11 Nov
2008
11 Nov
'08
3:52 p.m.
On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 7:49 AM, Dave Phillips <dlphillips(a)woh.rr.com> wrote:
Mark Knecht wrote:
Yeah, that's what I've done. First look at dmesg to figure out how the
distro is identifying your drive - hda, sda, etc., and then hdpam -tT
/dev/hda, etc.
Note that if you don't get full speed operation it doesn't mean Linux
doesn't support it - just that the boot kernel on your CD didn't do
it. At that point you probably have to do some study to determine how
to proceed. This is all chipset stuff so jot down some PCI ID's and
chip name/numbers and retire to Google or the LKML to get more info.
Dave,
I own one but have never set Linux up on it. I have to have Windows
on it for my options trading and with only 80GB there just isn't
enough space left after putting some music in iTunes.
:)
I will say that I like the screen a lot. It's a 17" wide screen and
looks quite nice playing movies. It's an AMD/nvidia box like the one
you're talking about, although likely not the same model as I got mine
18 months ago.
Pretty close though. The hd is much larger on the machine I'm considering.
I would personally NEVER buy a laptop without
first at least
booting a Gentoo install CD, and likely 2 or 3 others, to ensure that
it can see all the hardware. Once the install CD has booted you can
run something like lspci and get readings on what hardware is in the
box. Check to see that you're getting full speed from the disk drives
as that's probably the most critical for making the machine useful
early on. If you don't get full speed disks don't buy it unless you
are certain you can get chip set support later on.
Ah, that one has me stumped. How do I check for full speed operations ? With
hdparm or something else ?
I figured I'd slip a Dyne live disc in the thing to see if everything works.
I also have a 64 Studio live disc to take along.
You're welcome,
Mark
If you want or need clarification on any of this contact me online or
off.
Many thanks (again), Mark. :)
Best,
dp