laptop question

[Jonathan Hutchins]

On Sunday 16 November 2003 03:56 am, Leo J Mauler wrote:

> Feel lucky.  Getting Linux to run on laptops is a piecemeal operation,
> and anyone who successfully gets it to run properly on a laptop is
> someone who has worked on it for days, weeks, months.

Leo, I've installed Linux on some IBM laptops over the past year or so - 
systems ranging from P 300's to 800's or so - and I haven't had any more 
difficulty with them than with desktop systems.  I've used either Mandrake or 
RedHat and been able to use the GUI on first reboot.

I'll admit that sound doesn't always work, and I've never gotten the IR link 
working, but video isn't really a problem.  

The IBM's all seem to have some issues with text-mode, even under DOS/Windows 
they do the shrunken text screen on startup.  In Linux this can be overcome 
using the framebuffer drivers, and I have had trouble with those but it's not 
significant in my normal use.

My main system over in England is a ThinkPad 380Z running Mandrake 9.1 (?).