[SOLVED] Old Dell 700M laptop, used to run 10.2 well, has not been good since.
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Old Dell 700M laptop, used to run 10.2 well, has not been good since.
I have an older Dell laptop and I had no problem with opensuse 10.2, but ever since I upgraded to eleven I had small issues. But since twelve, I cannot get even wireless to connect, or printer, and have pretty much stopped using it.
At the time I tried a couple other distros, but they had issues with the intel graphics card. I could not even see the whole desktop. Fought for days trying to get it to work.
I am very "New" to linux if you count my knowledge of it. I am an old windows user, trying to break free
I am wanting to find another distro that my laptop would work on. I am not familiar with the Command prompt commands that linux uses.
Sorry I did not think to put in the important stuff...
Now it seems like obvious information.
Boot is Grub 2
Currently OPENSUSE 12 and Windows XP
CPU: 2MB L2 Cache
- Intel Pentium M 765 (2.10GHz)
Graphics Chipset: Intel 855GM
Graphics Memory: Up to 64MB (Shared)
Memory: 333MHz DDR SDRAM
Memory: 2GB (2x SODIMM Slots)
Looks like you machine can handle Suse12 http://en.opensuse.org/Sysreqs , is just a matter of get things working, post some error outputs would be a good start, so we can help you.
Ah, the dreaded 855GM. I once had a laptop with this chip and sold it because Intel decided to remove video acceleration for this chip from the drivers. If you don't need video acceleration this machine should run with pretty any distro if you abstain from the heavy desktop environments like KDE, Gnome Shell, Cinnamon and Unity.
If you want something beginner friendly I would recommend Xubuntu or SalineOS for this machine.
I have downloaded and installed Saline OS 1.7 and I am very impressed. I got printed the user manual at work, I'm also having printer issues (go figure) and every step of installation was straightforward with no surprises.
The only original issue I ran into was getting the wireless card to work. They I went to the Saline OS forum and looked under networking. The answer was one of the first threads there. The driver for the card was actually in the repository. The Intel wireless card was the problem.
The package name is firmware-ipw2x00
I accepted license and installed and it works perfectly.
I have also downloaded Mozilla and synced it and this is what I use the laptop for almost exclusively. I'm very pleased.
The only other issue I have is that when I turn my laptop on it wants a password entered into "unlock keyring" before it will let the wireless connect.
Do you have any clues to how to get rid of this and allow the laptop to log straight onto wireless without any entering of passwords?
Saline OS 1.7 looks like a good choice. Since they claim it is Debian 6 based, be sure to include search terms for problems that includes Debian as a search term.
Thanks so much for your help!
I am very pleased with Saline, and my laptop's performance with it.
Hopefully I can put off getting another one for a few years.
Dan.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.