Good distro for a new laptop?

Pcghost · 03-30-2003, 06:21 AM

Before you say it, I have already checked linuxlaptops and mine is not yet listed. My question is what distro has been good to owners of laptops? Red Hat 8 works fairly well on my HP ze4230 except I cannot for the life of me get power management to work, so no battery meter. I was wondering how Suse or Mandrake are on laptops, as I will die if I have to wait for RH 9..

quietguy47 · 03-30-2003, 06:28 AM

Slackware. I'm biased ofcourse.

Hcman · 03-30-2003, 06:40 AM

For power management your laptop probably uses ACPI which is most often not enabled in the kernel by default.

I know SuSE 8.1 has an acpi enabled kernel but SuSE is an ftp install or you'll have to wait for the cd's.I'm not sure but I once read somewhere there was an acpi enabled mandrake cooker kernel.But power management is a kernel issue so just pick any distro you like.

I use slack 9.0 on a compaq presario and I have patched my 2.4.20 kernel with an acpi patch from acpi.sourcforge.net. Works like a charm. Then depending on your wm you could need a patch to get a bat monitor working I guess.

Good luck!

HC

Mork · 03-30-2003, 08:31 AM

RedHat 8.0 was good on my laptop (really shouldn't call it a laptop since keeping it running in my lap would be a fast way to get hospitalized), Mandrake 9.0 also worked fine and so did Knoppix 3.1 and Arch 0.4. All had/have the ACPI problem though.

Pcghost · 03-30-2003, 08:50 AM

That's the trouble. RH8 worked great except it completely lacks acpi support in the kernel. I tried to compile a 2.4.20 kernel for it but it has all sorts of problems and breaks a bunch of apps that I need. I guess I have to wait for RH9. Its only a week away anyhow. Thanks for the input people..

guitargeek · 03-30-2003, 09:25 AM

Mandrake 9.1 is supposed to have acpi already in the kernel, although I have no idea how to use it.

KungFuHamster · 03-30-2003, 11:12 AM

Gentoo

tcaptain · 03-30-2003, 12:39 PM

Mdk 9.1 works pretty awesome on my laptop.

acpi and all.

(A gateway 2500 pII 350 w/192 Megs of ram)

rmartine · 03-30-2003, 04:22 PM

Red Hat 8.0 works great on my laptop.

[little rant] As for HP's.. after owning 3... I'll never buy one again. [/little rant]

nakkaya · 03-31-2003, 01:01 AM

redhat 8.0 works on my laptop inspiron 2650

Pcghost · 03-31-2003, 11:52 PM

I subscribed to RHN and will be downloading Red Hat 9 in the morning. Woohoo...

What was the problem with your three HP laptops? I say that about Toshiba after 3 RMA's but why the HP's?

KungFuHamster · 03-31-2003, 11:54 PM

Please disregard my Gentoo recommendation. Here's why!

mcleodnine · 04-01-2003, 12:19 AM

Perhaps the question should be "Good laptop for new distro".

Burke · 04-01-2003, 07:15 AM

Mandrake 9.1 on my Dell Inspiron 8200 seems to work fine -- has the battery meter in my KDE panel .

frieza · 04-30-2003, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mork
RedHat 8.0 was good on my laptop (really shouldn't call it a laptop since keeping it running in my lap would be a fast way to get hospitalized), Mandrake 9.0 also worked fine and so did Knoppix 3.1 and Arch 0.4. All had/have the ACPI problem though.

it runs that hot? in that case, why not make the first linux powered pancake griddle