First things first. EeeControl is a combination of a daemon (system service) and a GUI application running in the tray which enables you to over- and underclock your EeePC, enable/disable built-in hardware (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, camera, card reader) and automatically control the fan speed according to system temperature. Oh, yes, it also enables the F-keys shortcuts, like pressing Fn-F2 to toggle Wi-Fi. It's essential if you want to conserve battery power, keep the fan noise down and make your life with your EeePC easier.
Installing from an RPM
Installing EeeControl in Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring is a pain in the buttocks, but I have two alternative ways to achieve this. The first one is to install it using my RPM package, if you trust me. I mean, the RPM package is unsigned and it's binary-only. If you don't trust me with making binary-only packages, I will give you step-by-step instructions to build it yourself. So, for those who are in a rush: Download EeeControl 0.8.4 RPM for Mandriva Linux 2009 SpringIn order to install this RPM you have to make sure that you have configured all the Mandriva Linux installation media, especially the "contrib" media, as this package requires the python-smbus package.
Installing from sources
Make sure you have set up all the media sources and that you are connected on the Internet before proceeding. If you have not added the media from the Mandriva Control Panel, you can do so by typing this at a root console:
urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist '$MIRRORLIST'
Open a root console. All commands described below will be issued in that console.
First, we are going to install all the dependencies of the build process:
urpmi wget python-smbus rpm-build python-devel
Next, we'll try to build the binary RPM from its source RPM. Do note that this process will fail in the last step. This is the expected behaviour and we'll patch it later on.
cd /usr/local/src
wget http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/285824/eee-control-0.8.4-1dj2009.0.src.rpm
ln -s /usr/lib/python2.6/ /usr/lib/python2.5
rpmbuild --rebuild eee-control-0.8.4-1dj2009.0.src.rpm
The last step will halt with an error. After this error appears, edit the file /root/rpmbuild/SPECS/eee-control.spec and change this line:
/usr/lib/debug/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/ioport.so.debug
to:
/usr/lib/debug/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ioport.so.debug
Basically you just change the 2.5 to 2.6, as Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring has a newer version of Python than the one this source RPM package expected. Next up, we'll manually build the RPM:
cd /root/rpmbuild/SPECS
rpmbuild -bb eee-control.spec
After the build is complete, you have a working, installable RPM file. So, let's install it!
cd /root/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch
urpmi ./eee-control-0.8.4-1mdv2009.1.noarch.rpm
After the installation is over, you'll have to activate the eee-control service:
service eee-control start
Now we can clean up by deleting the unnecessary files:
cd /root
rm -rf /root/rpmbuild
rm -f /usr/local/src/eee-control-0.8.4-1dj2009.0.src.rpm
That's all! You can now close your root terminal.
Using EeeControl
In order to use the EeeControl tray application, you have to run eee-control-tray, for example by pressing ALT-F2 to open the run box of your favourite desktop environment and typing in this command.
This will make a tray icon with the EeePC logo appear on your tray. Everything is self explanatory.
