I know some people want to put a legal copy of Windows XP on their webbook, quite why you would want to do that is a mystery to me, but for those that do we are now providing the drivers for the hardware. The full package is a 51.4MB zip file and I checked it works (well I checked the zip file uncompresses, I didn’t check the drivers work – I don’t have a copy of Windows XP).
The problem I have is there is only one screen size showing and it has to be altered in the root. I cant even alter the time and day. because I can’t see the admin/ok buttons because they dissapear below the screen. I have managed to find the task bar and drag it to the top. I have these via drivers on my desk top. No idea how to istall them. In windows it’s easy just double click the set up icon and off we go.
The Windows VIA drivers won’t help if you are running Linux, any more than the Linux VIA unichrome or openchrome drivers would help if you were running Windows. You probably already have the openchrome drivers installed and running, just not fully configured for the screen. If you hold down the alt key you can click and drag on any part of a window, not just the title bar. (unless that doesn’t work in Freespire)
Thanks Alan
I have sussed the prob. When the the res box opens the bits I want are hidden at the bottom. using the alt key on full screen I can now move the box up so I can see the required box. There is a tick box so it shows all the resolutions then there is an admin root/apply/ok buttons. Free spire sets the res at 1024×768. No matter what resolution I pick the full screen is not visible. There is no resolution at 1024×600 and no way to do manually. I don’t think this version is suitable for the webbook.
Hi Alan an All
I have decided to put XP on the webbook. I just cant get to grips with the Linux Ubuntu
So I need help on how to do it. I Know nothing about run commands. Heres where I am at this moment. I have the drivers on the Webbook and have my legal windows disc. How do I load the drivers and in which order please. I tried loading XP in the virtual box. I found it too complicated and didn’t understand the procedure & the jargon used.
Any detailed help would be appreciated
Thanks All
@Derek,
I guess you start by plugging in a USB CDROM and putting the windows disk in that. It should be bootable and then you would just follow the prompts. Once you have XP installed then you can install the drivers. Sorry I can’t give any more detailed help than that as I don’t have (or want) an XP disk.
Hey Guys
Running my webbook on Ubuntu. I would like to replace the OS with XP. But cannot seem to get it right. How do I do this. I have read loads of forums. tried to create bootable sd cards, changed the bios, copied xp to sd cards and usb devices and do not seem to be getting anywhere. I have a 2gig sd card, 1 xp home version, 1 gig ram, please could someone give me the a to z on doing this. Look fwd to some guidance. Thanks…
@Frustrated, I get frustrated when I try to do stuff with Windows too. I think things will probably work better if you have a USB CDRom, but it might work somehow from an SD card. I don’t know much about the windows bootloader. Maybe you could pop the sata drive out and put it in something else to do the install. I have only seen a webbook with Windows on it for about 10 minutes, then I got bored and upgraded it to Ubuntu.
i am struggling to play videos from avi and from internet (i.e bbc iplayer), would changing the os to XP make this better? Also my mobile broadband seems very slow but when i put it in other peoples laptop it is very fast, could XP make this better or is there something i could do on linux?
OK OK OK
For those who are looking to change from Ubuntu to XP for whatever reason, Elonex offers a fail safe solution as follow…
Elonex can supply Windows XP for you for £49. This involves Elonex sending a new hard drive that you swap with the one you have fitted. This is easy to do and Elonex will supply a returned envelope to return your old hard drive. Initial payment is £99 with £50 refunded upon receipt of your old hard drive. To arrange this call Elonex on Tel 0871 222 3456
Gracias
@Stephen, can you be a bit more specific about your struggles, then I can offer specific advice. The webbook can decode and play videos of all sorts of codecs and run flash, I have done articles about both of these.
@Frustrated, they do indeed, I generally don’t post prices for things on the blog because they may change and I wouldn’t know about it if they did. (I didn’t know they had managed to do this until you told me, last I heard there were issues with putting a sticker on the hard drive so it counts as a pre-installed OEM license)
The broadband just seems to work much better on other laptops with xp than on my WebBook with linux
@Stephen, so how much different in kilobits per second? or is is a latency thing? What dongle? What network? How are you measuring performance?
sorry not sure how much in kilobits per second but it is definatley slower in opening up pages and downloading, it doesnt seem to get as many signal bars.
