Linux on Asus eeePC 701

I am trying to install lxle 12.04.5 on an asus eee pc 701


I tried almost everything i could think of and i cannot get it to install. I run across an error about dvd/cd being faulty, computer possibly getting to warm, or the hard drive being bad all of which are not the case.

I tested the hard drive and it passes ( its a pci-e mini ssd) not only that i even went ahead and bought another one thinking it was the hard drive but it still had same issue.

I tried installing via usb, dvd, sd card etc.. that error errno30 always pops up mid installation.

I even went ahead and tested the memory with memtest did 6 passes and everything went through with - errors.
Disks are good, usb thumb sticks too, as well as my sd cards there is just some issue that i am missing or maybe something specific about linux being installed on my specific eee pc model. Please note as stated above i am installing in a pci-e mini ssd NOT the 4 gb soldered onto the eeec which clearly would not be enough to install most linux os such as lxle

Any idea what is going on? lxle works great in live but unfortunately i need the speed of the ssd which is why i want to install it there.

 

I'm glad you posted this again, and clarified. I don't know if I had a brain fart, our just missed this part, but when I responded to your PM I was under the impression that you had completely replaced your hard drive (swapped a platter HD with an SSD) instead of adding an SSD as a 2nd hard drive. With this realization, I'd like to change my answer!

As previously discussed, your errno30 message is a notification of a disk error failing to mount with full read/write capabilities; mounting with "read only" permissions, which is causing your failure. If your soldered HD is only 4GB, it is definitely too small for most linux distro installations (there are a few that will fit, but not necessarily recommended for new users). I suspect your LXLE installation is probing the disk, determining that it is too small for installation, removing the "write" capabilities to prevent disk corruption, and your installation fails.

If correct, the reason is that a standard installation will default to dev/sda. Since your 4GB HD is soldered to the board, you can't remove it and it will ALWAYS be identiifed as "sda", with any partitions identified as "sda1, sda2, etc..." (As a side note, what is on the 4GB HDD? Seems too small for an OS installation? Are you dual booting, or is it empty? If dual-booting, what OS is on that tiny drive? These answers may provide clues to any possible installation issues which could be addressed at time of install, rather than afterwards, FYI...)

Your SSD is likely identiifed as "sdb" and will be mounted at dev/sdb. The solution is to change your installation location FROM the default "sda" TO the desired "sdb". Here's a tutorial with screenshot of how/where to do that:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/274371/install-on-second-hard-drive-with-startup-boot-option

By choosing dev/sdb as the location of installation, your LXLE install will now fit on your SSD (as long as it's at least 8GB or larger!) and your installation should continue as expected. Please note the final step to enter BIOS and change the preferred boot order so that your SSD is first.

With the SSD booting first, your bootloader (GRUB) will see any OS on the motherboard attached HDD (sda), allowing you to choose between LXLE linux (on your SSD) or the other (your motherboard HDD) upon startup.

Let me know if that does it for you!

 

My ssd ( mini pci-e ssd) actually identifies as the primary drive it overwrites the 4 gb soldered one when i insert it. In fact when i try to install linux it won't even show the 4 gb soldered one because it completely disables it.

However i get endless issues, i just tried an old version of peppermint and lubuntu same error on both of them.

Maybe the issue lies with the old laptop and not really the ssd ( or maybe how the laptop is reading the ssd). I tried installing windows on the ssd to boot it and it completes fine but once it needs to start to finish from the ssd the ssd won't boot from the operating system.

Any experience installing linux on older eepcs ( mine is a 701)?


The linux distro it has already is Xandros, but i don't really like it. I am sure puppy linux would fit on that soldered 4 gb hd but i wanted to use lxle or lubuntu and wanted more hd space which is why i bought a mini pci-e ssd.

As a last resort i would opt to install lxle or lubuntu on a class 10 64 sd card

 

I've never heard of that behavior before...an upgraded SSD "overwriting" a soldered drive and identifying itself as the primary drive (sda). But I'm not familiar with your machine either. There's a user on here named Plodr that has linux (maybe even LXLE if I remember correctly?!) on an Asus eeePC, but I'm not sure if it's the same model as yours. Hopefully, she'll chime in here...maybe change the name of your thread to "Linux on Asus eeePC 701" or something similar to catch her eye! Until then...

Googling for answers, I saw a user comment that the Asus BIOS v. 401 doesn't have SSD support, but I question whether that's accurate, or if it even applies to you, since a 4GB soldered to the motherboard would seem to be SSD to me. Correct?

