[ale] Laptop and linux

[Dow_Hurst]

The Dell I8500 I had to configure had the TrueMobile broadcom based wifi which required the NDISwrapper.  SUSE 9.3 worked just fine with configuring it thru Yast2 once I had the windows driver files ndiswrapper required.  ACPI issues are the biggest hurdle to overcome other than video driver problems and wifi chipset problems.  One reason a third party company like Emperor is good to work with is that they have to support the laptops so tend to offer what is good hardware and has good Linux compatibility but still has a balance of cutting edge features.  It is a tradeoff of price and longevity/usability.  I have noticed that Toshiba has been offering Nvidia graphics in several models lately.

I really like SUSE 10 on my Compal EFL30 since the Intel IP2200 wifi has such good support and the nvidia driver will use my 1200x800 screen properly.  The last kernel update fixed the ACPI issues I've run into on the SUSE default kernel so I'm a happy camper.

If you want to use kismet for wifi exploration then you need to check out what wifi cards are supported.  Also, the builtin mini-PCI wifi cards are better due to the fact that the built-in antenna in most laptops should provide better transmission and reception properties for less power.
Dow


-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Polstra <ppolstra at gmail.com>
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Dec 13, 2005 9:23 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
Subject: Re: [ale] Laptop and linux

I had an HP and the problem I ran into was the Broadcom wireless chipset
doesn't have Linux drivers.  You can use NDISWrapper if you can get the card
to turn on.  I now use a Toshiba M65 with the Centrino chipset which is
supported natively in the later kernels.  I loaded SuSe 9.3 Pro on mine and
it works great other than not wanting to support the higher resolution my
screen offers.

On 12/13/05, Tim Watts <timtw at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm considering a laptop and I want to dual boot it w/ Linux/XP (or at
> least
> have an XP image I can boot into a la VmWare). What models are
> particularly
> well/poorly suited for this? Any vendors who can build this for me? Any
> linux
> distro's better for this than others (I have SuSE 9.2 on my current tower
> which I bought from Monarch; I got pretty good svc from them although they
> only seemed to have 1 linux guy who was "part-time" at that)?
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>


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