linux on a laptop

kwirky · #1 03-09-2008, 04:08 AM

man oh man I have to say I've never spent so much time installing a system than installing linux on my laptop (and trying to get ALL my hardware working right and as many "mobile" features as possible). 2 days later and I'm STILL not done! lol

wifi's a real pain I have to say.

Pan · #2 03-09-2008, 04:38 AM

what flavour are you running? I prefere FreeBSD Personally

or Openbsd for my notebook.

wolf_bluejay · #3 03-09-2008, 05:00 AM

Who hoo, a BSD vs. Linux war on Canreef, now I really feel at home with Linux and fish tanks. Just for fun, my fish tank runs Gentoo.... (really).
As for the laptop, I've really haven't had trouble with linux on a laptop in quite some time. I have 2 laptop's at home running different distro's and about 50 at work, usually the only problem is with the wireless card and proper drivers for it.
Everything else seems to work great with just the acpi stuff to control it. If you post a "lspci" I think a few people (myself included) can help you out. I run about 2000 linux systems right now and adding a few hundred per month lately.

kwirky · #4 03-10-2008, 01:20 AM

i'm running debian etch on my asus f3jm

intel coreduo T2400 (working. compiled smp and the new cpu features of the latest linux kernel)
intel SATA-IDE controller (working. had to reconfigure/compile kernel)
intel HD audio (working with lastest kernel)
intel wifi (not working still)

I've learned about compiling kernels but now lots of the debian kernel-modules don't work. damned if you do and damned if you don't.

I've been playing with LFS (linux from scratch) using microsoft's virtual pc on my desktop

update: i'm going detox on my notebook. taking the linux for a month challenge to see if I can do all my personal computing on an open source/free system. wish me luck

going gentoo linux because the distribution's build/install process will learn me a thing or two at the same time.

wolf_bluejay · #5 03-10-2008, 07:51 AM

I find Debian to be great for a server type system, but really not the best for laptops.

Kernel module building can take a lot of understanding to actually to get right. debian installs modules as part of individual packages, do playing with a "non-standard" kernel can be a pain.
As for the wifi, sometime the wireless drivers in linux work, when they don't ndiswrapper is there for you. I will install the WinXP drivers and use those instead. This is what I have to do with my broadcom wireless card.

Personally I like gentoo, it is what I run on my personal systems, it is too much for a production system. I would really use gentoo over LFS. you can expect to learn a lot from running gentoo. And as a added bonus, gentoo's portage system will install 3rd party programs without having to install with each programs installer. IE google-earth, vmware, etc. similar to running ubuntu with the restricted drivers turned on.
If you post a "lspci" list I can tell you if the linux drivers will work for your intel wifi card or not. Or you can just google the EXACT model number and find out for yourself.