stompinround
Thanks for the config details, but it didn't work for me. appreciate the help though.

sorry, it didn't work out right for you on 9.1, funny it did on 9.0.

anyway you might check this out http://www-hft.ee.tu-berlin.de/~strauman/tp4utils/

it was a little too complex for me, and it may or may not work, it is a little old, bu tif nothing else it may give you some ideas

hope it helps

well we all know that pretty much everything that is at least 1 or 2 years old will probably be supported by Linux.

And for those of you who's laptop you say that "everything" or almost everything works, I wonder if you actually have full control over the power management capabilities.

Good thing, however, that Linux is worked on everyday and improved as well, hence why many laptop hardware works.

Anyway, what my point was, is that those brandnames computer that I mentioned maked their laptops with only Windows in mind...and those that I mentioned worked better with Linux have been made with Linux in mind as well. And thus tend to work with much ease than the other brandnames.

that's actually a good point that i concede to you and didn't think of. don't know much about power management since apm really didn't work for me. disabled hibernation and standby in linux, but it would still go into hibernation. but the reason i didn't give that a second thought, is that windows power management didn't work either (using a win9x based os). same thing. i turned off all that stuff in windows and it would still hibernate. i actually had to turn off that stuff in the bios so i could prevent windows from doing that power saving stuff, which did the same thing (disabled hibernate/standy) for linux. which was the behavior i wanted. but basically linux monitors battery life just fine which is all i really want from my power management in both windows and linux since power management isn't really something i care about.

I just bought a Toshiba Satellite A10S127 (256M, 30G, 15" TFT). It came with XP. I used a Linux Format magazine copy of Mandrake 9.1 to resize the ntfs - worked perfectly both the first time and subsequent resizes. I switched to redhat 8 to be able to recompile to include a slmdm2.7.10 modem driver, since the intel ICH4 chipset on the modem won't work with any of the standard drivers. No joy, but redhat works okay with everything else. The laptop doesn't have an rs232 serial connector, so I'm stuck trying to find a pcmcia or usb modem that will work. Not much success in my research yet.

One note - mandrake had a better screen driver than redhat - I get a brief snow band when going into the x login.

Steve

OK I agree on that one concerning HP ... When I emailed the helpdesk regarding a problem I had getting Linux up and running (my own fault as I figured out afterwards, so don't blame the computer ), the only reply I got was: we advise you use Windows XP instead ...

one of the hardest things with the laptop was removing that shiny "designed for Windows XP" sticker

control over power management, thats funny, windows couldn't even control it on mine,

The battery lasts about 1 and a half hours, it did with the oem win 98 with the oem power management feature, it did the same with windows xp and patched and updated releases from the manufacturer, and it does with red hat 9 as well and I haven't even tried fooling with it, so I can't say that I have any problems

as long as it works, and the battery lasts as it should, i have no complaints

I have a HP ze4125 and Red Hat 9.0 detected everything except the modem. I did have to use the Vesa driver for the video to work, though.

On the modem, I haven't quite got it to work yet. I down loaded the correct driver and installed it. but no go. The driver is looking for the modem at ttys0. The HP's modem is located on ttys2.

Would anyone like to tell me how to correct this? I am assuming that I have to create a symlink. Now, just to figure out how.

TIA

Michael

Hi, for what its worth, I have four IBM laptops with only a little tinkering.

240x with RH7.3 (for the brave only)
570e with Mandrake 9.0
X20 with Mandrake 9.1
A21m with RH 8.0 (sound required tinkering, but works)

All have RPM binaries that handle the win-modem fine for only the major release kernals. They don't work for update kernals due some tight coding to a specific kernal level number.

I use external mice mostly and it disables the internal under Linux. If I don't have the external mouse plugged in, Linux swacks about the initialization of a device it can't find. Can't have both mice active at same time is the only problem other than the modems not working with updated kernals.

Haven't tried SuSE 8.2 yet or updated any of them to RH9.0.

One thing to consider, I have done BIOS and firmware updates from IBM. You may want to check this out with your brand laptops before installing.

Best of luck.

I have the latest BIOS for my TP600x. I cannot get the trackpoint to work even when I disconnect my mouse; only my PS/2 mouse works. I am really disappointed with IBM not getting the trackpoint working especially when it talks up Linux.

John

Odd what your saying. The BIOS is good, also look for cd and HD firmware updates, not usually with the BIOS listing and regard drivers for Windows. Now go into the BIOS configuration, select Configure, keyboard & mouse and make sure the mouse is enabled. Otherwise,...

May I presume you acquired this laptop as used. If so, I'm a tech, and I think its time to open the box and see if by chance the flex wire slipped out or is trying too. While your at it, I have taken apart all four of mine and on at least two, I put silver heat sink compound as there was nothing and I was noticing thermal shutdown problems. This may sound intimidating, but it is mostly having the right tool, as you remove screws and other parts, laying them out in a manor to help you members where they went. Some screws are covered with a small circle of plastic with a gummy adhesive. Use something thin and sharp to remove them and place them on what ever you use to organize what you remove, the screw under the cover plastic.

Tried just about all the distros and Slackware seems to be the fastest and most reliable.Bit of a pain to install though

I installed Mandrake 9.1 on my hp pav ze4315 and it mostly worked (after I swapped network and pcmcia in the boot so it wouldn't lock up), except that it still freezes on inserting/removing either of my wireless cards - I have a D-Link AB650 and an Orinoco Silver. I think the former is proprietary anyway, but is there anything I can do for the latter?

Well, i've got an HP ze5385us, which I have everything but USB working on... I think the USB is specific to this laptop, not the model though. Not sure on that. I even have Hibernate.... but that's only under Mandrake 9.2 RC2. using 9.1 Everything works well. (except the damn usb) Basically, I've yet to see Mandrake fail to install on a laptop.... yet I've not been able to get red hat, debian, or slackware to even think about installing on my laptop. They all freeze, or crash, or... well... it's not pretty.

HEY TCAPTAIN... I have a Gateway Solo 2500 and I just loaded Red Hat 9.0. I'm having some driver issues that I need some help with. Can you email me PLEASE so I can ask a few questions?? Thanks.