So there is no panel/taskbar with a menu, but only desktop icons?

If not, try pressing Alt+F2 and seeing if a window asking to run a command pops up. If so, enter "xterm" in it. A terminal should appear.

If you have menus at the top left of your screen you have the Gnome desk top installed. If you have menus at the bottom left you have KDE. I don't have KDE so someone who has it installed or can remember will have to help out with that.


In Gnome
The terminal can be found at Applications menu -> Accessories or (system-tools)-> Terminal.


In KDE
The terminal can be found at KMenu -> System -> Terminal Program (Konsole). K menu is probably the only icon on the bottom Left.

On Fedora with Gnome, If you press Alt and F2 at the same time (as MTK 358 suggests) a window appears that is Named (Run Terminal). It has a scroll section that allows you to choose the Terminal.Left click "Show List of All Known Applications", left click Terminal and then left click "Run".

Just to be clear, this is the OP's PC.

One of those icons should be "Settings," right? What happens when you go to that one?

It sounds like Linpus, in which case:

Click on 'File Manager' icon
then from the menu - Open or File > Terminal

A window should open that will then allow you to type things in.

(If it is Linpus, I would agree with MTK358's advice and consider installing a more supported distribution. Sounds daunting, but might be easier in the longer run. You can always leave Linpus on there to use as a fall back)

Installing Ubuntu is very easy. There's hardly more to it than clicking on "Next" constantly.

I'm somewhat curious that you say this is your 'new netbook' given that the Asus 701 has not been on sale for some time now. The 701 was what started off the whole Netbook market. Netbook's didn't really exist until Asus produced the 701.


As for your original question about how you get the latest Firefox the short answer is this: You can't. Not without replacing the operating system.

What you get on the Asus 701 is not a regular Linux install. It's not the same as if you download a version of Linux and install it. What you have on the Asus 701 is a heavily customised and cut down version of Linux. It's designed to be used like an appliance. Like you use your washing machine. You turn it on, you click one of the icons provided, do what you want to do, you turn it off. You are not using GNOME. You are not using KDE. You are not using any of the common desktop environments that you will see/hear people talk about. What you are using is unique to Asus Netbooks.

With the version of Linux that comes on the Asus 701, you generally don't install new software and you don't update the software provided, at least not beyond the very limited number of updates that Asus provide. Somewhere there should be an icon for installing updates, click it and see what, if anything, happens. It may be that nothing happens as given the age of the Asus 701 the repos may have been taken offline. Even if something does happen, I very much doubt you will get the latest version of Firefox. If you are already very familiar with Linux then it is possible to install some new software or update what's there already, but it's very hard and it's really not worth the effort given how old the version of Linux. Unless you are already very familiar with Linux attempting to make any modifications to software supplied on the Asus 701 is so difficult as to be effectively impossible.


The current version of Firefox will almost certainly not run on the version of Linux you currently have. As of Firefox 3 the version of the GTK library it depends on was changed and the version of GTK that shipped with the Asus 701 will almost certainly not be new enough.


If you want the latest version of Firefox then you need to replace the operating system that's supplied by Asus with something that is up to date. If you go to http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download you can get the Ubuntu Netbook Edition which can you can install using a USB flash drive. Instructions on how to create a USB flash drive are provided. Once you have Ubuntu installed you will have the latest version of Firefox installed by default and you will find that adding new software is very easy.

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That was a damn good explanation. So if you don't have menus at the Top left or Bottom left and Alt F2 does not do a freaking thing , you 86 the O.S.

Thank you all soooo much for I am starting to understand all of this and I am going to give Ubuntu a try when I get home later this evening. What a great explanation concerning my netbook, os and why. I am very grateful and will let you know how it goes, and you are correct in the fact that this netbook is old but is very new to me. I had bought it used so someone elses trash became my treasure and truthfully I am loving it and am pleased that I am learning something new! Thanks again can't wait to get back with a successful response.

Also just to say that I did figure out where to update and I got exactly the response you had figured, not much happened at all.

Ok so i was able to save ubuntu download to a flash drive but when i went to restart and boot from my usb drive it just goes to a blank screen with a blinking cursor top left, the flash drive is blinking but nothing happens. I did wait at one point like 10 minutes and nothing. Seems like it is waiting for something to be put in there? Possible, I am getting very frustrated...

It has no CD drive, right?

I have an external dvd drive. I was thinking about sending the ubuntu download to a dvd and then installing it as I did the original linux recovery disk into the netbook upon receiving it. Would this work? and would it be simple for this is all giving me a headache.

Is the external drive connected via USB?

Yes I do connect it to a usb port. The person that I had purchased the netbook from had installed window xp on it and this is how it was recieved but the version was a counterfeit one and I had wanted the linux on it anyway for I had heard alot about it and wanted to try it out. I am dissapointed that this is not a true version but some compact os that was made specifically for the asus 701. Anyway, when I recieved it I had bought an external dvd drive and I took the original dvd that came with the netbook and was able to install this Linux program wioth no problem. I would now like to get a better linux os but I am so clueless as to how to make this happen. When I did as I was told and went onto ubuntu netbook version to download I saw that I had 3 choices to get help for from downloading a specific os. It gave Windows, Mac and Ubuntu. None of these are what I have now and I went and put the flash drive in anyway and downloaded it to my usb drive and it worked. When finished I went into the drive it was in and saw that in () below it it had the word bootable. At this point I figured that I would be able to boot up my netbook with it and it would install but unfortunately, like I said, when I press ESC to get to the area to change the boot drive, I was able to set it to the USB Sandisk and then proceeded but it went to a blank screena with the blinking cursor on the top left hand corner and this is where I am at now. I do have a rewritable CD to try to download ti to but I am concerned that this may not work either.

Do you have access to another pc? The question the Ubuntu site asks you is what operating system you are going to use to create the bootable USB drive. Then it shows you instructions (depending on your choice), so this has to be done after you have downloaded the iso file. Sounds like you may have copied the iso file onto the USB stick - which will not work.

I suspect the 'Startup Disc Creator' that Ubuntu uses will not be in Linpus. Easiest thing would be create this on another pc with one of those operating systems on it. I think you would have the same problem on a CD/DVD.

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