christopher baus wrote:
I just got my new HP laptop, don't know if any of you noticed it
lastnight. I would like to turn it to a linux box, Gentoo most likely.
This will be my first install of linux on a laptop. It there anything that
I should be aware of that is different from a desktop install?
Damon
I've had a couple issues. X still doesn't automatically detect screen
resolutions and even common ones like 1640x1080 aren't in the defaut
x.conf. I've had to manually hack the x.conf to get RedHat to run
correctly on all 3 of my wide screen monitors.
Wireless support IMHO is joke on linux. I've gotten it to work, but not
without major headaches: iwlist, iwconfig, edit
/etc/sysconfig/networks-scripts/ifcfg-x to add WAP keys, compiled drivers,
and use windows drivers on Linux. I've wasted hours of my life on this
stuff. This type of stuff might be fine for servers that don't change
configs often, I find it to be hell on a laptop where you are constantly
changing networks.
I ended up maxing out my RAM and installing VMWare on XP, and that's the
config I'm using most of the time now. I know a lot of people here will
probably disagree, but is my opinion that XP is far better than Linux on
x86 Laptops. And I spend a lot of time keeping Linux boxes running in
production, and have been very happy with its performance in that domain.
Unless you are developer interested in improving Laptop support for Linux,
I say save yourself the hassle, max out your RAM, and take a look at
VMWare. BTW, VMWare won't solve your problems with X resolutions. Still
requires manually hacking the config file.
Just my experience.
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I've always been able to solve my wlan card problems easily with
ndiswrapper.
When I have problems with my screen resolution by slight edits to the
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file.
I have run Linux on laptops for years, with minimal problem. I currently
have a Dell Inspiron 1150 but also have run it on a couple of ThinkPads.
One way to check to see how your laptop responds to Linux is to download
and burn one of the free live-CD additions. I suggest KANOTIX. In fact,
I have it installed on a couple of machines. I have also run quite
successfully Scientific Linux on this laptop, which is (Red Hat
Enterprise 4.1, rewritten from source by the scientists at Fermilabs and
CERN. It's also a free download with excellent support through e-mail lists.
I hope this adds to your decision-making process.
Bill
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