Installing software on EEEpc - Linux

scottishf

I have never used linux before, and was trying to install adobe flash onto a EEEpc which after looking on the web seems to use the Xandros flavour of Linux. Firstly adoe gives 4 versions to download - not sure which one is for this OS, and then when I downloaded them wasnt sure how to install them. CAn anyone help!!!!.

Also I have a laptop running vista, and would like to dual boot with xandros to try playing around with it but need instructions on where to find it and how to install it

fwor

Xandros is rather unusual in that, while based on Open Source code, it is only available for download as a 30-day trial, after which you have to pay to register it.

In terms of learning, it may not help much to run it on your laptop, as I think the Eee version has a custom GUI and so will probably look different.

It's debian-based, so you should be able to use apt at the command line to install software. Otherwise, if you want to download and install it, I'd go for the .deb package.

However, you may need to do some more searching in the Eee user forums about Advanced Mode, as you can then use the Synaptic package manager.

Also - if you're feeling adventurous - you might consider ditching Xandros and going for something like the Ubuntu netbook remix, which should be much more functional.

scottishf

If I download it from the adobe site, and save it to the desktop. Can I then open a terminal and type sudo snaptic....and then install it from there ??

fwor

Although this article is a couple of years old, I think the mechanism (Xandros Networks) is still the same:

http://geekconnection.pbworks.com/How-to-install-DEB-files

The command line use of apt probably won't work "out of the box" because it doesn't come with the right repositories (the web locations for binary packages) configured. There are quite a few articles out there that show how to make apt-get work properly, such as this one:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=244

fwor

Synaptic Package Manager is an equivalent to apt but with a graphical interface, and is well worth getting - for example with a few clicks I can see that I have adobe-flashplugin 10.0.22.87-1 already installed. Finding that out from the command line is no doubt possible, but I wouldn't have a clue how...

If you already have it installed but have no menu item to start it then yes, sudo synaptic at the command line should open the Synaptic GUI.

scar1_2

Like yourself I recently moved from a MS operating system to a Linux Distro (ubuntu).
I used the 64-bit version and I have to say its excellent!

Synaptic packet manager is really useful and if you are using Mozilla I found a really easy way to install flash player.

I read above that you may have to register this after 30 days and pay, if thats the case i would recommend switching to ubuntu - 9.04.

Cheers