Installing/running software on Asus eee PC

[Moonlight_Fox]

Hello fellow linux forum users!

I'm hoping you can help me with a few issues I've been having whilst attempting to install software on my little eee PC (I'm completely new to linux, so please excuse the retarded sounding questions!).

After doing a few google searches I found that Blender3D can run quite happily on one of these little things, I even found a lite version that was specifically made for the eee PC (argh! it won't let me post the url till my 15th post, sorry)
After downloading it, I attempted to run it..but it has kicked out the following error:
/home/user/blender_2.62/blender: error while loading shared libraries: libfftw3.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

From what I can gather from this, it's telling me that it's trying to look for a file that should be there, but isn't.
Is it possible to download the missing file and throw it into the right directory? or is it some core component that's just missing from this distro and can't be added?
I also tried the full blender version, but it kicked out even more errors so I figure I'd have more luck trying to get this lite one to run.
Any help resolving this would be much appreciated!

Also, I found a really useful site specifically for eeePC users just a couple of days ago that had really easy to follow tutorials for getting various software to run and updating the browser etc, but it doesn't seem to connect anymore, so frustrating!

[shellscriptcoder]

OK, let's see...
Can you open up your terminal and type:

cd /usr/lib

ls | grep libfftw

And post the output of that? Thanks!

[Moonlight_Fox]

hm, it seems to have no result..

/home/user> cd /usr/lib
/usr/lib> ls | grep libfftw
/usr/lib>

*shrug*

[rokytnji]

If you are running this.


eee-xandros-linux.jpg

which is Xandros based on Debian 4 etch. The internal libraries and compiler (build-essentials) may be too old to run or compile certain upgraded applications like blender.
Just for reference. I run AntiX 11 based on Debian testing on my 2 eeepcs. A 701sd and 900.
I've also heard good things about Fuduntu Linux on EEEPCs also.

As far as the eeepc forum goes. It has hiccups from time to time with the new IPB forum servers. Especially during the weekends. It went down again Friday night and now just checking it is still down. You might have to wait a few more days for Ant,. (the site administrator), to reset the server.

[Moonlight_Fox]

Yeah, it's running Xandros.
I thought that it might be the cause of some of the problems as when trying to update stuff, it's still got firefox 2 and skype 2 beta etc on it!

So my only option to get blender running is to use a different dristro? or is it possible to update this thing?
Although, thinking about it.. changing might be a good idea as I was thinking of putting a few other things on it too (it would be nice to get inkscape runnning on it for example.)

[rokytnji]

So my only option to get blender running is to use a different dristro? or is it possible to update this thing?

Xandros was OK in it's day. You are going to have to install a newer supported Linux distro to run modern apps like Firefox 13 or Skype 4.

Instead of me recommending a distro. Just google your model of eeepc and add "linux" in quotes to your search and see what trips your trigger.
Live USBs made with Unetbootin are easy to do also in Xandros. At least it was for me when I had Xandros in Mine.

[shellscriptcoder]

Yeah, you'll probably want to switch then if you want to use more modern apps. Might I recommend Ubuntu? It's very friendly to new users, if you don't mind that it is a bit space-consuming. I'm on an EEE PC right now, and I can tell you from experience that Ubuntu works fine!

[elija]

If that is one of the eeepc 701 babies then I would suggest something a lot smaller and lighter than Ubuntu. Crunchbang will fly on it as will Antix. They are both Debian based. Crunchbang is slightly less beginner friendly than some distros; for example, when installing a piece of software, you manually add it to the menu. Crunchbang idles in about 70MB RAM to give you an idea just how light it is!

[shellscriptcoder]

If that is one of the eeepc 701 babies then I would suggest something a lot smaller and lighter than Ubuntu. Crunchbang will fly on it as will Antix. They are both Debian based. Crunchbang is slightly less beginner friendly than some distros; for example, when installing a piece of software, you manually add it to the menu. Crunchbang idles in about 70MB RAM to give you an idea just how light it is!

True... Mine is a 1001PXD, so it had no problem with Ubuntu. But I installed Arch on it, just for fun.

[Moonlight_Fox]

Yeah, it's a 4G (701)
it's only got 4GB space and 512MB RAM
So something lightweight is a must.
As I'm very new with linux, so user-friendlyness is a plus for me. Therefore I'm thinking of going with Antix.
I've heard from some places that it's a little tricky to get other distros working well with the hardware...although I'm guessing as they're both Debian based.. hopefully it'll work!

Anyone else have any other opinions/recommendations?