Install: over the Internet using a bootable USB stick

Intructions for Making Bootable USB Using Ubuntu:

Follow along with these instructions to make a bootable USB drive to do an online install of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 for the Eee.

 Anything shown like this should be typed in the terminal/console.

Insert the USB drive and find its location. Take note of the drive assignment. (sda, sdb, sdc, etc.)

 fdisk -l

Make sure the first partition is at least 16 MB large. It should be of type 06 (FAT16) and Bootable; if not, try (the X in sdX depends on how your USB drive is mapped; often sdc):

 cfdisk /dev/sdX

Assuming there already is a first partition of 16M, these keys can adjust the partition entry for sdX1:

b (make first partition Bootable)
t (set Type, choose 06)
W (Write changes to device)
q (Quit)

Now, you need to download the 8MB boot.img.gz file: [[1]]. (Right-click and save as.)

Navigate to the directory where you downloaded the boot.img.gz file (if it's on your desktop, usually "cd ~/Desktop") and then extract it.

 zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sdX1

Remove the USB from the computer, insert it into the Eee PC and turn it on. Hit ESC during the boot up and select the USB device from the list. When the installer loads, follow the on-screen instructions.

If your Eee PC will not boot from the flash drive, and all you get instead is a blinking text cursor, you probably have a bad MBR on your flash drive. Running

 dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdb

should fix it.

Questions: The above failed to work for me, (sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n ubuntu /dev/sdX1) failed due to missing -I option on whole disk (I had replaced X with letter a in my case). When I included the -I switch , the command worked but zcat command failed as partition hadn't been created. I used GParted to format a FAT32 partition and then used zcat to copy boot files but the usb drive would not boot. The dd command did not work as syslinux on Ubuntu does not include mbr.bin. Please feel free to remove this comment as I did not know where to add comments.
- I had the same problem. I simply fetched the source tarball from debian and extracted mbr.bin (304 bytes). But I had to follow the "alternative instructions" below for it to work.

Alternative Intructions for Making Bootable USB Using Ubuntu:

I couldn't get the above working correctly for me, so I used this method (some text copied from above):

Insert the USB drive and find it's location. Take note of the drive assignment. (sda, sdb, sdc, etc.)

 fdisk -l

Now, fix the MBR to avoid any errors later on. This is optional, but I had issues leaving this step out.

 dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdb

Then, using this information, format the USB properly. To do this, use the cfdisk command to erase any existing partitions and create a new bootable partition (select the boot option). Be sure to write the changes when you're finished.

 sudo cfdisk /dev/sdX1

Now, you need to download the 8MB boot.img.gz file: [[2]]. (Right-click and save as.)

Navigate to the directory where you downloaded the boot.img.gz file (if it's on your desktop, usually "cd ~/Desktop") and then extract it.

 zcat boot.img.gz > /dev/sdX1

Remove the USB from the computer, insert it into the Eee PC and turn it on. Hit ESC during the boot up and select the USB device from the list. When the installer loads, follow the on-screen instructions.

The USB device must be removed sometime (I don't know when, though!) during install, otherwise GRUB will be installed on the USB and Ubuntu won't boot without that inserted. Can though be solved [[3]]!