[gentoo-user] laptop

[gentoo-user] laptop

[John Jolet]

I need to have my company order me a new laptop, but obviously, i'll be 
putting gentoo on it.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very small 'n' 
light laptop known to be pretty much a slam dunk to get gentoo on (with sound 
and wireless, etc)?

I'm currently using a dell inspiron 1100 and gentoo slid on very easily.  Oh, 
and they want it a grand or under (us dollars).  Thanks.
-- 
John Jolet
Your On-Demand IT Department
512-762-0729
www.jolet.net
john@jolet.net
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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[A. Khattri]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, John Jolet wrote:

> I need to have my company order me a new laptop, but obviously, i'll be
> putting gentoo on it.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very small 'n'
> light laptop known to be pretty much a slam dunk to get gentoo on (with sound
> and wireless, etc)?
>
> I'm currently using a dell inspiron 1100 and gentoo slid on very easily. Oh,
> and they want it a grand or under (us dollars).  Thanks.
>


Seems to me, "very small 'n' light" is mutually exclusive with "grand or
under".

Unless you're interested in running GentooPPC on an iBook?


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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[John Jolet]

On Wednesday 26 October 2005 09:20, A. Khattri wrote:
> On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, John Jolet wrote:
> > I need to have my company order me a new laptop, but obviously, i'll be
> > putting gentoo on it.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very small
> > 'n' light laptop known to be pretty much a slam dunk to get gentoo on
> > (with sound and wireless, etc)?
> >
> > I'm currently using a dell inspiron 1100 and gentoo slid on very easily.
> > Oh, and they want it a grand or under (us dollars).  Thanks.
>
> Seems to me, "very small 'n' light" is mutually exclusive with "grand or
> under".
well, the under a grand is more important than small n light.  :)
so really i'm looking for a laptop known to work easily with gentoo, as small 
as possible.
>
> Unless you're interested in running GentooPPC on an iBook?
>
>
> --

-- 
John Jolet
Your On-Demand IT Department
512-762-0729
www.jolet.net
john@jolet.net
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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 10:20:40 -0400 (EDT), A. Khattri wrote:

> Seems to me, "very small 'n' light" is mutually exclusive with "grand or
> under".
> 
> Unless you're interested in running GentooPPC on an iBook?

Works for me, but you'll need a USB wireless adaptor, there are no
drivers for the built in wireless.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Southern DOS: Y'all reckon? (Yep/Nope)

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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[A. Khattri]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, Neil Bothwick wrote:

> Works for me, but you'll need a USB wireless adaptor, there are no
> drivers for the built in wireless.

Im guessing this is with Airport Extreme rather than plain ole Airport?
(I have a friend running Debian on his iBook quitw happily).


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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 11:20:39 -0400 (EDT), A. Khattri wrote:

> > Works for me, but you'll need a USB wireless adaptor, there are no
> > drivers for the built in wireless.
> 
> Im guessing this is with Airport Extreme rather than plain ole Airport?
> (I have a friend running Debian on his iBook quitw happily).

Yes. The iBook G4s have the Airport Extreme. There is a thread on the
forums about using Mac-On-Linux to run the AE and tunnelling everything
through that. I haven't tried it yet.
 

-- 
Neil Bothwick

There is absolutely no substitute for a genuine lack of preparation.

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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[Stroller]

On Oct 26, 2005, at 3:57 pm, Neil Bothwick wrote:

> On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 10:20:40 -0400 (EDT), A. Khattri wrote:
>
>> Seems to me, "very small 'n' light" is mutually exclusive with "grand 
>> or
>> under".
>>
>> Unless you're interested in running GentooPPC on an iBook?
>
> Works for me, but you'll need a USB wireless adaptor, there are no
> drivers for the built in wireless.

This would incline me towards an IBM Stinkpad. Lots of cheap ones about 
now that IBM have sold the brand to Lenovo & they still seem just as 
well constructed. I believe Centrino is supported by Linux, and I 
wouldn't expect any major problems with a Thinkpad apart from wireless.

Stroller.

