Guest | Login | Register

Reading Linux

With the advent of my new job (Web Developer / Usability Engineer) there also came this nice advantage of a good tool to do my work on: a no-name cased notebook (the case itself is the same one which Asus and Acer are using for their own brandmarked notebooks) with a Intel Core Duo 1,8 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 60 GB HDD, Wireless LAN up to 54 Mbit/s, standard 10/100 Mbit Ethernet and a Slimline DVD-Multiwriter (both CD-R/W and DVD-R/W including all those 'plus' and 'minus' shit).

So what's the big deal? I've been working for more than 3 months completely under Linux and would also like to switch with this brand new baby. But - the big but(t) is: I've been testing out all debian-based distributions I know (latest DSL, Knoppix, Kanotix, (X/K/G)Ubuntu, even GRML), but to no avail: either the ethernet card isnt detected (correctly) or the S-ATA IDE hard disk cant properly be mounted / detected / whatever.

Is there a distro thats not only able to get my S-ATA based HDD properly working and mounted, but also offers all the niceties that a modern, up-to-date linux package should have included, like KDE / Gnome, productivity tools (Quanta Plus, etc.), browser stuff (like Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.)?

Right now, some of the distros I would like to test out are: Fedora Core, SuSE Linux 10.0, Gentoo, Slackware, Frank's beloved Crux and even LFS if nothing works out fine. Another idea might be to give BSD a try.

Any other good suggestions or options how to handle this problems?

Thanks in advance,
cu, w0lf.

Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign for a diseased mind!

Frank's beloved Crux

Actually I've moved away from Crux some 2 years back. I'm a Gentoo fan but I'm currently running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. I have two drives in my work laptop. One for windows and the other is Ubuntu. It's a Panasonic CF51 laptop.

This post was edited by majic on Sep 10, 2006.

I've checked out the 'Supported Hardware' database of Mandriva Linux 2006 - looks like as if they're meeting nearly completely my hardware specs (I dont care for soft modem shit).

Now I only have to get a working copy of that distro. As soon as I got some nice money on my bank account. :D

cu, w0lf.

Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign for a diseased mind!

Why don't you give Ubuntu a try? The new version Edgy will be out in October plus I'm using 6.06 and it detected all the hardware (even win-modem) and set it up and I have a fairly new laptop (for work). You might give it a go, I'm sure it'll work out.

I wouldn't pay for Mandrake when Ubuntu is far better. Plus there are other distro's that kick Mandrakes ass like Fedora Core and Gentoo.

Why don't you give Ubuntu a try?

I already did. It had some big hassles with my integrated ethernet card (Realtek PCI-e Gigabit Ethernet), so I tried out every version I could find on the net and every possible boot parameters, but to no avail. :-/

DSL-N doesnt like the PCI-e Ethernet and DSL 3.x does a kernel panic / stops working.

The new version Edgy will be out in October

Surely there are RCs of it available on the net, aint they? I gonna download one of them and try again.

cu, w0lf.

Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign for a diseased mind!

Surely there are RCs of it available on the net, aint they? I gonna download one of them and try again.

Yep there are beta's out there to try. I don't have a hard link but I'm sure if you go to the Ubuntu website you can find them. I'm running 6.06 LTS at the moment, I'm really satisfied but I will upgrade when Edgy is released in October because I want to play around with the new Gnome 2.16.

I've also been itching to try Foresight as well...