Asus EeePC 901 - how's it looking? [Archive]

sim

December 12th, 2008, 21:43

If I've been a good boy and Santa is feeling generous, I might just find an Asus eee pc 901 in my stocking this year. Of course I specified^H^H^H hinted at the Linux 20GB variant. But I have to wonder, how is FreeBSD shaping up on this model? I haven't found a great deal of chatter from real users yet, but I'm really looking forward to hacking around with this thing. :e

sim

Ole

December 12th, 2008, 22:21

I've using FreeBSD-HEAD at Asus EEE PC 901 without any problem. Regrettably webcam is not supporting but for the rest all the fine.

PS: Some 901 model using of new chipset for WiFi who still not supported by native ral(4) driver. In this case you can usage IEEE 802.11 only
with ndiswrapper/WindowsXP driver.
some tips: http://wiki.freebsd.org/AsusEee

rene@

December 22nd, 2008, 00:15

Ole

December 23rd, 2008, 09:39

did you get wireless working? The Windows XP driver (rt2860.*) uses the NDIS 5.0 API, while ndisgen requires the NDIS 5.1 API.

I can kldload the resulting module but the link never gets up ('dhclient ndis0' says "no link", 'ifconfig ndis0 scan' says "ifconfig: unable to get scan results".

Really, confirm. Just (earlier did not use, however on the Internet there are messages that ndis works) today i have tried to make it at myself. To receive the working interface through ndis on FreeBSD-HEAD at me it has not turned out too - the same symptoms (no link. etc). ;-(
There is an information on http://wiki.freebsd.org/AsusEee not absolutely correct.
However, my friends have Eee PC 701 and 901 model (but with other chipset) and on them ndis works perfectly.

sim

December 29th, 2008, 18:04

Current status report:

Got my new 901 :) Am experimenting with FreeBSD, running from a bootable USB pen. First tried 7-STABLE with custom kernel - worked OK but: LAN (ale0) only worked with static IP, not DHCP. No WLAN, No S3. (Later found out that S3 failure *may* have been due to running an SMP kernel).

Upgraded USB pen to 8-CURRENT, custom kernal (not SMP). S3 (lid & button) works. DHCP on LAN works. Am now trying to get the Ralink RT2860 Windows WLAN driver to work via ndisgen, but I'm getting the same problem reported by rene@ above :(

I don't know about sound and camera yet as I'm still at the console...

Will keep trying!

/sim

sim

December 29th, 2008, 18:09

PS.
I've noticed various other 901/FreeBSD threads on the web - it might be worth directing people here so we can focus our collective efforts? Fixing the WLAN is the last (I hope :D) major barrier stopping FreeBSD from being a viable everyday OS for the eee.

/sim

oliverh

December 31st, 2008, 01:08

>major barrier stopping FreeBSD from being a viable everyday OS for the eee.

Depends on the "EEE". I have the EEE900A which uses Atheros for Wifi. So the only fix I need is the new HAL from current. And this is a rather easy fix.

DemoDoG

January 1st, 2009, 15:02

I have bought a EEE 701 SD. Anyone knows if its better to use 8.0 current than 7.1 stable? Is the wirless of EEE supported in 8.0 without need to compile the kernel?

And another question, If I install a snapshot of 8.0 for december, can I then upgrade it to next snapshot when it comes out?

sim

January 1st, 2009, 22:29

I have bought a EEE 701 SD. Anyone knows if its better to use 8.0 current than 7.1 stable? Is the wirless of EEE supported in 8.0 without need to compile the kernel?

I believe it is - my understanding is that although it is a standard atheros wireless card, it requires mini-PCIe support in the ath_hal driver, which I believe is present in the standard -CURRENT (8.x) source and GENERIC kernel. Check here for more info on the 701:

http://nighthack.org/wiki/EeeBSD

And another question, If I install a snapshot of 8.0 for december, can I then upgrade it to next snapshot when it comes out?

I imagine you can, but I found it easier to do it the old-skool way: Installed 7.0-RELEASE (for which I had already had a CD) and once that's running modify the csup file to track -CURRENT (tag=.). Then just sync src with csup (using LAN cable), make buildworld/kernel etc and away you go. On the 901 buildkernel took around 50mins, and makeworld took around 200 (if I remember correctly).

