Ubuntu – Install 10.10 Netbook Edition on Eee PC [1015] using a USB HDD

eeepcubuntu-netbook

I got brand new Eee PC as a christmas present and wanted to immediately install Ubuntu on it. For that I downloaded the netbook edition and set-up my USB hard disc (note: HDD not flash drive) according to the guide on the official download website.

Then I set-up the boot priority to "removable devices" as first priority. If I boot now, however, the HDD is not booted. Is it not possible to do it that way?

Best Answer

After all I figured out how it works. Here is the trick.

  1. Follow the instructions on the download website to create an installer USB stick. You can do this in the Windows installation that comes with the netbook.
  2. Now restart your netbook immediately and hit ESC immediately. This will launch the BIOS settings manager.
  3. Here go to boot settings. Now you do not need to change the boot order to have "removable devices booted first". Rather, from the menu entry under boot sequence, enter the submenu "Hard drives" (or something like that) and here change the priority of the drives such that your USB stick is booted first, and not your HDD. It might be confusing that your stick is not handled as a removable device, so watch up at this point.
  4. Install Ubuntu! Some notes on the installation: There will be 4 partitions. The last one is a seemingly unnecessary one with 21MB of empty space. Keep this one. It is used internall by the Eee PC to speed up the boot. The rest can be erased. Also, at some points the installation might be really slow, or even frozen. Be patient, it is not. It might take as long as 10 minutes, but then it should work.
  5. Boot and enjoy. Everything works smoothly and out of the box!

Bonus hint: Under mouse settings you can enable two finger scrolling just like it is possible with the Eee PC under Windows (without requiring extra Asus software...).

I hope this clarifies things for future users. Cheers!

Related Question