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[gentoo-user] Re: laptop

[James]

John Jolet <john <at> jolet.net> writes:


> I need to have my company order me a new laptop, but obviously, i'll be 
> putting gentoo on it.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very small 'n' 
> light laptop known to be pretty much a slam dunk to get gentoo on (with sound 
> and wireless, etc)?


It's easy to get a machine that has updated (newer revisions) of critical
chipsets, which may or maynot work with linux drivers.
It's best to get a 2005.1 install CD and try to boot the machine up, before 
purchase. Often I go to a big store and test things out before purchase.

You may what to ensure that critical tools 'lspci' and 'lshw' are on the CD
before trotting off to the store. Also, if the critical hardware is
usb basd, make sure you have the appropriate discovery tools on the CD
or a companion CD. Folks at Best Buy (USA) are always curious to let
me experiment with their windoz offerings. I've snagged a few gentoo
recruits this way. They offer to purchase the CD before I leave, and are
quite astonished when it is gifted to them. They look at Gentoo, as 
a treasure revealing deep secrets about the hardware they are selling.
 However, more often than not the discounted machine I'm looking
at has weird hardware or something that I do not like. For instance
using hdparm to profile the hard drive performance is another good
idea. Bargain bozes often have substandard HD, or wireless chipssets
that are mostly disfunctional, even under winblowz.

Warning, I'm not sure why, but some of these aforementioned diagnostic
tools are not part of the standard gentoo install CD.....Let me know if 
you  find an install CD that has lots of hardware diag tools as
part of the CD. I never seem to get around to building a customized
CD, just for this purpose, but surely someone else has created
a boot/diag/install version of 2005.*  ????

HTH,

James



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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: laptop

[John Jolet]

On Wednesday 26 October 2005 10:04, James wrote:
> John Jolet <john <at> jolet.net> writes:
> > I need to have my company order me a new laptop, but obviously, i'll be
> > putting gentoo on it.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very small
> > 'n' light laptop known to be pretty much a slam dunk to get gentoo on
> > (with sound and wireless, etc)?
>
> It's easy to get a machine that has updated (newer revisions) of critical
> chipsets, which may or maynot work with linux drivers.
> It's best to get a 2005.1 install CD and try to boot the machine up, before
> purchase. Often I go to a big store and test things out before purchase.
That's a great idea.  I'll take my knoppix cd.  I've never had that fail to 
work on a strange pc.
>
> You may what to ensure that critical tools 'lspci' and 'lshw' are on the CD
> before trotting off to the store. Also, if the critical hardware is
> usb basd, make sure you have the appropriate discovery tools on the CD
> or a companion CD. Folks at Best Buy (USA) are always curious to let
> me experiment with their windoz offerings. I've snagged a few gentoo
> recruits this way. They offer to purchase the CD before I leave, and are
> quite astonished when it is gifted to them. They look at Gentoo, as
> a treasure revealing deep secrets about the hardware they are selling.
>  However, more often than not the discounted machine I'm looking
> at has weird hardware or something that I do not like. For instance
> using hdparm to profile the hard drive performance is another good
> idea. Bargain bozes often have substandard HD, or wireless chipssets
> that are mostly disfunctional, even under winblowz.
>
> Warning, I'm not sure why, but some of these aforementioned diagnostic
> tools are not part of the standard gentoo install CD.....Let me know if
> you  find an install CD that has lots of hardware diag tools as
> part of the CD. I never seem to get around to building a customized
> CD, just for this purpose, but surely someone else has created
> a boot/diag/install version of 2005.*  ????
>
> HTH,
>
> James

-- 
John Jolet
Your On-Demand IT Department
512-762-0729
www.jolet.net
john@jolet.net
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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: laptop

[A. Khattri]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, James wrote:

> Warning, I'm not sure why, but some of these aforementioned diagnostic
> tools are not part of the standard gentoo install CD.....

I was suprised to find lspci on the latest LiveCDs so I guess this is
improving all the time.


