I am aware that LindowsOS has a Laptop edition, but is this the only laptop/notebook distro? As I see it, the big issues are power management and pcmcia/wireless. I have addressed some of these issues on my own notebook (AMD-mobile based Averatec), but I worked for weeks, and it still doesn't have the kind of functionality and ease-of-use that I would like.

LindowsOS uses the 2.4 kernel for it's laptop edition, but I have noticed that a lot of acpi and wireless driver work has been done on the 2.6 kernel series. Does anyone know if ANYONE is working on a version or seperate distro just for laptop/notebooks with the 2.6 kernel? Thanks!

--Akshun J

I strongly advice against using Lindows. In my opinion (which may well differ from everyone else's) it's a big ripoff. The user vs administrator distinction in Linux is totally ignored (you run as root all the time) and the added "features" don't add up to much. Basically, I say just get the Linux distribution of your choice and add Wine/WineX and apt-get and you're there.

There is no reason you couldn't upgrade any distribution to the 2.6 series of kernels. Just follow the instructions that come with the kernel (.../Documentation/Changes). And yes, ACPI is a *whole* lot better in 2.6 but my laptop is an old APM model so it doesn't do much for me.


Håkan

Most of the distros that I'm aware of (Slack, RH, Mandy) include power management and pcmcia packages. You should be able to find the packages you need at the main site for the distro you want. I've had great luck setting up Slack 9.1 on a laptop tho it 's an antique. I have heard of some issues surrounding using the 'hot-swappable' function of PCMCIA cards on Slack, but I think that was for 9.0.

"still doesn't have the kind of functionality and ease-of-use that I would like."

What kind of issues are you specifically having?


Dunno' about 2.6...anyone?


--NtB

I have no intention of using LindowsOS, although this is mainly because it is based on the 2.4 kernel, and methinks Lindows is an easy distro to break if I go recompiling. And I have basically gotten Libranet (Debian-based) to work well enough. It took a whole lot of wrangling, though. I was just wondering if there is some work being done on a distro for laptops that works "out of the box" based on the 2.6 kernel.

--Akshun J

Well, ACPI seems to work only partly. My battery life monitor can be quite erratic, and there's no suspend when I shut the lid. Also, changing network config on-the-fly is tough. I have a static IP setup at home with WEP, but if I'm at the coffee shop, I need DHCP with no WEP. Or at work, I'm DHCP, but with a wired lan. I know there are some tools available, and I am experimenting with them.

However, my original question was not a plea for help. I have just observed that the "out of the box" experience for desktop distros is phenomenal right now. But installing on a laptop or notebook is like a step back in time, especially as mine has all the newest bells and whistles. I would love to help out a new laptop distro by beta-testing and bug-reporting and so forth.

--Akshun J

Until Mandrake 9.2 came along, it was an adventure getting any distro setup properly on my hp ze4125. The only thing that wasn't automatically setup up was enabling ACPI and disabling APM. The only thing left to do is to get the libdvdcss installed in the proper place so I can watch all my dvds.

Michael

I have just installed MEPIS linux on an older, Compaq Armada M700
650 MHz
10 GB hard drive
128 MB RAM

It worked flawlessly. The easiest installation of a distribution I have ever seen. About 4 mouse clicks, the same as the legendary Corel. Everything was autodetected, so there was nothing to configure. Network card, video, sound card, etc. I was able to connect immediately to the internet. Flash worked fine. Xine played movies. Kpackage (an implementation of apt-get) allowed me to download and install emacs. It is debian-based. The help forum (mepis.org) is very eager to assist. I have ordered a Proxim wireless card, and will let you know if it is autodetected.

I heard a Mandrake distro for laptops will come out soon. True? Maybe.. (Being a newbie, I trace easy-to-use distros, tho' I am now very curious about MEPIS, I'll look for it on the web)

I think you are referring to this distribution

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pclinuxos

I like the looks of PCLinuxOS, but I don't think it's especially for laptops. In fact, I think it's specifically designed for desktops... It's a live-cd, so I may just try it out for sh*ts and giggles. :-)

--Akshun J

I use fedora and it works very well on a p4 1.6gh hp the acpi worked very well after i turned off apm and apend grud with acpi=on it work like it should i used the 2.4.20 ken.
tryed the 2.6 but couldnt get my modem to build the driver on it