[RLUG] Linux on a laptop

[Sebastian Smith]

There is a lot time spent getting Gentoo up (you can speed it up using 
faster computer, distributed compilers, and ccache if you want ;).  But 
once it's up it is very easy to maintain.  My current installation has 
been on my laptop for over two-years with all packages, and the kernel 
current (Had I not partitioned my hard disk into many small partitions I 
would be on my 4th year).

- Sebastian


On Fri, 12 Aug 2005, Dennis Bagley wrote:

> Whew.  Chris - sounds like way too much work.  But then I don't use
> Gentoo....mostly because I don't want that much of a hassle.  (Ask Jay
> McDonald - I create enough hassles all by myself.)
>
> Damon - I put Ubuntu on an older Dell Laptop with almost no problems
> including taking care of screen resolution and it auto-detected and
> set-up an old Alverion wireless card.  (802.11.b) connected to the
> internet and updated itself.
>
> Just my experience with Linux and Laptops.
>
> Dennis
>
> On Fri, 2005-08-12 at 18:44 +0000, christopher baus wrote:
>>> I just got my new HP laptop, don't know if any of you noticed it
>>> lastnight. I would like to turn it to a linux box, Gentoo most likely.
>>> This will be my first install of linux on a laptop. It there anything that
>>> I should be aware of that is different from a desktop install?
>>>
>>> Damon
>>
>> I've had a couple issues.  X still doesn't automatically detect screen
>> resolutions and even common ones like 1640x1080 aren't in the defaut
>> x.conf.  I've had to manually hack the x.conf to get RedHat to run
>> correctly on all 3 of my wide screen monitors.
>>
>> Wireless support IMHO is joke on linux.  I've gotten it to work, but not
>> without major headaches: iwlist, iwconfig, edit
>> /etc/sysconfig/networks-scripts/ifcfg-x to add WAP keys, compiled drivers,
>> and use windows drivers on Linux.  I've wasted hours of my life on this
>> stuff.  This type of stuff might be fine for servers that don't change
>> configs often, I find it to be hell on a laptop where you are constantly
>> changing networks.
>>
>> I ended up maxing out my RAM and installing VMWare on XP, and that's the
>> config I'm using most of the time now.  I know a lot of people here will
>> probably disagree, but is my opinion that XP is far better than Linux on
>> x86 Laptops.  And I spend a lot of time keeping Linux boxes running in
>> production, and have been very happy with its performance in that domain.
>>
>> Unless you are developer interested in improving Laptop support for Linux,
>> I say save yourself the hassle, max out your RAM, and take a look at
>> VMWare.  BTW, VMWare won't solve your problems with X resolutions.  Still
>> requires manually hacking the config file.
>>
>> Just my experience.
>>
>>
>>
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