The procedure for installing linux from a USB stick that was formerly described here was so unreliable, that it has been discarded. A boot file can be reliably written to a USB stick from linux, but there seems to be some fundamental limitation in the Windows operating system itself that makes it impossible to reliably write a boot file to a USB stick from Windows XP. A boot CD can be reliably written from Windows. Now we describe how to install linux from a CD. You will have both linux and windows on your computer, and can choose which to boot up. This installation will require that in addition to your Asus 1000HE, you will need the Asus SDRW-08D1S-U DVD/CD drive, and a blank CD-R. After the installation, the DVD/CD drive will not be needed, unless you want to use it.
This document does not assume that you are fluent in either windows or in linux. Some will find it excessively verbose and detailed. But hopefully everyone will find all the information they need for a successful install. Use at your own risk. Back up personal files on a USB stick before you start, since they will not be safe during the installation process. It is only a basic install of the gnome desktop. The screen, keyboard, mousepad, ethernet port, USB ports, VGA port, and wifi will work. No attempt is made to get the camera or microphone working. Maybe they already do, I haven't tried to find out.
At the end of this installation process your wifi will be working, but the current linux kernel supplied by debian 5.0 does not support the wifi chip on the 1000HE. So it is necessary to install over ethernet, not wifi, then install a newer kernel that does support wifi. If you do not have ethernet, hopefully a friend will let you use his, or you could check into a high class hotel with ethernet to do the install. Next year's version of debian will support this wifi chip, but by then Asus will probably be using another chip that will not be supported yet.
The linux installation sofware is in an iso file. Windows does not have the capability to write an iso file to a CD in the correct manner. This capability can be added. An iso file could be written like any other file, or it can be written in a special way that iso files are intended to be written, which is what you want. If it is written like an ordinary file, you will see the iso file on the CD. If it is written correctly you will see the files that were contained in the iso file. Download iso recorder V2 at http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm. Download it to "my documents". Go into "my documents", double click on it to install it. Let it install itself where it wants. You should shutdown windows and reboot before the installation will take effect.
Go to debian.org, download the free 180MB "netinst" iso file. Click on the "i386" link in the "small CDs" section at www.debian.org/distrib/netinst. Download the iso file to "my documents". Insert a blank CD-R into your machine to write the iso file onto. Go into "my documents" and right click on the iso file. In the popup window click on "copy image to CD". The "CD recording wizard" pops up. Under "source", "image file" should be checked. Click "next", then you will see "recording", then "closing disk", then the CD will eject.
It may be best to defragment Windows at this point. If you do not, the linux installer may refuse to resize the Windows partition. To do that, when in Windows, click on "my computer", right click on C drive, click on "properties", "tools", "defragment now".
The BIOS must be modified to permit an operating system to be loaded from the CD drive. The procedure is explained in the user's manual that came with your computer, where loading Windows from the CD drive is described. This modification is what we describe here. The next procedure requires the use of the "esc" key during startup. For this to work, you may need to make a minor change to the BIOS. Hold down the F2 key and turn on the computer. This will get you into the "BIOS SETUP UTILITY". Use the right arrow key to move the highlight over to "boot", then the down arrow key to highlight "boot settings configuration". Hit "enter", and see the menu. Highlight "quick boot", enter, highlight "disabled", hit enter to select it. Then hit "esc" key, then right arrow key to highlight "exit". Highlight "exit and save changes", "OK", enter. Now the esc key should work on bootup.
Now you are ready to install linux. With the ethernet cable and the CD drive plugged into the computer, and the CD in the drive, turn on the computer, holding down the "esc" key. A blue window pops up "Please select boot device". Use the down arrow key to select "USB...", then press "enter". Since the CD drive is plugged into the USB ports, it will show as a USB device. Hopefully, you will see the debian installer screen. In the debian screen, with the cursor on "install" hit "enter". Next the "choose language" screen will appear, with the "english" choice highlighted. Hit "enter" to accept this default choice. Eventually you will get to "please enter the host name for this system". Unless you have special requirements, enter a single letter host name, as it will make your prompt line shorter when you are using the system. Next it wants a domain name. Leave blank. Accept defaults for everything until you get to time zone. Use up/down arrow keys to select your time zone.
