Asus Eee Note, a peek within....

**Newest firmware update now allows selection of english or chinese menus. If you want to add dictionaries or custom apps, go here: http://www.freeenote.org/pages/downloads.html


The dismantling is below....
Saw the screws on the 4 corners...resisted for a week....but...


15 minutes later....
Eee Note has been taken apart...


Close ups


The 4GB space is actually a micro-sd card....took it out and cloned it using Acronis....


And it works! However, although I cloned it to a 8GB card, due to the original partition size, it's still recognized as 4GB when using Eee Sync..

Now have to figure out how to tweak the EXT3 partition to include the rest of the unused space. In addition, I'm not a Linux user, so I'm guessing those who do can figure out more of what's within the card....

What I can see in Ubuntu when I read the microsd card...





Update 02/20/2011
The Eee Note, glass screen removed...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vYgninnqns

Update 02/21/2011
Low Light Viewing Angle Issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id5zsOUpEgw

Asus Eee Note vs Sony Reader: Low Light Viewing Angle Faceoff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akPodZdkqQ0

 

That is quite interesting. Seems like a very hackable device

 

well....i have the OS and data cloned, and they seemed recognizable in ubuntu....but what can I do with it?

I'm not familiar with linux at all, so the files inside the card are alien to me....

 

The bigger question is if you installed Ubuntu in a microsd and pop that into the slate, would it still boot? If so, we got a full Linux tablet for $250.

 

That would be awesome. Hmm you know they do make a wacom driver that works with linux so the pen would be usable. I wonder if there is enough ram to run it though.

 

Well, I wouldn't know directly what to do myself. But aside from installing an alternative OS (such as Ubuntu), I imagine that someone with a bit more Linux know-how could open up for more readable formats, a better drawing app, and so on. I think when it hit's the US and Europa, we may see some very interesting mods of this thing...!

 

Have you considered creating a Puppy live microsd and popping that in to see if it boots? All you need is a 256Mb card for a live distro of Puppy, IIRC.

 

i was googling for linux for ARM devices....there are some...but am I right to say it's for snapdragon so far.....

probably will do a bit more research b4 opening up my eee note again....

 

Well, depending on the device specifics (which ARM11 processor), you should be able to find what you need here:

Linux Support for the ARM Architecture - ARM

The real question is whether it's got an ARM11 with an MMU or not. If so, you're probably golden since there appears to be support for common distros on those models (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc.). Otherwise you'll be working with uClinux, which appears to be a modified Linux kernel designed to work on embedded systems.

Please keep us posted, looking forward to anything you learn!

 

Hi,

I have been looking for everything about the eeenote, and I found the source code for the OpenSource part of it:

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/EeeNote/

Thank you for your threads.

 

nope, those are juz the programming tools Asus used, i tink....

 

Anyway, just a note tat the matte surface of the eee note's display is due to a screen protector applied over it.

 

Sorry, my bad

 

I just bricked my machine by doing the latest update. Any chance I could have a copy of your cloned card? I don't know what to do at the moment but ask. Is the 4 gig a micro sd card inside pretty easy to access or no? And could it be as easy to over write as just copying and pasting over.

Any help would be great, I hate that i decided to try to do the firm ware update and failed on me big time

 

oh! that sounds bad....are you still able to sync to the eee note on your pc? I can upload my backup file, it's about 600mb.

as for the removal of the microsd card, yes it's pretty easy.

1) Remove the 4 corner screws.
2) Ply the top and bottom plastic 'covers' open. I agree it might be a bit daunting here because I was afraid I might snap the plastic 'tabs' that were holding the covers in place.
3) The back of the eee note acts like a bracket holding the display. Slide the display out, turn it over and you'll see the circuit board and the microsd holder.

 

I cant get past that screen, but I was able to open it and took the sd card out. I can just copy it to the card if that works then good. As I can't get the computer to recognize the note at all at the moment. Totally in panic mode but I hope that by copying the file over it should be fine.

Any chance you can upload it now? Sorry just really worried.

Mind emailing me the upload link to mixedcandyorders@gmail.com


You sir are a life saver

 

Now it keeps saying start system failed, now waiting for connection of pc tools....

But it does nothing from there

 

Just came across this thread and couldn't resist joining in

whazzup: you can grow the ext3 partition so that it occupies the whole space available using the gparted tool in Ubuntu. Its interface is very similar to the good old PartitionMagic.

Could you please show the list of files in the /etc folder? Or even better, make its content available somehow (it shouldn't be larger than a few MBs). This would likely help understanding which version of Linux is used by Asus. And looking into /var/log will tell everything about the hardware ;-)

Also, is there any way to upgrade RAM? I couldn't recognize any DIMM in your pictures.

Thanks a lot for your most informative post! I'm afraid I won't be able to wait until this thing appears in the US now. Oh, and I own a 2730p too

P.S. Just an afterthought: would replacing the internal sd-card with a Class 10 one improve the performance?

 

@Shurik
I can provide you with the image, it's about 600mb. Are you familiar with Linux then? Maybe you can figure out more stuffs...

As for ram, no, there's no removable dimm slot. I remember seeing a hynix chip on the pcb, tat will probably be the ram.

I'm afraid i'm not really using the 2730p anymore...I bought it for the primary purpose of being able to draw on the go, and secondary purpose of accessing the internet on the go.

The eee note more than satisfies the 1st, so much so tat i'm not really surfing the net on the go anymore....and its ability to go online, albeit rudimentary and slow, is actually adequate for me. I find myself doing the occasional email check, and google maps search on it.

I have a sandisk ultra microsd 8gb inside now, much faster than the standard cards. But no, I dun really see an improvement in the device's response. Even the transfer speeds are limited to around 1mb/s, when the card should be capable of much more.

 

A look at the updated firmware...now my 8gb card is partitioned properly...

By lxxxxl at 2011-01-21


The major difference I can see....

By lxxxxl at 2011-01-21


The ebook reader....not much of a difference....this is the view at 100%...

By lxxxxl at 2011-01-21