Debian on Sotec 3120X / 3123X
As I could not find any references with respect to Linux and this laptop
before I bought it, I thought I would drop a short note stating that Linux
works fine on it. So here it goes, in semi-random order:
* What is it?
An inexpensive ($950), 4.4 pound heavy, 12" screen with a Celeron 1200, 256mb
ram, dvd/cd-rw, and either a 20gb disk (3120X) or a 30gb disk (3123X). The
latter is available at Sam's Club, the other one at Wal Mart, Office Max and
Best Buy. See the link for specs:
http://www.sotecglobal.com/us/products/?catid=11&subid=102&prodid=1002
* First things
I dropped Knoppix 3.1 into the 3120X I found at a local Office Max. It works,
but requires the boot line
knoppix lang=us noscsi
or it will hang on seeking the scsi modules. But x11, sound, ... all work
immediately under Knoppix, which is good. The pre-Debian 3.0 cdrom I have
needed
linux video=vga16:off
or the framebuffer would get confused, and the console get unusable.
* Annoyances
The laptop comes with M$ XP home preinstalled as well as on three Ghost
disks. I did not succeed in resizing the disks using free software.
Partition Magic 8.0 worked, and I was able to install Debian 3.0 without too
much trouble. I pretty much used the Knoppix settings whenever something
wasn't immediately working (as e.g. x11 or sound). Apm does not appear to be
supported in the bios, which sucks.
* Niceties
The laptop is small and light but not miniscule, light and reasonably
fast. Linux works fine. Haven't tried the dvd player yet for lack of a dvd.
I intend to post some more notes at
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/linux/sotec3123x.html
Dirk
--
Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
-- Niels Bohr
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