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Eeepc Tutorials

1. KDE Desktop

The Eeepc comes with a very Mickey Mouse desktop, fine for surfing and e mail but its very limiting. You can have a full desktop just like Windows with full access to all applications but in this case its called KDE and its Linux so it needs a bit of mild tweaking.

Before

After
(well kind of I changed the wallpaper)
You can also swap and change between deskops with a reboot after installation

How To Install Full KDE Desktop

Please note you should make a recovery USB pen drive first - instructions are in the eeepc manual at the back. If this goes wrong you may lose the entire PC in which case you need to boot from the recovery CD with a USB CD drive or from the pen drive backup you just made.

Preliminary Step - Server Keys

You need to do these 2 steps first before you start the main tutorial - the software distribution server you need to access is encrypted and needs a key to access it. Do the following to download and install the key. You only need to do this once, when installed the key will allow access to the extra eeepc software servers. Step 1 downloads the key (wget = web get) and the second step installs it (add key). sudo means "do this as an administrator" (super user do) obvious innit. Terminal is how you control Linux, like Windows Command Line - don't worry you rarely have to use it.

1. Press <CTRL + ALT>, hold them down and press "t", to open the Terminal, type after the green /home/user prompt
    
                                          wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/eeepcrepos/key.asc

Then press the return key, text should then appear (as shown) below the line you typed giving you another green /user/home prompt.

2. Next type the following  sudo apt-key add key.asc  then press return. The only feedback you get from this is the "OK" return. Once done close down the terminal, you can reboot now if you want, makes no difference with Linux but I always do.

Install Desktop

3. Press <CTRL + ALT>, hold them down and press "t", to open the Terminal, type "sudo synaptic" then hit return. You are telling it to start a program called Synaptic, this is the Linux version of Add / Remove Programs and its a bit different but don't panic its not that hard and I will explain what's going on during the tutorial.

4. Next thing you will see is Synaptic, its a application manager but unlike windows it works directly from the web and gets its applications from repositories which are just files files full of software on the web, it does not do this automatically you have to tell it where to look and what for.

Click on "Settings" then "Repositories".

OK this is where we tell Synaptic where to look for the software required to upgrade the eeepc. You will see in the window 2 addresses already set up, these are the pre-installed default eeepc software distribution and upgrade repositories but they do not have the files needed for the advanced KDE desktop so you must add another one. The repository you are going to add is semi official, things are complex in the world of Linux the point is that anything you download and install is at your own risk, but then so are Windows updates 8-). When you downloaded and installed the "Key" file at the beginning of this tutorial you accepted this new repository as a trusted source of software.

5. To Continue - ignore the highlighted entry in the screenshot for now look at the two lines you have, in the screenshot you will see two parts of the lines, the URLs (at the end) and the Distribution entry where it says p701. If yours says p700 change it in both lines to p701 by clicking on the line to be changed and edit using the URL and Distribution boxes below. Once the first two lines are exactly as the screenshot click "New" and add the new line as shown, when you are satisfied it is right click OK.

6. Pretty self explanatory, click "Close" then click "Reload".

At this point Synaptic will churn away for a bit on-line looking at the contents of the new repositories you just added and updating the index of what is available. When it finishes you may get an error message, if it says it can't find the repositories you have typed them in wrong in the previous section, if it whines about anything else ignore it and carry on. If at a later stage you can't find a file or it gives you more error messages check your repository settings again. Finally this is an on-line resource, it may just be too busy to sort you so wait till 2am and try again 8-)

7. Now you have updated your software list you can install the files required to run the full KDE desktop. Select "All" in the left hand panel then scroll down the right hand panel to find "kicker" right click on it then select "Mark for Installation" from the drop down.................

NB there is a "Search Box" but I read somewhere it is buggy and mucks up the installation so I just scrolled manually

............Carry on scrolling down to find "ksmserver", right click on it then select "Mark for Installation" from the drop down, then click the "Apply" button at the top......after which.

There will be some sanity check "OK" boxes to click through. The final box has an apply button you have to click to begin the installation but it is hidden below the bottom of the screen. To expose it hold down the <Alt> key + Left Click and drag the whole window upwards with the mouse pad, great eh I was impressed too. When its done you will get a "Changes applied" confirmation - click on "Close".

8. Synaptic will reload automatically, now you have the two files installed needed to run the KDE Desktop you need the desktop itself installing. Same as before but this time look for "advanced-desktop-eeepc", right click on it then select "Mark for Installation" from the drop down then click on "Apply" and install as above.

In the info box at the bottom right you will see it "depends on software required to enable"....yada yada, this is what kicker and ksmserver were for.

9. Close down synaptic and shut down as usual but this time on the far left there is an option to select "Full Desktop", click on that and the PC will re-boot into full KDE Desktop mode. All the applications are still there - click the Launch button for the menu. Right click an icon in there and select "Add to Desktop" to put shortcuts on the desktop.

Et Voilla Mickey Mouse is gone

Source information from the EEPC Wikipedia

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/

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