Linux & Laptops.

BoomAM

BoomAM

BoomAM

Soldato
Joined
5 Jul 2003
Posts
16,206
Location
Atlanta, USA
Hi.
Do to the fact that i no longer rely on my laptop for my work email (just installed Exchange. :D), i can now faff with my laptop a bit more.
I want to dual boot Vista with a varient of Linux.

Ive yet to see, in the past, a version of Linux that supports everything my laptop has and does the sleep mode thing properly.

Anyone got some suggestions? (Laptop is the one reviewed in my sig).
 
ubuntu 8.10
opensuse 11.0/11.1
Linux Mint 5
sabayon

All worth a try, pick the one you like best.

PS: Its not really true to say a version of linux doesn't support your lappy. Its more like the companies that made the parts in your lappy have not released drivers or released the info for others to support them. :)
 
Oxy said:
ubuntu 8.10
opensuse 11.0/11.1
Linux Mint 5
sabayon

All worth a try, pick the one you like best.
Click to expand...
I'll give Ubuntu a crack for now, then try Fedora.


PS: Its not really true to say a version of linux doesn't support your lappy. Its more like the companies that made the parts in your lappy have not released drivers or released the info for others to support them. :)
Click to expand...
True, but 'OOB' compatibility is what im after. :p.
 
One thing to be ware of with linux on a laptop, is that i have recently put ubuntu to mine and each time i boot up it turns bluetooth on and i am not sure how to disable it, so it can be a drain on the battery.
 
Well i was planning on Ubuntu, but as i just noticed i dont have any blank CDs, just DVDs, and im 59% of the way through a Fedora9 DVD download, im trying Fedora first. :p

Cleared up 59Gb of space on my laptop, so ive got 40Gb to play with, as i want to leave Vista 19Gb of breathing room.
Unfortunatelly, Vista wont let me pre-prepare the HDD, it'll only allow me a 20Gb partition shrink, so i'll have to wait for Fedora.

Things i need to check/ensure is working in Fedora
- Bluetooth capabilities
- WiFi
- Card Reader
- 3D Desktop (whichever it is that Fedora uses).
- Possibly the fingerprint reader

Then find some software that'll let me txt messages on my N95 over bluetooth from the laptop...
 
If you dont have any blank CDs you can always do what i did and just use a usb drive to install off of.
 
Dist said:
One thing to be ware of with linux on a laptop, is that i have recently put ubuntu to mine and each time i boot up it turns bluetooth on and i am not sure how to disable it, so it can be a drain on the battery.
Click to expand...

Is it in the BIOS? I had the same problem with my Eee PC and that's how I got round it.
 
manic111 said:
Is it in the BIOS? I had the same problem with my Eee PC and that's how I got round it.
Click to expand...

Ill have to check. I never had this problem on windows with the default thinkpad software, because i could simply press a key combo to bring up wireless/bluetooth settings and i could easily turn one off without changing the other. In linux that key combo just switches between both on, bluetooth on/wifi off, wifi on/bluetooth off and both off. So although i can turn off bluetooth inside linux now, i have to cycle through turning wifi off first which is bit of an annoyance.

I will check the bios and see if there is anything there to do with bluetooth.
 
Right, ive got 40Gb for Linux.
Tempted to split that into 3, root, home & swap.
How much should i allocate to root? Swap will be 4Gb.
 
Couldnt be bothered waiting. :p
Went with 20Gb root, 16Gb Home, 4Gb swap.:p
I cant always resize later.
Im just hoping that it hasnt trashed my Vista install....
 
Well, fedora was messing me around with some random errors, so i wacked Ubuntu on a USB stick and installed that. :p

Am i missing something with command line navigation, i thought to go back it was CD.. and to go forwards it was either cd directoryname or cd /directory name.

Neither seem to work?
 
Not tried it myself as i havn't had a need to yet, but i thought to get back its "CD ..", so theres a space between CD and the ..

Or there is CD ~ to go to your home directory, CD / to go to the root directory, or to go to a specific directory its just CD /home/dist/pictures

None of that works for you?
 
Got it working now.

Faults/things to fix with Ubuntu now:
- It asks for the root password on every boot so the Wifi thing can get to the keys.
- Wammu doesnt detect my phone (any alternatives out there?).
- Cant remember the name of that big codec pack that allows mp3/wma/wmv/ect; compatibility.
- Need to find good desktop monitoring thing, similar to windows sidebar.
- Need to get temperature monitoring appet for bar at the top.


Anyone got any idea/advice on any of those?
 
BoomAM said:
Got it working now.

Faults/things to fix with Ubuntu now:
- It asks for the root password on every boot so the Wifi thing can get to the keys.
- Wammu doesnt detect my phone (any alternatives out there?).
- Cant remember the name of that big codec pack that allows mp3/wma/wmv/ect; compatibility.
- Need to find good desktop monitoring thing, similar to windows sidebar.
- Need to get temperature monitoring appet for bar at the top.


Anyone got any idea/advice on any of those?
Click to expand...


Applications ADD/REMOVE

Restr.jpg
 
Debian seems to be well tested on ThinkPads, as evidenced by some of the options in the control centre:



Don't think there's much another distro can do that debian can't?
 
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