Recommend a laptop for Mandrake 9.1?
 

Hi all,

I'm considering getting a new laptop to run Mandrake 9.1, for work (software development). I know that laptops are still giving lots of problems to other people, so I'll really appreciate it if someone here can recommend a laptop that'll give me the least setup problems.

My requirements:
OS: Mandrake 9.1 (9.2 when it comes out). This is going to be the only OS on the laptop coz I'm getting it without any preinstalled OS (I know a shop in my area that still sells laptops with no OS). There is no possibility of booting into Windoze or whatever to fix things.
CPU: At least Celeron 1.8 Ghz (AMD is fine too)
RAM: 512 Mb
HDD: At least 15 Gb
Screen: At least 13.3", would prefer 14.1"
Video card: Prefer a well-supported card (eg nvidia chipset).
Onboard 10/100 ethernet port must work.
Any CDROM will do. DVD optional as long as it works.
Any sound system is OK as long as it works with ALSA.
Power saving feature should work.
Prefer onboard 56Kbps modem to work, but I know this is difficult, so alternatively a serial port where I can plug in external modem.
Prefer PS2 mouse port.
Output for projector, monitor.
Spare USB port.
Prefer a decent quality laptop that doesn't break apart within 3-4 years.

Things I don't care about:
DVD/CD burner
wireless stuff

Any recommendations?

Thanks.

Well, i've been trying to install 9.1 on my Toshiba 5200 (which fits your specs perfectly), but it doesnt seem to like my video card (Geforce4 Go)...

still trying to figure it out...

I just bought a hp pavillion ze4420. After trying red hat 9 I switched to Mandrake 9.1. Everything worked except for power management. Build custom kernel with acpi and software suspend helped. You should be able to find what you need at linux-laptop.net. Hope that helps, I am fairly new to linux.

Mandrake installed everything except my firewire port during install. I'm using a VAIO PGC-NV170 (sony) and reccomend it wholeheartedly for Mandrake.

I use Toshiba Satellite 1430-503, which is not fastest but fast enough ;) - and everything works almost perfectly (except for modem, I haven't tried it yet). Also I have some random problems with getting back from suspend mode (apm). Sometimes Xserver dies after waking up. It's quite annoying, can anyone help me with this? It doesn't seem to depend of suspend time, any hardware configuration or devices connected. It just happens from time to time. :(
Also I wonder about suspend-to-disk (hibernate) option. Does anybody have it working with Toshiba satellite and apm?

greets

My laptop is a ze5400 series. I just purchased it and I'm having trouble with Mandrake hanging during installation. It tries to load the firewire card and then crashes. Any suggestions?

Also, I'm having trouble setting the system up with both WinXP and Mandrake on it. (Since it's new, I figured I'd try the tough stuff before I had files on it to lose.) When I try to install Linux first (or second, for that matter) it hangs during the install (as above). When I try to install Windows first, it uses the whole harddrive. If I use a partition utility and attempt to partition *first*.. windows *still* uses the whole harddrive (i.e. - repartitions the whole thing to one *big* NTFS partition).

If I put linux on first - an abbreviated version from Mandrake Security for test purposes - I can get it to ignore the part with the linux files when I reinstall windows - but it repartions right up to the presence of those files, causing linux to not be able to boot due to the corruption of the linux partition and absence of linux swap.

I'm going nutty - anybody got any ideas? Thanks!

mandrake can repartition an xp partition so the best thing to do is let winXP install itself and take up the whole partiton. Maybe disable virtual memory and hibernation support to free up harddisk space and defragment it. Then start the mandrake intaller. If there is enough space left on the XP partition, the installer will know to simply cut off a chunk and install mandrake on it. XP will work still after this.

It Doesn't Work That Way...
 

Unfortunately. If I install Windows and let it take up the whole partition, and then try to install Linux, when I resize it wipes enought of the XP partition that Windows won't load. (It reboots itself perpetually.) This means that I have to reinstall XP in order for it to work, and when I do that, it erases the linux partitions and uses the whole harddrive again. It's a cycle that I can't seem to break-free from.

This is driving me crazy!

I finally got Mandrake to install itself by using "expert noauto" at the install prompt, instead of letting it auto-install. Unfortunately, this ate the windows partition when I resized and now I'm reinstalling windows again. (I'm almost positive the net-effect will be that linux will be over-written - AGAIN.)

I feel like I've gotten a step closer (by getting Mandrake to install at all), but I'm stuck in a loop where only one or the other will work - not both. Even though the bootloader works fine! grrr..

