Juli 2010

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EasyPeasy netbook OS

Posted by Unknown Sabtu, 10 Juli 2010 0 komentar

I have an Asus Eee PC 700 4G, I got it back in 2008. It was the first popular and truly cheap netbooks to emerge a few years ago. It's a cute little machine that I use mostly for casual web browsing. Originally its built-in 4GB SSD (solid state drive) came pre-loaded with a Linux distribution from Asus specially for the Eee PC. It was ok, I used it for a while but it was clunky and it got on my nerves after a while because it was always forgetting my WiFi connection's WPA key.

I tried Ubuntu's netbook release but it didn't have the drivers included for my old Eee PC. I had a look around and found Eeebuntu (since renamed Aurora), an Ubuntu distribution that came pre-configured for use on the Eee PC with the drivers included for the network, WiFi, webcam, etc. I used Eeebuntu for a while and found it good but it was a little fiddly.

Next I tried EasyPeasy from http://www.geteasypeasy.com/ - again a Linux Ubuntu based distribution. This I have found to be a nice little OS (operating system). It installed relatively easily. I had no driver problems, everything worked immediately. A large selection of popular software is installed such as Firefox, OpenOffice, etc. Unfortunately most of the main storage, the 4GB SSD is taken by all this software but having said that, I never really used the main storage anyway, I always used an SD card for data.

The EasyPeasy interface is excellent, it is clear, easy to use and the mouse pointer travels around it without having to finger the track pad too much. The interface is well designed for the small screen of your netbook, the Eee PC must have one of the smallest and EasyPeasy manages work fine with the limited space. I'm writing this using my Eee PC now, in Firefox on the Blogger online editor. The text is large enough and there is no horizontal scroll bars. My only headache is the annoyingly small Eee PC keyboard, which I can hardly blame on EasyPeasy ;-)

There is a small thin bar at the top of the screen that has a button to get back to the main menu, there are indicators for WiFi strength, battery power remaining, speaker volume, e-mail, date, time and a logoff/shut down menu. This bar is visible the whole time unless you press F11 in Firefox to go full screen.

The only negative thing about EasyPeasy's interface is that sometimes dialogue boxes are too big and the buttons (OK, Cancel, etc) at the bottom of the dialogue window are not visible, they are off the screen and there's no way to move the window up far enough to see them. It is frustrating!

Apart from the overly big dialogue box problem, EasyPeasy is just about flawless. At least it has a very slick looking interface that is easy to use and navigate on a small screen, it boots fast, it can be updated easily (Ubuntu updates and software packages), it's great. I have no problems with the WiFi connection, it automatically connects every time without any fuss. The battery indicator seems to work and the OS rarely crashes.

According to the EasyPeasy website it is for all netbooks so whatever you have try it out.
http://www.geteasypeasy.com/

Of course Aurora is also worth a look, I've not tried it recently. For the time being I'll stick with EasyPeasy as it does what I need which is all you want from a netbook OS. EasyPeasy is again another wonderful piece of open source work. They've adapted the already great Ubuntu so well to the tiny screen of the netbook, especially my little Eee PC.

My rating: 8/10

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Create a self-extracting archive exe PART 1

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Introduction

A self-extracting archive is a zip or similar compressed file that has been turned into an exe (executable). The advantage of this is that the recipient of the file only has to double click the exe and it will do everything automatically. The two actions it would usually perform are:

To run one of the extracted files (to install a program for example)
To extract the files from the compressed archive file (.zip or similar)

If you want to just simply extract files, see PART 2 but in this article we'll explain scenario 1:

Often I need to make self-extracting exe files to send via e-mail. The recipient runs it, the files are extracted and an installation program (an AutoIt script for example) installs the files. A couple of years ago I used WinZip and the WinZip self-extracting archive utility to do this. It worked well but there were two downsides, firstly it was menu driven, I had to click through 'next' screens and select options each time I used it. Secondly, it cost money, not a lot but still...

7-Zip is the answer! It's an alternative to WinZip. You can download 7-Zip from www.7-zip.org, it is an open source program, therefore free to download. But to create a self-extracting exe file using 7-Zip for Windows you have little control.

After some searching on the web I discovered that with an additional component, a file called 7zS.sfx (sfx stands for self-extracting), I could create self-extracting exe files using 7-Zip. This article explains how to do this! The best thing about the method I explain here is that you can set it up and use it over and over. Instead of going through multiple 'next' options you just run a command file. For anyone working with self-extracting exe files a lot, this is ideal.

Download

If you've not done it already, download and install 7-Zip for Windows. You can find it here: http://www.7-zip.org/

Also, look on the Downloads page for '7z Library, SFXs for installers, Plugin for FAR Manager' - click to download the 7zXXX_extra.7z file.

Instructions

The 7zXXX_extra.7z is a compressed archive file, like a zip file but in the native 7-Zip format. Extract 7zS.sfx from the 7zXXX_extra.7z file.

Make a new folder, for example SFXfolder.

Copy the 7zS.sfx into the SFXfolder.

Now we have to make two files. The first is a configuration file. It determines how the self-extracting exe will work, what is shown on the screen and the name of the program that will be run automatically after extraction. This configuration file can have any name but to make life easy I recommend you call it '7config.txt'.

Open Notepad

Type the following:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!

Title="Install Test"

BeginPrompt="Install?"

RunProgram="setup.exe"

;!@InstallEnd@!

Save the file as 7config.txt to the SFXfolder you created before.

To create the self-extracting exe we will need to type a command at the command prompt (CMD). But why do that each time? What we can do is make a command file and just edit/run that file when you want to make your self-extracting exe. You'll see what I mean soon.

Open Notepad

Type the following:

@echo off

copy /b 7zS.sfx + 7config.txt + Install_Test.7z Install_Test.exe

echo.

pause

Save the file as 7makeEXE.cmd to the SFXfolder you created earlier.

Now inside your SFXfolder you should have the following files:

7zS.sfx

7config.txt

7makeEXE.cmd

Now all we need are the files you want to include in the installation package itself. These files, including setup.exe (the file that will be run after extraction) should be compressed into a .7z file. Do not make a .zip file, use 7-Zip's native .7z format.

Save the .7z file in the SFXfolder. Name the .7z file as Install_Test.7z (or whatever you have used in your 7makeEXE.cmd file).

Double click 7makeEXE.cmd Wait, once it has finished you'll see the Install_Test.exe file in the SFXfolder. It's ready to be used!

Conclusion

Using this method to create self-extracting archive exe file makes a lot of sense if you create and recreate installation packages often. Especially for those deploying files or updating them. Because you only need to recreate your 7z file and double click 7makeEXE.cmd to rebuild the self-extracting exe file. No messing around with lots of Next prompts. Also the 7z format compresses files so small, if you are supplying installation packages over the internet via FTP or by e-mail, this is perfect. I use this every day and I wouldn't go back to WinZip now even if it was free.

Related
To make a self-extracting archive that only extracts files and does not run an EXE file, see:
Create a self-extracting archive exe PART 2

Please also see this article:
http://mgxp.blogspot.com/2010/08/problem-7-zip-sfx-extracted-files.html

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