On Sun, 6 Sep 2009, s. keeling wrote:
Alexander Kaphuk <sashaandtanya@gmail.com>:I'd appreciate people who've used Linux Certified Laptops, *LC2430SN Linux Notebook* in particular, dropping me a line, if you please, to share your experiences running Debian Lenny, or any other Debian release on these laptops.(I'd be the last to complain about this, but) Note that adding Windows dual booting will cost you another $250. If that's important to you, that raises the price considerably, pretty much to the point that I paid for a Windows laptop to run Linux on from Best Buy (HP dv5). If you can do a Win. install, you can save that. Nice to see it comes with 2 Gb RAM. I prefer AMD and ATI, but that's just me.
I have an HP/Compaq NX5000, which I bought a couple of years ago, after having done a search on the model number and Linux compatibility (or otherwise searching for "laptop" and "Linux compatible".
I had problems with Debian 3.1 - an interrupt conflict between the network card and the WiFi card, from memory - used Mandriva or Ubuntu to deal with it, then reinstalld Debian 3.1, then upgraded to Debian 4.0, and later to Debian 5.0. Can't remember whether I had the same interrupt conflict, with Debian 4.0, but it is not there with Debian 5.0.
Debian 5.0 acts much more like PlugnPlay, like Ubuntu 8.04, that is also installed on that laptop (triple booting with WinXP - I would like to install FreeBSD on it, also; I have a spare 20GB partition, but BSD seems far too difficult to install, requiring slicing up the hard drive, rather than using partitions), and with Ubuntu 8.04 and Debian 5.0, plug in a new device, and it automatically downloads and installs the driver, and the device is ready to use straight away; a good example, is the Samsung CLP300 colour laser printer.
I think that, reather than going for a "Linux certified computer" or other device, it is better to search the Internet, for the device type (eg, laptop), and, "Linux compatible", as what may work with one Linux distribution and version, may not work for another.
The CLP300 does not work with Debian 4.0, which is running on this desktop (until I go through the apparently quite difficult and risky ("your computer will probably not be able to boot after upgrading to Debian lenny" - Debian release notes for Debian 5.0) upgrade process, when I have a week or so with nothing else to do, to fit it in), but, it is stated quite clearly, that it is Linux compatible, on the box for the device.
As Debian 3.1 did not easily work with the laptop, which worked easily with the then available versions of Mandriva and Ubuntu, what may work with one distribution (and version of the distribution), may not work with another.
Unfortunately, having got the NX500 expanded to 2GBN of RAM, that is as much as it will take, and, to have 4GB of RAM, from what I understand, requires a 64 bit OS, to be able to properly use the RAM up to 4GB.
-- Bret Busby Armadale West Australia .............. "So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means." - Deep Thought, Chapter 28 of Book 1 of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy In Four Parts", written by Douglas Adams, published by Pan Books, 1992 ....................................................