Updating Nvidia ION Drivers on EEE 1201n – Ubuntu

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Using EEEbuntu (9.04) on the new EEE 1201N with Nvidia ION? You may have noticed that the built-in gfx driver is crushingly slow. But you can grab the latest Nvidia Linux drivers (which support the ION) without too much effort.

Below is exactly what I did to my system to get this working. Do this as root.


# wget http://www.avenard.org/files/ubuntu-repos/ubuntu-repos.key && apt-key add ubuntu-repos.key && rm ubuntu-repos.key
# echo "deb http://www.avenard.org/files/ubuntu-repos jaunty release" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/avenard.list
# apt-get update
# apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.28-11-generic
# apt-get install nvidia-glx-195 nvidia-195-libvdpau
# nvidia-xconfig
# apt-get install vim
# vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
-- [Change Mouse to /dev/input/mice]
# /etc/init.d/gdm stop
# rmmod nvidia
# modprobe nvidia
# echo nvidia >>/etc/modules
# /etc/init.d/gdm start

Reference Pages:

http://ptspts.blogspot.com/2009/08/asrock-ion-330-nettop-with-jaunty.html
http://www.avenard.com/media/Ubuntu_Repository/Ubuntu_Repository.html

Update: I also updated the BIOS of the 1201N to the latest version; downloaded from Asus website – you can grab it right here- 0318
– unzip the new bios
– stick it on a USB stick
– rename it from 1201N-ASUS-0318.ROM to 1201N.ROM on the USB stick
– put the USB stick in the 1201, remove all other USB devices

To update the bios- power off and hold ALT+F2 as you power on. The 1201N has ‘bootblaster’ which makes it difficult to do this (it will often just go right into grub), if you can’t get the BIOS update utility to come up I suggest you get into the BIOS itself (F2) and then choose to disable Bootblaster then try the ALT+F2. The flash utility will load and read the usb stick and update the BIOS automatically, then restart the netbook.

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