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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[Michael W. Holdeman]

On Wednesday 26 October 2005 09:54, John Jolet wrote:
> I need to have my company order me a new laptop, but obviously, i'll be
> putting gentoo on it.  Does anyone have a recommendation for a very small
> 'n' light laptop known to be pretty much a slam dunk to get gentoo on (with
> sound and wireless, etc)?
>
> I'm currently using a dell inspiron 1100 and gentoo slid on very easily. 
> Oh, and they want it a grand or under (us dollars).  Thanks.
Works well on my 8600, I bought it for 1,105 from delloutlet. But I guess it 
is hardly "light"

Mike
-- 
 
Michael W. Holdeman


________________________________________
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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[A. R.]

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Hi,

I run Gentoo on an IBM ThinkPad T41p.
This is a very nice laptop and very Linux-friendly.

HTH,

- AR


On 10/26/05, John Jolet <john@jolet.net> wrote:
>
> I need to have my company order me a new laptop, but obviously, i'll be
> putting gentoo on it. Does anyone have a recommendation for a very small
> 'n'
> light laptop known to be pretty much a slam dunk to get gentoo on (with
> sound
> and wireless, etc)?
>
> I'm currently using a dell inspiron 1100 and gentoo slid on very easily.
> Oh,
> and they want it a grand or under (us dollars). Thanks.
> --
> John Jolet
> Your On-Demand IT Department
> 512-762-0729
> www.jolet.net <http://www.jolet.net>
> john@jolet.net
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


--
The absence of war does not mean peace.

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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[michael]

As a gross first pass, my impression is that ThinkPads and Dells seem to
do well with Linux.

Do your collective experiences confirm or deny this?

Michael



On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, A. R. wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I run Gentoo on an IBM ThinkPad T41p.
> This is a very nice laptop and very Linux-friendly.
>
> HTH,
>
> - AR
>
>
> On 10/26/05, John Jolet <john@jolet.net> wrote:
>>
>> I need to have my company order me a new laptop, but obviously, i'll be
>> putting gentoo on it. Does anyone have a recommendation for a very small
>> 'n'
>> light laptop known to be pretty much a slam dunk to get gentoo on (with
>> sound
>> and wireless, etc)?
>>
>> I'm currently using a dell inspiron 1100 and gentoo slid on very easily.
>> Oh,
>> and they want it a grand or under (us dollars). Thanks.
>> --
>> John Jolet
>> Your On-Demand IT Department
>> 512-762-0729
>> www.jolet.net <http://www.jolet.net>
>> john@jolet.net
>> --
>> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> The absence of war does not mean peace.
>
-- 
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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[Willie Wong]

On Wed, Oct 26, 2005 at 08:26:53AM -0700, michael@michaelshiloh.com wrote:
> As a gross first pass, my impression is that ThinkPads and Dells seem to
> do well with Linux.
> 
> Do your collective experiences confirm or deny this?
> 
> Michael
> 

Thinkpads: my experience was good for linux. I had an X20, which is
really slim (CDROM and Floppy were both external), and Mandrake ran
beautifully on it. It eventually died when I tried to put OpenBSD on
it (I don't know if that was fixed or not, but a BIOS issue in the
thinkpads 4 years ago would kill it immediately if you format the disc
for the BSD native format). 

One of my friends, however, has a T series thinkpad, and it runs
Gentoo fine, except that no matter what she does it would refuse to
boot into a 2.6 kernel. Couldn't figure out why. 

Dell: works great. My D600 runs Gentoo since the first day I got it.
They used to have some BIOS/firmware issues with ACPI, it might be
fixed by now. 

W
-- 
"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable 
end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small 
unregarded yellow sun. "
Sortir en Pantoufles: up 4 days, 10:54
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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[Stroller]

On Oct 26, 2005, at 7:49 pm, Willie Wong wrote:
>
> One of my friends, however, has a T series thinkpad, and it runs
> Gentoo fine, except that no matter what she does it would refuse to
> boot into a 2.6 kernel. Couldn't figure out why.

I have an old T20 which runs 2.6 perfectly. I guess I must've 
configured something differently to your friend.

Stroller.

