Getting Anki to run on the Eee PC (with default Xandros OS)
The Problem
Here is what you get when trying to install the Anki deb package on the Eee PC:
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that the package is simply not installable and a bug report against that package should be filed. anki: Depends: python-support (>= 0.7.1) but 0.5.6 is to be installed Depends: python-qt4 (>= 4.3) but it is not installable Depends: python-simplejson (>= 1.7.3) but it is not installable Depends: python-sqlalchemy (>= 0.4.1) but it is not installable
Solution 1: Run in WINE
This was reported to work on Eee PC 701 and Eee PC 901.
Install WINE following the instructions on http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:wine . In the "Adding Repositories via the Synaptic GUI" paragraph, the howto proposes to use debian or xepc. Choose the latter.
Download anki-0.9.8.1-setup.exe (or later) from http://ichi2.net/anki/download
Open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and run: wine anki-0.9.8.1-setup.exe
Go through the installation wizard, keep default options. When it is done, run: wine .wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Anki/Anki.exe
Anki's main window appear, and you can load a sample deck and study.
Unfortunately, Japanese hiraganas and kanjis are shown as big white rectangles. It seems that Arial is not good at that. If you study Japanese, chances are you already installed a Japanese-capable font. If not, follow the instructions for kochi gothic at http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=64589 . So change font from "Arial" to your Japanese-aware font in a 9 different places: in "Preferences" and "Edit Display Properties" (Production + Recognition, and Expression + Meaning + Reading). Because the windows are too big, you may have to use the ALT key when clicking on a window, to move it higher than the screen's top. Now Japanese characters show just fine.
For a mysterious reason, Anki sometimes seems to not use the fonts we just specified. So if the fonts start showing as empty rectangles again, then download the almighty Wine ja_JP.reg regedit patch (file from Wine-hq bugzilla #11281). This registry patch will make all of your Wine system use the Kochi Gothic font, which is fine for Japanese applications. In case you already use Wine for other applications that need accentuated characters, then after using Anki you will need the rollback patch mentioned in Step 4 here. Once you have downloaded the ja_JA.reg file, open a command line (CTRL+ALT+T) and type: regedit ja_JA.reg
Now run again: wine .wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Anki/Anki.exe
And you should be able to review your Japanese deck 
Enjoy !
Note: Be aware that a yet-not-resolved bug prevents the "Edit Facts" window from showing, so you will have to transfer your deck to another computer whenever you want to edit the facts (adding facts works). Any help is welcome to fix this.
Note: If you want to use some plugins, just put them in the .wine/drive_c/anki/.anki/plugins directory.
Solution 2: Build from source on the EeePC
Note: Building and running Anki works with the instructions below. However, there is no anti-aliasing for fonts, which means Japanese characters are barely readable. See screenshot below.
GCC
Install gcc as described on http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:installingdevelopmenttools
X11 headers
Install the X11 headers by typing: sudo apt-get install libx11-dev
Qt
Download Qt from http://trolltech.com/downloads/opensource/appdev/linux-x11-cpp
Unpack Qt in /home/user, enter the unpacked directory, type ./configure and type "yes" to accept the license. It will build for 10 minutes or so.
Then type: make
It will take a few hours.
We are now supposed to install Qt. The problem is that it is big, and the Eee's root partition is small. So we'll install things on the home partition while pretending it is on the root partition, by creating a link:
sudo mkdir /home/usr-local-Trolltech cd /usr/local sudo ln -s /home/usr-local-Trolltech Trolltech
Then type: sudo make install
Edit /home/user/.bashrc and insert the following lines at the top:
PATH=/usr/local/Trolltech/Qt-4.4.3/bin:$PATH export PATH
SIP
We need Python's development headers, so type: sudo apt-get install python2.4-dev
Download http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/static/Downloads/sip4/sip-4.7.9.tar.gz
Unpack it in /home/user, enter the unpacked directory, and type: python configure.py
Then type: make
Then type: sudo make install
PyQt
Download from http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/static/Downloads/PyQt4/PyQt-x11-gpl-4.4.4.tar.gz
Unpack it in /home/user, enter the unpacked directory, and type: python configure.py
Then type: make
Then type: sudo make install
It will build for an hour or so.
SQLAlchemy
Download http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/sqlalchemy/SQLAlchemy-0.4.8.tar.gz
Unpack it in /home/user, enter the unpacked directory and type: sudo python setup.py install
SimpleJSON
Unpack it in /home/user, enter the unpacked directory and type: sudo python setup.py install
Anki itself, finally!
If we install Anki now, it will complain about the version of setuptools, so download http://pypi.python.org/packages/2.4/s/setuptools/setuptools-0.6c9-py2.4.egg#md5=260a2be2e5388d66bdaee06abec6342a
Put it in /home/user and type: sudo sh setuptools-0.6c9-py2.4.egg
Download http://ichi2.net/anki/download/anki-0.9.8.9.tgz (or a newer if available), unpack it in /home/user, enter the unpacked directory and the libanki directory within, and type: sudo python setup.py install
And Anki should finally run, type: anki
Fonts
The default fonts do not display Japanese characters well. Click "Edit", "Display properties", and change the fonts to "Charter", for both "Front to back" and "Back to front". Japanese fonts are still displayed as rectangles in some places, I guess it can be fixed by setting the fonts to "Charter" in other places. Anki has many different places for fonts configuration.
The big remaining problem is that graphics look ugly, there seems to be no antialiasing. Any idea on how to resolve this will be highly appreciated ! More on this page.
