[opensuse-project] An Idea to improve OpenSuse for eeePC

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Alexander Muravya

18 Aug 2008 18 Aug '08

05:43

Hello, list! We already have opensuse for Asus eeePC but what about improving it: 1) We need to create "easy mode" (as it was realized in default Xandros) 2) We need to include packages for wi-fi and web-camera (and other hardware) in default selection (to enable "out of the box" support of all eeePC hardware) 3) Make ISO image for USB Sticks (because eeePC has no DVD-ROM) Second statement is very important because user need to download few packages to make his wi-fi working from Internet, but with the same time he has no wireless internet access. So what do you think on it? --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org

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Brandon Philips

18 Aug 18 Aug

06:04

On 09:43 Mon 18 Aug 2008, Alexander Muravya wrote:

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1) We need to create "easy mode" (as it was realized in default Xandros)

What do you mean by this?

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2) We need to include packages for wi-fi

OpenSuSE 11.1 will be based on Kernel v2.6.27 which supports the EeePC wifi card via ath5k.

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and web-camera (and other hardware) in default selection (to enable "out of the box" support of all eeePC hardware)

The uvcvideo driver was merged in 2.6.26 and should work in OpenSuSE 11.0/11.1 out of the box.

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3) Make ISO image for USB Sticks (because eeePC has no DVD-ROM)

This would be nice. The Debian USB images are handy. Cheers, Brandon --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org

Sonja Krause-Harder

08:05

On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 11:04:57PM -0700, Brandon Philips wrote:

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On 09:43 Mon 18 Aug 2008, Alexander Muravya wrote:

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1) We need to create "easy mode" (as it was realized in default Xandros)

What do you mean by this?

The original Xandros for EeePC has a highly customised IceWM (if I recall correctly) to provide a simple, tabbed interface with big colourful icons for Mail, Web, Audioplayer, Skype etc. This is called easy mode, and the EeePC looks like yet another PDA-ish device, you don't really notice it's running linux. To get KDE on the EeePC, which is what most people reading lists like this one want, you have to install the so-called "Advanced Mode" manually. The sources for the custom IceWM GUI, which I believe was just configuration, not actual changes to IceWM itself, used to be available for download from the Asus website. I'm only getting 404's now, though. I don't think that a huge project overhead with planning and design is necessary to provide a similar (but green ;-)) interface, packaged and built in the build service, just someone who finds out how to configure a light-weight window manager, documents it in the wiki, and provides a few sample files which people can either use as they are, or build upon. The scope of this would be probably small enough for one person, so, to the original poster: what are you waiting for? ;-) cheers, Sonja -- Sonja Krause-Harder (skh@suse.de) SUSE Research & Development ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE Linux Products GmbH GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org

Alexander Muravya

11:46

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Sonja Krause-Harder wrote:

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so, to the original poster: what are you waiting for? ;-)

There only 2 officially supported OS for eeePC: 1)Windows XP 2) Xandros I thought, that openSUSE can be the third. But with the same time it was found out, that ASUS has a lot of closed drivers. So I perhaps shall give up with this idea. Thanx for paying your attention to this idea --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org

Marcus Meissner

11:50

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 03:46:37PM +0400, Alexander Muravya wrote:

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On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Sonja Krause-Harder wrote:

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so, to the original poster: what are you waiting for? ;-)

There only 2 officially supported OS for eeePC: 1)Windows XP 2) Xandros

I thought, that openSUSE can be the third. But with the same time it was found out, that ASUS has a lot of closed drivers. So I perhaps shall give up with this idea.

atl2 (wired network driver) is in 11.0. uvcvideo (webcam) is in 11.0. only the wireless driver is not in 11.0 standard, but will be in 11.1. And only ASUS can call it "official", otherwise we have working images already. Ciao, Marcus --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org

Sonja Krause-Harder

11:57

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 03:46:37PM +0400, Alexander Muravya wrote:

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On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Sonja Krause-Harder wrote:

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so, to the original poster: what are you waiting for? ;-)

There only 2 officially supported OS for eeePC: 1)Windows XP 2) Xandros

I thought, that openSUSE can be the third.

Asus chose Xandros, I don't see that they'll ever officially support another Linux. However, good community support for the whole class of small cheap notebooks that the EeePC spawned is interesting. From what I've seen in EeePC forums, the EeePC Xandros is the first linux for many of its users. They tend to switch to a different distribution as soon as they notice that they don't get the software they need from Asus' software repositiores. Most drift to Ubuntu, though, for known and various reasons. -- Sonja Krause-Harder (skh@suse.de) SUSE Research & Development ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUSE Linux Products GmbH GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nuernberg) --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org

Andrew Wafaa

08:39

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:43:57 +0400 "Alexander Muravya" wrote:

...

Hello, list! We already have opensuse for Asus eeePC but what about improving it: 1) We need to create "easy mode" (as it was realized in default Xandros) 2) We need to include packages for wi-fi and web-camera (and other hardware) in default selection (to enable "out of the box" support of all eeePC hardware) 3) Make ISO image for USB Sticks (because eeePC has no DVD-ROM)

Second statement is very important because user need to download few packages to make his wi-fi working from Internet, but with the same time he has no wireless internet access.

So what do you think on it? --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org

Alexander, 1) I'm not so sure having an "easy mode" replicated in openSUSE is worth it. I would much rather see openSUSE produce an image using XFCE or LXDE. These are desktop environments designed to be light on resources, and as a result be speedy. 2) As has been mentioned some of the hardware is/will be supported natively by the kernel. However not all the drivers are completely open, and as such make things slightly harder for "out of the box" support. 3) I agree that having a USB image would be very handy, and there is nothing stopping you trying this with KIWI. I have it on my todo list, but at present my list is rather large and I'm trying to get through all items. I have installed GNOME/KDE4.1/XFCE/KDE3.5.9 on my eeePC701 (all via PXE boot), and to be honest I can't really decide on which DE is best which doesn't help with creating an image. At the minute, I'm going to discount KDE4 until 4.2 when the panel gains the hide feature. So I'm now down to three which is no easier. I would probably go with GNOME, but that is only because that is the DE that I am most familiar with. I am going to give KDE3 a good go though as I think deep down that it may well be better suited to the device. An alternative is to thin the package selection down sufficiently that it takes up the least amount of space. This in effect would be a matter of deciding what applications are necessary (web browser/mail client/IM/etc) and then try an do a custom install with that package set and see if it works. This can be done in a VM and not necessarily on an actual device. Regards, Andy -- Andrew Wafaa, openSUSE Member: GNOME & Marketing Teams. http://opensuse.org/GNOME | http://en.opensuse.org/Marketing_Team openSUSE: Get It, Discover It, Create It at http://www.opensuse.org awafaa@opensuse.org http://www.wafaa.eu | http://www.forcev.net --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org

Stephan Kulow

19 Aug 19 Aug

05:59

Am Montag 18 August 2008 schrieb Andrew Wafaa:

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3) I agree that having a USB image would be very handy, and there is nothing stopping you trying this with KIWI. I have it on my todo list, but at present my list is rather large and I'm trying to get through all items.

Btw: I put up USB images for 11.0, that are still rather experimental under ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/FactoryLiveCDs Greetings, Stephan --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org