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- Matt Barton
Linux Revisited - This time on an Acer Travelmatie 292LMi laptop
Linux is a wonderful open source operating system that I keep getting back to every now and then. I would love for a version of Linux to run properly on my Laptop which is an Acer Travelmate 292LMi. Today I tried two distributions which are regarded as user friendly. The hardware in my 3-4 year old centrino laptop is pretty generic so it should work:
Hardware in the laptop:
Number of processors: 1
Number of cores: 1 per processor
Number of threads: 1 per processor
Name: Intel Pentium M
Code Name: Banias
Specification: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1500MHz
Package: Socket 479 mPGA
Family/Model/Stepping: 6.9.5
Extended Family/Model: 6.9
Brand ID: 22
Core Stepping: B1
Technology: 0.13 um
Stock frequency 1500 MHz
Instruction sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
L1 Data cache (per processor) 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache (per processor) 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache (per processor) 1024 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
Chipset & Memory:
Northbridge: Intel i855PM rev. B1
Southbridge: Intel 82801DB (ICH4-M) rev. 03
Graphic Interface: AGP
AGP Revision: 2.0
AGP Transfer Rate: 4x
AGP Side Band Addressing: supported, enabled
Memory Type: DDR
Memory Size: 2048 MBytes
Graphics:
Ati Radeon Mobility 9700
Mandriva 2009 One - KDE4 - Live CD
The great thing about this distribution is that my wifi ethernet card is supported from within the Live CD. Once the system had booted up everything was running along smoothly. To accomodate a hard-drive install I had freed about 24Gb of hard-drive space with Acronis Disk Director and proceeded to install Linux on the empty space. Everything went great, I configured Vice, Mame, Wine and was even running a couple of Windows games in Wine with the files on my Windows partition. That is right until I accepted the offer to update the OS - just like Microsoft software updates Mandriva offers a similar service to patch security holes and bugs - after rebooting my system refused to display the KDE-4 desktop. Reverting to the shell prompt and attempting to start a different Window Manager failed miserably. Also rebooting to 'safe mode' didn't help.
Verdict: A distribution that succeeds in killing itself with the automatic update process can not be a system that is capable of replacing my Windows XP Home desktop. It fails miserably on my system.
But I am not going to abandon the Mandriva distribution just yet. The KDE-4 desktop environment is beautiful and innovative but it is not yet stable enough on my system - and by reading quite a few forum posts about KDE-4 it is not stable on quite a few other systems as well. That is what you get from innovation. A real Linux-savy user will probably be able to make it all work again right from the shell prompt. I don't want to do that - although I have been known to edit Xfree configuration files in VI in the past.
There is another very recent Mandriva Distribution that comes with the solid Gnome user interface. This interface is just as stable als the KDE-3 desktop and might be the choice of user interface when you want to install a stable Linux for day-to-day use.
I deleted the Linux partitions and started fresh with another distribution:
Mandriva 2009 One - Gnome
The hardware-support seems identical to the KDE-4 version but it is using the more stable Gnome desktop environment. This might actually turn out to be the ultimate Linux laptop distribution for my system. After a very smooth installation which instantly recognized my intel wifi network card - which was a big hassle in the past - the Gnome desktop sits on the screen eagerly awaiting my interaction. It really has to be a little patient as I am doing some remodeling on the house in France at the same time. A paint job and wallpapering session later I touch the keyboard - the wonderful screen saver that was showing various panoramic photographs floating above a dark reflective pool vanished from the screen and I moved the mouse cursor.
The Wifi configuration was effortless and various encryption methods are supported. Updating the system through the automatic updating process didn't cause any problems. I installed the same software as I had on the other system, including Open Office 3.0 and a whole assortment of audiovisual tools. The latter I needed to see if I could replicate all the functions of my singing and dancing Windows XP Home multi media software setup.
Although quite a lot of the Linux based audiovisual and graphics software has become very professional I couldn't quite replicate all the functions I wanted through the use of Linux software. I did manage to get quite a bit of the Windows based multimedia software up and running through Wine though.
Verdict: Mandriva 2009 One - Gnome is one of the best Linux distributions out there, it is very very compatible with my Laptop and even the rather old 9700 Radeon Mobility's 3D capabilities are unlocked. The system still isn't able to fully replace my Windows software environment but it is really close. The only 'bug' or feature is that sometimes the system would power on my wifi card and wifi wouldn't be available upon the next boot.
