Terminal Server and Asus Eee PC

Have been thinking about the UMPC Asus Eee PC and what would compel me to buy it. My needs are access to the internet, Skype video conference and able to remotely manage a Mircosoft Terminal Server. Not a big list. Should be doable.

Went to a giant PC store and found the Asus Eee counter. There were 3 models leashed to the counter and rightly so, they are that small. An easy fit into a coat pocket and out the door.

Unfortunately the sales staff knew almost nothing about the product. Most could not name the software vendor (Xandros) and all said you could install XP if you had a copy. I suspect none of them read the installation instructions to install XP. I would not do it.

Not one knew if you could upload tsclient to the device. You can I found out later. But I was surprised that the 30 day money back guarantee had been shortened to 7 days and a 15% restocking fee applied. What? The sales person said they are getting way to many returns so they went to a more stringent return policy to help keep people from buying the device. Brilliant!!!

Fortunately, standing behind me was a customer that had several of these devices. He confirmed that it was easy to switch to a full desktop version of Xandros. I decided that if I could get the Xandros standard desktop then I could get to a repository with rdesktop and tsclient. We then discovered that rdesktop was actually already in the full distribution, just not in the Easy Mode. Alright, take the plunge and out the door I go with the little package in hand.

Unpacked the device, inserted the battery, plugged in the power cable and pressed the ON button. Answered a couple of questions and it was good to go. Firefox and Skype where already available so it was just matter of getting rdesktop and tsclient running.

First thing to do was to enable the Xandros full desktop. Even an old Windows guy like me found it very easy. Here is link to the instructions.

http://code.google.com/p/pimpmyeee/wiki/HowTo

The script once ran enables toggling (think dual boot) between the Eee presentation

“Easy Mode” and the full Xandros desktop. And sure enough there was rdesktop in the full desktop menu system. But it would not connect to my 2003 terminal server. Was it down? Jumped on to a machine with a beta version of Ubuntu and used tsclient to get right in. It was working. Now what? Could I load up tsclient? Not in the Eee repository. Xandros is a fork off of Debian. Using non Xandros repositories just might break something. Was warned that it was possible to “brick” the Eee. Not an option for me.

Could I load Ubuntu? After very little searching the answer is yes but the wireless component needs to be “tweaked”. More research and found eeebuntu and eeexubuntu. Already had the Eee drivers installed and also had “Live” disks. Downloaded and burned the ISOs.

The live DVD version of eeebuntu worked well. But after the install, both the wireless and wired network connections failed to initialize. The Eee does come with DVD rescue disk. Re-imaged the 4 gig drive. Then tried eeexububtu live CD, but I could not get a wireless connection and the web cam did not work. Back to square one.

After enabling the full desktop version with the pimpmyeee script I noticed that another option was to load additional Xandros repositories. Now at the point that I

know how to re-image the drive so why not? Ran the script again and followed the instructions.

Reloaded package manager and searched for tsclient. BINGO! Select apply and YES I was good to go or was I? The application is to large to fit on the 800 X 480 screen. Oh my! Close but not there, yet. The little Eee has a trick up its sleeve. Press the Alt key and hold down the left side of the mouse bar.

The four arrow icon shows up on the screen and you can drag the dialog box all over the place. Eureka!

Now I can connect to my Terminal Server. Select full screen mode and the entire server desktop appears on my little Eee screen.

Nice.

Until the next post,

Steve