Summary
After upgrading an Asus X202E from Windows 8 to 10 the notebook became far too slow for web browsing and anything video related. The notebook was acceptable for simple programming and serial port debugging. The decision was made to change to Ubuntu Mate to see if the usability of the laptop could be improved. |
| Asus X202E |
Ubuntu Flavour
Ubuntu Mate Installation Disk Creation
For the installation disk the common method of creation by using another Ubuntu system, together with the Ubuntu Mate ISO and the application Ubuntu 'Disks' was used.
For the purposes of this installation an external USB Samsung SSD was used for speed.
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| Ubuntu Disks Application: Restore Image |
The Ubuntu Mate drive will not boot with the default Asus X202E settings. There are a number of settings to change, at least to run for this installation. Further details for the Asus X202E BIOS configuration and related issues, for a Mac install, can be found on this lengthy but quite informative thread at www.tonymaxx86.com
Drive Upgrade
To start off the change to Ubuntu, a replacement Samsung 840 SSD was installed. The Samsung 800 series are 7mm in height which is a must to fit in the netbook. Larger drives will not fit.
There were 9 screws holding the bottom plastic cover plate of the netbook in place. Once the screws were removed the cover was easily removed by lifting the from the display hinge end.
Only 3 screws held the old drive in position. The old drive was held in place with two metal bars, each having two bolts secured into the drive.
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| Asus X202E SSD |
Netbook BIOS Changes
After the new SSD was installed, bottom cover fitted again, the BIOS was activated on X202E using the F2 key. For my model X202E the F2 key was pressed then the power button pressed. The F2 key was only released when the BIOS was displayed. Original reference in Asus website FAQ.Under the 'Advanced' menu the USB Legacy support was enabled to ensure booting from the external drive was possible. XHCI pre-boot was disabled also.
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| X202E BIOS Advanced Settings |
For the 'Boot' menu settings both the Fast Boot and Launch CSM were disabled after reading some issues in the thread at www.tonymaxx86.com
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| X202E BIOS Boot Settings |
Lastly under the 'Security' menu, most important of all, was to disable the Secure Boot which would allow non-Windows drives to boot.
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| X202E BIOS Security Settings |
Changes were saved and the X202E allowed to reboot with the Ubuntu Mate install drive connected to the USB.
There were no issues booting from the external SSD. The install Ubuntu Mate option was chosen from the installer splash screen.
After configuring the language option the next screen on the installer allows the latest updates and third party drivers to be downloaded. Both these options were selected. For some reason 'Secure Boot' was checked, this was deselected.
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| Ubuntu Mate Download Settings |
For the new Samsung SSD the 'Erase Disk' option was chosen.
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| Ubuntu Mate Installation Settings |
After clicking 'Install' the program confirms the changes.
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| Ubuntu Mate Installation Disk Changes |
The install program copied all required files.
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| Ubuntu Mate Installation Copying Files |
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| Ubuntu Mate Installation Restart |
Ubuntu Mate Performance
The Ubuntu Mate installation was updated using the tools from the menu then a benchmarking tool was installed. No other changes or additions were made.
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| Ubuntu Mate Desktop |
Hardinfo was used as the benchmarking tool, a portion of the results are listed below. The following link is the complete HardInfo results, with IP address' altered.
Benchmarks
| CPU Blowfish | ||
| CPU Blowfish | ||
| This Machine | 1100 MHz | 16.396 |
| Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz | (null) | 26.1876862 |
| PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) | (null) | 172.816713 |
| CPU CryptoHash | ||
| CPU CryptoHash | ||
| This Machine | 1100 MHz | 91.171 |
| CPU Fibonacci | ||
| CPU Fibonacci | ||
| This Machine | 1100 MHz | 4.906 |
| Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz | (null) | 8.1375674 |
| PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) | (null) | 58.07682 |
| CPU N-Queens | ||
| CPU N-Queens | ||
| This Machine | 1100 MHz | 19.652 |
| FPU FFT | ||
| FPU FFT | ||
| This Machine | 1100 MHz | 5.927 |
| FPU Raytracing | ||
| FPU Raytracing | ||
| This Machine | 1100 MHz | 12.788 |
| Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.50GHz | (null) | 40.8816714 |
| PowerPC 740/750 (280.00MHz) | (null) | 161.312647 |
Thanks for posting this. I had a similar problem with my daughter's Asus X202E after upgrading to Windows 10. I installed
ReplyDeletethe Samsung SSD 850 EVO hard drive, which is thin enough (7mm) to fit. After following these instructions I had Ubuntu Mate 16.04 up and running on her computer. Only two minor issues. First to get into the BIOS you don't just mash F2 during boot. Instead you need to power off the computer, then press and hold Fn-F2 while turning on the computer, and hold F2 until the BIOS appears.
Next was an Ubuntu Mate problem with Chrome. You need to install the libnss3 library (sudo apt-get install libnss3) for Chrome, Spotify and any other programs that need the latest version of NSS.
Bottom line is with my daughter is finally running Linux and is happy with how fast her computer is now. Yay!.
Thanks again.
Thank you for the BIOS entry details for your model X202E, I have added some further detail for clarity. Cheers
ReplyDelete