Cliff Hacks Things.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

ASUS eeePC: some sources posted.

Looks like ASUS has posted some source archives on their FTP site. On initial inspection, the asus_acpi module sources are not the ones that compiled the module that ships on the machine, but are very close. Gonna try 'em out this evening -- as long as they work, I can chalk the previous binary release up to an error on ASUS's part and forge ahead.

Edit (2007-11-30): I've pored over ASUS's source release and extracted their changes into patches. Everything seems to work -- they even released some packages that they weren't technically obligated to, like their on-screen display code for the volume and wifi buttons.

I'm delighted to report that this situation is resolved, as far as I'm concerned. ASUS has reacted admirably and swiftly, and I'm proud to have given them my money (with the small exception of the arbitrary and potentially illegal restrictions they've placed on upgrades).

Gonna go back to my enjoying my laptop now, and hopefully not get viciously attacked on Slashdot and my own blog for a while. Happy hacking!

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posted by Cliff L. Biffle at 11:19 AM

17 Comments:

  • Hello.

    I'm getting my eee in a day or two...black.

    Any, I just wanted to thank you for all the scripts/help. You've done a lot of what I plan to, so I'll save loads of time.

    Great blog!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 12:36 PM  

  • Thank you for all your posts on the eeePC, you've done all the hard work for us. I'm now very interested in an eeePC knowing that I can get Ubuntu on it.

    By Blogger Garry Dolley, at 2:48 PM  

  • Well, here's some instructions on how to get to the sweet center of the tar balls.
    1) rar x [rar file]
    2) ar x [deb file]
    Usually, there's a:
    3) tar -zxf [tar.gz file]
    And if you're really lucky:
    4) tar -jxf [tar.bz2 file]

    Now, because noone really wants to go to all that effort, I have undebbed most of it and placed it on my site.

    Direct link to the kernel sources which were embedded in three archives (:D): [link]

    Also, the rest is at http://bbqsrc.net/eee with faster speeds than the Asus mirror.

    Nice blog man, keep it up! Have fun guys.

    By Blogger Brendan, at 3:41 PM  

  • I've verified that the asus_acpi module shipped with those tarballs (which appears to be compiled from the sources provided) can indeed operate the eee's ACPI hardware features, including suspend/resume. Hooray!

    By Blogger Cliff L. Biffle, at 4:13 PM  

  • I can't confirm the results myself, but another user on eeepc forums has reported success.

    I've looked through the code bundled with asus_acpi code, and what's strange is that there's coding for handling png images. (huh?)

    Additionally, AFAIK, asus hasn't released the madwifi code. Releasing this would be of major significance. This chipset is not supported by madwifi.org's sources. Madwifi recommends the XP driver, which works just for me using ndiswrapper.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 4:26 PM  

  • The png handling code could have something to do with the asus_osd.tar.gz.

    By Blogger Brendan, at 4:37 PM  

  • Just an FYI, I noticed that asus has not "released" all sources related to acpi. They have released the kernel module source. These are installed from this package in the asus deb repository: asus-acpi_1.38-1xandros5_i386.deb

    This package, however, also installs all the shell scripts that respond to the acpi events.

    These shell scripts are not included in the big zipped sources files (2007-10-12-build.zip.zip) released by asus.

    They have, however, been released in the binary deb, and can be extracted from it: dpkg -X

    By Blogger Unknown, at 5:44 PM  

  • Just an FYI, I noticed that asus has not "released" all sources related to acpi

    Yes they have.

    ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/EeePC/701/ASUS_ACPI_071126.rar

    By Blogger Unknown, at 9:19 AM  

  • Bob,

    If I read Fex right, s/he is correct: the source drop as I downloaded it last night does not include the responder scripts that go in /etc/acpi.

    However, these scripts are not linked with any GPL code and do not carry GPL license headers. Not all of Xandros is GPL, and I believe these scripts are proprietary. So, ASUS is really under no obligation to release them.

    So, in a way, you're both right!

    I've been cleanroom duplicating the scripts and will post my results soon.

    By Blogger Cliff L. Biffle, at 11:09 PM  

  • in your edit, you say that you are completely satisfied with asus's move. so, does this mean that you got the atheros driver to work without using their binary model? (I know about the license status of madwifi, just asking)

    By Blogger Ben, at 4:52 PM  

  • I just ordered a eeepc model 700, the one without the webcam. Can this thing handle playback of 640*480 H264 video? I'd love to be able to watch my video Podcasts without having to convert them. Thanks

    By Blogger Kahnwakero:non, at 6:00 PM  

  • Benoit,

    Sorry for the delay responding.

    Yes, I got the Atheros driver to work. On the bug report for this card on madwifi.org, a poster has provided a binary patch to the HAL that makes it work.

    Evidently this card will be supported in the mainline HAL soon (it may be already, I haven't looked). But with this patch, I've been able to compile madwifi r2751 (iirc) from sources and use the binary HAL they provide. So, I've been able to build a kernel with all the new hotness I wanted (dynamic ticks, etc.).

    By Blogger Cliff L. Biffle, at 11:59 PM  

  • Hi Cliff, I was able mee too to compile a madwifi starting to ticket 1679 instructions but could you explain us why they did not release atheros wifi driver? Thanks. R.

    By Blogger Roberto A. Foglietta, at 3:42 AM  

  • hI CLIFF,
    please tell me if eeepc accepts SDHC CARD MEMORY in the slot provided on eeepc

    By Blogger Unknown, at 5:49 PM  

  • hey cliff!!

    traveling in se asia...eee pc crashed and was looping in the linux start-up phase, had some random computer "tech" try and check out linux, has installed an old version of linux slax (sp??) on my SD card and i boot it up via removable drive, but no wired or wireless internet. now, i can't even get orig. linux back and all i have upon starting up is a "1254F:" or something like that. do you know if i can download the orig. linux OS anywhere and put it on an SD card to boot from removable drive??

    THANK YOU for any help!! i'm traveling, contacted asus to try and bring my eee pc to ho chi minh or beijing, but cannot send in to manufacturer cuz i'm on the road.

    many many many thanks!
    j (aka eee pc user SOL

    ps. here's a link to my eee user forum, but now their suggestions are not even an option. hard reset, f9, etc. do not work:

    http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=26440

    By Blogger jamiesonic, at 4:45 AM  

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