It’s a 3 dongle and network
The number of bars displayed is pretty arbitrary. The modem reports a signal strength as a percentage and it is customary to simplify that as a little bar icon. I wouldn’t bet too much that 2 bars might mean 40% on one user interface an 30% on another. They could have a different number of bars or round in different directions.One thing you could try is to open the mobile broadband client and go to the preferences and edit the profile and change the APN setting to 3internet or three.co.uk (whichever it is, change to the other one). 3internet doesn’t work with pay as you go, and has no filtering, three.co.uk might be slower and blocks certain sites (I have not bumped into the filter at all, I didn’t know it was there until I was told.) let me know what you find and do some timed scientific tests, try speedtest.net.
In Reply to frustrated
Quote:
“OK OK OK
For those who are looking to change from Ubuntu to XP for whatever reason, Elonex offers a fail safe solution as follow…
Elonex can supply Windows XP for you for £49. This involves Elonex sending a new hard drive that you swap with the one you have fitted. This is easy to do and Elonex will supply a returned envelope to return your old hard drive. Initial payment is £99 with £50 refunded upon receipt of your old hard drive. To arrange this call Elonex on Tel 0871 222 3456″
I was in the same boat. Rang and ordered my XP Hard drive. Can’t wait.
Linux is for people who can develope alter and run programmes. For us simple users it’s a waste of time. When you can’t do a simple task like altering screen res. without having to do a root command ect. Arghhhhhhhhhh !
Oh! the WEBBOOK is superb.
Thanks to Alan for a brill Blog.
I think Linux is more about Freedom than anything else. There are no limits on what you can do with it. In general terms in Ubuntu you can change the screen resolution by just going to preferences-screen resolution and that does not require root privileges. On the webbook specifically it is a little more challenging because of the 1024×600 screen and the VIA graphics chip. Once you have the VIA drivers installed then you can change the resolution without being root.
Yep got The Viva drivers no idea how to install. Have to go to root command?
The best way I can describe it?
I am looking to get to a certain desternation. (before Tom Tom) I stop and ask directions. The person says to me I know a shortcut. Arrrrrrgh! nope I say! tell me the easiest way please, no matter how long it takes.
Simple fact! It’s only a shotcut if you know it.
Linux is great if you know about commands. Me I will stick to pressing icons in XP.
May be not as good but It’s Easier.
Well the easy way is to leave well alone, it works at 1024×600 with the OpenChrome drivers. You can browse the web, do documents and spreadsheets and whatever. If you want to change the graphics drivers and enable different resolutions (that you don’t need) and have wizzy 3d effects (that you don’t need) then you can follow the instructions here here here and here. Linux does let you learn about how computers work, if you want to find out. Or it just works. The thing with Linux is that if you are looking to get to a certain destination then you can always get there. It doesn’t matter if the road doesn’t go that way. Of course if you stick to the road things are easy, if you go off roading there are bumps. But you are allowed off road.
do i need to install the drivers for xp before i install xp on to my web book? do i just install xp from the desktop or do i need to press something before the system starts i.e on booting the computer
@stephen, no, you have to install XP first then the drivers. The first thing the XP install will do is repartition the disk and build an NTFS filesystem so there is no point doing anything prior to that!
Hi All
Got my XP drive from Elonex (£99) £49 for drive + £50 deposit. It was just like meeting an old friend after trying to use ubuntu.
Everything now works brill between my main comp to webbook.
I tried to use the Ubuntu version but found it frustrating and time consuming. Thanks to Alan for this brill bog.
Now I got to upgrade the ram.
@Derek, Linux gets better and more usable faster and faster all the time, maybe try a different Linux distribution or wait a few weeks for Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex to be released and give that a go.
Hi folks, I have just bought a webbook off ebay for under £150 because the owner was scared of linux. Whe it arrived it had never even been opened, the manufacturers seal was still on the box.
When I unpacked it … it had XP, with authentication sticker et al.
Just shows that even the thought of linux scared some folks right off.
I should say that XP works beautifully on the webbook with 1gb RAM, it’s like a small piece of jewellery, BBC iplayer, youtube etc all play with no fuss at all.
I love it.
Hi. Does any one out there know how to access the BIOS of the Elonex Onet. I’ve been looking for days and would really appreciate the answer to this. Thanks
The ONEt has a totally different architecture to the webbook and other conventional PCs. It is an Xburst processor which implements most of the MIPS instruction set, it does not have a bios, if you look in /proc/mtd you will see the partitions of the flash memory, one of them contains the kernel and the uboot bootloader. The kernel actually sits directly on the flash outside the filesystem structures itself. It is a bit odd and I am still trying to figure it out myself. There is a modified GNU toolchain for building stuff and the kernel patches are available. I think it should be just about possible to get a Debian MIPSel distro up and running on it but I haven’t fully managed it yet.
