Installing Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix on Asus eee
The good news is everything “just works” from the install, but there is one minor configuration issue that the installer misses. The eee has a feature called ‘Boot Booster’, which requires a small partition (8MB seems fine) on the SSD with a specific partition type (OxEF, which is EFI partition).
I normally would just install with the “Use entire disk” option, but to get this 8mb partition left over you need to choose the option to partition manually. Assuming you have a 16GB SSD:
- Create a primary 15.5GB Ext3 partition, mounted as /
- Create a primary 8MB partition, set to ‘do not use’
- Use the remaining space (just under 0.5GB) as a logical partition, set to ’swap area’.
The rest of the installation can then be completed normally. After rebooting into Ubuntu, open a Terminal and run “sudo cfdisk /dev/sda”. From here, you can change the type of the 8MB partition to EF, then write the changes to disk and reboot. You will see the Asus boot screen one more time, then Grub appears. To make sure the change worked, hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE at the Grub screen to restart. This time the BIOS screen should be skipped and Grub will re-appear.