Hope that helps,

sim

oliverh

January 1st, 2009, 23:58

>On the 901 buildkernel took around 50mins

Do you have a SSD or a harddrive in this EEE? With a SSD I wouldn't try it.

sim

January 2nd, 2009, 01:50

>On the 901 buildkernel took around 50mins

Do you have a SSD or a harddrive in this EEE? With a SSD I wouldn't try it.

That's all running on my USB pen drive (4GB Sandisk Cruzer). The EEE's drives were not involved in any way. To reduce writes I've tmpfs(5) memory drives on /tmp and /var/log and the pen is mounted with noatime option. crond and something else I've forgotten is disabled.

I'm using the USB pen until I've got a working solution, that way I still have a fully functioning Xandros-based Eee.

If it kills the £4 pen it's not the end of the world, but having checked up on the current state of wear leveling technology I think I should be fine for a while. :)

/sim

rene@

January 2nd, 2009, 02:07

Current status report:

Got my new 901 :) Am experimenting with FreeBSD, running from a bootable USB pen. First tried 7-STABLE with custom kernel - worked OK but: LAN (ale0) only worked with static IP, not DHCP. No WLAN, No S3. (Later found out that S3 failure *may* have been due to running an SMP kernel).
With an SMP kernel I can suspend my eee901 (running 8.0-CURRENT version 800060), but I cannot resume it. Will try UP.

Upgraded USB pen to 8-CURRENT, custom kernal (not SMP). S3 (lid & button) works. DHCP on LAN works. Am now trying to get the Ralink RT2860 Windows WLAN driver to work via ndisgen, but I'm getting the same problem reported by rene@ above :(

I don't know about sound and camera yet as I'm still at the console...

Will keep trying!

/sim
I don't know about the camera, but for sound you can use snd_hda (also present in 7.X). I wouldn't use the camera for anything serious anyway ;)

DemoDoG

January 2nd, 2009, 07:29

Is there a way to disable all the logging in FreeBSD to get rid of writing SSD?

mgp

January 2nd, 2009, 08:17

try to put this in rc.conf
syslogd_enable="NO"

lme@

January 2nd, 2009, 08:36

On the 901 buildkernel took around 50mins, and makeworld took around 200 (if I remember correctly).

Only build the kernel modules you need. This way I can build the kernel in ~15 min on my 701.
But normally I build it on another machine and export /usr/obj via NFS and install it on the eeepc.

DemoDoG

January 2nd, 2009, 11:15

What is FreeBSD-HEAD?

oliverh

January 2nd, 2009, 14:13

What is FreeBSD-HEAD?

FreeBSD-HEAD aka Current.

sim

January 2nd, 2009, 20:24

Only build the kernel modules you need. This way I can build the kernel in ~15 min on my 701.

Is there a guide somewhere for how to do this? My custom eee kernel (ASUS-EEEPC-901-8.0 :)) has very few devices enabled but of course they still get built as loadable modules so the build time isn't reduced.

Thanks,

sim

lme@

January 5th, 2009, 15:32

From the Handbook:

Tip: By default, when you build a custom kernel, all kernel modules will be rebuilt as well. If you want to update a kernel faster or to build only custom modules, you should edit /etc/make.conf before starting to build the kernel:

MODULES_OVERRIDE = linux acpi sound/sound sound/driver/ds1 ntfs

This variable sets up a list of modules to build instead of all of them.

WITHOUT_MODULES = linux acpi sound/sound sound/driver/ds1 ntfs

This variable sets up a list of modules to exclude from the build process. For other variables which you may find useful in the process of building kernel, refer to make.conf(5) manual page.

DemoDoG

January 8th, 2009, 14:57

Pardon me for being a little lazy but what modules did you exclude/include? :-) I have a EEE701 and I guess I can use mostly the same setup.

sim

January 8th, 2009, 15:19

@DemoDoG:

My two kernel configs (7-STABLE, 8-CURRENT) attached (albeit for 901)

HTH :P

sim

DemoDoG

January 9th, 2009, 14:49

arghh it seems I have the Realtek RTL8187SE wireless card.

sim

January 9th, 2009, 19:00

arghh it seems I have the Realtek RTL8187SE wireless card.

I'm not familiar with that card but I take it it's not supported, and is unlikely to be supported soon? You might then decide to take the pragmatic option and do what I did with my Dell laptop, which had a Broadcom card - rip it out and replace with an atheros. Saves a lot of hassle in the long run....

sim

mathuin

February 7th, 2009, 07:16

I tried sim's config for 7.1 and ale0 doesn't even get a carrier. I unplugged the cable out of an Eee PC 701 so there's nothing wrong with the cable. Ideas?

