Hi Folks,

Hope you give me some much needed help please.

I have a HP Mini 2133 notebook that runs Linux SUSE, some weeks ago I had problems connecting to my home wireless router and so got in touch with HP support.

They sent me a recovery disc to solve my problem but my notebook does not have a DVD Rom drive.

My question is: Does the DVD Rom drive have to be Linux compatible? or can I just buy one off the shelf?

I have been told by several people that it doesn't have to be Linux compatible but I need to be 100% sure, can anyone help?

If it is the case that it doesn't have to be Linux compatible I'm looking at buying the LG GE20-LU10.

Notebook Details:

Hewlett Packard HP 2133
Processor: VIAC7M Processor 1200MHZ
Processor Speed: 1200MHZ
Total Memory: 1024MB
Bios Version: F0.5
KBC Version: 07.17
VBios Version: 02.08
Serial Number: CNU8504M5H.

Many Thank,

Simon

Although in theory any USB DVD drive should work. There are some cases of strange issues faced, like the drive powering down when idle & won't turn back on. I suggest searching in google.com/linux for any mention of the model you want b4 deciding.

Thanks for your quick reply, I'm new to Linux and find it hard to grasp at times! Not sure what your pondering can you give me a clue??

Thanks,

Simon

A little joke from "Pinky annd the Brain"
http://www.sph.umich.edu/~rwatt/ponderin.htm

I have just bought plain old full sized CD-RW or DVD+-RW and put them in a case to provide USB and/or Firewire interface (externally powered as they are desktop drives) and never have has a problem (I know that there were some Seagate hard drive pre-packed in the USB packaging that had the spin down issue. I have seen slow installs on some hardware due to too short of time prior to the spin-down of the CD (spin-down, start again, spin down, ...) and put the iso image on a usb flash drive and installed from there after booting from the CD.