If I had no Windows XP Home License for this laptop I would be very happy running Mandriva 2009 One doing all the stuff I wanted to do with it. With Wine it is possible to install and use quite a large chunk of my audiovisual and graphics Windows based-software. It needs tweaking of the Wine environment and there are no guarantees the software will actually work 100%.
The fact that I have a choice in the matter makes me choose the less sympathetic Microsoft OS, just because of the 100% compatibility with Windows software.
And if I were to get a netbook running either Linux or Window XP I would choose the latter - but only because of software compatibility. Need to do some more thorough investigating on compatibility issues.
Another great Linux geek alternative is Damn Small Linux. To get it up and running you can either choose to run an 'embedded' 65Mb sized version that comes with its own version of QEMU or you can install VirtualBox, create a 2Gb virtual hard-drive partition and install Damn Small Linux on the virtual machine - this way you're able to keep your setting and install more software from the add-software options.
DSL is quirky and it offers quite a nice lean mean Linux distro that is surprisingly easy to use and you can impress your friends you are running Linux on a laptop by going full screen with it ;-)
Damn Small Linux on QEMU or Virtual Box - the latter is just a GUI around QEMU made by Sun - is running quite well despite the fact that it is running on a virtual machine. It is possible to install it on real hardware.
I've created a bootable 64Mb USB thumbstick that contains a bootable DSL version and I am able to boot it up on just about any PC capable of booting from a USB device.
Finally if you don't want to install Linux on your hard-drive you could opt for installing it onto a USB thumb stick or hard-drive - creating a live USB-stick. Either manually or through the Unetbootin utility.
System halted.
Comments
Thanks for posting such an informative review. I'm going to (hopefully) buy a new PC and use this old PC as a Linux machine.
I've dabbled with some "live" linux distros, but it appears to me (and I may be wrong) that "Linux" is actually not an alternative OS so much as a BUNCH of alternative OS'es under the "Linux" umbrella. There's Red Hat, SuSe, Ubuntu, Mandriva, etc. etc....
The impression I get is that all these Linux builds are incompatible with each other, and that programs have to be compiled for each particular distro. If true, that's too complicated!
I've finally decided that I'm going to need to buy a new PC; this one is just too old (even though it was top-of-the-line back in the day), so I'm going to install some version of Linux on this machine. I just don't know which version!
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
Thanks for posting such an informative review. I'm going to (hopefully) buy a new PC and use this old PC as a Linux machine.
I've dabbled with some "live" linux distros, but it appears to me (and I may be wrong) that "Linux" is actually not an alternative OS so much as a BUNCH of alternative OS'es under the "Linux" umbrella. There's Red Hat, SuSe, Ubuntu, Mandriva, etc. etc....
The impression I get is that all these Linux builds are incompatible with each other, and that programs have to be compiled for each particular distro. If true, that's too complicated!
I've finally decided that I'm going to need to buy a new PC; this one is just too old (even though it was top-of-the-line back in the day), so I'm going to install some version of Linux on this machine. I just don't know which version!
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
One issue that I had with repurposing an old laptop as a Linux machine (Ubuntu - I had them send me the free CD's for Mac and PC) was an issue of drivers. It did a good job with finding equivalents for most drivers, but others I simply couldn't get to work, like the critical internal wireless (I even tried a PCMCIA card as an alternative). That to me is going to be your biggest issue with repurposing an old machine, particularly a laptop, getting working drivers. On a fairly standard desktop it should be less on an issue. In fact, I still plan on converting one of my extra Mac RISC machines to a dual boot Ubuntu machine (or maybe a pure Ubuntu machine). I figure that should have far fewer issues.
So what did I do with that laptop? I just put a clean install of Windows XP on it, which it thinks is unauthorized, so no updates allowed. However, I was able to get drivers for everything, so it works as a bedroom laptop when I want to do some work in bed without bringing up my main laptop. It works beautifully for that (in fact, it's basically an Internet machine with only one or two small applications installed to really keep it indefinitely perky -- obviously the more stuff you install on a PC, particularly a Windows-based PC, the slower and more corrupt it can potentially get).
And you're right about incompatibilities between different versions of Linux, but if you install one of the standardized packages you should be fine, and in fact many of them automate a lot of those tasks, so it's not a major concern.
My last major Linux system was an EEE PC UMPC I recently sold to get the money for a Pandora (which will also run Linux). There's really nothing wrong with it and you don't need to be a Linux whiz to do the basics. In fact, most distributions come with a whole suite of applications.