I'm using an Asus Eee PC 1000 running 7.1-STABLE with no patches. If there's a better place to post this, please let me know. Also, if any logs or notes are desired, I can USB-stick-shuffle them and post.

sim

February 10th, 2009, 23:49

I tried sim's config for 7.1 and ale0 doesn't even get a carrier. I unplugged the cable out of an Eee PC 701 so there's nothing wrong with the cable. Ideas?

Not sure I can help if you're not even getting a carrier, but I found that I could only get ale0 to work with a static configuration. DHCP flat out failed.

So far I've found 8-CURRENT to be more promising than 7-STABLE in a number of areas, so I'd suggest trying that.

sim

mathuin

February 11th, 2009, 08:06

I've been tinkering over the past day or two and I've learned that 8-CURRENT is working better than 7-STABLE in general. In this case, though, I was able to get carrier with 8-CURRENT when I connected to a hundred-megabit switch instead of a gigabit switch. Maybe there's a bug in the driver? I don't know how to test any further than I already have.

Also, it'd be keen if the wireless worked. The whole reason I upgraded my home infrastructure to 802.11n/gigabit was in anticipation of this device -- and I've already handed down the old 802.11g/hundred-megabit to the girlfriend so... :-) Who do I talk to about the wireless stuff? I'll cheerfully test anything needed.

mathuin

February 16th, 2009, 21:09

I may have responded about this in another place, but ale0 only seems to get a 100baseTX connection even when connected directly to a gigabit switch. This came after updating to 8-CURRENT so it might be the driver. Any idea why it might not like gigabit?

DemoDoG

March 7th, 2009, 07:05

On my EEE I keep my /usr/src and /usr/ports on an external usb stick. That way I can use the portstree without having to use up alot of the small SSD drive and don´t have it being written to many times.

moeren

March 13th, 2009, 12:31

Hello...

I hope you can help me.

After a long time i wanted to try FreeBSD (7.1) again, so i installed it on my eeePC 901.

I kept my Windows at the first SSD, and installed the netinstaller and get the Data (/base.. etc.) from the freebsd directory on a Flash Card.. until then no problem.

But there is no network. No LAN, No WLAN

I have read in the FreeBSD wiki about the eee, but i dont know how to get the driver working.. i tried to replace the /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC with the EEE_HEAD and tried to make buildcompiler, but he don't know the option "AH_SUPPORT_AR5416" and stopped..
I also read at nighthack.org (site error 500, but there is the google cache). But i didnt get the network working...

I dont know so much about freebsd, so some things i dont know how to do and i tried the entire last 2 days...

Has anyone a detailed how to for the networkdrivers ?

Sorry if there are mistakes, but im not so good with english.

DemoDoG

March 13th, 2009, 13:39

As it says in nighthack:

On another computer that does have internet access, download this patched copy of MadWifi, which does have support for the wireless card in the Eee: http://snapshots.madwifi.org/special/madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz

Copy the tarball onto the Eee using a USB memory key or some other media. Decompress the tarball and then run the following as root:

cd madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007/hal
cp -R * /usr/src/sys/contrib/dev/ath/

Recompile your kernel, and reboot. When the system comes up, you should have wireless networking. The NIC will show up as ath0. Note that compiling the kernel will probably take about two hours. Go get some coffee or something.

I need to do this for my Ethernet card (not wireless). But if you install 8.0 instead you don´t have to do any kernel rebuild, it supports HAL.

moeren

March 13th, 2009, 14:46

that i've already done, but no ath0

but i never compiled a kernel befor..
maybe i have done something wrong..

Thats what i've done
cd /usr/src
make buildkernel

DutchDaemon

March 13th, 2009, 15:00

See /usr/src/Makefile for instructions.

# 3. `make buildkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE' (default is GENERIC).
# 4. `make installkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE' (default is GENERIC).
# [steps 3. & 4. can be combined by using the "kernel" target]
# 5. `reboot'

moeren

March 13th, 2009, 15:05

thank you, that should solve my problem, ive somewhere readen that i only should do

make install - but that was unknown
make installkernel could help

-----------
before i forget, the link was out of date, here is it now:
http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/special/madwifi-ng-r2756+ar5007.tar.gz