Enabling Advanced Desktop Mode on the Eee PC 900
May 14th, 2008 by Joanna Stern
I am a fan of ASUS’ Xandros tab-based desktop, but for everyday advanced users, it just isn’t cut out to do the dirty work. I much prefer working in the more Windows-reminiscent Xandros full-KDE Mode with a Start Launch button and easier access to utilities and programs.
I figured enabling the advanced desktop mode on the Eee PC 900 would be a cinch if I just followed the step-by-step directions for the 700. But there’s the rub. I followed our instructions for the 700 extremely closely; however, when I got to the step to type in “apt-get update” in the terminal, an error message popped up saying the files could not be located.
Thanks to some helpful EeeUser.com forum members I was able to solve the problem by following these steps.
In the terminal (hold down Ctrl+Alt+T to open the terminal command prompt) type “sudo synaptic.” The Synaptic Package Manager will launch. Select Settings > Repositories. Select the New button and input the following in the three fields:
URI: http://update.eeepc.asus/com/p701/
Distribition: p701
Section(s): main
Select the New button again to save and then click OK.
In the Synaptic Package Manager, select the Reload button, and the new update will download to your Eee PC 900. Hit the power button on your machine and you should see the option for Full Desktop. Before switching, we restarted the computer—just to cover our bases.
Problem solved! I am now enjoying the full desktop and I don’t have any problems switching from the tabbed interface to the full desktop mode by just hitting the power button. Going back to the tabbed interface, however, requires me to shut down the computer. Any tips from the crowd as to how to get the machine to boot directly into advanced desktop mode?
May 21st, 2008 at 11:01 am
Hi, i tried the above but no luck! i could not connect to the server or it was not availiable,
any help will be very helpfull
thanks
May 21st, 2008 at 6:27 pm
same here, it did not work, synaptic did not like the url, they must have taken it down.
got any fixes for this?
would like to get out of easy mode asap.
also, is anyone else hating the webcam app under “play” in the eee pc 900 linux? mine runs at 1 frame per five seconds. skype doesn’t have this problem, but if you wanted to record a video with the webcam on your eee pc 900 linux, 1 frame per five seconds is absolutely unacceptable.
this must not be a hardware problem because the eee pc 900 xp ’s webcam program ran beautifully in the store.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I got it. I used these instructions instead and they worked like a charm.
http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:getkde#enable_advanced_desktop_mode_-_the_easy_way
I still love joanna stern, she’s such a hot little techie number.
ps joanna, you don’t have to power down to switch to easy mode, just press the “launch” button and just above the “logout user” option, there is an option to swap over to “easy mode” that does not require you to power down your device.
joanna do you have a boyfriend?
you are beautiful.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:28 pm
anybody know how to switch the codec in ucview out of ogg vorbis video? that codec is garbage.
June 6th, 2008 at 7:09 am
The URI is wrong in the article. It is given as:
http://update.eeepc.asus/com/p701/
… but should be …
http://update.eeepc.asus.com/p701/
i.e. a dot before the com, not a slash
Then everything works fine
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 am
I tried Joanna’s instructions and they didn’t work - I had the same problem as kd. I looked at the alternative instructions that worked for kd, at http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:getkde#enable_advanced_desktop_mode_-_the_easy_way
Unfortunately special extra stuff needs to be done for the PC900 and for a Windows person who is new to Linux, this looks very tricky stuff. I’m not keen at all to do it - don’t understand it anyway. Surely there’s a more straightforward way of enabling the full desktop on a PC900?