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my parents gave me their old acer laptop as a present but its so bloated with malware, toolbars, and viruses i have decided to format the hdd completely and run linux.
the question is... Do i need to install any drivers on Linux for it to run on the laptop or can i just install it and it will work fine?
i feel like an idiot asking this but i just want to make sure i dont get halfway in to realize i missed a step or did it wrong. thanks.
It depends on the hardware in that machine and which distribution you choose. It may be possible that you have to install drivers for the wireless network card and the video card, but it should be in a usable state after installing Linux.
If you give us more information about the hardware and the distribution you want to use we can give you better advices.
It's becoming more and more rare to have to install drivers for Linux. It's been at least 6 or 7 years since I've needed to install a sound or network driver.
You can always add the video driver (not required) to make things look a bit more fancy. You can find that in your distribution's package manager or compile it yourself (at least for Nvidia drivers, it's pretty easy).
You can always add the video driver (not required) to make things look a bit more fancy.
On mobile devices it is highly recommended to install the proprietary AMD or Nvidia drivers, if you have such a chip in your machine, at least if you care a little bit about the battery runtime and keeping the temperature in reasonable ranges. You will also need them to get video acceleration running (unless you have an AMD chip and use a very bleeding edge distribution).
Distribution: Debian Sid AMD64, Raspbian Wheezy, various VMs
Posts: 7,680
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Can you connect the laptop to the internet with an ethernet cable? If so, then it is likely you will get some kind of usable Linux system from an install disc -- if not then you may have problems obtainingg drivers for your WiFi so that you can connect to the internet to easily install and upgrade new packages.
In general, when I install Linux on a laptop, my procedore goes like:
1) Plug in network cable.
2) Boot using the USB, CD or DVD installer.
3) Format the drive and install the system using the installer.
4) Reboot (usually mandatory).
5) Log in to new system and check what is working.
6) Upgrade all packages over the (wired) internet.
7) Add repositories for, or download packages for, WiFi drivers if they seem to be missing.
8) Update sources and install network drivers for WiFi.
9) Unplug network cable.
10)Reboot.
11)Check internet connection. If all is OK continue, if not then plug the cable back in, reboot, and check which drivers are missing (step 7).
12)Assuming all is OK, check for proprietary graphics drivers in the repositories or, if not, on the website for the manufacturer.
13)Install graphics drivers.
14)Reboot.
15)If all is well install things like Adobe Flash, if not then re-check video drivers as step 12.
It depends on the hardware in that machine and which distribution you choose. It may be possible that you have to install drivers for the wireless network card and the video card, but it should be in a usable state after installing Linux.
If you give us more information about the hardware and the distribution you want to use we can give you better advices.
i am planing on starting out with Ubuntu but once i become proficient with linux wiping ubuntu off and installing backtrack, this will all be done on an acer aspire AS5736Z-4016 which has a webcam that uses drivers as well. Also thanks to everyone or replying your all really helpful.
You might want to Google "Linux -name of your webcam-" Some are well supported (mine works with no drivers needed, some require a bit of tinkering, some are lost causes.
i am planing on starting out with Ubuntu but once i become proficient with linux wiping ubuntu off and installing backtrack
I would recommend to go for Kali Linux instead, it is the successor of Backtrack. Keep in mind that Backtrack/Kali are nothing more than a customized Ubuntu (or Debian in Kali's case) with tools for penetration testing.
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