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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[Bob Sanders]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 08:26:53 -0700 (PDT)
michael@michaelshiloh.com wrote:

> As a gross first pass, my impression is that ThinkPads and Dells seem to
> do well with Linux.
> 
> Do your collective experiences confirm or deny this?
> 

Works fine on IBM X31 and T42.

Bob
-  
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Re: [gentoo-user] laptop

[A. Khattri]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 michael@michaelshiloh.com wrote:

> As a gross first pass, my impression is that ThinkPads and Dells seem to
> do well with Linux.
>
> Do your collective experiences confirm or deny this?

Yes, Thinkpads run well with Linux (there is a web site and mailing list
dedicated to Linux on TP).

However, IBM (like Sony) are a bit overpriced IMHO.


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[gentoo-user] Laptop

[Roger Cahn]

Hi,

I want to buy a laptop Asus N series,
but could anybody tell me if its possible
to use it with Gentoo-Linux?
And in case of yes, if it's a good choice?
Thank you
Roger

Re: [gentoo-user] Laptop

[Alan McKinnon]

Apparently, though unproven, at 14:03 on Tuesday 26 October 2010, Roger Cahn 
did opine thusly:

> Hi,
> 
> I want to buy a laptop Asus N series,
> but could anybody tell me if its possible
> to use it with Gentoo-Linux?
> And in case of yes, if it's a good choice?
> Thank you
> Roger


Does it have Intel cpus? Then you can use it.
Will it work with the supplied wifi card? I haven't the foggiest clue mostly 
as I don't know what card it has.

To get a sensible answer on a question like that, you MUST supply the entire 
spec of all the hardware you intend to buy. Only then can people offer an 
opinion on how good or otherwise the drivers are.

The way you composed that mail, everyone else will need to do the research on 
the hardware for you. Most of us would rather you did that bit yourself.


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Laptop

[Kfir Lavi]

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On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>wrote:

> Apparently, though unproven, at 14:03 on Tuesday 26 October 2010, Roger
> Cahn
> did opine thusly:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I want to buy a laptop Asus N series,
> > but could anybody tell me if its possible
> > to use it with Gentoo-Linux?
> > And in case of yes, if it's a good choice?
> > Thank you
> > Roger
>
>
> Does it have Intel cpus? Then you can use it.
> Will it work with the supplied wifi card? I haven't the foggiest clue
> mostly
> as I don't know what card it has.
>
> To get a sensible answer on a question like that, you MUST supply the
> entire
> spec of all the hardware you intend to buy. Only then can people offer an
> opinion on how good or otherwise the drivers are.
>
> The way you composed that mail, everyone else will need to do the research
> on
> the hardware for you. Most of us would rather you did that bit yourself.
>
>
> --
> alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
>
>
If you are able to run on a laptop like this the commands:
lspci
cat /proc/cpuinfo

It will give a good insight of the spec of this laptop.
I would take with me a live gentoo cd and try to run it on this laptop in
the store.

One more thing, If the wireless card is not supported, I think that you can
buy one that is supported by linux for 30$.
Just make sure you know how to change the cards.

Reagards,
Kfir

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Re: [gentoo-user] Laptop

[Roger Cahn]

Thank you for your answers.

>> To get a sensible answer on a question like that, you MUST supply the
>> entire
>> spec of all the hardware you intend to buy. Only then can people offer an
>> opinion on how good or otherwise the drivers are.

Here are the specifications:

