So I have a HP zv5420us and want to use this for Linux only but think I made a big mistake with HP. I have tried the following distros on it...

FC2
FC3
Slackware 10.1

For some reason when the lid is closed and the laptop would normally go to hibernate or suspend mode, Linux just crashes on most of them. FC3 was the longest running distro but eventually gave in to this problem with locking up/freezing when the lid was closed.

Can someone tell me what is a good distro to use for a notebook that will not freak out when the lid is shut or maybe how this can be preveneted on any of the above distros? Right now I still have Slack 10.1 installed but I can not even log off I think with out it crashing.

hi,

i don't have any personal experience of using Linux on a laptop, but....

i believe HP are now shipping laptops with SuSE 9.2 pre-installed in the US, so SuSE might be worthy of investigation (and it's now available for free download, at long last)... and SuSE's hardware support is pretty good..

I always though SUSE was not free...I will give that a shot & see how the Germans work for this Dutchman