Breathe new life into an old computer

Do you have an old computer that is just sat around doing nothing? Maybe it still has Windows XP on it. Perhaps you really liked that computer and can't bring yourself to throw it out, besides, it still works, why not find a use for it?


Why?
The most common use of an old computer might be just for casual browsing the web. After all, you don't need a powerful computer to do that and often you just want to browse on a reasonably sized screen with a good old mouse pointer. If you use cloud services like Google Drive or OneDrive then you can access your files from anywhere. You might consider buying a Chromebook because it offers this kind of functionality but why not use that old computer you no longer use...


Consider
But before you blow the cobwebs off your old Windows XP computer and start browsing away... stop and consider a few things:

• Windows XP, Vista and similar operating systems are not updated any more, there are no security patches. Using such a computer will leave you, your home network and your files vulnerable to attack by malware (malicious software such as viruses). 
• Your old Windows XP or Vista computer is probably very slow due to lots of programs installed on it over time. Maybe it even has spyware or other nasties lurking on it, perhaps this is why you bought a new computer?
• Older operating systems take a long time to start up. Windows XP would certainly take a couple of minutes or so and in that time you might just reach for your smartphone or tablet. To make your old computer truly useful it does need to be fast and accessible.

Recommendation
Because of the above points I have a recommendation, install a new operating system. In doing so everything on the computer is wiped clean. It will wipe off the old Windows XP or whatever you are using. Any previous malware will be removed. In software terms you will completely clean the computer from top to bottom. The advantage is that it'll run faster and maybe even just as smooth as it did when you first purchased it all those years ago.

IMPORTANT: Backup before you begin!
In the above paragraph I did say that installing a new operating system will wipe off all the existing software. That means your data files will be wiped too!!! So be careful, maybe check your old computer first, see if there are any old photos, documents, etc, that you might want to copy onto a USB flash drive before you install a new operating system on the computer.


New Operating System
Your old computer from five years ago wasn't designed to run Windows 10 and in any case it is likely you'd have to pay to buy it and it may not even work very well on your old computer. But fear not, to have an up-to-date operating system that costs nothing is easy, there are many available for download. Of course they are often based on the Linux operating system so the programs you are used to on Windows may not be available. However, on Linux you can get Chrome and Firefox. At least you are probably already familiar with those browsers and if all you'd like to do is some casual web browsing, all you need is a good browser.

Linux comes in different flavours called "distributions". Each distribution looks a bit different and has its own ecosystem. One of the most popular is Ubuntu. Ubuntu rivals Windows 10 for features and comes bundled with a lot of useful software such as a word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Ubuntu is also very well supported, with lots of software available in easy to install 'packages'. This is also true of driver support which means that typically it'll run on your old computer without a lot of fiddling.

However, I've found that Ubuntu can be sluggish on older computers. This made me look for alternatives. But I still like the simplicity of installing and support there is in the world of Ubuntu.


Lubuntu
Lubuntu is a 'lite' version of Ubuntu. The interface is different but the underlying operating system is the same. This means it's easy to install and use. You'll get all the support and security updates as Ubuntu but Lubuntu will run faster on your old computer hardware. That's the theory, I tried it out for myself.

The above shows Lubuntu running Mozilla Firefox. Chromium is installed as standard but Firefox can easily be downloaded and installed - use the package available for Ubuntu.

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X300 dating from around 2008. It has 2GB RAM and it's a 32-bit computer only. It's still working well, a very nice computer, good keyboard, well built and a good size. It is from the era of Windows Vista although originally I ran Windows XP on it. I first tried Ubuntu on the X300 and it worked well. The most important thing is that Ubuntu recognised the audio, the screen, the WiFi adapter, etc. This is important because I didn't want the hassle of looking for the drivers and installing them - that kind of thing can take time and with Linux can sometimes be a bit of a pain. With Ubuntu everything just worked immediately! But my X300 was a bit slow with Ubuntu.

