Got myself an Eee PC 701

I'm back from my vacations, and there's lots of stuff I want (and will) blog about. But this one had to be now: I got myself a new Eee PC! Well, as a matter of fact both me and Paula wanted an Eee PC, so this one is from and for us both (even if the possibility of getting another one was already discussed). As you might have noticed thanks to the previous blog posts I made about ASUS EEE PC, which made several people think I already had one, I really fancy this cute little laptoy. I only have it for a couple of hours, and the time with it is between me and Paula, so I still didn't have the time to play with it as much as I wanted to: I built a backup USB stick and a backup of the system as it was, fiddled a little with settings and preferences, played with some of the software it has (which includes playing OpenArena and hedgewars O:-)), and got it connected to the internet via Kanguru (3G service). And I had to do this blog post using it, the same as I did when I got my blackberry phone :-)

The next step is already decided: install Debian here!

And for those wanting pictures... Well, I'm sure that either me or Paula will be uploading some of those in the near future :-)

HOWTO install HedgeWars (Worms clone) in an EEE PC

HedgeWars is a "Worms" clone and a pretty cool game. They put it this way:

Hedgewars, it's a Blast! This is the funniest and most addictive game you'll ever play - hilarious fun that you can enjoy anywhere, anytime. Hedgewars is a turn based strategy game but the real buzz is from watching the devastation caused by those pesky hedgehogs with those fantastic weapons - sneaky little blighters with a bad attitude!

By popular demand, here's a (quick and simple) HOW TO of how to install this game on an EEE PC (where it runs awesomely):

• Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list, and add this line in that file:

deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main contrib non-free

• In a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T to open it) write:sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install hedgewars
• Edit once again the /etc/apt/sources.list file and remove the new entry, so your system ends up as it was before
• in the terminal write sudo apt-get update to make your changes in the sources list being in effect.
• Now you have the game installed. To run it, in a terminal write hedgewars. To play it well, you'll have to set it up to fullscreen mode.

There you go: have a nice gaming!

Installing Second Life on an EEE PC

I've been playing with an EEE PC lately. This 299€ (in Portugal) GNU/Linux ASUS laptop is awsome, and I'm really happy that ASUS did it. They did some mistakes, like using Xandros Server 2.0 as base for their distro, making me think, for instance, that if I had one of these I would replace their Operating System with something like Debian Eee PC, eeexubuntu or even eeedora. I might write about my thoughts on EEE PC later, but for now, a quick HOWTO (because I think this isn't documented nowhere) on installing Second Life on EEE PC.

HOWTO Install Second Life on an EEE PC:

1. edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change DefaultColorDepth 16 to DefaultColorDepth 24
2. restart your X (press control+alt+backspace, for instance)
3. edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and add this lines:

   
   deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/pub/debian testing main contrib non-free
   deb http://apt.byteme.org.uk/apt/ unstable main
   

4. in a terminal (CTRL+ALT+t) write sudo aptitude update && aptitude install slviewer
5. Remove the added lines on /etc/apt/sources.list and in the terminal run aptitude update to go back to the state you were
6. Your Second Life is now installed. To run it write slviewer in a terminal.

Regarding to using Second Life itself, you'll notice that the windowed view assumes a bigger resolution than the one you have, so I recommend you to start by going to the options, changing the ratio scale and remove the windowed mode. Et voilá, you're on Second Life!