I have an old netbook that I am trying to update with a more up to date version of Linux. I have full root priviliges but nothing seems to work. I'm like a level zero newbie and would appreciate any help at all (preferable cut and paste)
I do sudo apt-get update and I get this ...

asus-743747564:/home/user> apt-get update
Get:1 http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701 Release.gpg
Get:2 http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701 Release.gpg
Get:3 http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701 Release
Ign http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701 Release
Get:4 http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701 Release
Ign http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701 Release
Get:5 http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701/main Packages
99% [5 Packages bzip2 0] [Connecting to update.eeepc.asus.com (92.242.132.30)]bzip2: (stdin) is not a bzip2 file.
Err http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701/main Packages
Sub-process bzip2 returned an error code (2)
Get:6 http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701/main Packages
99% [6 Packages bzip2 0]bzip2: (stdin) is not a bzip2 file.
Err http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701/main Packages
Sub-process bzip2 returned an error code (2)
Fetched 6606B in 0s (15.4kB/s)
Failed to fetch http://update.eeepc.asus.com/p701/di...6/Packages.bz2 Sub-process bzip2 returned an error code (2)
Failed to fetch http://update.eeepc.asus.com/p701/en...6/Packages.bz2 Sub-process bzip2 returned an error code (2)
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701 Release: The following signatures were invalid: NODATA 1 NODATA 2
W: GPG error: http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701 Release: The following signatures were invalid: NODATA 1 NODATA 2
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/update.eeepc.asus.com_p701_dists_p701_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://update.eeepc.asus.com p701/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/update.eeepc.asus.com_p701_en_dists_p701_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
asus-743747564:/home/user>
TIA Simon

Hi.

I would download a newer Linux and install fresh (if we had more info,) check out the second link in my signature...

E.g: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-...-your-netbook/

Best wishes and have fun!

1 members found this post helpful.

As indicated by the error, "http://update.eeepc.asus.com" no longer exists, so updates, etc. will be impossible.

You'll need to format and install a new distribution from scratch. It's not difficult, but you need to pick a distro that will work well on that hardware. I have an old eeepc that I used for a while, I wiped the default OS immediately and installed OpenSUSE with the XFCE desktop environment. It worked well, main limitation was RAM for web browsing (all modern web browsers are memory whores), but it wasn't bad.

Step 1) Pick a distro
Step 2) Download the ISO
Step 3) Write the ISO to a USB or CD/DVD
Step 4) Reboot the computer, and select the USB/CD/DVD as the boot device
Step 5) Install the new distro

1 members found this post helpful.

I would recommend using a distribution like Debian and start with a minimal installation by using a network install disk. Then just install the bare minimum required to get your EeePC 701 model up and running. Once you have a minimal installation, only install lightweight GTK applications, no Gnome, KDE or Xfce. That hardware will not be able to handle a full desktop environment. Use a window manager like fluxbox, window maker, blackbox, fvwm, twm, awesomewm, dwm etc etc.

I only recommend that you use Debian because the originally distributed OS that is on your EeePC was either Xandros or Debian. You will be almost guaranteed that the hardware will be recognized out of the box. The only thing that may difficult is installing the wireless card drivers by grabbing the appropriate package from the Debian repositories.

2 members found this post helpful.

Might help. Might not. Some threads are mine when I ran a 701SD.

https://www.google.com/search?q=inst...w=1325&bih=570

Some links I keep on file for questions like these

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-a-4175458650/

If i was in your shoes. I'd install Salix Fluxbox, Slackel Fluxbox, or MX-14 and run with it from there.

That makes a roadblock for anything I am going to say in this post but what the hell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X90j9iaavLQ

1 members found this post helpful.

The EeePC has only 4Gb* of storage and probably 1Gb of RAM so you're severely limited. I ended up putting Puppy Linux on mine which was some time ago. I can't remember the version I used, maybe Slacko? but it installed from a 128Mb USB drive. It might be interesting trying he latest version of Puppy?

* If you're dead unlucky, you've got the 2Gb storage version.

Play Bonny!

Taking it a step further would be to use an SD Card to store your Linux installation and just use the internal hard drive to store files like music or video. This is what I did on my EeePC some years ago because the internal hard drive is a SSD disk. By storing files you read, you will save the hard drive.

1 members found this post helpful.

My EeePC had 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of SSD storage (granted I had upgraded both of these from what came pre-installed, but there's no telling he hasn't or couldn't do that as well), it had no trouble running XFCE on OpenSUSE, and other distros wouldn't have been a problem either.

2 members found this post helpful.

What mine looked like when I had Puppeee on it myself. Puppy Slack0 is a good idea also.

http://oi55.tinypic.com/xy8ew.jpg

When I ran AntiX on it

http://oi33.tinypic.com/2aj3q4y.jpg

My current atom 9 inch netbook is looking like this in Slackel

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/vie...=851290#851290

and my other netbook using AntiX

http://www.imagebam.com/image/5380e6398337874

So things are possible. Look for LUG (Linux users group) in your area. Hopefully there is one. They will help you out.
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO-3.html

Found this.

Slacko5.7-2015 and 2015a

2 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for your replies everyone. I have not managed to accomplish this as of yet. I have partitioned my usb memory stick

asus-743747564:/home/user> fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 4001 MB, 4001292288 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 486 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 300 2409718+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 301 484 1477980 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 485 485 8032+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4 486 486 8032+ ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

Disk /dev/sdc: 15.5 GB, 15512174592 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 14793 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 14793 15148016 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
asus-743747564:/home/user>

I am downloading slacko 5.7 No Pae

asus-743747564:/home/user> dd if=slacko-5.7-NO-pae.iso of=/dev/sdc1 bs=512k
322+0 records in
322+0 records out
168820736 bytes (169 MB) copied, 228.632 seconds, 738 kB/s
asus-743747564:/home/user>

This where things start to go wrong. In previous attempts I have booted to usb but only get a black screen.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 14793 15148016 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
asus-743747564:/home/user> fdisk /dev/sdc1

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14792.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): a
Partition number (1-4): 1

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!

Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.

WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 22: Invalid argument.
The kernel still uses the old table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot.
Syncing disks.
asus-743747564:/home/user>

i thought ... a amd then 1 would leave an asterix under boot for sdc1

frustrating

You need to use dd to write to the disk, not to the partition

should be
Similarly, you do not run fdisk on partitions, you run fdisk on disks:
However, this should not be needed, as the iso file will contain all of the partitioning information needed.

2 members found this post helpful.

Nice [code][/code] tags there too suicidaleggroll...

awesome thank you so much, thats sorted it for me