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Taming the Wild Eee PC: Replacing the Operating System, Part 1

Feb 20, 2009

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Eee PC Configuration Problems
Replacing the Eee PC OS with Ubuntu
Next Steps

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Replacing the Eee PC OS with Ubuntu

To replace the Eee PC OEM OS with Ubuntu (any flavor):

Collect the required components.
Create the Ubuntu virtual machine setup for VirtualBox.
Use VirtualBox to install Ubuntu to an SD card.
Create the Boot setup for the Eee PC Internal Reader SD card.

The following sections explain this process in further detail.

Collect the Required Components

The components you need include the following:

Both Part 1 and Part 2 of this article. Replacing the Xandros OEM OS installation with Ubuntu as shown in Part 1 eliminates wireless access. Part 2 will show you how to restore it and modify the stock Ubuntu UI to provide a superior netbook experience.
Eee PC – Model 900 or other models using an Intel Celeron processor.
Sun VirtualBox installed on your workstation. VirtualBox is used here because an OS installer expects to find a blank physical mass storage device, usually a hard drive. If it doesn't find one, it will attempt to turn whatever is available into one. You don't want this to happen to your main system hard drive. Using VirtualBox will allow you to boot to your regular workstation OS/HD and run the Ubuntu installer in an environment separate from your main OS that nonetheless will allow the installer to find the SD card plugged into a USB flash card adapter. You need Sun VirtualBox instead of the Open Source version because the Open Source version does not work with external USB. To find out how to install it, read my Informit article, “Sun VirtualBox (xVM): A Virtualization Environment for Linux.” To install Ubuntu to an SD card, you probably only need to work through it as far as “Getting USB Working;” after that, use the instructions in the “Create the Ubuntu Virtual Machine Setup for VirtualBox” section later in this article.
Ubuntu ISO or physical CD. Download a plain vanilla Ubuntu iso. I used the latest Intrepid version.
A minimum 8G SD flash memory card. Some SDHC flash cards will not work with the Ubuntu installer. One I was able to get working on the first try is the Kingston 8G Class 4 SDHC card, part number SD4/8GBKR. It's basically an 8G version of the original 4G Kingston SDHC card I installed to the first time, and this is probably the part you should use. This is not to say that no other SDHC card will work with the eeePC, however, the Sandisk 8G (Class 2) part failed repeatedly, as did the A-DATA 16GB Turbo Series SDHC Secure Digital High Capacity Card. The repeated failure was that after partitioning, the new partition would not mount to permit the installation of the Ubuntu OS. I recommend doing some research before buying if you can't find the card I recommend; look for cards that people state that they successfully installed to.
Flash SD card and USB adapter. You'll need this both to replace the built-in Eee PC SD card adapter and to provide a way for your workstation and the VirtualBox installation running on it to connect to the SD card. You'll want a card adapter that's convenient for mobile use. I recommend Emprex SDHC “All in 1 Card Reader.” It's a USB dongle with multiple card slots. It covers most available flash card types without adapters. Mine cost $14.95 at Fry's Electronics. I mention this because I spent a half-hour going through dozens of devices (most the usual boxes with separate cords) before I settled on this one. I've run three different card formats through it on two different machines without trouble.
Ethernet cable, even if you have a wireless router. You'll need wired access for part of the installation.

The following procedure will create the bootable SD flash memory card required to install either Ubuntu-Eee or a netbook customized version of Ubuntu with a slightly modified version of the standard UI (see Figure 2).

Why an SD Card Boot Disk Instead of a Bootable USB Stick?

While the usual approach is to create a bootable USB stick, I decided to avoid it. Having the normal operation of my Eee PC dependent on having a USB stick protruding from the side is not only silly but means that I'd have to remove the stick every time I put the netbook in the case and then find somewhere to put it. Leaving an SD card permanently inside the Eee PC makes much more sense to me. If I need to read one, all I have to do is plug in an external USB reader, such as the one I recommended earlier in the article. The external reader recommended appears to cover all flash card types one is likely to see , while the built-in reader is SD-only.

Figure 2 VirtualBox setup for Eee PC installation to SD drive.

Create the Ubuntu Virtual Machine Setup for VirtualBox

To create the virtual machine setup, first you’ll want to start xVM. On Debian, choose Start > System > Virtual Machine (Sun xVM VirtualBox). On a new installation, the xVM console will come up with no VMs available.