I replaced Ubuntu with Lubuntu and my X300 works faster. I still have the compatibility and updates of Ubuntu (anything marked as compatible with Ubunbtu is compatible with Lubuntu). I've not really lost anything. Right now I am writing this blog article on the X300 with Lubuntu and Firefox. There's no lag in general or with connecting to WiFi. It all works rather well! The interface is similar to Windows, there's a Start Menu for example. It's a very clean interface and there are lots of software applications pre-installed.

From the above screen shots you can see how Lubuntu has a nice clean interface. I think it's easy to use and not a huge leap for a Windows user new to Linux. There's a Trash can that acts like the Recycle Bin. The main menu is like the Start Menu and the Home is like Windows Explorer or My Computer.

To download and learn more about Lubuntu please visit website here:
http://lubuntu.net/

Installation
Here are a few tips on installing Lubuntu:

• Download from http://lubuntu.net/ and click Download
• I would recommend you use the 32-bit version as it is less heavy on resources and in most cases your computer will only support 32-bit anyway. For me with my X300, it's 32-bit.
• You can install using a DVD or USB flash drive. I would recommend the USB flash drive as it is faster and sometimes with old computers the DVD drive doesn't work or is unreliable.
• For USB a 4GB USB flash drive is recommended. Before you begin make sure the USB flash drive is empty - everything on it will be deleted so make sure you don't have any files on the USB flash drive before you start, copy them somewhere safe first!
• You'll need to download a small utility called UNetbootin available from http://unetbootin.github.io/
• With UNetbootin on a Windows computer you can write the Lubuntu installation ISO file to the USB flash drive.
• When you start the installation I recommend you choose to replace the entire contents of the C: drive with Lubuntu. Select the default partition options. Of course, as mentioned before, this does destroy everything you currently have on your old computer, make sure you first backup any files you want to keep. 

Full instructions on installing Lubuntu can be found here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/InstallingLubuntu

Follow the steps on the above page and you'll be fine. It is much less complicated than it may first appear.


Alternatives to Lubuntu
Ubuntu of course but there are many others such as Puppy Linux, MintOS, etc. If you have a NetBook like an ASUS Eee PC, consider EasyPeasy.

If you don't mind having to tinker a little, I recommend Crunchbang. It's not as user friendly or as polished as Ubuntu/Lubuntu. But it does work on very old hardware, here's an article I wrote explaining how I installed it on an old IBM T42 and an ASUS Eee PC:
http://mgxp.blogspot.com/2013/03/crunchbang-linux.html

I wrote a number of articles about how to set it up, share files and work with Crunchbang, you can find them here:
http://mgxp.blogspot.com/search/label/Crunchbang

In recent times Crunchbang almost died but it was rescued by a new team of developers and you can find out all about the new Crunchbang++ here: https://crunchbangplusplus.org/
I've not tried this new version yet but when I do, I'll be sure to write something here on my blog.


Conclusion
If you do have an old computer, installing Linux on it makes a lot of sense. You can use it for some basic browsing, writing letters, etc. If you use Lubuntu the process of installing, using and maintaining the old computer is relatively easy. Lubuntu is a very polished professional operating system, it's fast and has a clean modern look. It's close enough to Windows for it to be a good place to start if you are new to Linux. Have a go and I'm sure you'll be happy surfing with some speed on that ancient computer you had previously written off.


Disclaimer
I do not accept any liability for any loss of data or problems you may face. Proceed at your own risk! Of course if it's an old computer then the risk is not high but please don't blame me for anything that goes wrong, I am just here writing about my own experience and opinion. I hope I've been able to help and inform, that is all. Good luck and feel free to write you own experiences in the comments below :-)

Crunchbang Linux - Add a User

When you install Crunchbang Linux the installation invites you to create one user. Although this is often fine sometimes you may need another user id to be created. Follow the steps here to create a user - these steps should work with other similar Linux distributions too.


Add a User
Right click on the desktop, click Terminal
Enter the following command:
sudo adduser <username>
(where <username> is the new user name)

For example, I want to create a user called "fred":
sudo adduser fred    [Enter]

It will prompt you to enter a password twice (once and then to verify you entered it correctly).