Otherwise, this site looked helpful:
http://www.december.com/john/computer/eeepcupdates.html

And possibly this one:
https://bbs.linuxdistrocommunity.com/discussion/1060/asus-eee-pc-701

In general, I note that suggested distros are all i386 based with PAE support. At the risk of sounding condescending, are you sure you have the i386 version of LXLE?
https://sourceforge.net/projects/lxle/files/Final/OS/12.04.5-32/

Also, it seems that the choice of USB creation device is important, with everyone suggesting Unetbootin. In the first link, I saw that someone gave up on SSD installation and opted for sdcard installation, so that is indeed an option. If you go that route, an 8GB card is probably a little light for a full installation of LXLE; I'd suggest 16GB as a minimum, which should be plenty for the OS and any downloaded/created files. More if you want, but 16GB minimum, IMO.

Let's hope Plodr chimes in soon and tells us how she did it...

EDIT: Looks like Plodr chimed in while I was writing this!

 

I like LXLE and I normally think it's a fine choice of distro, especially for newcomers. But if you can't get it installed natively, an SD card installation would likely be similarly fast. Alternatively, perhaps install LXLE on a USB drive with persistence (i.e. the ability to save changes, like a "snapshot" of the last configuration of your OS before you shut it down), and use the SSD as a "data drive".

I did see that another user in one of my links had installed Puppy Linux on the 4GB drive. Another option might be Bodhi. But personally, I think AntiX is a fantastic lightweight, small footprint, fully operational OS right out of the box, and would be perfect for your eeePC, depending on your wants/needs/tastes. But that's JMO...if you want to look into it, here's a link:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/antix-linux/files/Final/MX-krete/

 

Lxle recommendation actually came from plodr hehe..

However i probably missed or ignored the part where she mentioned that the ssd would only be read as a storage device and that i wouldn't be able to boot with it.

This is the problem i am facing with my pci-e mini ssd it won't boot from it and it won't install linux to it..

I would benefit much more from the speed of the ssd and that is exactly why i bought it. I like this eee pc model i haven't been able to find another 7'' laptop with its design and layout.

Installing from an sd card wasn't something i wanted to do because i wanted to use the ssd i tested an install to a class 10 micro sd card and it works and runs smooth and the install only took about 20 minutes.

Here lxle the laptop booting from the 64 gb class 10 card i installed lxle on it ( not live boot but the whole thing).

Again i really wish to use the ssd because i can only speculate it would be like 10 times as fast as the class 10 sd card

http://i.imgur.com/iF9nV5U.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/gyRUHO8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IwHujWn.jpg

 

Awesome, glad you got it working! And FWIW, the sdcard may not be as fast as the SSD you wanted, but I'm sure the class 10 sdcard is still faster than the soldered HD! So, actually it's better than new!

Also, FWIW, you're working way too hard to post those screenshots. LXLE has a built-in screenshot program located at Accessories>Screenshot. You can take a screenshot, save it, and upload to MG directly from LXLE while you're on the MG site!

I think you're gonna like LXLE. It's great on older, slower hardware and it's way better than Xandros or Windows, IMO!! ;-)

Congrats!

 

Well the purpose of this thread was to get my pci-e mini ssd to work.

Installing to sd card was never really much of an issue i saw. As it stands right now i have a pci-e mini ssd that i bought without any use which i bought solely for this laptop.

But as i mentioned i run across that issue where linux will not install on it and it seems it can only be used as a storage and unable to boot operating systems.

I don't know if there is a way around this through a bios flash etc.. my intention was to install linux on my pci-e mini ssd.

 

I understand. But at least you're functional while looking. And this isn't a linux/software issue, it's a hardware issue. I think you're right about the BIOS flash. If there's a way, it's got to be unlocked through the BIOS. I'll keep my eyes peeled for you.

 

seems like this guy did something very similar.

http://eeepc-albkwan.blogspot.com/2009/10/install-2nd-ssd-to-my-eeepc-4g.html

maybe you can copy your existing Xandros OS to your SSD, using "dd" function, then change boot order to 2nd drive (SSD). If that works, then you can install LXLE in a dual-boot configuration to your SSD.

But I'm not clear how copying the MBR & Xandros to the 2nd drive allows the 2nd drive to be a boot drive? Any thoughts Plodr?

 

Well it seems we were wrong about this eee pc not being able to boot from the pci-e ssd because i just witnessed it do it 3 times...


Here is the thing there is nothing special to be done to boot from the pci-e ssd, the pc just decides when it wants to... if i am lucky enough and hit the lotto it will boot otherwise it will just hang on a black screen forever.

