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I haven’t managed to install Mandriva 2009.0 PowerPack on katana. The 64-bit ISO is waiting to be deployed as soon as I’ve backed everything up and installed a different graphics adapter. In the meantime, I managed to get the 32-bit 2009.0 One image down last week to replace the existing Mandriva 2008 version on the Eee. The Mandriva team has once again done an excellent job of porting their distribution to the specific hardware platform the Eee represents.

Out of the box, everything works without any customization or configuration required. In particular, the setup of the E220 HSDPA modem consists of a few clicks and the new network manager has much-improved detection and management for wireless networking.

My preference is GNOME. On the Eee the usual problem of managing windows on the rather tiny screen persists.

It looks good, but simply isn’t great to work with. I was very excited by the prospect of trying the netbook-optimized window manager LXDE as soon as possible. A certain number of dead brain cells were once again responsible for my forgetting to install all required packages for the HSDPA modem while I had the external DVD-ROM connected. That left me with a few attempts at installing the LXDE package over the home wireless network. It should have been very simple: as root, execute urpmi task-lxde or start rpmdrake to add the package. For some or other reason, certain dependencies could not be met. I assume it had something to do with my haste – the entire development was probably not yet synchronized and deployed over all the necessary repositories. Since I had no access to 3G for a couple of days, FSpot on the Eee running GNOME served as my photo archiving solution over the weekend.

Another attempt at getting LXDE installed worked yesterday: all the necessary packages could be found and the whole thing installed in a very short time.

Log out, change the default window manager from GNOME to LXDE and log back in again. LXDE is a very attractive environment with KDE-style menus and panels along the bottom edge of the screen.

LXDE feels snappier than GNOME and most windows fit onto the screen in a more manageable fashion. Of course, only certain applications have been tailored to fit properly and to show all buttons. Firefox has been modified somewhat to perform thus, but the GIMP never will It’s a very clean and well-organized environment. For rudimentary tasks, there is no reason to run GNOME or KDE and the performance gains are well worth the effort of installing this small software component.

If you’re interested in running Linux on an underpowered notebook or desktop computer or want to breath new life into your Eee PC, give LXDE a try.

Just one last comment on running Mandriva 2009.0 on the Eee: for some or other reason, the machine does not shut down when that option is selected from the quit menu in the operating system. Instead, the Eee seems to go into a sleep or suspend mode with the power still on. On two occasions, I have simply set it down only to find the battery drained when I next want to use it. The unit is very hot and was obviously still powered on. To really switch it off, remember to hold down the silver power button for a few seconds after the shutdown. This did not occur with 2008.1, so there’ll be a fix out there somewhere.