Next it will prompt you to enter the full name and other details - you don't need to enter anything, just press Enter. It'll ask you if the information is correct, press Y for yes (see below for an example).

Once it's finished you'll be back at the $ prompt. The new user has been created! You can now login with the user.


Login as the New User
Right click on the desktop, click Exit
Click Logout
Wait...
The usual login screen will appear, login as "fred"
Crunchbang will display a window saying it has added the new user.
Also, once you've finished logging in the following HELLO message will appear:

Previously for the original Crunchbang user you probably already ran this script so just press Q to quit this screen.

As this is a new user you will have to configure the network/wireless and other settings.


Sudo Power
By default a new user does not have administrator (root) power. This means you will not be able to use sudo to run commands in the terminal. This maybe fine for you, this means the new user is restricted, they can't do much damage. However, if you want to give your new user the sudo power, follow these steps:

Exit and Logout
Login as your original user
Right click on the desktop and click Terminal
Type the following:
sudo visudo   [Enter]

Scroll down (use the keyboard arrow keys) to where it says:
# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL)  ALL

Add a line under it as follows:
<username>   ALL=(ALL)  ALL
(where <username> is the new user you created)

In my example (screen shot above) it looks like this:

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL)  ALL
fred   ALL=(ALL)  ALL

Make sure it is correct, remember that Linux is case sensitive so double check everything you have typed.

Press Ctrl-X to exit
Press Y to save
Press Enter
You will be back at the terminal screen - finished!

Crunchbang Linux - Hello World!

There's a tradition that when you write your first program in any programming or scripting language you write a program to display the words "Hello World". Here's how you can make a shell script file in Crunchbang Linux (it will work for other Linux distros too). This is similar to creating a batch file in the world of Windows command line.

Instructions

Right click on the desktop, click Text Editor

Geany (the text editor) will appear on the screen - enter the following:

#!/bin/bash

echo "Hello World!"

You should have something like this:

Click File | Save

Save the file as "HelloWorld.sh" (the .sh file extension is to indicate it's a shell script file)
The default place for it to be saved is in your home folder.

Right click on the desktop

Click Terminal 

Type the following command at the $ prompt:
chmod a+x HelloWorld.sh      [Enter]

The chmod command changes the attributes of the HelloWorld.sh file to make it executable. For more details about this command, click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod

To run the file type:

~/HelloWorld.sh    [Enter]

The ~ means 'home'. If you save your .sh file in a sub-folder you'd need to type ~/sub-folder/HelloWorld.sh for example.

The following screen shot shows what you should see.

The echo command in the .sh file is just like the same command from Windows, it displays text on the screen. In our case you can see it has displayed the words "Hello World!":

Conclusion
I know this doesn't seem very exciting but it is useful, I promise! In the world of Windows it is possible to create a command file or 'batch' file. The idea being that you can run a number of commands one after another. This is useful for automating common tasks. Here in Linux what we've done here is the basics of creating a shell script (batch) file. Of course you could add more commands to do any number of different tasks. The first line of the script file should be !#/bin/bash but otherwise you can do as you wish, enter any number of commands. Of course they must be valid Bash shell scripting commands.


References
A forum post with more details
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-newbie-8/how-to-create-a-batch-file-in-linux-608655/

Chmod
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chmod

Bash Shell Scripting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_shell

Bash Shell Scripting Tutorial
http://arachnoid.com/linux/shell_programming.html

More Crunchbang Linux articles
http://mgxp.blogspot.ch/search/label/Crunchbang

Crunchbang Linux - change password

To change your password in Crunchbang there are two things you must do:


01 - Change the password
Right click on the desktop
Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo passwd <username> [Enter]

You should replace <username> with your Crunchbang username.

Take note that the command "passwd" is not "password" ;-)


02 - Delete the Keyring
You will also need to delete the keyring file otherwise when you restart the computer it will ask "Enter password to unlock your login keyring":

At the $ prompt type:
rm ~/.gnome2/keyrings/login.keyring [Enter]

Close the Terminal window
Right click on the desktop
Click Exit
Click Reboot

When you restart the computer, login as usual.

