A cacophony of ASUS Eee Linux PC tips and tricks

By David M Williams
Friday, 28 December 2007 05:15

Opinion and Analysis

Advanced mode
As nice as the famed ASUS Eee interface is – which, make no mistake, is great for children, inexperienced computer users, people who want reliable functionality more than they want to dabble, and most of us in general – you can absolutely transform the Eee into a real live Linux workstation with just a couple of steps.

Think of the default interface as “simple mode.” Here's how to turn on “advanced mode.”

First, call up a BASH prompt – Ctrl-Alt-T, remember. Enter these commands to load some extra software; you'll need a working Internet connection for this. The first command does not change anything on your system, but merely causes the Aptitude program manager to update its list of available packages from ASUS:

sudo aptitude update

Next, instruct Aptitude to load on two new items; ksmserver and kicker.

sudo aptitude install ksmserver kicker

Aptitude will do its stuff, but will prompt you to confirm you're sure you want to load these modules on, like so:

The following packages have been kept back:
  amarok amarok-engines amarok-helix amarok-xine
  frozen-bubble libscim8c2a scim scim-modules-table
  scim-tables-zh xandros-scim xlex

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  kicker ksmserver

0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 11 not upgraded.
Need to get 1988kB of archives. After unpacking 5644kB will be used.

WARNING: untrusted versions of the following packages will be installed! Untrusted packages could compromise your system's security. You should only proceed with the installation if you are certain that this is what you want to do.
  kicker ksmserver

Type Yes and press enter, and Aptitude will continue.

Selecting previously deselected package kicker.
(Reading database ... 72460 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking kicker (from .../kicker_4%3a3.4.2.201-1_i386.deb) ...

Selecting previously deselected package ksmserver.
Unpacking ksmserver (from .../ksmserver_4%3a3.4.2.201-1_i386.deb) ...

Setting up kicker (3.4.2.201-1) ...
Setting up ksmserver (3.4.2.201-1) ...

To remove any fear of magic let me explain: ksmserver is the KDE session manager, part of the KDE graphical user environment. The default ASUS interface uses KDE, stripped down, and with a simple window manager called ICEWM.  What we're doing is beefing up KDE a bit more. The other package, kicker, is a launchpad for KDE and provides application icons on menus on the desktop screen.

You can see an effect of loading these right away: click the Settings tab page, then Personalization. A new option shows up, asking how you want your desktop to appear on boot. The default is the simple mode, but you can now select full desktop mode.

Go on – do it. When you save and close the dialog, it will confirm you have changed the login mode. Reboot your Eee and be impressed by the transformation.

Don't be afraid to experiment: if you don't like it, you can simply click Launch and Easy Mode to go right back again; there's no risk of being stuck.

Enjoy! And be sure to keep checking out The Linux Distillery here on ITWire for more ASUS Eee tips.