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Linux on lappy for noobs?

post #1 of 23
8/12/04 at 9:10pm
Thread Starter 
Well....my lappy should be comming by in 2 or 3 weeks and I wanted to dual Windows / Linux. Windows will be XP Pro, now for the version of linux. I have cable internet so downloading a (opensource...legal) distro is no problem if it is a one i dont have. I am not really of a linux expert but i'd like to play around. my cpu is 64 bit so something like fedora core 2 will work. I was looking at Suse 9.1 Personal (or Pro) and Mandrake 10.0 Official becuase I heard many noob-friendly comments about them, but is there anything that is better.

My biggest worries:
-Support of wifi....i heard you can use Windows drivers through WINE on a 32bit distro.
-Support of Widescreen, I don't want black bars around the screen.

Any distros I better look into for this?

(PS...I am not objecting to using the RJ45 when needed...but WIFI is so much easier)


LINUX
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post #2 of 23
8/12/04 at 9:38pm
http://tuxmobil.org/15_4inch_widescreen.html

This can be of help.
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post #3 of 23
8/12/04 at 9:44pm
Ah.... about the wireless, every kernel 2.4 or 2.6 will do the work.... you need DriverLoader 1.6 and your Windows drivers.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/driverloader/

However, I think it's not free for now.
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post #4 of 23
8/12/04 at 10:40pm
Thread Starter 
much thanks DDDa for the links
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post #5 of 23
8/12/04 at 10:53pm
Why use Windows drivers? I have used both the WLAN and the patched orinoco drivers on a Mandrake and a Slackware system. In fact, Slackware even comes with the wlan drivers! My card is a Linksys WPC11 version 3, by the way. With these, I can set it to monitor mode.

Without either of those, both Mandrake and Slackware automatically detected my card and loaded the modules. All I had to do was tell it the IP address (I use static, not DHCP) WEP key, ESSID, etc and I was off and running! But under that config, you can't use monitor mode on your card.
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post #6 of 23
8/12/04 at 11:01pm
The DriverLoader I provided supports WAP too, if I'm not wrong...

Anyway, I don't have either wireless or Widescreen (the first one is about to change ), so this was the best I could do...
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post #7 of 23
8/12/04 at 11:29pm
Linux and nooby?
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post #8 of 23
8/13/04 at 12:00am
Thread Starter 
Um...yeah?
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post #9 of 23
8/13/04 at 12:06am
That doesn't seem to mesh well. I guess you could start with mandrake. I started that way. I haven't used suse but it seems pretty good. Things don't just work like in windows though, you need to tweak them. And you have to rely on howto's a lot. Its fun but a lot of work. Good luck.
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post #10 of 23
8/13/04 at 12:47am
Personally, I like Debian because of apt-get which is a thing that downloads all kinds of new software and their dependencies (programs required to make another program run). I'm sure you didn't understand that, but trust me, it's useful.

That said, Debian is probably not the right choice for you right now. I would suggest Mandrake. It's simple to use, but not dumbed down in any way. I think it's probably the best distro to get started on, and in all likelihood stay with. It's really good for newbies as well as experienced users.

Oh, but I have no idea how any of this would work on a laptop. I'll be able to tell you more once I get a laptop myself. But Linux is Linux, no matter what distribution (well, different installation programs and some other minor differences, but if one works, so should another). That said, go to http://www.linux-laptop.net/ There's some interesting information there.
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post #11 of 23
8/13/04 at 12:53am
I started with Mandrake. That and Suse are both good for beginners.

I'm not sure which WLAN card you have, but last time I checked, the intel cards aren't supported.

could be different now.
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post #12 of 23
8/13/04 at 1:19am
Thread Starter 
I am more worried about the WXGA....i read some of the stuff online (googled for linux on widescreen laptops) and changing the kernel and playing around with X's settings...ehh...too confusing,forget about it, I'll just stick to windows for now, maybe when linux is a bit more developed
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post #13 of 23
8/13/04 at 1:48am
I don't know if linux will ever get developed though. That part of the beauty of it as well. Its always in development so its always improving.
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post #14 of 23
8/13/04 at 2:00am
Well, against all odds, I started with Slackware, just because it was the smaller I could find (one CD) . I tryed soon Mandrake 9.1 and 9.2 (none installed perfectly. Lots of packages missing. Perfect burned CDs), passed to FCore1 and, now, with FCore2 and Slackware (It's back!).
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post #15 of 23
8/13/04 at 2:41am
Thread Starter 
I'll run a few live cds first (SUSE Live and Mandrake Live, also Slax 1.3 and even PC Linux LiveCD) to make sure that the widescreen thing isn't a HUGE issue, if i will have no problems with widescreen....i'll install either SUSE or Mandrake (partition the HD...40gb windows, 20 linux) and try to get the wifi started.

I am not sure what the wifi card is, the only info ibuypower gives is:
Wireless LAN Wi-Fi 802.11g 54Mbps Mini-PCI Module

could anything as far as i am concerned...and i wont know for another few weeks ( i should only be getting it on the week of Aug 21 if everything goes well (ie...no more backorders)
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post #16 of 23
8/13/04 at 4:10am
So is the intel 2200 card supported by linux? I'm really interested in programs such as airsnort and kismet.
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post #17 of 23
8/13/04 at 8:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BonerDoner
So is the intel 2200 card supported by linux? I'm really interested in programs such as airsnort and kismet.
I Googled for "Intel 2200 Linux wireless" and the first result was the IPW2200 project at Sourceforge. It says you need kernel 2.6.4 or higher. I don't know how well they work, though. The driver is just a 0.3...
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post #18 of 23
8/13/04 at 10:37am
Anyone know of a Linux version that supports the Broadcom mini-PCI 802.11g card on the 3200?
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post #19 of 23
8/13/04 at 11:34am
I haven't heard of anything that will work on a 64-bit Athlon yet...
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post #20 of 23
8/13/04 at 1:11pm
lots of stuff will work on 64 bit processors, but I haven't seen a driver for this particular wireless card
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