laptop and wireless
in [Linux Hardware]
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From: Richard Kimber on 6 Jun 2010 17:50 On Fri, 28 May 2010 07:08:01 -0700, Tecknode wrote: > Consider buying from a vendor who specializes in Linux systems. This is > much better than an off-the-shelf Laptop that may, or may not, be fully > compatible with Linux. I don't want to do that for a whole variety of reasons, and I need to buy off-the-shelf via the internet. It turns out that some manufacturers, including my eventual choice of Asus, cannot tell what wireless card is fitted to their machines unless you can tell them the serial number of the specific machine - which obviously you can't if you are buying off-the-shelf through the internet. So people in my position can rarely be certain about compatibility issues when they are buying new kit. You just have to suck it and see. - Richard. -- Richard Kimber Political Science Resources http://www.PoliticsResources.net/
From: Richard Kimber on 11 Jun 2010 18:17 On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 16:50:22 -0500, Richard Kimber wrote: > It turns out that some manufacturers, including my eventual choice of > Asus, cannot tell what wireless card is fitted to their machines unless > you can tell them the serial number of the specific machine - which > obviously you can't if you are buying off-the-shelf through the > internet. So people in my position can rarely be certain about > compatibility issues when they are buying new kit. You just have to > suck it and see. I ended up with an Asus K50IN. That turned out to have an Atheros wireless card, and it did indeed work 'out of the box'. So I'm very pleased with it. It did require the text installer (and the subsequent manual installation of the nvidia driver), but that has been normal for me when buying new machines. The live cd has only ever worked for me when I've re-installed on an older machine. The only downside (so far) is that in Skype my picture ends up upside down, and the fixes I've found by googling so far haven't worked. - Richard. -- Richard Kimber Political Science Resources http://www.PoliticsResources.net/
From: Andrew Gideon on 14 Jun 2010 20:25 On Mon, 24 May 2010 20:55:15 +0000, General Schvantzkoph wrote: > One more thing, put Fedora 12 or 13 on a USB key and try the laptop in a > store, if Fedora autoconfigures the WiFi you will know that the chipset > is supported in the kernel. I've been thinking about doing this, though I'm leaning towards a Thinkpad T510. Do stores permit this sort of thing? I'd think they'd be fearful of potential customers booting random media. Is this an install image or live image you're using? - Andrew
From: Baho Utot on 14 Jun 2010 20:40 Andrew Gideon wrote: > On Mon, 24 May 2010 20:55:15 +0000, General Schvantzkoph wrote: > >> One more thing, put Fedora 12 or 13 on a USB key and try the laptop in a >> store, if Fedora autoconfigures the WiFi you will know that the chipset >> is supported in the kernel. > > I've been thinking about doing this, though I'm leaning towards a > Thinkpad T510. Do stores permit this sort of thing? I'd think they'd be > fearful of potential customers booting random media. > > Is this an install image or live image you're using? > > - Andrew I have found that most stores will not permit you to boot anything. You have to buy the laptop as it is. I have tried to boot a live DVD from Fedora, not a burnt one but an official one with the silk screened logo, All of them said NO! Even when I said I would buy that laptop if Fedora booted and found all the hardware. They still said NO! They didn't care to lose the sale which they did as I walked.
From: felmon on 14 Jun 2010 21:21
On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:40:44 -0400, Baho Utot wrote: > Andrew Gideon wrote: > >> On Mon, 24 May 2010 20:55:15 +0000, General Schvantzkoph wrote: >> >>> One more thing, put Fedora 12 or 13 on a USB key and try the laptop in >>> a store, if Fedora autoconfigures the WiFi you will know that the >>> chipset is supported in the kernel. >> >> I've been thinking about doing this, though I'm leaning towards a >> Thinkpad T510. Do stores permit this sort of thing? I'd think they'd >> be fearful of potential customers booting random media. >> >> Is this an install image or live image you're using? >> >> - Andrew > > I have found that most stores will not permit you to boot anything. You > have to buy the laptop as it is. I have tried to boot a live DVD from > Fedora, not a burnt one but an official one with the silk screened logo, > All of them said NO! Even when I said I would buy that laptop if Fedora > booted and found all the hardware. They still said NO! They didn't > care to lose the sale which they did as I walked. I once asked to boot a livecd on a laptop and the salesguy suggested using _his_ linux disk! (I don't remember what distro he had.) this was several yrs ago at CircuitCity (!) which, of course, no longer exists. this was the same CircuitCity where I ran into a salesguy who was into Gentoo. Felmon |