> Specifications
> Processor & Cache Memory	Support Intel® i7 Quad Core™ Processor CPU
> Operating System	Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
> 
> Chipset	Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipset
> Main Memory	DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM, 3 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 12GB SDRAM
> 
> Display	17.3" 16:9 Full HD (1920x1080)/HD+ (1600x900) LED backlight,Asus Splendid Video Intelligent Technology
> Video Graphics & Memory	NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M with 1GB DDR3 VRAM
> Hard Drive	2.5" 9.5mm SATA
> 640GB ,5400rpm
> 750GB,7200rpm
> 500GB,5400rpm;7200rpm
> 
> 320GB,5400rpm;7200rpm
> Dual HDD support
> Optical Drive	DVD Super Multi Double Layer
> Blu-ray RW
> Card Reader	4 in 1 SD,MMC,MS,MS-Pro card reader
> Video Camera	2.0 Mega Pixel web camera
> (Optional)
> Fax/Modem/LAN/WLAN	Integrated 802.11 b/g/n
> Built-in Bluetooth™ V2.1+EDR (optional)
> 10/100/1000 Base T
> Interface	1 x E-SATA (USB 2.0 combo)1 x Microphone-in jack
> 1 x Headphone-out jack (S/PDIF)
> 1 x VGA port/Mini D-sub 15-pin for external monitor
> 2 x USB 2.0 ports
> 
> 1 x RJ45 LAN Jack for LAN insert
> 1 x HDMI
> 1 x WLAN On/Off Switch
> Audio	Bang & Olufsen ICEpower®
> SonicFocus
> Built-in speaker and microphone
> Battery Pack & Life	6 cells: 4400 mAh 47 Whrs
> AC Adapter	Output: 19 V DC, 6.32 A, 120 W
> Input:100-240 V AC, 50/60 Hz universal

I hope it will help you...and me    ;-)
Roger

Re: [gentoo-user] Laptop

[Iain Buchanan]

Hi,

Ask not "will this work on Gentoo", rather ask "will this work on
Linux"!  You'll get much better responses to your research on google at
least.  If it works on any mainstream Linux distribution, there's a
99.9% chance it will work on Gentoo.

For example, I just did a google search for "NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 425M
linux" and found out in a few seconds that it probably works with
nvidia-drivers 260.19.06, but not nouveau (open source drivers).
http://packages.gentoo.org/package/x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers tells me
that nvidia-drivers 260.19.06 and 260.19.12 are hard-masked because
they're in the beta phase, so you may or may not have success with them.

You can repeat that search ("hardware-device linux") for all the usual
problematic hardware that you decide you "must have" working:
      * video camera
      * wireless
      * ethernet
      * bluetooth
      * audio

however you need the actual chip or vendor name, for example "Intel
PRO/Wireless 4965" not just "Integrated 802.11".  The specs you gave are
a bit light on those details.  The best way to do this is run lspci on
the box in the store as someone mentioned.

Yes you will be able to install Linux on it for sure.  Still not sure
about 100% hardware compatibility.

HTH,
-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

We have not inherited the earth from our parents, we've borrowed it from
our children.

Re: [gentoo-user] Laptop

[Roger Cahn]

> Ask not "will this work on Gentoo", rather ask "will this work on
> Linux"!
........................................................................

Your answer is very interesting, Iain.
I'll try what you wrote, and then take my decision   ;-)

Thank you very much for the explanation.
Roger

Re: [gentoo-user] Laptop

[Fatih Tümen]

The best would be to run lspci on the machine as others suggested. You
can paste the lspci -n output here and get the availability of drivers
for linux. http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/

There is also lists of hardware/laptops known to be working on Gentoo.
N series is not listed on Gentoo wiki but perhaps you can find it on
other distros' wiki or at least find laptops with common hardware.

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Index:Laptops

--
    Fatih

Re: [gentoo-user] Laptop

[Roger Cahn]

> The best would be to run lspci on the machine as others suggested. You
> can paste the lspci -n output here and get the availability of drivers
> for linux. http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/
> 
> There is also lists of hardware/laptops known to be working on Gentoo.
> N series is not listed on Gentoo wiki but perhaps you can find it on
> other distros' wiki or at least find laptops with common hardware.
> 
> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Index:Laptops

Thank you Fatih.
I'll try also your suggestions.
Roger

Re: [gentoo-user] Laptop

[Iain Buchanan]

On Thu, 2010-10-28 at 11:08 +0200, Roger Cahn wrote:
> > Ask not "will this work on Gentoo", rather ask "will this work on
> > Linux"!
> ........................................................................
> 
> Your answer is very interesting, Iain.
> I'll try what you wrote, and then take my decision   ;-)

no probs, but no need to reply to me AND the group, just the group reply
will do :)

-- 
Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au>

He who renders warfare fatal to all engaged in it will be the greatest
benefactor the world has yet known.
		-- Sir Richard Burton