Hi all
I don’t understand all the hassles people have had with Ubuntu. I got mine, plugged in my usb modem, worked first time. Installed a couple of extra programs (mysql and a couple of others), using the gui. I have yet to find a Microsoft Word, Excel or powerpoint document that I haven’t been able to open.
I, had to find a quick solution after my eee had been stolen from my hotel room, and as I was on call for work, it was either cut short my holiday, or get connected. I got connected, however, if I was in the same situation now, I would have to cancel my holiday, as Windows just isn’t good enough, or secure enough for me to connect into work. Ahh yes, the security of Ubuntu (or any other linux system) compared to Windows, ummm, well I would never use a Windows based machine for carrying out any financial online work, not worth the risk.
Now let’s, see with Windows, how do you install an office suite, is it already there? Oh yeah, connecting a printer, or scanner, just plug it in and it works? A comprehensive image editor, is there by default in Windows? Virii, are they a problem for Windows users? spyware, a problem for windows users.
Those who are having trouble with Ubuntu, is it because, you expect to have driver issues, problems with virii, slow running, poor performing systems with windows, and yet because you have an alternative OS perhaps expectations are just too high. Certainly if I bought a Windows machine, i wouldn’t ‘expect’ to find an office suite installed, amongst other applications.
Having seen some of the comments on here, it’s so easy to see, why as a nation we are falling behind, certainly IT wise, many countries, and that includes the developing nations. Linux operating systems have made great inroads in countries as diverse as the Netherlands, India, Brazil, China, Canada, to name but a few. I do hope, for the future of our homegrown IT industry that this need to stick with the devil you know, instead of embracing alternatives, does not continue into the new generation of IT specialists, otherwise, that will be yet another industry lost from this country.
Rant over
Cheers
Tony
Oh yeah
Also, forgot to say, the wireless worked for be straight out of the box, at, McDonalds wifi, motorway services and home.
Cheers
I’ve got a load of .docx, .pptx and .xlsx files that you’re more than welcome to try and open…
OpenOffice.org doesn’t seem to be able to play nicely with them – largely by refusing to open them!
But there again, MS Office 2007 doesn’t open my .odt files, either…
Wherever I am (college [Office 2003], other college [office 2007], my room [office 2007], my laptop [open office]), I seem to have problems getting documents to reliably open.
However, it doesn’t affect my work life (www.medicaladmissions.co.uk) – we use Google Docs (part of Apps for Domains) as an online shared documents folder, and it supports editing of .doc and .odt online!
apparently OpenOffice.org 3 is quite good at opening files in monopoly formats. I have been able to open both .docx files I have been sent using OpenOffice.org 2.4, I am pretty sure some formatting was lost, but they happened to be documents that would have been fine as .txt files anyhow.
It lost all of the formatting in the one I opened – turning it from a 1 page document into a full 2 page document. And then it lost all of my pretty colours…
Hopefully OOo3 will be along soon, then!
Has anyone got Vista Basic to run on a webbook upgraded to 1gb RAM ?
I don’t think many people on this blog have DOWNGRADED to any version of windows, to be fair.
Erm, the question on my mind would be “Why do you want to put Vista Home Basic on a webbook?”…
Matt, I’ve never HAD Linux on my webbook, it was XP from the factory.
Sorry about that assumption there, Dave!
God only knows why the factory want to put it on… Lol.
Have you tried Ubuntu, Dave? It’s got a lot more features than Vista Home Basic, and Alan is able to provide Intrepid on a stick should you wish to give it a whirl!
Well, after a while of being promised I finally received my Webbook from work today (CPW). And whilst I was looking forward to the Windows version that I thought i’d get (since we recalled the Linux based a long time ago), I must say i’m pleasently pleased to be sat here with an Ubuntu based version.
After 10 minutes last night of not being able to get the Wifi working, I was ready to take it back into work and get one of the Techies to dual boot with XP, as I thought if I cannot get used to it, the GF never will. But after reading around this site, I won’t be dual booting but will be spending a few evening enlightening the GF.
Only 2 little niggles, no webcam and no 6 cell battery. I’ll see how the battery life and myself get on (since I enjoy camping a lot). Else the 901 booted with Linux (If thats possible) would be a dream option…
It’s about 2 hours 30 minutes under moderate working conditions.
