Good Linux Laptop Distro?

[RaGe2012]

Hi all,


I've been wrestling with Linux for some time on my Sony Vaio PCG-FXA32 laptop with mixed success. So far Fedora Core 1 seems to work the best on it, but I was wondering if there is any distro out there that works better "out of the box" than Fedora for laptops. I have heard rumors about Debian being good for that, but I have yet to confirm that. Fedora seems to do hotplugging and USB stuff very well, but sound support and 3D support for the ATi Rage Mobility chip seem really spotty at best.

So far, besides Fedora, I have tried all versions of Red Hat from 7.3 - 9 and Mandrake 9.0 - 10.0. I don't want to return to the clutches of Micro$oft with this one, I actually want to see this one through. Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated.

[The Linux Kid]

Try slackware. It may be a bit of a learning curve if you are just starting with *nix, but I have found it to be one of the best for laptops (i am currently running it on 2 laptops plus some of my friends are running it on their laptops and none of us have any problems).

The Linux Kid

[dboyer]

Whatever you get, make sure its the newest possible version... (aka, don't get redhat 9, or FC1.. id get FC2)

laptops are notoriously bad for having proprietary unsupported hardware... I however, have had reasonable luck...

interesting anecdote... slackware is the "hard" distro... my friend had a dell laptop with a wide screen... redhat 9 and fedora core 1 refused to use the edges without some tweaking... slackware booted up and happily used it all... so much for not being friendly :)

[mrBen]

Personally with laptops, I use Knoppix to test the hardware, and then install Debian. However, neither Debian nor Slackware I would classify as 'easy' for either laptop or desktop, nor as especially suited to that purpose. They are both 'bare-minimum' type distros which do less for you, and therefore are more easily customisable for your hardware.

[Icarus]

Originally posted by dboyer
Whatever you get, make sure its the newest possible version... (aka, don't get redhat 9, or FC1.. id get FC2) FC2 (beta 2)?? Reminds me of the line from Ghostbusters...Egon: You know, it just occured to me that we really haven't had a successful test of this equipment.
Ray: I blame myself.
Peter: So do I.
Egon: Well, no sense in worrying about it now.
Ray: Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back.Fedora 2 is still mid-beta, I would not recomend it to anyone that is not interested in reporting bugs.

Fedora 1 has been good for me on my laptop (but I've given it up in exchange for Gentoo, which is great but there are lots of things you need to do manually that Fedora did automaticly). I'd imagine Debian or Slackware to give simular 'problems'. Knoppix is great at auto detecting hardware, but I've seen it guess wrong on video cards/resolution more then once.

[Dr. Shim]

I'm trying to use Fedora Core 1. It detected everything very nicely, even the bloody NeoMagic video/sound card. I'd recommened using something more automated, such as SuSE, or Fedora Core 1.
You have to ask yourself, how much work are you willing to do, in order to get things done. For instance, to install a new driver module, with Fedora or SuSE, you need a driver disk; for Debian, you need a module, and the Linux kernel source code.

[XiaoKJ]

Personally, all major distros would probably be nice for a laptop, as laptops are less likely to change periperals like desktops. The major distros are for the newer and less familiar users of linux. Nonetheless, the are capable to release quite a lot for your machine.

However, any distro would be able to serve you well if you know the right way of doing things. If you want maximum usablilty, go Gentoo as it will be fully customized for your machine. It will have a very steep learning curve for beginners so we do not recommend it to beginners except if they have professional help. It is very similar to slackware, also very customisable.

For ease of use and installation, go for Fedora, Red hat, mandrake or SuSE type distros that feature a graphical installation manager. You will be very save with them.

[cybertron]

With my laptop, I had to go through like 5 different distros before finding one that worked well, so I think that linux and laptops = trial and error.

If you have broadband, you might want to give Suse a try. I gave it up because my network was having trouble with Blaster so the FTP installer was a pain, but it worked pretty well for me before that.

[ricstamps]

For what it's worth:

I am using SuSE 9 Pro on a Dell Inspiron 3000, 266mhz, 128 megs of ram, and a 4 gig hard drive, dual booted with windows 98se. It loaded great, the only problems being that it has consumed about 75% of the 2.5 gigs alloted for it, and so far I can't get the sound card working. It tends to be a bit slow, but for a newbie like me to get my feet wet, it is working good. I get to play in both the CLI world as well as the GUI world, and am, hopefully, learning something at the same time. :p

[stevewabc]

We have about 12 laptops and all have SuSE9.0 working vary well we even have all The Intergrated 54g wireless working and netwoked

[Dr. Shim]

What brand & model are they?

[blobaugh]

It doesn't sound like you want to do this much work, but you could compile everything specifically for your laptop. Then it should work. A friend of mine setup gentoo that way on his desktop and it runs beautifully. Much better than with any of the prepackaged ones

[gehidore]

Originally posted by blobaugh
It doesn't sound like you want to do this much work, but you could compile everything specifically for your laptop. Then it should work. A friend of mine setup gentoo that way on his desktop and it runs beautifully. Much better than with any of the prepackaged ones

sorry to steal your post blobaugh but as i am that friend i must elaborate on this.

gentoo is not exactly hard but its not easy to install either, you need to know the basics of command line. if you follow the gentoo handbook (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml) and the desktop configuration guide (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/desktop.xml) installing will be easy.

to install you'll need two cds, if your net connection is slower or you dont want to tie it up for 2-3 days, if not just get the universal cd.


get the gentoo universal cd at gentoo universal 2004.0 (http://gentoo.ccccom.com/releases/x86/2004.0/livecd/universal/install-x86-universal-2004.0.iso)
and the arch specific binary cds binary cds directory listing (http://gentoo.ccccom.com/releases/x86/2004.0/livecd/)

thanks for the good work blobaugh

[Saptech]

I would say go with Debian, Slackware or maybe VectorLinux, which is based on Slackware.

Debian & Slackware can be a learning experience but they will just about work with whatever hardware you have in it.

For Debian once you install the base system you can get updated by changing your source.list file to Sid and you will be bleeding edge.

[AdamZ]

I'd recommend trying MEPIS. It's got great hw detection (some say better than knoppix), and it's based on debian so it's easy to maintain. It's also easy to install.
http://www.mepis.org/

[Dr. Shim]

I hope this isn't off-topic, but what advantages does MEPIS have over, say, Fedora? It looks interesting.

[hard candy]

A bigger package base, and IMHO a better package management system. And with the System control (not KDE but his unique one) a better tuning system.

[Dr. Shim]

Well, Fedora has apt too. So, it's basically much easier to configure?

[lpaulgib]

Originally posted by dboyer
Whatever you get, make sure its the newest possible version... (aka, don't get redhat 9, or FC1.. id get FC2)

laptops are notoriously bad for having proprietary unsupported hardware... I however, have had reasonable luck...

Really? I had a Vaio that I only had problems with the modem. That was easily fixed with a switch to a ethernet line rather than usb. Other than that, no problems at all.

[Dr. Shim]

It wouldn't happen to be a F-160 model, would it? :D

[VolcomPimp]

Fedora is bloated and it's apt is really crappy.
Go w/ a real distro such as mepis, debian, gentoo,
arch or slackware. I havn't used mepis but I hear
it's a good distro. All the rest are good in their
own way's but I don't use debian distro's anymore
because they aren't always current on packages
like gaim.

[ehawk]

Easiest HD install I have ever seen.