I installed windows yesterday in the pci-e ssd as a test to see if it would even install it. Well it actually did but it never completed since windows has to start to complete the task and boot from the hard drive it never actually did that but when i was going in and out of bios and messing with configs it finally decided to do so and completed the windows installation it booted to windows as well!

Of course once i restarted it wouldn't boot to the OS... but i gave it another 25 tries and it booted once again and i have yet to mess with any of the bios settings i changed. So i either hit the lotto and it will boot from the pci-e ssd or it just won't.

I attached screenshots of it booted to windows.

Also when a ssd is inserted into the mini pci-e it completely disables the soldered 4 gb hd, it will not even show up in bios while the pci-e ssd is in so copying xandros to it seems extremely unlikely.

There is no way that if i manage to install and boot linux from the ssd that i will go through the hassle of giving it 40-60 tries to even boot, so unless i find a fix or something i probably won't even try. But its good to know that this pc CAN boot from the ssd it is just very inconsistent on doing so.

As seen by the screenshot the ssd is brand new only like 2 hrs powered on and shows healthy as well as a good temp.

http://i.imgur.com/rnyFpke.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/tErEPDi.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1l0Ciwd.jpg

 

Not turning off as putting the laptop to sleep?

Wouldn't this have a negative affect in diminishing my battery life of the laptop?
Because i think i may have a rough idea on how to get this to work.

I believe if i buy a pci-e mini to usb adapter i can install the operating system that way ( linux) and then i can put the pci-e mini ssd back in the slot and try until it eventually boots.
This whole ordeal seems pretty inconvenient and i don't know if this might cause problems in the future , i still want to try it though however maybe i should just deal with the speed of the class 10 card seeing as it operates at an ''ok'' speed.

Since you have lxle were you able to update the seamonkey browser? it won't let me , also i was trying to install chromium but whenever i try to open it i get a message saying that the newer version of chromium doesn't support my hardware so i was trying to figure out how to get an older version compatible with this laptop.

 

how do you watch youtube videos? I always get a flash error and i can't update the flash

I wanted to use chromium too but i can't figure out how to install an (older) working version.

 

This review had an interesting section about Flash:

http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2015/02/an-everyday-linux-user-review-of-lxle.html

Did you enable third party add-ons at time of install? The article indicates:
If you chose to install the third party add-ons when you installed LXLE, Flash will work straight away and so will MP3 audio.

If you forgot to check the box to install third party add-ons, you can install the Lubuntu-restricted-extras package via the software centre, OR type "sudo apt-get install lubuntu-restricted-extras" in the terminal. If you just want flash, type this in terminal "sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer" OR look for flashplugin-installer in Software Center.

 

I think Nexus is installed right? But, FYI, you can install those packages on a live session, even without persistence. But without persistence, you'd need to re-install at every reboot, obviously.

 

Yes mine is installed on the sd card not live, i can reinstall it only takes 20 minutes and not difficult at all.

Upon reading it seems there might be an update for ssd support
My laptop has the 0401 bios revision

I noticed 0602 on asus says '' support sata ssd'' but not sure if this is even my netbook because i don't believe i even have a sata port. Regardless i downloaded the update and did the following:

http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Eee+PC+701SD/Linux&p=30&s=18

Unzipped file
Used a fat 32 usb stick and put the .rom file in the root of the usb drive
Renamed the file to ''701.rom''

plugged in the usb drive, turned on the laptop pressed alt+f2 to engage bios update then pc said '' usb detected'' reading 701.rom file'' and it just gets stuck there it doesn't ask if i would like to proceed or anything so the update doesn't seem to work.

Maybe i am doing something wrong?

 

Nice find Nexus...I think you're on to something! But a couple quick questions and thoughts:

1) Why rename the file as "701.rom"? I didn't cruise the whole Asus site, but perhaps renaming the file is an issue, as the internal script of the firmware installation may be looking for the 0602 file name in the usb directory and hanging when it can't find the original file name?

2) I notice the Asus site requires selection of OS in order to select downloads. I'm assuming you do select the Linux version. And sure enough, there is BIOS 0602 with SATA SSD support. But why not go with the most recent BIOS 0802? I'm guessing the BIOS updates are cumulative, but what is EC Firmware? In any event, I guess I would've selected 0602 also.

But I'm still not clear why you're changing the file name? And previously you indicated that the onboard HD was "disconnected" when another drive was connected...does this include the sdcard? If you're booting from an sdcard, it's certainly a higher priority than onboard, if the onboard is recognized at all.

