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• Contact: elantrix
  Make: ASUS
  Brand: Eee PC
  Model: 1000HE
  Website: http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=Ues16Gw2OcqSjUNt

Introduction

This is a hardware reference/Ubuntu Linux guide to help laptop test team to test and report problems, developers to fix or build software specifically for this make and model, and general users to understand the technical specs of their laptop, problems they might be faced with when installing Ubuntu and the current solutions they can apply for the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE netbook.

The Asus Eee PC is a subnotebook/netbook computer and was introduced into the market in the late 2007. The Eee series was known mainly being light weight, very energy efficent lastings from 4-9.5 hours and relatively low cost. Newer models have added the option of Windows XP operating system and traditional hard disk drives. Newer models have also increased in price, though they remain relatively inexpensive as laptops, and notably inexpensive for ultra-small laptops.

This netbook is geared towards business users users and home users who require a highly mobile and small system such as commuters, long distant travellers, IT professionals that require high mobility and casual users that that don't want to lobby a power cord around.

In February 2009, Asus unveiled the 1000HE, using the new Intel Atom 280 1.6 GHz processor, although built in power management software can increase the speed to 1.7 GHz with 1MB RAM, a 10-inch (254 mm) LED-lit screen, 6-cell battery, 160 GB HDD, Bluetooth, 10/100 LAN, 802.11n wireless networking, bluetooth, Integrated 1.3 mega pixel Webcamera, and a revised keyboard. Asus also claims the battery will last for 9.5 hours.

Externally the netbook features a reasonably sleek piano like glossy case and comes in either black or white. It also features small blue LEDs, one for the power at the top right of the keyboard and three at right of the touchpad including a red LED to indicate when it's charging. The netbook includes a more spaced out keys and multitouch touchpad (which at the time of writing, only seems to work with Windows XP that it comes with). External connectivity includes a lock hole, 1x LAN, 3x USB, 1x Mic jack, 1x headphone jack, 1x SD media card slot, 1x VGA.

The Eee PC 1000HE is designed to run Windows XP, but has support for GNU Linux. Ubuntu Feasty netbook distribution isn't fully supported, but hopefully this guide will help the laptop testing team, developers and netbook owners to help better understand what the netbook is capable of doing in Ubuntu, resolve issues if possible and hopefully get Ubuntu to be fully capable of being fully supported out-of-the-box.

Status of this document

This document is a work in progress as of June 2009. It is mostly being used to document a specific installation and the issues surrounding that installation. Plenty of other people around the net seem to be trying to use Ubuntu with this particular netbook, so feel free to add your two cents.

Let me know if there is anything to add, clarify or fix, especially for the issues I wasnt able to resolve.

To Do

• Find a good solution to getting wireless contectivity for AW-NE766 Ralink chipset.
• Getting multitouch to work on touchpad.
• Further testing to ensure I havent missed anything.

Outstanding Issues

This is the list of issues with no current solution or work around, if you have a solution, please remove it from the list and add it to the appropriate section.

• Wireless intermittently stops sending and recieving data while still connected to AP, disconnecting and reconnecting sometimes seems not to help (Tested on AW-NE766 ralink wifi chipset as per the label located on the back of the battery).
• Turning off Wireless by eeepc-acpi-utilities Wireless off/on sometimes makes ubuntu unable to turn wireless back on, I've found reenabling in Windows XP it came with resolved this issue.
• ethernet sometimes doesnt work correctly after waking from suspended mode.
• Battery indicates 5 hours remaining at full charge at no load in gnome battery in the system icons, battery charge monitor that can be added to the top menu bar says 9.25 hours on no load (This includes wireless and bluetooth turned off, brightness at minimum and powersaving mode).

System Info

system-manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
system-product-name: 1000HE
system-version: x.x

Hardware details

Patch existing problems

Before installing, it's highly recommended to leave and if desired resize Windows XP partition as the wireless and possibly bluetooth on/off switch is software driven and not correctly supported in the tests I've done.

The Ubuntu 9.04 UNR should install with no problems, after installation do the following.

Firstly if desired, you can turn off netbook remix laucher and revert to the classic Ubuntu look by opening up a terminal and typing 'desktop-switcher' then select Classic Mode. Personally I prefer this look as the netbook version is limited and still somewhat problematic at times such as opengl.

Then you'd need to get the TSB and Fn keys working especially for wireless and bluetooth, and improved CPU handling, this can be done by downloading eeepc-acpi-utilities (this is only a quick fix and hopefully be automatically included in Ubuntu later).

Will expand...

Notes

This entry is the first of many, this first entry is mainly to note down what I've already tested and what is left to test, diagnose and possibly resolve, and bug report or find bug report.

LaptopTestingTeam/ASUS