[Debian-eeepc-devel] installing on eeepc 1001HA

[John Vodden]

Hi

Here is a quick write-up of my experience getting the EEE-1001HA to work;
it wasn't entirly straightforward.  Hopefully some of this information
will be useful to other people with this netbook. Apparently some versions
of this model come with linux pre-installed but I couldn't find any for
sale (and would have re-installed anyway...)

1. INSTALLATION
The networking for this device requires atl1c (wired) and rt3090 (wireless)
kernel modules. Neither of these exist on the lenny installer so a net
install is not an option. I created a boot usb-stick following the
instructions on the wiki. 
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/InstallUsingStandardInstaller 

I had to modify the procedure as boot.img creates a small filesystem on the
usb stick which doesn't have space for the entire disk1 iso. I had to mount
the img as loop, copy the contents to a filesystem occupying the whole
stick and then run syslinux to make it bootable. This is more or less the
procedure described here 
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Install_to_USB_From_within_Linux

I added a sid 2.6.31 kernel image to the usb stick and lenny's first
install iso (not net install.)

After running the installer I installed this kernel with dpkg, rebooted
configured eth0 (wired) and added other packages and things with aptitude.

2. WIRELESS
The sid image didn't contain rt3090 and there is a lot of talk on the
internet about problems with the rt3090 module. I chose to compile
my own 2.6.32 as this has the module included (albeit in staging)
rather than try to patch 2.6.31. I now see that there are several
2.6.32 related packages in the sid package list so I don't know if one
of those would have done.  There is also a driver package from ralink
http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=2 but I didn't find this until
I'd got most things working with 2.6.32. I don't know which kernels
this will compile against or if it will work at all.

The biggest problem I had with this wireless was the fact that I
prioritized getting wifi to work above bothering with acpi scripts. I was
trying to get wifi to connect whilst the wifi wasn't switched on (no blue
light.) After installing the eeepc acpi scripts and turning on the wireless
I could see wireless networks with "iwlist scan" and connect to them with
network-manager. It still seems a little temperamental using iwconfig
directly and I have yet to try wicd.

3. REMAINING ISSUES
ACPI is still a bit odd but I think this is something to do with my
home-compiled kernel. With the standard 2.6.26 everything seems to work and
I can toggle the wireless but can only connect with ndiswrapper. Under
2.6.32 I can't probe eeepc-laptop (module exists but reports no such
device, works with normal kernel.) There is discussion here
http://dev.iksaif.net/issues/13 that sounds similar but I haven't had time
to read that thoroughly enough to decide if it is relevant. Fortunately if
I turn wireless on under 2.6.26 the state persists between boots so I can
use the 2.6.32 driver.

Disable touchpad button doesn't work (when acpi does) but I haven't
investigated this yet.

The one occasion I accidentally tried to suspend caused a hang, but I
haven't investigated this either.


Regards
John

This message has been checked for viruses but the contents of an attachment
may still contain software viruses which could damage your computer system:
you are advised to perform your own checks. Email communications with the
University of Nottingham may be monitored as permitted by UK legislation.