Tag Archives: EasyPeasy

EasyPeasy networking disabled

Computer Aid Posted on by

I recently had a strange problem with my EasyPeasy Netbook.

It took a very long time to start (maybe the battery went flat while in hibernation).

After about a 30 minute wait for startup, I found that the networking was disabled.

Hovering the mouse over the WiFi network symbol at the top of the screen gave the message: Networking Disabled

Ok, I flick the netbook switch to turn off the wifi, and after it goes off, I switch it back on again.

As usual, the WiFi light goes from amber to blue (and the bluetooth also switches on again)… but linux still says networking disabled.

I don’t want to waste much time on this, so a quick internet search finds 2 solutions:

  • delete /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state
  • edit /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state (change the line “NetworkingEnabled” from false to true, save, then restart easypeasy)

I didn’t want to risk deleting a system file, so I edited the state file, and after a restart, everything was back to normal.

HP Mini 1001TU WiFi on Ubuntu Netbook (EasyPeasy 1.6)

Computer Aid Posted on by

I have a HP Mini 1001TU netbook with a failed 60Gb HDD (which was running Windows XP).

I removed the HDD. It was a 1.8″ drive, which is difficult/expensive to replace.

I decided to get a 16GB SD card and install Linux.

This will make the Netbook slightly lighter, and also extend battery life slightly.

I decided to install EasyPeasy 1.6 (a variation on Ububtu Netbook).

Installing linux to an SD card can be tricky:

Don’t install the “liveCD” image directly to the SD card, as it will always think that its a read-only media, and any changes you make will not last once you restart the Netbook.

What I do instead is:

  • Make a bootable liveCD from a cheap 1GB USB drive (unetbootin is good for this)
  • Boot from the USB drive, while the blank 16Gb SD card is inserted into the SD slot.
  • Start the “install EasyPeasy” application, and make sure you install to the SD card.
  • Shutdown the netbook, and make sure you remove the USB drive.
  • start the netbook and press F10 -> System Configuration -> Boot options -> boot device priority -> make sure the first boot device is: “USB single flash Reader”
  • Now the Netboot will always boot from the SD card.

My next challenge was getting the WiFi wireless network going.

Everything seemed to be in place, the netbooks WIFi button was in the ON position, but I would not see any wireless network on the network icon (top-right of the screen)

After a lot of searching around, I found the solution was actually quite simple:

  • Make sure the netbook is connected to the internet via the ethernet cable.
  • Click the “System” tab on the bottom-left of the main screen
  • Click on “Hardware Drivers” (near the bottom of the System page).
  • Click “broadcom STA wireless driver”, then install.
  • Once the driver has been downloaded and installed, I usually remove the ethernet cable and restart the netbook.
  • The network icon now allows me to connect to WiFi networks… it works just like any windows-based system… simple!

eee 1001ha and linux (EasyPeasy 1.6) and WiFi problems

Computer Aid Posted on by

Based on my last post, you will know that I am now configuring a new Asus EEE 1001HA laptop.

My customer wants linux, so after some investigation, I decide that EasyPeasy linux is a good choice for a netbook.

Luckily, the 1001ha has the 160Gb drive split into 2 80Gb partitions (ordinarily I would be annoyed at this, and merge the 2 partitions, but this means I’ll be able to dual-boot Linux and XP).

First I download EasyPeasy, and configure it onto a 2Gb SD card,

Then, I boot from the SD card, so that I’m running EasyPeasy in live-CD mode.

I run the HDD installation within EasyPeasy, I select the non-XP partition, but I’m worried that it will delete the MBR, such that I will not be able to boot XP anymore…

Well, here is pleasant surprise: The MBR is overwritten, but the “Grub” boot menu includes Windows XP… So Easy Peasy was smart enough to detect XP, and added it to the boot menu. Very nice.

EasyPeasy is easy to learn, but I found 1 major problem with the eee 1001HA: I couldn’t get WiFi to work.

Apparently, the 1001ha uses the RT3090 WiFi chip (which supports the new 802.11N standard), but the Linux drivers are very patchy in this area.

I found a forum that suggested using the WiCD Network manager… I tried it, but that didn’t work either.

I eventually discovered that there is a bug with the driver for the RT3090 chip… but I also found a workaround at: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/541620

Post 21 shows what to do:

As root:

mkdir -p /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/
touch /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat

It seems like the driver is expecting to find the file RT2860STA.dat in a specific folder (that doesn’t exist in EasyPeasy).

Oh well, I’ve done lots of grumbling about Microsoft… I guess this is my first complaint about Linux… it can have poor programming standards.