You may also see the following:

If you see the above enter your WiFi password and click Connect

Your WiFi password will now be saved and the next time you restart your computer you will not need to enter it again.

Crunchbang Linux - add a menu option

If you install a new application on Crunchbang you may want to add a shortcut to the menu. In a previous article I wrote about installing Asunder, the audio CD ripping application. As an example I'll explain here how to add Asunder to the Multimedia menu:


Instructions





Right click on the desktop

Click Settings | Openbox | GUI Menu Editor







Click the arrow next to Openbox 3

Scroll down and find Multimedia

Click the arrow next to Multimedia 

Click once to select VLC Media Player (or one of the other items under Multimedia)

Click New Item 

A place holder is created (where it says "New item" under Multimedia above)


Label: This is the name of the shortcut
Id: Leave this blank
Action: Execute
Execute: This is the folder and name of the program to run

In our example we'll call our label Asunder (see above)

For the execute command, either type it in or browse using the [...] button. In our example Asunder can be found at /usr/bin/asunder

Click File | Save

Click File | Quit


Result
Now when you want to start Asunder do the following:
Right click on the desktop
Click Multimedia | Asunder


Understanding
Crunchbang uses the Openbox desktop interface. This is a simple yet powerful system. As with most configuration in Linux the menu configuration is stored in a text file. So above where we used the GUI Menu Editor, that wrote the changes to a file. This is great because if you redesigned the menu structure to your liking you could save the configuration file. Later if you wanted to reuse the same menu structure on another computer, you could by copying your configuration file - simple!

To understand this more, on the desktop right click, click Settings | Edit menu.xml

Above in the editor can you see the Multimedia menu and Asunder? What you entered in the GUI Menu Editor appears here in menu.xml.

In the window at the bottom of the Geany text editor you can see the path, the folder where the menu.xml is stored: /home/michael/.config/openbox/
Of course on your computer it won't be "michael" but whatever your username is.


Conclusion
Again another simple yet powerful Crunchbang feature.

Crunchbang Linux - Rip audio CDs

One use for a Crunchbang Linux computer maybe to store audio (mp3) files. Perhaps you've always meant to rip your CD collection into digital files? Here's a brief look at installing and using one CD ripping program.


Asunder
I found that Asunder is a simple yet powerful program with a graphical interface that will, when you insert an audio CD, download the album and track titles for you. When you start ripping it will  create the music (mp3) files in a folder structure for you automatically. You can also change how it does this and where it stores the audio files using the Preferences menu. Asunder will save in WAV, MP3 or OGG format.


Install Asunder
Right click on the Crunchbang desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo apt-get install asunder   [Enter]


Using Asunder
To start Asunder type: asunder [Enter]

The Asunder interface is refreshingly simple. Insert an Audio CD and it automatically checks the internet for the name of the album, artist, genre, etc. The following is an example - I've blurred the artist, title and track names but of course you will see them in all their glory:

The default setting is to save to OGG files.

If you want to change this or other settings click the Preferences button.

Click the Encode tab...

You can change to MP3 as shown above.

NOTE: OGG is a compressed audio file format, it's similar to MP3, you might get smaller files if you use it. However, if you want to copy your music to an MP3 player, very few support OGG but nearly all support MP3.

The General tab is where Asunder will save your audio files, by default to your home folder. The Filenames folder let's you decide the names of the artist and album folder names. The default is fine for most purposes.

When you are finished changing preferences click OK to save and close this window.

On the main Asunder screen bottom right click the Rip button to start ripping (saving) tracks.


Conclusion
The nice thing about Asunder is that it's simple, it does just what it is supposed to. There isn't a music player or any other fancy feature, it is what it is. If you want to rip one CD after another, this could well be the solution.


References

Asunder
http://www.littlesvr.ca/asunder/downloads.php

OGG file format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg_file

MP3 file format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp3

Crunchbang Linux - remote desktop

If you are using a Linux computer as file storage when it's in another room or headless (without a monitor) it would be good to remotely control the Linux desktop from your Windows computer. You could use Putty as explained in a previous article. However Putty only gives access to the remote Linux computer's command prompt, not to the desktop.

This article explains the basics of setting up Vino, it's a service on Crunchbang that'll allow for remote connections from a Windows computer (and other computers too). On the Windows side we can use a VNC client, more about this later...


Install Vino on Crunchbang Linux
Right click on the desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo apt-get install vino  [Enter]

When it has finished type the following:
vino-preferences  [Enter]

At the top of the window it explains the 'Sharing' information - here you can see how you will be able to connect to your remote desktop. It's always the host name of your Crunchbang Linux computer with .local at the end. In my case it'll be crunchbangT42.local

Security is important but your level will depend on your circumstances. Don't choose 'You must confirm each access to this machine' because that will mean every time you connect to the Crunchbang remotely you'll need to physically go to it and press Enter to accept the remote connection. I do recommend you set a password, that way every time you connect you must enter this password. It will stop anyone else on your network connecting. 

When you've finished click Close



To make Vino start automatically every time you restart Crunchbang, do the following:

Right click on the Crunchbang desktop

Click Settings 

Click Openbox

Click Edit autostart

Scroll to the bottom and add the following:
# Start Vino
/usr/lib/vino/vino-server &

Save and exit the text editor.

The Linux side of the configuration is complete.



UltraVNC Viewer for Windows
Vino is compatible with VNC - in other words, you can use any VNC compatible program to access your Crunchbang Linux computer. I decided to use UltraVNC. It's a nice simple program and there's even a portable version available. In our example here, this is what we'll install:

From your Windows computer, click here and click the download button:
http://portableapps.com/node/2031

Once it has finished download run the exe file, it will extract the files.

Copy the UltraVNCViewer Portable folder to a USB flash drive, your desktop or wherever you want to store it.

Using Windows Explorer browse inside the folder and double click UltraVNCViewerPortable.exe

Enter the host name and .local at then end - in my example I've entered crunchbangT42.local

Click Connect

Enter the password you specified before (in vino-preferences) and click Log On

You'll see your Crunchbang Linux desktop!

References

Help on Crunchbang's website:
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=362

UltraVNC Portable
http://portableapps.com/node/2031

UltraVNC Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UltraVNC

TightVNC
http://www.tightvnc.com/

Crunchbang Linux - simple file sharing with Samba

Crunchbang Linux is a slim down operating system that works well on older computers. I wrote a previous article about it and how I installed it on an old IBM T42 (with just 512MB RAM!) and a little Asus Eee PC. Crunchbang is great for browsing the web and other light work. Another thing you could do is set up file sharing on your Crunchbang computer. This is especially useful if you have an old desktop with a reasonably sized hard disk. You could use it to share files on your home network or you could use it to store files as a backup.

In this article I'll explain how to set up a simple file share on your Crunchbang computer. We'll use Samba which is the most popular file sharing software for Linux. The commands used here can be used in other Linux operating systems too. I will not go into detail and will explain only the basic steps to get simple file sharing working.

At the end, from your Windows computer you'll be able to browse to and save/open files on your Crunchbang Linux computer.


Crunchbang Linux
To download and install Crunchbang please see my previous article:
http://mgxp.blogspot.ch/2013/03/crunchbang-linux.html


Install Samba
Go to your Crunchbang Linux computer, start it and login as usual.
Right click on the desktop and click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo apt-get install samba libpam-smbpass [Enter]

Samba will download and install. It will ask you for the name of the network workgroup:

Unless you've changed it, accept the default "WORKGROUP".

