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Tips for putting Linux on a notebook computer
March 18, 2006, 1:50 am |
*Tips for putting Linux on a notebook computer*
Written by Jem Matzan
Wednesday, 15 March 2006
http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/233/42/
It's a lot easier to make the leap from Windows to GNU/Linux on a
desktop machine (or even a server) than it is a laptop. Laptop computers
are far more likely to contain unsupported unique or proprietary
hardware than desktop machines, so laptop computers in general can be
difficult to get your favorite free software operating system onto.
Confused as to what distro you should use, or what computer you should
buy? Here are some tips to make your decisions easier.
Most common laptop OS problems
Any modern (released within the last 6 months) desktop GNU/Linux
distribution will almost certainly /mostly/ work. It will install, boot,
and the majority of your devices will work without incident. But there
are some hardware components that consistently cause trouble:
* *Modems* -- or more specifically, "winmodems." Such devices often
achieve much of their functionality from proprietary Windows-only
drivers or other software. Good modems rely on hardware for
everything. PCMCIA modems are more frequently supported in
GNU/Linux than internal modems are, so if you really need a modem
and the one built into your computer doesn't work, you can buy a
PCMCIA replacement for a reasonable price.
* *Wireless network cards.* Before you buy a computer with onboard
wireless networking, check the network chip against this list
from the
linux-wlan project. It's a little out of date, but the information
is still good. There are other projects to accommodate other
wireless NICs, like Intel's Centrino chips (the IPW2100
and IPW2200
); and the madwifi
project for
Atheros-based cards. Some manufacturers of AMD-based laptop
computers (and non-Centrino Intel laptops) use proprietary
wireless LAN chips that are as-yet unsupported in the Linux
kernel. One common workaround is to use the NDISwrapper
to make Windows wireless
network drivers work in GNU/Linux. If none of these solutions will
work to your satisfaction, you can buy a Linux-compatible (using
an Atheros or Prism 2/2.5/3 chip) wireless LAN PCMCIA card for
around US $60-$80. Commercial GNU/Linux distributions are likely
to have all of the above-mentioned wireless drivers and
workarounds already installed -- including NDISwrapper.
Non-commercial distros will probably require more legwork on your
part.
* *Video cards.* Laptop video chips are always significantly
different than their desktop counterparts, and driver development
can occasionally fall behind. If you buy a top-end laptop computer
with the latest ATI or Nvidia graphics processor, you may have to
wait a while before you can have hardware 3D acceleration. If you
want to check, ATI provides a compatibility list, but it can't be
directly linked to. To see it, click here
," target=_blank>support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptid="894&task=knowledge&folderID=300">,
then click on Linux Display Drivers and Software, then Notebooks
With ATI Graphics, then ATI Proprietary Linux x86 Display Drivers,
then RELEASE NOTES, then ATI Mobility Product support. For Nvidia,
click here
, then
click on the topmost driver -- that's always the most recent
release -- then click on Supported Products List in the box on the
left.
* *Special keys.* All of those fancy keys and buttons on your laptop
computer that aren't part of the standard keyboard set -- things
like a sleep or suspend button, multimedia controls, and Web and
email buttons -- might not work in GNU/Linux. Many people don't
use these extra buttons anyway, so this isn't a big deal.
Certainly if there is no support for the power-saving functions of
your computer (see the next point for more information), the
corresponding buttons will not work.
* *Power-saving, suspend, and sleep functions.* I haven't found a
good way to figure out if a computer will support these functions
in GNU/Linux without actually installing it. All of the ACPI
resources I've found are light on details or out of date. Your
best bet is to do a Google search for the laptop model you're
interested in and Linux. There's also this site
, which documents which distros have
been tested with various laptop computers. Or go to some of the
more popular GNU/Linux discussion forums and see if anyone else
has experience with the machine you want to buy. Sometimes you
just have to take a risk, and if ACPI ends up being a no-go, it
will be supported eventually -- very often in the next release of
your distribution of choice.
What makes a good laptop OS?
If you're really motivated, you can make just about any modern operating
system work to some degree. It's usually a good idea to go with an OS
that you know isn't going to give you trouble when you're in the field
or otherwise dependent on your notebook computer and don't have the time
to spend messing with problems.
Commercial desktop GNU/Linux distributions are always going to trump the
free ones when it comes to automatic device detection, proprietary
hardware drivers, and time spent installing and configuring everything.
Aside from supporting the above-mentioned problematic hardware, it's
also nice to have some of the proprietary extras that most computer
users are accustomed to.
You may not be able to use your desktop distribution on your laptop
computer. I, for instance, use Gentoo and FreeBSD on my workstation, but
have SUSE OSS 10.0 on my laptop at the moment. I like a challenging
operating system, but when I'm on my laptop computer, I need to focus on
work before the battery runs out. I also need to be able to find open
wireless networks quickly, and SUSE's NetApplet makes that happen. Aside
from SUSE Linux, here are some excellent distributions that are
generally laptop-friendly:
*Mandriva Linux*: Like SUSE, Mandriva has a NetApplet-like utility for
finding and joining wireless networks. Mandriva PowerPack Edition comes
with all of the software that you'll need, has decent support for ACPI,
video card, and proprietary wireless NIC hardware. Installs quickly, but
requires large and frequent updates.
*Linspire*: This distro used to have a laptop edition, but apparently
its laptop-specific functionality has been integrated into the main
distro. Linspire also has a NetApplet-like utility for detecting and
joining wireless networks. It installs quickly and seldom requires
updates, but the software packages in its Click N Run database are
sometimes several versions old. Speaking of CNR, you will have to pay an
annual membership fee for it.
*Xandros*: It's like Linspire, only the CNR-like application installer
has far fewer programs than Linspire. Xandros seems to have superior
wireless networking capabilities than the others.
*Your favorite distro here*: Every time I recommend distributions,
people complain that I didn't include theirs (hello Ubuntu trolls!).
Like I said above, you can make just about anything work if you're
willing to sacrifice time and possibly functionality. But that's not
really why we have laptop computers, is it?
Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)
*Copyright 2006 Jem Matzan.*
--
Regards
Vinay
Mob: 9422113939
------------------------------------------------
Vinay Yadav vinayRas Infotech
www.vinayras.com Nagpur, India
------------------------------------------------
Linux Consultant & PHP/MySQL Developer
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