On Tue, Jan 06, 2009 at 09:48:43AM -0600, Glenn Horton-Smith wrote:

> We recently needed a small PC for a slow monitoring application, and ended
> up getting an Asus Eee PC 1000 HD mini notebook.  An SBD like the ALIX 2D3
> would have been another option, but we liked that the Eee came with its own
> monitor, hard drive, and integrated "uninterruptible power supply" (i.e.,
> batteries).  We just got it yesterday, still trying to figure out whether to
> stick with the preinstalled Xandros OS or try installing SL instead.

Glenn - I hope you don't mind me sharing this on the list.  I think
we will get some useful contributions from others.


First, an interesting idea for the ALIX:  the input power supply
will run on the 12 to 14 volts from a car battery.  Hence, you
could use an ALIX with a battery, a solar panel and a miniPCI
wifi card with a high gain antenna, and you have something that
you can place miles from the power grid.  That would be hard to
do with an EEE, though if wall power is available 23.9x7 the
EEE is an easier way to get the job done.  Either way, you get
to run the same software.


Second, regards the EEE:  I help run a monthly Linux Clinic.  One
of our "clients" brought in a pair of ASUS EEE PCs, one with the
preinstalled Xandros on a solid state drive, and another with
preinstalled WinXP on a SATA hard drive.  We blew away the XP
and installed Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy.  We ran into a problem with
networking - the built-in CAT5 and wireless ethernet interfaces
were not handled by the drivers provided with Ubuntu.  We limped
through the install and updating with USB ethernet and USB
wireless (using a cheap ZyDAS wireless adapter).  The client
found drivers for the native hardware.

I suggest that you make an external image of the Xandros drive, or
else set the machine up dual boot, so you can pull drivers from it
as necessary.  If it is a SATA drive, you can replace it with a
similarly-sized spare and install SL5 on that.  The Ubuntu 8.04 
kernel and x.org are about a year more advanced than SL5, so there
may be more driver problems with SL5, but these can be fixed.

The EEE PC is just the thing for what you want to do - it would
be better for many applications than the ALIX.  And SL5 is a 
much better distro for any kind of scientific work.  In fact, I
am planning to purchase an EEE Box (not the microlaptop, but the
hardback-sized computer box) for my wife's office, to replace
the power-hungry and unreliable Shuttle ITX system she has now -
and of course I will run SL5 on it. 

So please share your own experiences with the SL5 install.  Given
the positive response I've gotten (especially from Troy - Oh boy,
I get to pay back a little!) I plan to put the ALIX instructions
on my wiki at wiki.keithl.com.  You are welcome to use that if
KSU Physics doesn't already have a good place for your own
contributions.  At the very least, we will link to each other!

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          [log in to unmask]         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs