Asus eee and CRN – Great Idea…But Doesn’t Work
I’ve been playing with an Asus eee 901 and I have to say I really like it. Yes, the keyboard is small but it’s just too cool overall. I also like the Xandros tabbed interface. It’s easy and fun and for what one would use this for it’s perfect. I was also pleased to note that Asus is offering a one-click software download and install site – http://eeedownload.asus.com/. Navigating there with my eee I thought what a great way to introduce new users to the wonderful world of Linux. New users simply click the “install now” button for the application they want and it installs – or so I thought.
The problem is that the download is a .crn file which I assume is for Click N Run. This would be fine if it did anything, but unfortunately it just downloads a text file and the eee doesn’t know what to do with it. For example, for GIMP you get
<cnr-client>
<site-id>eeedownload.asus.com</site-id>
<product-id>18258</product-id>
<product-name>GIMP</product-name>
<action>INSTALL</action>
</cnr-client>
But there is no way to do anything with this that I can figure out and I’m sure no “average” user will be able to either. To me it seems that Asus is simply offering something that just plain doesn’t work. Tech support was also less than helpful. I spoke to two different people on two different occasions and they both were very polite and wanted to help but seemed to have no idea that Asus was offering this or even any idea what it was. Come on Asus, you have a great product and the download site it a great idea but IT NEEDS TO WORK.
The eee and the simple Xandros OS would be great for schools wanting cheap, mobile labs. I wish HP would offer it on the Mini-Note instead of the generally useless SLED. But Asus really needs to make sure the whole package is complete – or at least don’t offer something that is broken.
Oh, if someone happens to know how to get the downloads to install please let me know. I know I can “sudo apt-get install” them but that really defeats the point of an “install now” button.
For what the text file says, I think you need to have a CNR client installed, but in any case the website should have something saying that and not expecting you to sudo apt-get install cnr.
Regards.
Alberto.
BTW: Is there any progress in the ubuntukids site??? (aparte from the blog) cause at http://ubuntukids.org/parents/ it sais is going to be ready in August 2007
Regards, again
Alberto.
Alberto, thanks for the info. I kind of suspected that re the cnr client but again no mention of that on the site that I could find.
As for my poor ubuntukids site it is stagnate at the moment. My goal was to have a parent page with info on using Ubuntu/FLOSS with kids and a similar parent site but beyond that I’m sort of short on ideas or the how of it all. I’m certainly open to ideas and/or help getting the idea off the ground.
You might want to check out the LXDE implementation of the tabbed interface thats called lxlauncher. You can get it at http://lxde.org/download.html
CNR isn’t the only non-functional software shipped on the 901. Have you tried EEE Connect? I just got a 901 shipped to me that I need to customize for my dad. It looks like I should be able to use EEE Connect to control his computer from across the country.
Problems:
1. it creates an account and doesn’t give you a password
2. If you change your password on the website your EEE Connect stops working (there is no password prompt)
3. It appears to only work to connect from one eeepc to another.
Xandros also quit giving me a terminal with Home+T and Ctrl+Alt+T. I’ve loaded Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/) with the netbooks remix and it works great.
Asa, I originally thought I’d put Ubuntu on it (thanks for the link), but I wanted to try the Xandros OS. I like a lot of things about it, but there are definitely some things that don’t work right. In addition to the issue you mention, the web storage is also cumbersome to set up and use. I would love it if they would start to address some of these issues. The non-working install option on the web site, however, just baffles me. Why offer it if it doesn’t work?
I do get a terminal with ctrl-alt-t though.