ASUS eee PC - Interesting option for a Slimserver

[Goodsounds]

Two wireless hops (wifi server), is more likely to cause lag freezing or stuttering than using a USB HD.

I would be curious to know if the load capacity varies with the task.

My system seems to not strain for different (unsynched) wireless FLAC streams to two SB3s. I presume there is some number of streams that would hit the capacity of the Wifi router, assuming an adequately powered server. Would a two hop (ie, wireless server) to one SB3 be the same load as a wired server going to two wireless SB3s, or more, or less?

I understand that wifi routers can often be the overlooked weak link, and that actual capacities vary greatly by model and are lower than people think they are. Thanks

[Skunk]

I tried to load SC on my eee running Linux. There are instructions on the Slimdevices website but I was lost from moment one. The version of Linux they use is apparently not well suited for SC. I actually could not find anyone on any forum who was running it on Linux. But I don't know anything about Linux.

So I installed XP and I am very happy with the results.

With SC on my eee and a Buffalo Tech mini NAS I am pretty much getting the results I was looking for. Still a bit of tweaking to do.

Now if it only had a larger battery and a touch screen......

If you're happy w/ XP and SC runs well then by all means stick with it, but if you find XP+SC to be taxing on the Eee then it may be worth trying again because I am able to get it working without anything out of the ordinary.

To install it I launched a terminal (ctrl+alt+t) and typed: sudo synaptic, then chose Settings>Repositories, where I added the repositories for debian and slim devices:

URI: http://debian.slimdevices.com/
Distribution: stable
Section: main

and

URI: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/
Distribution: etch
Section: main non-free contrib

I then exited synaptic, and in the terminal typed: sudo apt-get update, and then: sudo apt-get install squeezecenter, and clicked y when prompted.

Once installed SC can be started with: sudo /etc/init.d/squeezecenter start, and stopped with sudo /etc/init.d/squeezecenter stop

[Skunk]

I would be curious to know if the load capacity varies with the task.

My system seems to not strain for different (unsynched) wireless FLAC streams to two SB3s. I presume there is some number of streams that would hit the capacity of the Wifi router, assuming an adequately powered server. Would a two hop (ie, wireless server) to one SB3 be the same load as a wired server going to two wireless SB3s, or more, or less?

I understand that wifi routers can often be the overlooked weak link, and that actual capacities vary greatly by model and are lower than people think they are. Thanks

I'm not sure if the load changes when the server is wireless versus having one extra player, but the possibilities for complications more than double.

That being said, using my Eee as a wireless server seemed to work just as well as if it were wired, from even further away than the Duet Controller could get (probably because it has a bigger antenna). At least it did on that particular day, but maybe my neighbor got a new phone or Panasonic microwave since then...

[egd]

FWIW I installed and used SC on the default eeepc901 Xandros using Skunk's instructions and it works perfectly well. I've since also replaced the Xandros installation with Ubuntu 8.10, tweaked to minimise unncessary writes to the SSD.

[Labarum]

Has anyone tried the optical out on the eeePC for playing files directly rather than through Squeezecentre and a Squeezebox?

[your momo]

I just try the install as described by Skunk in post #22 on my eeePC900 with Xandros original OS ...and it works perfectly :-)

Thanks to Skunk for this brief but efficient step by step guide !

As Linux ignorant I had no chances to catch that eeePC is considered be in the Debian three and obviously don't understand the install as described here:
http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/DebianPackage

I buy the eeePC essentially for quick web browsing and for picture sorting when on holiday ...but now I can also use it as SC host and it works amazingly well.
Compare to my DS107+ NAS the eeePC900 is capable to resolve a full music scan of >6000 titles and 500 artistes in 8'40" where the NAS struggle taking 50' ...great thanks !

[your momo]

...tried the move on SBS on my eee900, work fine ;-)

Just tiped that below as suggested by a linux user

sudo apt-get remove squeezecenter (to remove previous SC version)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install squeezeboxserver (to install latest stable SBS, 7.4.1)

Got a strange error message about a missing validation key, but this doesn't prevent the work be done, so fine for me ;-)