I'm not quite sure what to do at this point, but your input is *greatly* appreciated!

1. Install WindowsXP
2. Use partition magic 8 to set up your disk for a new OS
3. When Installing Mandrake, pay close attention to cfdisk and make sure the Linux partition is marked Boot and the default NTFS partition isnt.
4. Configure Lilo


If you need help locating a copy of Partition Magic send me an email and I'll help you. (Managment frowns on the type of link I can provide ;) )

lepermessiah@linuxmail.org_NO_SPAM
remove _NO_SPAM for my email.

Mandy 9.1 and Inspiron
 

I had a Dell Inspiron running Mandy 9.1 with no config necessary except the NVIDIA Geforce2Go drivers.

Mandy 9.2 is not so friendly!

I'm currently running 9.2 optimally with a Dell Inspiron 4150,

Stats... are 1.7 p4 Mobile ( NOT CELERON GAH! ), 256 MB RAM although 1024 is on my christmas list ;), 30 GB HDD, and a 32 MB ATI 7500 Vid card... the internal modem works to a degree but I really don't think that it's hitting the 56k marker... but it's difficult to tell when you go from a t1 to 56k on occasion... all I know is it's unmistakenly slow...

There are minor problems but they have thier fixes, specifically.

Freeze on unplug, plug-in of electrical supply... I've read everywhere about ACPI support and how it's 'getting better' in the linux OS... I haven't found a work around yet.

WinModem's... if your not running on a LAN it could be a serious problem trying to find drivers for the individual chipset's although www.linmodem.org does seem to have a relatively comprehensive listing.

Regards,

1beb

Good news lbeb,

I tried to update from Mandy 9.1 (never had a problem) to RH9.2 on my Inspiron 8200, without much success... sound issues, slow running (eth0 interference), etc.

Since then, I've gone for a clean install of Mandy 9.2. So far the issues I'm having are...

- No screensavers... seen some posts... none implemented yet.

- W/ ACPI=HT in lilo, get funny screen blanking which locks up the system, or alternatively, causes the screen to be drawn with the bottom half at the top and vice versa... believe will be fixed by new NVIDIA driver? (but need to get the kernel source first).

I have the same problem with pulg/unplug feezing the system.

Mandrake 9.2 initial setup is running very fast compared to RH9.2 initial setup. Running Octave/Neuron/OpenDX.. all good performance.

I have noticed that 500M (of 768M) of ram is being occupied by KDE with only evolution and firebird running... is that typical? I've heard KDE is memory hog.

Steve

I'm a newb also, however, these are the things that I have done...

Firstly, I updated Mandrake ( which removed the screensaver problem ),

via KMenu->Configuration->Configure Your Computer->Software->Mandrake Update
Install them all.

Then I fixed urpmi by following the instructions @ http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/

I have a friend that made a solution for the ACPI support, specifically the freeze on unplug/plug-in issue... I'll post the procedure when I get it - here. ( It works on a Dell 4150 sooooo it's safe to say it will work on yours only difference is the vidcard )

500MB's! Do you have a swap space for Linux... it's not THAT much of a mem hog... oh and if UI response is what you are looking for you should probably use GNOME...

What type of HDD partition do you have? ( ie, EXT2/3. reiserFS? )

ACPI Problems
 

Hiya-

Nice posts here... trying in vain to figure out my ACPI and screen resolution problems on:
Inspiron 8200
P4M 1.8 GHz
Matshita CDRW/DVD
ATI Radeon Mobility 9000
Netgear PCMCIA wireless card
Kernel 2.4.22-26 (just updated)

Thought updating the kernel would fix all my problems, but nope.

Screen resolution problem: No matter what my graphical settings under "Setup your computer" hardware section, always at small screen res (1200 by 1600 I think). Getting used to it now... but my bigger problem, and yours I think, is:

ACPI: added 'nolapic' to boot parameters for both recent kernels, ACPI=ht as well, with no luck. I'll recompile the kernel next but I want to hold off for now because everything's working.

To the last post: how did your pal get his acpi working?

Curious and mildly frustrated :^)

Sean

IBM A22M is not for you
 

I stuck Mandrake 9.1 on my IBM A22M. Had problems getting X to work, which eventually was resolved after lots of hunting for a usable config. I never got it to X to work when the laptop was in a docking station. Oddly, it did work with an external mouse and keyboard.

A22M's work fine with RH 7.3 and above, SuSE 8.2 and SuSE 9. Minor configuring of X is needed in SuSE and RH 9