Then start the New Machine Wizard from the xVM Console Machine menu by clicking the New icon, then set the following:

From inside New Machine Wizard:
Select Ubuntu as the machine type and Ubuntu-netbook as the label.
Click Next until it warns you that you have not selected a hard drive; click Continue, then Finish.
Select your new Virtual Machine from the list, then choose Settings. From within Settings:
- General > Advanced tab > boot order: Set it to boot to CD only. You won't be rebooting after installation from VirtualBox. Figure 2 shows in the Details tab on the right the list of settings used for the Ubuntu-Eee PC installation described in this article for reference.
- USB:
  1. Check the Enable USB Controller checkbox.
  2. Check the Enable USB 2.0 Controller checkbox.
  3. Click the + icon.
  4. Plug in the USB flash adapter with the SD card in it, then right-click,; the name of your flash adapter should appear in the right-click menu.
  5. Select the flash adapter name, and it should appear checked in the USB Device Filter list. If it isn't checked, select it. If your workstation pops up a prompt asking to mount the USB device, select Cancel.
  6. For the CD/DVD ROM settings, mount the Ubuntu iso as a CD. Check the Mount CD/DVD Drive checkbox. If you have a physical Ubuntu installer CD, then choose the Host CD/DVD radio button, select your C/DVD drive, and insert the CD.
If you have a downloaded iso of the Ubuntu installer CD:
1. Choose ISO image file radio button.
2. Click the folder icon to open Virtual Disk Manager.
3. Select Add to get to a file window so you can select the file (probably something like ubuntu-8.10-desktop-i386.iso).
4. Select the .iso file from the file display and click Select.

Whatever, you do, do not mount a virtual hard drive.

You are now ready to install Ubuntu to the SD card.

Use VirtualBox to Install Ubuntu to an SD Card

Follow these steps to install Ubuntu to an SD card:

If VirtualBox isn't open, open it.
Boot the Ubuntu installation disk or iso from VirtualBox by double-clicking on the name you picked for your Ubuntu netbook install VM.
Select "Install Ubuntu" from the opening Ubuntu screen
Go through the installation wizard. It will find the USB device. Make sure that the drive selected is the SD card; if in the drive partitioning step the drive shown as selected is the same capacity as the SD card, it's the right one, and there will be other identifying information accompanying it to help you confirm it. Getting this wrong might mean formatting your main workstation hard drive by mistake. In most cases, you can accept whatever the defaults are.
Once you have done this, tell it to start the installation procedure according to the parameters it set in the wizard. It will start by partitioning and formatting the SD card flash drive. The formatting part of the installation will take a very long time (hours). However, because this is going on in VirtualBox you can still use your workstation, so ignore the installation once you've started it until it tells you to eject the CD and reboot.
When that prompt appears, unmount the CD or iso by right-clicking the CD icon at the bottom of the window carrying the installation in progress and unselecting the name corresponding to the file or disk. Then remove the card from the reader.

If you need more information, check out the Ubuntu Eee documentation, which is the article from which I derived the above. It also tells you how to do this without VirtualBox. In general, this is done plugging in a USB flash card adapter, opening up the workstation, and unplugging all the bootable devices. This forces Ubuntu to install to the flash drive as above. For details, go to the Ubuntu-Eee documentation. The array kernel installation is not optional regardless of what the author thinks, unless you like living without wireless access or want to try various workarounds which may or may not work for you to get it.

You're now finished with VirtualBox in the context of the Eee PC installation. If you've installed it for the specific purpose of making your Eee PC work, you have a wonderful virtualization tool that'll make it possible to run Windows, Linux distros, and other *nix distros on your compute. Refer to my linked article for the rest of the info you'll need to take full advantage of VirtualBox.

Create the Boot Setup for the Eee PC Internal Reader SD Card

To get it to boot from the OS SD flash card you inserted, do the following:

Press F2 during boot quickly to get into the BIOS (have your finger sitting on the F2 key as soon as you start the boot, and as soon as you see the startup screen telling you to get into the BIOS via F2, push F2).
From the main BIOS screen shown in Figure 3, right-arrow to the Advanced tab.

Figure 3 BIOS Setup.
Select IDE Configuration via up/down arrows and press Enter.
From IDE Configuration screen, select IDE Master.
From IDE Master screen, select Type.
From the Type blue mini-window shown in Figure 4, select ARMD to boot from your SD flash card, auto to boot from the OEM installation on the main flash drive

Figure 4 Boot drive select.
Press F10 to “Save & Exit”, then press Enter (OK) when you see the confirmation screen.

The boot to the selected OS installation begins.

From now on, with the card inserted you'll have to press F1 during boot to access your new OS installation. To change boot back to the default, go through the above steps and select “Auto,” and you won't have to key in F1 during boot because you’ll be using the OEM installation.

Once you've successfully booted from the SD card, the first thing you will notice is that your wireless no longer works. This is because the standard Ubuntu kernel lacks the right wireless driver for the Eee PC, and that's why I recommend having both halves of this article before getting started.

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