wahlau's online hut

as compared to the Eee PC 701, the 901 is not really that much bigger. However the real estate of the screen makes really quite some differences. For people who only need to occasionally view pictures, videos and web sites i think the 701 will do the job well. But if you plan to work on it, e.g documents or presentations, you will really appreciate the 8.9" screen with the rather now-standard 1024x600 resolution.

I had used Ubuntu Eee 8.04.1 since a month plus ago on the 701, so after swapping the SD card to the 901, i am pretty pleasantly surprised that the system runs without complaining its new host. However the support for suspend to ram (STR) did not work ever since my first try on the Ubuntu Eee. So i decided to give it a shot to find the optimal solution for a linux system that will work at least to my needs. But even after asking around in the eeeuser.com forum and reinstallation of Ubunut Eee, the sleep problem is still not solved. Apparently someone mentioned that the later updates of the 8.04.1 broke STR feature. Well, it was then time to try something else out.

So i went ahead and install Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex on the 901. Installation is pretty straight forward - no surprises except the part where i need to tell the system to install on the SD card. You will realise that the option of using /dev/sdd is not available, as long as if you have the sd card mounted in the live CD session. An unmount will do the job. I did not choose a swap partition, since i have read that it is not really needed. Indeed in most of the time i checked the system monitor and i only use say around 400MB out of the 1GB i have.

The next thing you should do after a plain 8.10 installation is to connect it via Ethernet to get the array.org kernel from Adam. Wireless does not work automatically after installation. If you follow the instructions it is pretty easy. After installation, reboot and you should then install Elmurato's acpi scripts. The scripts are really good and useful, especially if you want to make use of all the hotkeys for different functions, such as toggling WiFi, bluetooth and Webcam.

After doing all these, it was time to test the system. So far i can only tell that this combination, even after i do a system update things i need still work. The toggling of Wifi and bluetooth work flawlessly. Sleep/STR works as i hoped too. I have added an extra script to delay the sleep process, since it was mentioned by a forum member that writing to SDD/SD card might take some time before power off. And so far i have almost 100% success. Will report if my statistics change in the future.

Battery is really impressive to my expectation (nope, i am not comparing with Samsung NC10 or Lenova S10, no idea how it fairs to these machines). From my non-scientific observations, if i turn off all wireless connection, i can get around 8 hours 5 minutes at 100%. Even with bluetooth 3G connection i still see the battery manager reporting around 6H battery time. With Wifi i get aroudn 5H 15M, which is far more than i wish to have. So i assume if i use it on the move, i would perhaps get around 4-5 hours minimum. Sweet. Last with the 701 i only get say 2H 30M with the 4400mAh, and the 10400mAh i get aroudn 5H. But the size o14f the battery is not really something everyone will like.

The 3G support via bluetooth can be simplified by combining NetworkManager and Blueman. I followed the instruction from Emir Taner and it just worked. I think the support via NM and Blueman is so far the easiest. Earlier on i have to manually turn rfcomm0 on in order to use it - very troublesome. Now i can do it semi automatically, and i find that acceptable. Try that on windows :)

All in all i am very satisfied for the unit. I don need to bring my thinkpad when i am away (used to do that, and even at 2.2kg it is not really that pleasant after walking around the town for the whole day). The 901 has at least the battery life, size and weight i need/want to have. The system Ubuntu 8.10 with customed kernel works to things i need, so it is serving me well. With Gimp and GThumbViewer i will be able to upload photos i need to backup from my camera, and the normal multimedia stuffs - Rhythmbox/Amarok and VLC will just serve me enough entertainment without the need of full notebook.

if you are looking for a netbook, i suggest you wait til early of next year. Looking at how every manufacturer trying to get into the market, and how each model provides more than its competitors, i do think 2009 is the year where you can get sub-300€ (around RM1.4k) netbook with enough processing power, long battery life and enough screen size. But if you can't wait, i would recommend to first check what you want to do with it. It is nevertheless not a full scale notebook - there would be little shortcomings here and there. But if your purpose is rather simple, perhaps even the 701 with ram upgrade will serve you well. Chippy from UMPCPortal has a series of buyers' guide for UMPC and netbooks. Do take a look to help you decide.

links:
1. Tombuntu how to
2. Elmurato's script
3. 3g via bluetooth on Ubuntu