Asus Eeepc

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1. Asus Eeepc

• Manufacturer: Asus
• Model: Eee pc 900
• CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 900MHz
• RAM: 1gb

2. Hardware

lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 04)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 04)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 04)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 04)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 04)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 04)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 04)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev d4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 04)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. L2 100 Mbit Ethernet Adapter (rev a0)

• CD/DVD read: NA - not present
• CD/DVD write: NA - not present
• LAN: works but needs the atl2.ko kernel module, see note below
• Wireless: works but needs a patched version of madwifi - see below
• Sound: works but needs a newer alsa-driver package - see below
• Video: uses an Intel 915 video card - works OOTB, including compiz/aiglx/desktop-effects
• USB: OK
• Firewire: NA
• Bluetooth: NA
• Webcam : works with the uvcvideo module - see below

3. CentOS 5.2 i386 setup on the eeepc

As you probably know, there is no CD drive on the Eeepc that can be used directly. So you can either install from a local usb disk or through the network.

3.1. Install from a local USB disk

You can prepare a USB stick that will be used to boot up the Eee PC and start the CentOS setup. All these steps (creating the usb stick and preparing the local usb disk) are already documented in the official doc :

* http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.2/Installation_Guide/ch02s04s01.html (USB stick creation)

* http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5.2/Installation_Guide/ch02s06.html (Hard Drive installation preparation)

Of course you'll have to modify the Bios to boot from your USB stick and attach a USB HDD containing the ISO images

3.2. Install from the network (nfs, http, ftp)

If you want to install through the network, you'll need a modified initrd.img that includes the atl2.ko module : initrd-atl2.img

Basically you just need to prepare the same USB stick as above, except that you overwrite initrd.img with the one from the wiki (and of course you rename initrd-atl2.img to initrd.img)

3.3. Eeepc repo to be added during setup

I've created a 'temp' repo to hold the atl2 and madwifi kmods rpms during setup so that you'll have wired and wifi networks available after the first reboot. You just need to add the following repo (in the customize section during packages selection) : http://rpms.arrfab.net/centos/5/eeepc/ You'll then have a new package group in the packages selection and select the whole eeepc group Those packages survive a kernel-update (thanks to the weak-updates strategy on el5)

4. Shutdown Fix

The Asus Eeepc doesn't halt correctly by default. To fix this do the following : add a line in the file /etc/init.d/halt , just before the # Save random seed line :

#Shutdown eeepc fix
modprobe -r snd-hda-intel && echo "snd-hda-intel module removed!"

5. Wired network card

The Eee PC has a "Attansic Technology Corp. L2" wired ethernet interface. As already explained, the necessary atl2.ko kernel module is not included in the CentOS kernel. So we have to install it first. see the Eeepc repo to be added during setup section

6. Wireless network card

The Eee PC needs a specific (and patched) version of Madwifi to handle the "Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x" wireless nic. see the Eeepc repo to be added during setup section

7. Sound Card

You need to install a newer alsa-driver package than the one in CentOS 5.x (1.0.14) . Actually you can install the newer alsa kernel module from the ATRpms repo :

yum --enablerepo=atrpms install alsa-driver alsa-kmdl-`uname -r`

Don't forget that the modules will be 'in-use' so reboot your machine or rmmod the modules yourself. Don't forget to configure the mixer/volume properties according to your needs

8. Webcam

You need to install the uvc kernel module. Actually you can install the uvc kernel module from the ATRpms repo :

yum --enablerepo=atrpms install uvc uvc-kmdl-`uname -r`

It's now possible to use the webcam (after having modprobe uvcvideo) in application like Ekiga (use the V4L2 mode)