Would you recommend the product? yes | Price you paid?: $2,800.00 | Rating: 8
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Kernel (uname -r):
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2.6.5-7.147-default
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Distribution:
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SUSE 9.1
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I give this laptop a 8/10, and I will explain why. I got it from my school after my previous XP computer was stolen. Disgruntled and betrayed, I decided to try Linux for the first time to reacquaint with computing and to accelerate my know-how. So I installed the SUSE 9.1 ISO from LinuxISO.org. It has paid off. Almost everything worked, but here are the modifications I had to make:
-I had to download the NVIDIA driver from their driver website, and install it at runlevel 3. That introduced me to the concept of runlevels.
-I had to update the kernel, but couldn't do it RPM-style, for whatever reason. Instead, I used the already included YOU, or susewatcher, to update it for me through the internet.
-To get my wireless card working, I had to build ndiswrapper from source and load it using modprobe. This has been a constant hassle, and it still doesn't work 100%. It freezes when I load the ndiswrapper module using modprobe because I have to alter my kernel to utilize 8K stacks. That is a bit much for a newbie, so I'm holding off. In the meantime, I used the how-to on this site (nextgen.no-ip.org/~andrew/ndiswrapper/index.html), which introduced me to compiling my own sources and the concept of modules. The card doesn't kill my system sometimes. I am posting over a wireless connection right now.
-Samba (Windows networking protocol) has its home on SUSE in the form of a very advanced command line program that is difficult to use. LinNeighborhood, a GUI, doesn't work without a patch in most cases, and the patch doesn't compile properly, even with all the necessary packages installed.
-Finally, I haven't tried to get a printer working directly, but the printer connected to the Windows machine on my network won't find itself recognized. I have a feeling that by installing the Unix printing component in Add/Remove Programs under Windows XP (need disk). I erm.. believe in a free OS, so I don't necessarily have my Windows XP disk... unable to test it out.
So, this is how it breaks down:
Video, sound, ethernet, USB mouse, digital camera: +8
Couldn't recompile kernel from packages: -1
Wifi only 70% working without editting the kernel: -1
All-in-all, you will get a great Linux experience out of this machine. Good luck, technophiles.
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