Upgrading/ Updating Asus Eee PC 100

[andi_koall]

Hi,

I'm currently updating/ upgrading my Asus EeePC 1000 which runs on Linux. I am using Synaptic to apply my upgrades and it shows that I had missed quiet a lot.

Anyway, after 2 hrs of downloading and installing I ended up with the error messages:

E: /var/cache/apt/archives/openoffice.org- common_2.0.4.dfsg.2-7etch2eeepc2_all.deb: trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in package staroffice-desktop-integration

W: Failed to fetch ....eeepc.asus.com/1.6/pool/common/xbase clients_7.2.ds2-2asus2_i386.deb[/url]
Size mismatch

I have re-booted the machine, however had no success with fixing the problems.

Could anybody please advise/ help me how to solve the problem? And please be gentle with me - I am a novice with Linux although I have been putting recently some miles into it.

cheers,
Andi

[reed9]

Can you try it from the terminal and post the full output? (Enclose the output in code tags please.)

Put this in the terminal

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

[andi_koall]

this is the result when I apt-get upgrade -f install do

asus-1836770579:/home/user> apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
openoffice.org-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
openoffice.org-common
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
10 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/27.2MB of archives.
After unpacking 52.6MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!
openoffice.org-common
Install these packages without verification [y/N]? y
(Reading database ... 92895 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking openoffice.org-common (from .../openoffice.org-common_2.0.4.dfsg.2-7et ch2eeepc2_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/openoffice.org-common_2.0.4.dfsg. 2-7etch2eeepc2_all.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite `/usr/bin/soffice', which is also in package staroffice-des ktop-integration
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/openoffice.org-common_2.0.4.dfsg.2-7etch2eeepc2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

It seems to me that two programmes are using the same folder (or folder structure) and one (OpenOffice) wants to overwrite the StarOffice one. How can I have OpenOffice and StarOffice on my machine and decide which one to run when. I had problems in the past that I can't read *.docx files with StarOffice. Therefore I need OpenOffice.

thank you so much for your help
Andreas

[andi_koall]

Reed 9,

This is what happens when I type in your commands:

asus-1836770579:/home/user> sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] common Release.gpg
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] p1000 Release.gpg
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] en Release.gpg
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] common Release
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] p1000 Release
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] en Release
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] common/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] p1000/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] en/main Packages/DiffIndex
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] common/main Packages
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] p1000/main Packages
Ign [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] en/main Packages
Hit [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] common/main Packages
Hit [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] p1000/main Packages
Hit [...//update.eeepc.asus.com]Index of /[/url] en/main Packages
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
openoffice.org-core: Depends: openoffice.org-common (> 2.0.4.dfsg.2) but it is not installed
openoffice.org-java-common: Depends: openoffice.org-common but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using -f.

Wherever you read "..." you should read "url=http:". I had to change because of posting restrictiions.

any further advise?
Andreas

[reed9]

Well, my biggest recommendation is to install anything other than Xandros on your machine. Xandros is from all accounts pretty awful.

I'm partial to Jolidloud and have heard decent things about Aurora.

Barring that, I found this guide.
Upgrading OpenOffice on Asus EEE PC | Eee PC

However, it's outdated. The lastest openoffice is 3.3. So you would need to change the name as appropriate. Although I think I'd rather add /opt, which is where the openoffice .deb installs to I believe, to my PATH, rather than link to /usr/bin. You can do so with

echo "export PATH=$PATH:/opt" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

And then the Easy Mode editor bit would change to be something like

/opt/openoffice.org3.3/program/swriter

Or whatever the path to swriter, scalc, etc, actually is.

[andi_koall]

reed 9,

sorry for the delay - I got cought up.

anyway - I am now back and trying to understand what you recommended. I guess the biggest frustration I have is that whatever I do on my little machine nothing works. I don't know but Linux seems to be a black box to me. I would like to install jolicloud or Aurora however, I would probably need someone whom I can look over the shoulders and see how he does it.

I tried to install Jolicloud OS1.2 to find out that something else was missing on my machine before I could run OS1.2. It just feels to me a never ending story.

could you advise what I should do? have you got an e-mail where I could write to you more directly?

andi_koall

[andi_koall]

dear reed 9,

when I create my USB boot key, I need Python 2.4 or later on my machine. The installation guidelines say that it is standard in most modern Linux desktops but, hey guess what? Who is modern here? I don't have Python on it. So now I need to install Python 2.4 or later.

Furthermore it says: "If you don't have it, install the 'python' package according to your Linux distribution's instructions." Well - here we go - problem.

Could you assist me on this one?

andi_koall

[reed9]

Fortunately, it looks like you can write the iso file directly to your USB, so this should be fairly simple.

Open a terminal. (You should be able to do this with CTRL+ALT+t)

Plug in your USB stick and enter the following

sudo fdisk -l

You'll get output similar to this.

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x90909090

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63    18426554     9213246   83  Linux
/dev/sda2        18426555    20418614      996030   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3        20418615   625137344   302359365   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000353ab

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1              63  1543927807   771963872+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc2      1543927808  1953523711   204797952    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

The parts we're interested in are where it says Disk /dev/sda and then on mine Disk /dev/sdc.

There are the various drives. You should be able to identify your USB stick by the size and in all probability it will be the second one listed. Most likely it will be called /dev/sdb.

Once you know that, move the Jolicloud iso file to your home directory. (This will make the rest easier.)

So if in the terminal window you entered

ls | grep -i joli

You should see the Jolicloud iso file listed.

Now do

sudo dd if=/home/$USER/Joli-OS-1.2.iso of=/dev/sdx

And replace of=/dev/sdx with the device name of your USB stick as we discovered above, so of=/dev/sdb.

Be very careful that you use the device name of the USB stick and not your main drive as this will erase anything that was on the drive.

Wait for that to finish, it shouldn't take too long, but it will look like it's just hanging until it's done.

You should now be able to reboot your machine, go into the BIOS and set it to boot from the USB, and voila. It'll run in "live" mode initially, which means you can test it out without making any permanent changes to your machine and see if everything works.

[andi_koall]

Many thanks, reed 9.

I am up and running - I really like the new OS and it seems to be much quicker. A few more questions though:

1. how can I tidy up my machine i.e. free up old/ blocked storage which I don't need anymore
2. how do I install now openoffice?
3. which browser would you recommend? Firefox or chrome? and how do I install them?
4. how do I update the OS in the future so that I keep on top of things.

sorry for so many questions

cheers

andi_koall

P.S.: god, this is SSSSOOOOO much more fun to work with. It feels like I bought a new machine - but I didn't.

[reed9]

Glad you like it. It's a shame that all these netbooks kept coming out with just awful linux implementations.

1. Beyond just using the file manager? I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for.

2. Jolicloud has OpenOffice (or possibly the recently forked LibreOffice) available from its App Center.

3. I think Firefox and Chrome are comparable. I use them both. I believe Jolicloud using Chrome technology in some of its interface and for web apps. Again, both are in the App Center.

4. It has an automatic updater that should notify you of updates or new releases.

Jolicloud - Product