Configure File Sharing
Change to the srv folder, type:
cd /srv  [Enter]


Create a new folder called share:
sudo mkdir share  [Enter]



This sets the permissions for the share folder to full read/write:
sudo chmod 777 share/  [Enter]


Make a backup copy of the original Samba configuration file, this is just in case you need it for future reference:
sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.original  [Enter]


Edit the Samba configuration file:
sudo geany /etc/samba/smb.conf  [Enter]

The Geany text editor will open the smb.conf file. Replace all the content of the file with the following:

[global]
disable netbios = no
workgroup = workgroup
server string = fileserver
dns proxy = no
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
syslog = 0
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
obey pam restrictions = yes
unix password sync = yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
pam password change = yes
map to guest = bad user
usershare allow guests = yes
security = user
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
load printers = no
printing = bsd
printcap name = /dev/null
disable spoolss = yes

[share]
path = /srv/share
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
create mask = 6777
directory mask = 6777


NOTE:

• The "workgroup=" parameter is set to "workgroup", this is the default name of the Windows network you are connecting to. If your workgroup name is different, change it here.
• The "server string=" parameter can be anything. It should be something descriptive for this computer. If there are two Linux computers configured with the same "server string=" name, one of them will not appear when you look for it from your Windows computer. Therefore, make sure the "server string=" name is unique on your network.

Save and exit the text editor (Geany).

At the $ prompt enter the following to restart Samba:
sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart  [Enter]

Wait for 30 seconds.


On the Windows computer
Go to your Windows computer, browse in Windows Explorer to your Network, browse under Microsoft Windows Network and Workgroup - you should see your Crunchbang computer appear in the list.

In the above example from a Windows XP computer you can see I've found my Crunchbang computer. In brackets you can see it says "Crunchbangt42" - this is the host name of my Crunchbang computer, yours will be different. you can find the host name on your Crunchbang desktop:

On your Windows computer, if you can't find the Crunchbang computer on the network, on the Windows Explorer address bar you can type \\ and the host name directly. In my case I would enter "\\crunchbangT42".

If you are using Windows 7 click Start and enter \\ and the name of the host in the search box. Click on it...

In Windows when you click the share folder you'll be prompted to login:

This is a Windows XP connect box but you will see something
similar for Windows 7 or any other  version of Windows.

Enter your Crunchbang username, password and click OK. If you want this Windows computer not to prompt you for a password next time, click the [ ] Remember my password box.

The above is the result. You can copy files to/from this location.

Finished!

References

The following Youtube video shows in more depth how to set up Samba. My thanks to the author as it what I used as a starting point for this article.
http://youtu.be/P7lvuJdsrMY

Samba
http://www.samba.org/

Crunchbang
http://crunchbang.org/

Crunchbang Linux - change the keyboard layout

When I installed Crunchbang on my Asus Eee PC I made a mistake and selected the UK keyboard layout. I have the US layout. Now how to change the keyboard layout?

Right click on the desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo geany /etc/default/keyboard   [Enter]

The Geany text editor will pop up, look for the following:

XKBMODEL="pc105"
XKBLAYOUT="us"
XKBVARIANT=""
XKBOPTIONS=""

Change XKBLAYOUT= to what you want. In my case I changed from XKBLAYOUT="uk" to XKBLAYOUT="us".

Save and exit Geany.

Restart Crunchbang for the change to take effect.


Reference
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=1103

Crunchbang Linux - change the time zone

If your Crunchbang Linux has the wrong time, perhaps you have the wrong time zone set? To change time zone do the following:

Right click on the desktop

Click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata  [Enter]

A menu will appear:

The mouse doesn't work, navigate using the keyboard arrow keys and Enter to select. In the above, press Enter on your region.

Select the city closest to you

Finished!


Reference
http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges

Crunchbang Linux

Crunchbang Linux is an operating system you can download for free from http://crunchbang.org/. It can run on low specification computers. I found it recently and I've been trying it out on a couple of computers I have. In this article I'll go through installation and what is included, with my first impressions.

Crunchbang is based on Debian which is the same base as Ubuntu uses, this means there are lots of software apps ready to be installed on Crunchbang. It uses the Openbox user interface which is minimalistic. If you like clutter, Crunchbang is not for you. The sleek Openbox interface means Crunchbang is simple and easy to use. Also, it's good for small screens because it doesn't take up much screen space with fancy graphics.


