ways to make better use of the limited screen height:
- Enable the autohide property on the Gnome panels at the top and bottom of the desktop, so they get out of the way unless you mouse over them. To do this, right click on a blank part of the panel, then choose Properties, and go to the General tab.
- In many applications, like gnome-terminal and firefox (iceweasel), you can use the F11 key to toggle a fullscreen mode that provides even more area than simply maximizing the window.
In metacity you can set up the F11 key to toggle fullscreen mode for all applications by selecting System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts. Find the "Window Management" section, select the "Toggle fullscreen mode" item (which is disabled by default), and type F11 to set it.
- You can change workspaces without exiting fullscreen mode by using Control-Alt-Left_arrow and Control-Alt-Right_arrow.
- You can move your application under Xfce (but Gnome too I think) with alt+left_mouse ( press alt before left_mouse ) and move your mouse. Very useful for applications bigger than the screen, like Gnome Evolution (Mail).
Firefox:
- Use the F11 key to toggle a fullscreen mode that provides even more area than simply maximizing the window.
Install the [https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/4550 ?CompactMenu2] extension to gain few pixels taken by the menu
You can also stop using tabs and use Alt+Tab to switch from a window to an other. Use the [http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/keyconfig ?KeyConfig] extension to bind Ctrl+T to "New window".
- Activate the “Use Small Icons” checkbox in the “Customize Toolbar” panel
Opera:
- Use F11 to get into full-screen (this is the presentation mode, you'll not have any bars unlike as in FF).
- Use the "Fit to width" feature on huge pages.
KDE/Kwin:
Each window can be made fullscreen with a right click on the window decoration. You can also use keyboard shortcuts to make a window fullscreen in the control center > “Regional & Accessibility” > “Keyboard Shortcuts” > “Make Window Fullscreen” or “Hide Window Border”.
- Put the panel on the left or right side instead of bottom/top, as you have more room in width than in height. Also choose “Tiny” for the panel size, and take a look at the auto/manual Hiding functionalities.
[http://packages.debian.org/openbox ?OpenBox]:
- Use:
{{{<keybind key="F11">
<action name="?ToggleFullscreen"/>
</keybind>}}} in ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml to get the application to real full-screen (no panels etc.) via F11.
See http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Help:Upgrading_to_3.4#Desktop_cycling_dialog to get rid of the desktop switch dialog
Accessing the Asus Restore Image
Here is a way to access the files that were on the original Xandros system before you installed Debian on your Eee PC. You need the Asus Support DVD that came with the machine, and a Linux machine with a DVD reader and about 2.5G of free disk space (so you probably don't want to do this on your Eee).
Insert the Support DVD and extract the disk image of the Xandros system:
sudo mount /dev/dvd /media/dvd zcat /media/dvd/P701L.gz > ~/restore.img sudo eject /media/dvd
Now you can mount the Xandros image on your desktop whenever you want by doing:
sudo mount -t ext2 ~/restore.img /mnt/img -o ro,loop,offset=32256
(The offset of 63*512 = 32256 skips over the partition table in the disk image.) The original filesystem is now mounted, read-only, under /mnt/img/. When you're finished accessing it, don't forget to do
sudo umount /mnt/img
Make a complete disk image
The Debian Installer provided in the DebianEeePC/Howto/Install can be used to make a disk image and to send it over the network. This trick can sometimes provide a way to restore the (nearly) original Asus EeePC system before playing with new Debian installation as in some countries, you do not have the Asus Restore Image shipped with the laptop.
Backup
This method uses dd and nc provided by the Debian Installer and another computer located on your local network:
- First, boot the debian installer on your USB disk
- Then be sure to activate network and configure it, same thing for the disk (Do not partition it)
- Open a console shell (Alt+F2 or from the Debian Installer menu)
- On the backup computer:
- get its IP adress (ifconfig)
- start a listening nc session on port 9000:
nc -l -p 9000 | gzip -1 -c > ./eeepc.img.gz
- On the EeePC shell:
dd if=/dev/sda | nc -w 5 computer_ip_adress 9000
- Wait some minutes (about 35)... and you get a eeepc.img.gz with about 900Mb
Extract some files from the image
extract the compressed disk image:
gunzip eeepc.img.gz => got & 4Gb eeepc.img
As root (or sudo), setup a loopback device:
losetup -f eeepc.img
view of the partitions:
fdisk -ul /dev/loop0
Disque /dev/loop0: 4001 Mo, 4001292288 octets 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 486 cylinders, total 7815024 secteurs Units = secteurs of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x3c173c16 Périphérique Amorce Début Fin Blocs Id Système /dev/loop0p1 63 4819499 2409718+ 83 Linux /dev/loop0p2 4819500 7775459 1477980 83 Linux /dev/loop0p3 7775460 7791524 8032+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/loop0p4 7791525 7807589 8032+ ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
1 sector = 512 bytes, you want to mount partition 1 which starts at sector 63 => 63 sectors * 512 bytes = 32,256 bytes
- Partition 1 starts at 32256 bytes.
Use the same command from the last tips:
sudo mount -t ext2 eeepc.img /mnt/img -o ro,loop,offset=32256
- if you want partition 2 use 4819500*512 = 2467584000 bytes offset.
Restore
TODO