Hints, tips and tricks part six

Yet again, more hints, tips and tricks I've picked up so far:

I can't get out of Advanced Mode / I can't get back to Easy Mode

• The "brute force and ignorance" way is to do a F9 Restore - however this will lose all your changes and settings.
• A subtler way is to run the personalization applet - open a console and use the command /opt/xandros/bin/password_dialog This ought to give you the option to choose between Easy Mode and Advanced Mode as your Login Mode.
• Or you can replace the startsimple.sh and startfull.sh scripts with unmodified copies. This should as far as I understand make the Eee boot into Easy Mode with the option of using the shut down dialog to go to advanced mode. You can find unmodified copies of the two scripts right here.

I want (software) to start when my Eee boots

• Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t), type sudo kwrite /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager and hit enter.
• Add (software) & to the end of the file. In other words, if you want FireFox to start when your Eee boots, add firefox & to the end of the file.
• Save the file, exit KWrite, and exit the console by typing exit and hit enter.
• Reboot and enjoy.

Hints, tips and tricks, part five

Still more tips and tricks I've picked up while owning my Eee:

 

Forgotten super user password

• The superuser password is the same as the one you set as you powered on your Eee the first time and went through the first run wizard.
• If you can't recall it, set a new one with sudo passwd user
• The easiest way to change the username is to delete the hidden file /home/user/.firstrundone and restart. You will go back through the First Run Wizard where you can re/set your username, password and locale.
• If you want to delete that file, but cant log in on your Eee (since you forgotten the password), you can start your Eee in Rescue Mode, or boot from a USB stick using a Live Distro like PupEee or BrowserLinux.

Enable Advanced Mode, aka Full Desktop

• Download pimpmyeee.sh from this location to /home/user/
• Open the File Manager, rightclick on the file you just downloaded and rename to pimpmyeee.sh (in other words, delete the version mumber from the file name).
• Open a console (Ctrl+Alt+t) and type chmod +x pimpmyeee.sh and press enter. This will make the script executable.
• Type sh pimpmyeee.sh, and press enter. This will run the script.
• Select 'Enable extra repositories' by pressing the coresponding key and press enter. Magic will happen.
• Select 'Enable full desktop' by pressing the corresponding key and press enter again. More magic takes place.
• Exit pimpmyeee, and close the console by typeing exit and pressing enter.
• You should now have the option to go to the advanced desktop on the shut down menu, and you might also have the option to set your login mode to Full Desktop Mode with the Personalization app on the Settings tab.

Hints, tips and tricks, part four

Over the last year and a half I've learned a few things about the standard Xandros installation, and made notes of some of them. I've decided to tidy up my notes, and share the answer to some of the more common questions asked on the EeeUser Forums here on my woefully infrequent blog:

Install FBreader on a 2G, or any other Eee that don't have it as standard

This is based on http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:install_thunderbird_on_2g

• Change the repositories to point at 701 rather than 700 - this could be done either through Synaptic (sudo synaptic), Settings, Repositories, or else by running: sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list Make the modifcation, then saving (Ctrl+o, Enter), then exiting (Ctrl+x)
• Press “Reload” in Synaptic, or, type into a terminal (Alt+Ctrl+t): sudo apt-get update If you get an error message, try the next steps anyway. The error message may not be critical.
• Staying in terminal, download and install FBreader: sudo apt-get install FBReader
• Type exit and press enter to exit terminal.
• To run FBReader, either type FBReader in a terminal, or use Launcher Tools to create an icon.
• Once you have verified that it runs, change your repositories back - same procedure as stated in the first step.

I get f u n n y   l o o k i n g text in fireFox (or other application)

• Ty hitting Shift+Space - you may have to hit it twice.
• The culprit is SCIM - Smart Common Input Metod - which is there to allow you to enter chinese text... you may want to remove it (see last weeks post for how).

Hints, tricks and tips for the Eee, part three

Over the last year and a half I've learned a few things about the standard Xandros installation, and made notes of some of them. I've decided to tidy up my notes, and share the answer to some of the more common questions asked on the EeeUser Forums here on my woefully infrequent blog:

I have sound issues

• Run alsamixer from a console to check your settings

I want to delete unwanted software from Xandros to gain more space

• Disable UnionFS / aufs per the EeeUser wiki
• Remove unwanted software with either:
• Synaptic (open terminal, run 'sudo synaptic', see helpfile)
• Apt-get (open terminal, run 'apt-get -h' to see help, basic command is 'sudo apt-get remove (packagename)', may or may not play nice with dependancies)
• Aptitude (open terminal, run 'sudo aptitude remove (packagename)', should behave with dependancies)
• Optional, but if you want to gain space: Resize partitions to reclaim space.
• Optional, but needed to be able to F9 restore: Restore UnionFS / aufs.

Hints, tricks and tips for the Eee, part two

Over the last year and a half I've learned a few things about the standard Xandros installation, and made notes of some of them. I've decided to tidy up my notes, and share the answer to some of the more common questions asked on the EeeUser Forums here on my woefully infrequent blog:

I can't find the restore DVD

• Buy it from AsusParts.eu
• There is a downloadable 701 ISO here and a 901 ISO here, but some reports seems to indicate that does not contain everything - specificity the windows software to make a bootable USB stick. The WinXP booting tools, including the ones we are talking about, and if not in your particular iso are to be found here. Choose: eeepc, eeepc series, eeepc 4G/XP, search and go to utilities, asus usb flash utility. You can also make the restore USB on Linux.
• You may also want to look into the XEPC Upgrade Disk, an updated and cleaned up distrubution.

After I updated / changed something, I only get a black screen

• Try Ctrl + (right arrow) up to three times to make sure you havn't booted into one of the other workspaces.
• Try opening a console and use the following command: /usr/bin/startsimple.sh
• If you backed up your simpleui.rc, try restoring it (both described in the wiki). There is also a copy of the original 701 simpleui.rc and the original 901 simpleui.rc on the EeeUser wiki.
• "Brute force and ignorace": F9 Restore.

Hints, tricks and tips for the Eee, part one

Over the last year and a half I've learned a few things about the standard Xandros installation, and made notes of some of them. I've decided to tidy up my notes, and share the answer to some of the more common questions asked on the EeeUser Forums here on my woefully infrequent blog:

How to open the terminal / console

• To open a terminal in Easy Mode: Ctrl+Alt+T / (little house)+t
• To open a terminal in Advanced Mode: (Launch-Applications-System-Console)
• To go to a true terminal, Alt+Ctrl+F1. Each F key is a new terminal, and F7 will take you back to X. NOTE: I can't get this to work myself, neither in Easy nor Advanced mode...

How to add fonts

• Download the font to somewhere on your Eee, or to a usb stick.
• Open a console with Ctrl+Alt+t in Easy Mode, or via the Launch menu (Launch-Applications-System-Console) in Advanced Mode.
• Type sudo kcontrol and press enter. This will open the control panel as a superuser.
• In the control panel, navigate to Display - Theme - Font Installer.
• Click Continue on the dialog box that appears.
• Click the Add Fonts button.
• Navigate to where you got the font downloaded, hightlight it and click Open.
• Close the Control Panel
• In the console, enter exit and press enter.
• Fonts should now be installed and ready to use.