Asus Eee PC

Back in 2008 I bought an Asus Eee PC 700 4G with 1GB RAM (upgraded!). This was the original Eee PC, one of the first NetBooks. It was relatively cheap and excellent for casual web surfing. It was from the days before tablets were widespread!

The Eee PC came with a simple Linux operating system that was fine to start with. Later I moved on to EasyPeasy. An operating system based on Ubuntu. Here's an article I wrote about it:
http://mgxp.blogspot.com/2010/07/easypeasy-netbook-os.html
However, it was big and heavy, it kept updating and then would no longer update because my 4GB SDD main storage was almost full.

Some time ago I looked at a number of Linux operating systems but I didn't find anything that worked well on my Eee PC with its meagre disk space (4GB). Even some systems that say they work with Eee PCs actually only work with the later 900 model. I have the 700...


Installing Crunchbang on the Eee PC
Go to http://crunchbang.org/download/ 
Download the 32-bit ISO, it is less than 800MB in size.
Use Win32diskimager to write the ISO to a USB flash drive - I used a 1GB flash drive.

Plug the USB flash drive into the Eee PC.

To boot the Eee PC from the USB flash drive, press Esc as soon as you switch on the Eee PC.

At the Crunchbang menu, select the Text based installation, the Graphical option didn't work on my Eee Pc. I found the text based installation straightforward, it is menu driven so it's still easy. You have to select the language, location, keyboard layout, it'll ask you to partition the hard disk, select the default and it'll set up everything for you.

WARNING! Anything you already have on the computer will be deleted forever.

Once it had finished installing you will be prompted to run a 'post installation script'. Before you do that, connect to the internet. Click the wireless icon in the top right and select your WiFi hotspot. Now start the post installation script. It will install updates and additional software apps that you may need such as LibreOffice (a free office suite). In my case because I wanted to keep the Eee PC's little 4GB disk as free as possible, I didn't install much (just press S to skip each time).

Once it has finished everything is working! Yes everything. The network drivers, graphics drivers, everything is installed. A completely painless installation.


Using Crunchbang on the Eee PC
It is excellent, fast and slick - yes even on the little Atom processor of the Eee PC. The best news is that it fits on the small screen. Here's what Crunchbang looks like:

On the top you have two virtual desktops and you see your loaded programs listed. 

On the right you can see System Info and Shortcut Keys. The Shortcut Keys are useful but what does it mean by "Super"? The Super key means the Windows key on a Windows PC. 

You can right click on the desktop to bring up a menu, this is shown in the following screen shot:

In the above you can see I'm about to start Dropbox. This Dropbox app is included as standard with Crunchbang and it works perfectly.

In the above I've opened the web browser and I'm on the BBC News website. As you can see it doesn't quite fit on the small Eee PC screen. But it's usable, it's possible to press Ctrl- to reduce the size of the web page. You can also scroll of course. I can also press F11 to go full screen of course, that gives me a little extra space.

The browser that is included is called Iceweasel. It's a Mozilla based browser so it works like Firefox. If you wish you can install Chrome or Opera - there are menu options to do this. Right click the desktop, click Network | WWW Browsers.


Install Crunchbang on the IBM Thinkpad T42
The T42 is a classic. It's rugged and I have one that still works after many years of use. The battery is dead though, so it's tethered. Still it could be useful for a PC to surf on. The RAM is just 512MB and the processor is an Intel Centrino. There's a 40GB hard disk drive, at least a little more space to play with than with my Eee PC.

I used the same USB flash drive that I'd prepared for the Eee PC.

Plug the USB flash drive into the T42.