Matt, going back a few weeks to your comment.
Yes, I tried Ubuntu and my webbook had a problem, it wouldn’t run iplayer or youtube vids no matter what ’solutions’ were posted on here …. so I gave up!
persistence is a virtue.
Hi Alan,
What’s the point in flogging a dead horse, a laptop is a tool … the tool wasn’t working.
The webbook with XP is truly wonderful, I’d love to try Visa Basic too
Hi Dave
How can you have possibly had any problems? Even my 11 year old niece, who has a Ubuntu webbook, has managed to get Pidgin working with MSN, can access MSN Live for email, has Limewire working, and can merrily browse and play on the web until her hearts content. Why oh why would anybody in their right mind want to go down the Vista route, when even MS themselves see Vista as something of a lame duck, and areconstantly extending the deadline for the culling of XP.
Merry Xmas All
Another comes over to the dark side
After, my niece got her hands on a webbook, ubuntu ofcourse, a friend of hers who has a Windows based version of the webbook, which she has found unreliable, and frustrating to use, has now asked to have Windows replaced by Ubuntu !!
So, as I sit here now, Ubuntu is merrily being installed on what was originally a Windows webbook.
And this request came without any prompting from me at all.
Happy New Year
Tony,
Speak as you find … MY ubuntu webbook was a pile of ****, it’s as simple as that.
No amount of updates from the moderators and suggestions to make certain features work as useless if the machine is faulty.
This one is not great, it has started to recognise only 448Mb of the installed 1Gb of RAM … this has only started happening this week, it was fine before.
Apart from this, the webbook with XP is brilliant. It works.
I am happier remarking upon it’s size and convenience rather than what I am having to tweak on the OS every few days.
Vista Basic is very nice, I would like to know if anyone has tried it on the webbook.
If I wanted updates about what a fool I was, and how wonderful ubuntu is I would look elsewhere on these pages where this has already been fully documented.
Thed question remains … vista basic anyone?
Hi
If your webbook is only recognising 448Mb of your 1Gb of RAM, then I’d suggest there is probably a hardware issue, as opposed to an OS issue, irrespective of whether it’s Windows or Linux based. I’d be intrigued to know what you were having to tweak as far as the OS goes every few days? I’ve had to tweak nothing since my initial setup of additional repositories that ensure, flash, skype, java, firefox, thunderbird etc are always the latest versions when the updates are applied, of course, I had to enter my WPA password when I initially setup wireless at home, and also when I used it at McDonalds, and motorway services, but hey are not OS tweaks.
If you’re really so desperate to see Vista running on your webbook, why not simply create a Virtual machine, using Virtual Box and install it on that, at least it’ll give you an idea of what it’ll look like.
Cheers
PS. So far I’ve not had to fix, or tweak any settings on my Niece’s webbook either.
hi everyone my first blog unfortunately the webbook i got came installed with xp and as i am a big fan of Ubuntu i though i would install that instead. But unfortunately there is a few snags with Ubuntu and the webbook, like compiz not working which i find a bit disappointing. So i decided i would try and install another OS just to see what would work so first thing i did was install 1 gig of memory then tried vista ultimate. Surprisingly enough Vista has worked like a dream on the webbook and is nowhere near as slow as i was expecting.So if anyone out there wants to try it out its give it a go. So at this moment i am trying a beta of windows 7 on the webbook which i have been told runs like xp but has the bells and whistles of vista i will get back to you on my findings.
Nice one, I’ll give it a whirl myself
i upgraded my webbook from xp 2 vista and now im regreting it BIGTIME, any ideas on how to downgrading it back, please note i DONT have a external disc drive lol
how can i downgrade from vista to xp using a usb mp3 player?
so how did you get Vista on it without an external drive? I can’t help much with XP, I never use Windows.
I installed XP Pro via an internal cdrw which i hooked up with some ide to usb cables that i bought off ebay. Probably safer to buy or borrow a friends usb cdrw but it was cheaper to buy the cables for me, since i have several internal optical drives on the shelf.
Just made sure the bios could see my usb cdrw by pressing delete before the machine boots up, set it as the first boot device and away to go.
While I can see the linux community is working hard to make ubuntu more n00b accessible it’s still not accessible enough, sorry! Call me when the gui can do everything with a double click because no average user wants to learn console commands. I’ve had a duel boot of slackware and xp on my big box pc for 2 years, and more often than not I end up using xp.