The stuff in this paragraph is dangerous to your software, not your hardware, be slow, deliberate and careful. When you get to "partition disks", select "manual". The next screen shows the current partitions. The stuff under the heading "SCSI1" is the hard disk, which we will be modifying. The #1 primary ntfs partition is where windows is. If there is another partition under "SCSI1", highlight it, "enter" on the next screen scroll down to "delete the partition", "enter", until the line with "ntfs" is the only one under "SCSI1" except a line with "FREE SPACE". Then highlight the ntfs line, enter, on the next screen select "Resize the partition", hit enter. On the next screen use the tab key to select "yes". On the next "new partition size" screen enter "50%", enter. Now you see how much ntfs and free space you have. Select "guided partitioning", on the next screen "use the largest continuous free space", then "all files in one partition". Now you see the partitions, with no free space, but with ntfs, ext3 and swap partitions under "SCSI1". Select "finish partitioning and write changes to disk". On the next screen tab to "yes" and enter. Now you are through partitioning and will have nothing to do for about 12 minutes.
Next, you will be asked for names and passwords. In about 2 minutes you will be asked whether you wish to participate in a survey. It does not matter. Then "software selection" comes up. Use the up/down arrow keys and spacebar to select "desktop environment", "laptop", and "standard system". Now you will have an hour and twenty minutes with nothing to do. Next accept the defaults to install the grub bootloader.
When the computer reboots, you will be presented with a blue screen with four lines representing three choices. The three choices are linux, linux single user mode, and windows. Use the down arrow to move down to the bottom choice, windows. When windows starts, it will check the file system, then automatically reboot. When it reboots, again scroll down and choose windows. With one or two more reboots windows should boot properly. Wifi will work properly in Windows.
Shutdown windows and reboot into the top line choice. You now have a working linux system, log on with your username and password. At this point linux ethernet works, but linux wifi will still not work. Click "applications" "accessories" "terminal" to get a terminal window. Before you can fix the wifi problem, you must learn to use the vi editor. If you can get by with windows wifi, and do not need linux wifi, you are through at this point, skip to the last three short paragraphs in this article.
We now need to upgrade the linux kernel if we want to fix the linux wifi. We follow the proceedure outlined at http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEeePC/HowTo/Upgrade Logon with your username and password. Click "applications" "accessories" "terminal". A terminal window will pop up. Type "su" and enter your superuser password. The prompt should change to "#". Enter "cd /etc/apt", then "ls", and see the file "sources.list". Then use the vi editor to add the following line on a new line below the last line of the source.list file: "deb http://backports.undebian.org/repositories/backports-kernel/ ./" . Write the file and get out of the vi editor, then enter the following line of text into the terminal window: "wget -q -O - http://backports.undebian.org/repositories/backports-kernel/archive-key.asc | apt-key add - ". Then do "apt-get update", and some text will scroll by. When this is finished, enter "synaptic". The synaptic package manager should appear. Click on "search". In "find" window enter "linux-image", then on "search" in the "find" window. After it settles, in the "package" window you will see an alphabetical list. Scroll down until you find some linux-image packages. You already have a linux-image-2.6.26, what you need is a 2.6.30 version. If you click once on the package, you should see a description in the window below the list. The one you want is "linux-image-2.6.30-backport on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4, but NOT the version that is for 4-64G RAM machines. Make sure the tiny square box at the left of the package you want is checked. Then at the top of the package manager, click the "apply" icon, then click apply again in the popup. You will see "downloading package files", then "installing software". When everything settles down, close out synaptic, at the top of the screen click on "system" "shutdown" "restart". Unplug the ethernet cable and see if you can get a wifi signal. When it restarts, log on, move the cursor to the upper right part of the screen, click on the two tiny overlapping rectangles with the little red x. You should see a list of wireless networks with indications of signal strength and whether secure or not. Click on the one you want. After a few seconds you should see "connection established". Now your software installation is complete.
To improve screen resolution so text and graphics are smaller on the screen, as superuser at the end of /etc/gdm/gdm.conf add:
[server-Standard] name=Standard server command=/usr/bin/X -audit 0 -dpi 96 flexible=true
The VGA connector is especially useful for making visual presentations using a digital projector or large monitor. The VGA only works if the computer is connected to the monitor, and the monitor is turned on, before the computer is booted up.
If your computer is not an Asus 1000HE, some of the details of the procedure may need to be changed. The BIOS operation may be different.
If you would like to learn how to program your computer, see how to program a computer at this website.