Switch it on and press the blue Access IBM button

Press F1 for the Setup

Select Config | Floppy Drives

Legacy Floppy Drives [Enabled]
Press Enter and select [Disabled], you should see the following:
Legacy Floppy Drives [Disabled]
(this is important, if you don't do this then the installation will stop part way through)

Press F10 to save and exit the Setup program

The T42 will boot to the Crashbang menu. You can select the graphical or text installations, both work fine. The rest is just as it was with the Eee PC described above. The installation was smooth, not too many questions. Once it's finished connect to your WiFi hotspot before running the post-installation script. On my T42 I installed LibreOffice and other software because there's plenty of space free.


Using Crunchbang on the T42
It's a pleasure to use! The screen is nice and big, the old 4:3 ratio too. Even though the T42 only has 512MB RAM I've not felt it. It runs very nicely.



Conclusion
I've not been using Crunchbang for long but my first impressions are that it is excellent. It's a perfectly small, neat, tidy and slick operating system. It can breath life back into those old computers you have lying around the house. Certainly if you have an Eee PC I would highly recommend Crunchbang because it fits the screen and doesn't have many dialogue boxes that are too big for it.

Also I found the forum on the Crunchbang site to be useful. People are posting real solutions there.

Recommended: 9/10

EasyPeasy netbook OS

I have an Asus Eee PC 700 4G, I got it back in 2008. It was the first popular and truly cheap netbooks to emerge a few years ago. It's a cute little machine that I use mostly for casual web browsing. Originally its built-in 4GB SSD (solid state drive) came pre-loaded with a Linux distribution from Asus specially for the Eee PC. It was ok, I used it for a while but it was clunky and it got on my nerves after a while because it was always forgetting my WiFi connection's WPA key.

I tried Ubuntu's netbook release but it didn't have the drivers included for my old Eee PC. I had a look around and found Eeebuntu (since renamed Aurora), an Ubuntu distribution that came pre-configured for use on the Eee PC with the drivers included for the network, WiFi, webcam, etc. I used Eeebuntu for a while and found it good but it was a little fiddly.

Next I tried EasyPeasy from http://www.geteasypeasy.com/ - again a Linux Ubuntu based distribution. This I have found to be a nice little OS (operating system). It installed relatively easily. I had no driver problems, everything worked immediately. A large selection of popular software is installed such as Firefox, OpenOffice, etc. Unfortunately most of the main storage, the 4GB SSD is taken by all this software but having said that, I never really used the main storage anyway, I always used an SD card for data.

The EasyPeasy interface is excellent, it is clear, easy to use and the mouse pointer travels around it without having to finger the track pad too much. The interface is well designed for the small screen of your netbook, the Eee PC must have one of the smallest and EasyPeasy manages work fine with the limited space. I'm writing this using my Eee PC now, in Firefox on the Blogger online editor. The text is large enough and there is no horizontal scroll bars. My only headache is the annoyingly small Eee PC keyboard, which I can hardly blame on EasyPeasy ;-)

There is a small thin bar at the top of the screen that has a button to get back to the main menu, there are indicators for WiFi strength, battery power remaining, speaker volume, e-mail, date, time and a logoff/shut down menu. This bar is visible the whole time unless you press F11 in Firefox to go full screen.

The only negative thing about EasyPeasy's interface is that sometimes dialogue boxes are too big and the buttons (OK, Cancel, etc) at the bottom of the dialogue window are not visible, they are off the screen and there's no way to move the window up far enough to see them. It is frustrating!

Apart from the overly big dialogue box problem, EasyPeasy is just about flawless. At least it has a very slick looking interface that is easy to use and navigate on a small screen, it boots fast, it can be updated easily (Ubuntu updates and software packages), it's great. I have no problems with the WiFi connection, it automatically connects every time without any fuss. The battery indicator seems to work and the OS rarely crashes.

According to the EasyPeasy website it is for all netbooks so whatever you have try it out.
http://www.geteasypeasy.com/

Of course Aurora is also worth a look, I've not tried it recently. For the time being I'll stick with EasyPeasy as it does what I need which is all you want from a netbook OS. EasyPeasy is again another wonderful piece of open source work. They've adapted the already great Ubuntu so well to the tiny screen of the netbook, especially my little Eee PC.

My rating: 8/10