Think twice before buying a Everex Cloudbook
I just got off the phone with Everex and they gave me some bad news.
I'm having problems with X starting. I ask them about reloading gOS they told me that you could not connect a external USB CDrom to the cloudbook for reloading the OS. You had to remove the hard drive from CloudBook and put it into another Laptop and install OS and then put it back into the CloudBook. And the worst is, When you open CloudBook to pull hard drive the Warranty is void !!! They said that you could send it back to them and they would reflash OS for you. About a three week turn a round. |
Why not post the problem(s) you are having? gOS is Ubuntu based so we may be able to fix whatever's broken.
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This is a wild guess as I do not own a gPC.
What about using a USB Thumb drive? I am running the gOS Live CD on a Compaq PC. The ISO of this CD is under 600MB. Hence a 1G USB thumb drive is more than adequate. |
Cloudbook can boot to usb connected drive
I'm posting this from a cloudbook that is running Ubuntu 8.10. It came with gOS, which I had messed up. I ended up sending it back to Everex, and they reinstalled the gOS operating system for me at no charge. I just had to pay for shipping.
On an update, gOS messed itself up again, so I changed the OS to Ubuntu 8.04, which I liked better. There are some issues with the change. Copy your xorg.conf file off the Cloudbook before changing out the OS. You'll need the video settings for the Cloudbooks screen geometry. After installing Ubuntu, the system will boot into busybox. You'll have to install ide-generic using apt-get while in the busybox console. Then the Cloudbook will boot just fine. The Realtek usb wifi is located beneath the motherboard, and does not have an antenna attached. To improve reception, I got a snap on (micro bnc) antenna and ran it up through the hinge and around the screen bezel. The wifi driver for the rtl8187 from Ubuntu doesn't work. You have to use the driver from aircrack-ng, with a patch for the kernel you are using. You must also remove the rtl8187 module and blacklist it. Hunt around the Ubuntu forums and you can find the procedure. The cloudbook is a durable unit, with a bright screen, and great battery life. |
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> With all that trouble is it even worth it other than the challenge of conquering it?
Yes! Absolutely. I need more computing power than a smart phone can offer, and more storage. I need it to be durable, portable, and inexpensive. Get Ubuntu running, and your maintenance headaches are over. It's not all that big of a deal. The info to fix these things is out there on the Internet. Once it's done, there's no need to have antivirus software bogging down the system and requiring a memory upgrade. No need to spend hundreds of dollars on additional software. No need to be constantly fixing broken Windoze. Plenty of hard drive space. It's worth it if you have one already, and if gOS is just not doing it for you. For some, putting XP on it is the way to go. For me, it was Ubuntu. |
I was under the impression you could install a new gOS via a usb pen?
I have the original version of gOS and it works fine (realized early on that upgrading the ubuntu part was a bad idea though). The hints on getting ubuntu 8.10 installed look good, and I'm tempted, but gOS works just fine as is and I don't want to mess things up again. However, if anyone gets xubuntu on a cloudbook I'd be really interested! For anyone thinking of buying an Everex Cloudbook - its great! The main criticism about the machine seems to be the wifi range (which is limited) and the position of the mouse pad. If your used to gaming then the mousepad makes a lot more sense than were you might usually find it. Its just like holding a big PSP. All in all this is a really good machine. |
I understand that netbooks are a cool concept. It's small, light and it's got Linux. But seriously... why not spend $100-200 more and get a fully functional laptop that is WAY more powerful?
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I mainly need it for programming and the internet - it definitely does the job. I writing this on it now. In fact I've got it set up to do everything that I generally do in work (piping to gnuplot, povray, latex, etc...). The thing I like the most, over other laptops, is that its really small. Larger laptops are too big to carry around, and generally get too hot to put on your lap. This machine you hold upright, holding it with one hand and typing with the other, or like a PSP with the mouse buttons for the left thumb and mouse pad with your right. Brilliant!
Some people might consider it too slow (feels like an old pentium II that I have running xubuntu) but its good enough to watch P2P and youtube. All in all a great little device and hopefully it'll introduce a lot of people to linux. |
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a 2lb Netbook seems like a much better alternative in this situation. Smaller, Lighter, more portable, can run Windows or linux or whatever.. I'm rather surprised the cloudbook has no means to boot from a USB device.. are you sure that is the case ? I would think you could boot from a USB flash drive, a USB CD/DVD, and possibly a SD card.. I have those boot options available on my Acer netbook. I found this in another forum.. Quote:
Huhh apparently even the users in the everex forums are better informed than their tech support people... http://www.everexforum.com/forum/ind...a=topic&t=7521 http://www.everexforum.com/forum/ind...a=topic&t=7155 <- slackware 12.1 on the cloudbook |
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