Vintage Games book!
Xbox 360: billlog | Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
There are a couple of Unix like OS'es around some are based on true Unix and others are derived or based on the Linus Torvalds Linux kernal. You are absolutely right in thinking that all Linux distributions are in fact like separate OS'es, but it is better to nuance it a little into the fact that they are all dialects of the same OS.
As to the choice of Linux distribution that is all up to you and where you want to use the system for. It is best to choose a system that has a large depository of up to date packages that can be installed. It is also to some extend possible to use the packaged of one distribution on another system with help of modified installer systems apart from the simple apt get most systems come with.
Debian and Redhat packages are quite common, and quite a few distros actually offer an installing / software management package that caters for installing binaries for other Linux systems onto the installed one.
When it comes to 'drivers' it is possible to use quite a few Windows Wifi drivers on Linux with help of a the Ndiswrapper system quite an interesting development.
Suse, Mandrake/Mandriva, Debian, Redhat are Linux distributions that are very easy to set up and quite user friendly. Lindows and Ubuntu are also excellent variants to try. Most distros are easily downloaded in cd-iso or dvd-iso formats, quite often the installation disc is actually a live distro. With the Mandriva Live cds it you could configure the booted live environment and choose to install the configured environment onto your hard-drive. It is very easy to create some extra space for the 3 needed Linux partitions on your harddrive without having to loose data and almost all Linux distributions cater for installing onto the empty space and inserting a bootloader to make the system multiboot. Those bootloaders are also easy to remove if you know what you are doing. It is best to make a good back-up of your running 'Windows' 'Mac' system before even attempting to install it. You don't want to loose valuable data.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc. | www.markvergeer.nl
FWIW (Mark is obviously the Linux master around here!), I've always found Ubuntu very easy to work with. I dabbled with SUSE, KNOPPIX, Debian, and SimplyMEPIS, but had no luck (the last one was probably the best). I don't know how to use the famed Linux shell, so that could be the problem, but it is discouraging when you can't get drivers and such to work. I found a Linux Distro Comparison Matrix but it looks dated...I also found a Linux Distro Chooser which looks interesting. It told me I need OpenSUSE. :)
I did the Linux Distro Chooser and it came up with Fedora, Mandriva & OpenSUSE. I haven't had any experience with Fedora. I have given it a test-run.
With version 10 Fedora has released its most recent Linux distribution out there. It is a free distribution which is targeted at more advanced users. It functions as a sort of digital testing grounds for the commercial Red Hat distribution (which is quite excellent by the way). This tenth release aka 'Cambridge' introduces quite an myriad of changes and improvements.
Fedora 10 promises better networking, shorter boot-times, more hardware-support and access to the newest and Linux software out there. The first Fedora 10 alpha was released last August and right now the completed version 10 is down loadable.
LIVE CDs
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/10/Live/i686/
F10-i686-Live-KDE.iso 19-Nov-2008 14:30 679M
F10-i686-Live.iso 19-Nov-2008 14:20 681M
INSTALLATION CDs (6 in total!!!)
Fedora-10-i386-disc1.iso 19-Nov-2008 20:02 687M
Fedora-10-i386-disc2.iso 19-Nov-2008 20:02 674M
Fedora-10-i386-disc3.iso 19-Nov-2008 20:03 676M
Fedora-10-i386-disc4.iso 19-Nov-2008 20:03 691M
Fedora-10-i386-disc5.iso 19-Nov-2008 20:04 687M
Fedora-10-i386-disc6.iso 19-Nov-2008 20:04 80M
Fedora-10-i386-netinst.iso 19-Nov-2008 19:53 129M
INSTALLATION DVD
http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/10/Fedora/i3...
Installing
Fedore comes with quite a bit of software spread over no less than 6 discs. Booting from the CD shows the 'Anaconda' installer and it al looks very professional. The installation procedure is just as easy as in the Mandriva distribution. What is different from the previous distributions is that it gives you the option to encrypt the entire hard-drive right from the start. This could be a valuable thing for people lugging around their Linux laptop filled with precious data. When booting from an encrypted system the user has to type in two passwords, first the encryption password and later on the log-in password. It is possible to create a multi-boot system just like the many other Linux distributions I wrote about earlier.
Booting times are shortened - according to the developers - to me it seems that you are kept busy with fancy graphics but it is rather fast nonetheless.
