[LAU] query re: HP notebook

[Dave Phillips]

Mark Knecht wrote:
> Is there by any chance another number on the HP box? My HP/Compaq
> laptop had a funky number like that but it also had a more simple
> number - in my case F600US. This turned out to be the machine name
> where as the complicated on was the one that indicated the machine
> coupled with the disk, memory, etc. (Or so I think...)
>   
The only other number that seems relevant is the part number FS185UA. 
Google turned up some mentions on Spanish sites, but they weren't really 
informative. However, they did indicate that Linux runs on the machine, 
so there's some good news.

> The first review I found wasn't overly kind:
>
> http://review.zdnet.com/product/laptops/hp-g60-125nr/33360964
>
> but I wouldn't personally care too much about that.
>   
Yep, I read that one. It got me wondering, hence the email.

> I guess based on the way you purchased that you weren't able to boot
> it with an install disk?
>   
No, they weren't very amenable to the idea at Best Buy. I don't usually 
purchase stuff there, but I was happy enough with the Westinghouse 
monitor I bought there (soon to be replaced by another one of those 
Samsungs you recommended).

> My guess is that the specs will turn out to be 'ok'. Not great, but
> ok. That's pretty similar to mine when I bought it a year and a half
> ago. Probably your machine is an nvidia chipset and probably it's
> going to work fine in Linux. Possibly the nvidia video card will be a
> problem with the real-time kernel, but possibly not. I think lots of
> people use nvidia and do fine. In my mind, for what little I know
> about what you really do Dave, I'd guess the video chip issue is the
> risky thing, and then ONLY if you use the nvidia driver. Probably not
> much of an issue at all if you can get by with the Xorg nvidia driver.
>   
Alas, 3D is essential to my current work with the AVSynthesis program. 
I'm using nVidia cards in both my desktop machines, and they're running 
rt kernels. Not the most recent kernels, but I've had little or no 
tangential problem with the nVidia closed-source driver. From other 
reports it would seem I'm a lucky guy.

Btw, I plan to check out Arch and Ubuntu 8.10 with this machine. Geoff 
Beasley swears by Arch, and I liked what I saw when I did some reviews 
of software running on Ubuntu 8.04. IIRC you're a Gentoo user, but 
please opine on either of those systems if you know them.

> Don't know what to tell you. Maybe you can still go back to the store,
> or another store, with the Linux install disks and try things out
> without opening this box. I suspect that with the economy being so bad
> that you're going to see LOTS of laptop deals over the next few
> months. If you need something this week that won't help but I'm sure
> there will be lots of low price machines out there.
>   
I've been laptopless (that sounds a bit dodgy, eh?) for a while, and I 
do want one asap.


> Good luck. If you decide to keep it you can be assured that you're
> going to get LOTS of support from LAU members, but we can't fix real
> problems with support by the kernel if it isn't there.
>
>   
Thanks, Mark, the assistance and encouragement is greatly appreciated. 
I'm going to sleep on a decision, but I'm leaning favorably towards 
opening it up in the morning. I'll post again  tomorrow with the news.

Best,

dp