Help, may have a can of worms (or netbook)
 

Please tell me I am wrong. I had received this netbook as a Christmas gift from the States. It is an Augen eGo with, supposedly a Linux OS with the Bon Echo browser. As in the beginnings of MS Windows, I would dig and dig to understand how everything works. My first impression was this may be an early version similar to Windows 3.1 and still may be, this is why I am here. As in my original thread, i could not find what version i had and what were the executable files for downloading apps. I did find out that .tar and .gz were files that i could extract in the Sky Tar (like winzip) app.
Before I get too far ahead of myself, maybe the above is enough for some to respond.
But, i must add that it was not until i went into my Yahoo and was freezing at l.yimg.com which enlightened me to a host of problems with Yahoo users. A window would pop up with a script warning. Actually, i Googled this and it brought me to LQ. Passing over many things that i found out, much more digging brought me to the yimf os , which as some or all of you may know, is a knock off OS made in China that resembles XP and Linux.
Please tell me that this is just an inexperienced Linux user conundrum.

RJ

PS Just received a similar script warning that closed Bon Echo while loading this page from kona.kontera

Um, uh, the Bon Echo browser is an alpha release of Firefox 2. This means it is both ancient and not suited for use.

According to a brief googling, the eGo shipped with Windows CE, not Linux.


So basically, you need to do a bit of digging into what is really running on this thing and why ANYONE would be using Bon Echo as a broswer.

And I'm asking this thread get moved to a more suitable forum than Security

Moved to Newbie for more adequate exposure.

And as Hangdog seems to be correct with the OS assessment I'm moving this
on to General as CE != Linux ;}

Open a "Terminal" or "Command Prompt" or "Konsole" and type:
and press [ENTER].
This will show you what version and type of Linux you have, if Linux is even what you have.

Post back the result.

You should get a real Linux distro and the newest Firefox.

www.distrowatch.com

What he said.

I like to picture the introduction of linux like delicately jamming a knife into a critical organ.. As soon as the question about the OS comes up, it's time to switch to linux IMO.

in other words, who cares what you've got, what you should have is a linux distro suitable to your hardware. Once you get used to putting linux images on a disc, usb, hdd, etc you'll be able to swap them out like candy until you find one that really interests you.

If you're not picky about things, then there's a good chance the first one you try will do just fine.

It's wonderful to not have to worry about a worst case scenario that's not physical in nature (IE graphics card is on fire). The solution to the worst possible software issue is a 10-20 minute install with everything you had before already on it.

"Dang.. I was playing a game with GDB and system("rm -r /"); and lost... I wonder if I can win on the next distro..."

I agree with that.

I would suggest you try Fedora 12, also Ubuntu is very popular, but I consider it a little "dumbed-down".

I haven't been able to find much information about the Augen e Go, but what I have found indicates that it is a very limited machine. For a start, the presence of Windows CE suggests that it does not have an x86 processor. This means 'standard' Linux distributions will not work, and you may be unable to find any version of Linux at all for it. Secondly, it has a small amount of RAM (I have not found the exact figure), which will again limit what you can do with it. Finally, even if you do find a version of Linux that should run well on it, installing it probably won't be straightforward.

Therefore, you may be forced to work with Windows CE. There aren't many good programs available for it, far fewer than Linux or normal Windows has. But hopefully you can at least find a better web browser.

If it uses an ARM architecture CPU (common in mobile and embedded devices), you can try Debian ARM or ARMedslack.

http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/
http://www.armedslack.org/

(Note that I don't have any experience with ARM CPUs)

I've heard Gentoo can run on a toaster. The wireless won't work though.

With the low specs on that thing, you might as well install the most minimal Linux distribution you can understand to get it to any usable standard.

Wireless toasters, otherwise known as microwaves, are rubbish anyway.

On OS and browser detect, states Linux and Mozilla 1.8
 

OK. With the little time i can spend on this, even on the packaging this came
Linux (ARM)
XBurst processor
Chipset 4730
400 mhz
nand flash 1GB
128mb memory
The unit is fast enough on the internet using an open linksys wifi connection.
It does have Bon Echo (Mozilla), but what i found that this was an Alpha release for developers. It seems to update on its own but i cannot. When downloading apps, such as Skype, with .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 extensions, i am able to unzip (SKY TAR) but does not recognize. To date i have not found a prompt only able to open about:config, which am not familiar with either.
Has lots of software but many not usable. Would love to format and start fresh as i would with many PC's.
I did call them in Florida and they informed me that i could not download anything. This was far from a tech person but did ask, "was that the blue one?"
Excuse my ignorance and thanks for any suggestions.

At http:/www.detectmybrowser.com ,it states Linux OS with Mozilla 1.8 browser. Still cannot get a command prompt at ctrl alt f1 or f6. Was able to get the addon NoScript and Greasemonkey which helped tremendously, but still no official Java app or Adobe Flash.