3) If it was me, I think I'd remove the sdcard and revert the system to boot from the native harddrive into the Xandros OS. I don't know this is the case, but I can't help but wonder if the firmware/BIOS is also located on that soldered HD that can't be removed? And your current method is perhaps hanging because it's looking for that firmware partition on the soldered HD, but failing to find it?

Sorry I'm not more help, but these are my thoughts from an outsider perspective. Interesting project you've got going on...crossing my fingers for your victorious outcome! :cool

 

The more I think about it, I'm confused as to why Asus requires the selection of an OS in order to download the appropriate BIOS upgrade. A BIOS upgrade should be OS agnostic!

Remembering my days as a Windows user, I would typically flash a BIOS update from a usb drive while booted directly into the BIOS software. But occassionally, I do remember downloading a firmware file to my Windows desktop and double-clicking to install from within the OS and rebooting for the update to take effect.

Maybe this is how Asus wants the eeePC upgraded? It's the only explanation I can think of for selecting an OS to get the upgrade? If it were me, I'd consider downloading the Linux OS 0602 upgrade from within LXLE, going to the download directory, and double-clicking the file to install from within LXLE. If that fails, I think I'd pull the sdcard, boot directly into the native Xandros OS and try the same thing. If that fails, I'd copy the 0602 upgrade to a usb stick, boot into the BIOS, and look for an "update BIOS" option from within the BIOS.

But selecting your OS in order to get to the BIOS upgrade is a real head-scratcher for me. I can only speculate that the upgrade is meant to be installed from the native OS desktop. A manual would be handy here... :cool

 

I included my replies in quoted post

 

I also don't know why asus requires you to pick an OS for the bios but here is the thing the files seem exactly the same for both operating systems, they are both named the same and same file size too

 

here is why i am renaming the .rom files these posts hint it has to be like this but since mine is a 701 model instead of putting 1000he i put 701

http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/2009/11/updating-asus-eee-pcs-bios.html

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1621204


oh and i contacted Asus, like i expected they don't know much about this mind you this was in their ''technical IT department'' in fact it seems i was far more knowledgeable about the subject than they even had a clue

 

I'm a long time Linux user myself - since '93 - started with Slackware on floppies!

I recently installed Ubuntu 16.04 (via the mini iso) on my 701 and have it running Xfce, PostgreSQL, etc. and it's working fine as a neat ultraportable development machine, but I'm having an issue with battery recharging. Wondered if you folks had hit that.

I have noticed a couple of things.

The original battery is reporting its level strangely. It will say this with upower:

eeepc $ upower -i /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
native-path: BAT0
vendor: ASUS
model: 701
power supply: yes
updated: Sun 19 Jun 2016 09:43:23 AM EDT (15 seconds ago)
has history: yes
has statistics: yes
battery
present: yes
rechargeable: yes
state: discharging
warning-level: low
energy: 4.368 Wh
energy-empty: 0 Wh
energy-full: 43.68 Wh
energy-full-design: 43.68 Wh
energy-rate: 0 W
voltage: 7.134 V
percentage: 10%
capacity: 100%
technology: lithium-ion
icon-name: 'battery-low-symbolic'

.. and carry on working for two hours even though it's dropping the level down very low in the battery monitor in Xfce.

The second, and major issue is a charging problem on suspend.

Basically, after suspend by closing the lid, the battery doesn't appear to want to recharge when the PSU is plugged in.

It will flash the orange LED, but not go to full on constant orange sometimes.

I have "fixed" this by doing the capacitor discharge trick of unplugging the PSU and the battery, holding power on for 40s, plugging the PSU back in, rebooting, closing down and then plugging the battery back in and recharging.

That has worked *most* of the time but not all.

Sometimes it will just "come back" - i.e. the orange charging LED will flash for a while, then turn orange.

I have the original battery and that seems to hold a charge for a couple of hours when fully charged, but I bought a 6600 replacement the other day and that has the same issue - so not a battery issue ostensibly. (Oddly, that reports 4400 in acpi ?!?!?).

I have a new PSU on order in case it's the PSU, but it seems to be suspend related.

I've also noticed that sometimes, when it doesn't work there's a "tick tick tick tick" noise coming from the machine. Not a power circuit capacitor leak I don't think. It's pretty central on the MB it seems. Odd. (And of course this is SSD, so not disk, and the fan appears to be working fine).

Anyhow - would value any insights on these issues you folks have.

Kind regards

Derek Jones.

 

Hey folks. Answering my own followup here. I got a replacement PSU and immediately I plugged it in, the orange power LED was on solid and it's charging fine.

So, looks like it was a PSU issue first and foremost.

Kind regards

Derek.