I opted to install the Gnome desktop as I have had less good experiences with the still experimental KDE4.1 desktop that is also available. If you do want to try it out you could download the KDE4.1 live cd. After booting you are presented with a Gnome 2.24 desktop and I must say the 'Solar' theme looks nice - very up to date and very much like Vista/OSX including the rather huge desktop icons that seem to be the most fancyfull thing these days. It is rather blue though a whole assortment of wallpapers can be chosen - they remind me quite a bit of the ones provided with Vista and OSX. The 'finder' or 'explorer' that comes with Fedora 10 is rather simple, each folder you want to open will open up a new window on the screen very much like the old OS2/Warp and the default Windows95 explorer settings - there is no 'breadcrumb' navigation tool.
Network
Networking is smooth sailing on Fedora 10, thanks to the new 2.6.xx kernel a wide array of Wifi chip sets are supported right from within Linux without the need to use the ndiswrapper I wrote about earlier and offers a similar experience as Mandriva.
Video & audio and other applications
Like Mandirva Fedora 10 comes with Open office 3.0. For browsing the web Firefox 3.x is present and unlike Mandriva - where flash works right out of the box - you need to install flash manually which is no big deal to the more experienced user.
Due to liscensing problems mp3 playback also isn't possible right after installation and one needs to download and install the appropriate files separately.
Feodra 10 does come with a new sound server called 'Pulse audio' which is supposed to be more efficient and more stable than the well known OSS and ALSA solutions
The Nvidia and Ati drivers that Mandriva One comes with are not present in Fedora 10 - also these need to be installed separately - again no big deal for the more experienced user.
Livna is an alternative software repository that will probably offer these missing files as easy to install packages in the near future. Actually things like this make the Fedora distribution so great in my opinion.
There is no F10 repository yet.
Installing and downloading software is done through 'Yum' which is Fedora's main software package tool. Contrary to the very informative dialog screen on the Mandriva software management tool Fedora's Yum is rather minimalistic when it comes to providing the user with progress information in the gui. You really need to delve into the log terminal window to get any hints of what the system is doing.
I did opt to install the main developers tools and c compilers. You really need those and the developers libraries if you want to install programs - emulators for example - that aren't in the software repositories. You need to download the source code and compile the software yourself. If you know what libraries are on your system and what dependencies are needed by the source code it is quite easy to make and install the binaries and have the new software up and running in no time. Compiling is relatively fast - even on my mere 1.5Ghz PentiumM - perhaps the 2Gb RAM memory help!
Safe boot
It is fairly easy to use the so called 'First Aid kit' that is able to repair and restore corrupted boot loaders, repair failed raid systems. One needs to manually add that to the system but I would not go without it as you might need it.
Verdict:
The experience is slightly less smooth than the Mandriva experience. The Gnome desktops differ slightly and I actually prefer the Mandriva Gnome one. I needed to manually install quite a bit of extra software that was available in the Mandriva One distribution - but that distribution is extra special because it is known to include closed source 3rd party software.
All in all a no brainer to install and very easy to use. With red hat package compatibility the amount of software available seems to be quite larger than the Mandriva installation.
I really have to try out both systems more in depth on a spare system later on.
For now I will go with Mandriva One 2009, but Fedora 10 is very very intriguing.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc. | www.markvergeer.nl
Ubuntu is the only one I've tried recently. It worked well enough on a desktop system. But there are definitely problems if you want to use a wireless network adapter.
Ubuntu is the only one I've tried recently. It worked well enough on a desktop system. But there are definitely problems if you want to use a wireless network adapter.
With the new kernal hardware compatibility - also with laptops - has improved dramatically. I'd say it is a major move forward for Linux into mainstream computing as more hardware than ever is supported right out of the box.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Ive run linux as my main desktop for years. Previously was a FreeBSD guy from waaaay back, but when FreeBSD dropped the ball (v5) I switched and have not gone back (yet...). Running ubuntu amd64...
-- Stu --
Stu, as a more experienced Linux user than I might be I am wondering what gaming do you do on Linux apart from perhaps emulation? Do you use Wine or something like trans gaming/Cedega for windows games?
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc. | www.markvergeer.nl
I'll keep the Mandriva One 2009 Gnome edition installed on a 30Gb harddrive partition and try to use it instead of my Windows XP installation. See how it goes.
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc. | www.markvergeer.nl