[lug] Laptops again Suse on Thinkpad

[Gordon J. Holtslander]

Hi:

I recently installed Suse 6.4 on an IBM thinkpad 240.  This laptop was
bought prior to IBM offering linux on these laptops.  One of our faculty
members bought it who regulary uses an SGI workstation and was getting
very frustrated using windows.  Since he was familiar with SGI he wanted
to try linux.

The laptop came with a 6GB hard-drive partitioned into 2 and 4 GB. 
Windows 98 was installed on the 2 GB partition. I installed linux on the
4GB partition.

This model did not have a CD.  A parellel port (Backpack) was purchased
and a Kingston PCMCIA ethernet card. (I didn't recommend the CD purchase
- a USB CD would have been a much better choice)

I wanted to do an install from a Suse 6.4 evaluation CD I had burned. 
This is the system I use on my computer. I was not able to get the
backpack CD to work from Suse's boot disk - I needed to find the
appropriate parameters to feed to the backpack module, but could not
find them (but I didn't spend much time looking).

Suse offers an NFS install option. I decided to try an NFS install.  I
installed the NFS software on my desktop computer and set up the CD to
be served via NFS.  I hooked up the laptop to the ethernet card.  It
recognized it (the card had been registered and given an IP number) 

I needed to enter all the IP info for the card and my desktop computer
running NFS. Once done the laptop mounted the CD via NFS on my desktop
machine and proceeded to install.

Of note - to do an FTP install of Suse, it requires at least 96 MB of
ram! The laptop only had 64.  An NFS install does not need this much.

I had Suse use its newer Yast2 graphical install program. I chose a
default networked work station package.  It then spent an hour or so
copying and installing software (Suse uses rpm).

Yast2 then detected all of the devices (including the stubby mouse stick
in the middle of the keyboard) and set up X.  I only needed to give it
the horizontal and vertical refresh rates (I had to look these up on a
linux laptop site).

Overall it was one of the easist linux installations I have done to date
(I haven't done that many).  It was much easier than any of the
reinstallations of windows on laptops that I have done.

My only suggestions is that you should be sure your installation media
is supported. If installing from a CD have a builtin CD or a USB CD.  If
installing from a network, get a card known to work with linux.  If
planning an FTP install make sure the laptop had enough RAM.

Be sure that your distribution will do an installation on a laptop well


Gord

David Outteridge wrote:
> 
> I know that this topic has been raised before, so I hope that it is not
> tedious for people; you will just have to delete messages on this topic if
> it is for you 8-)
> 
> I think that I am going to have to buy a laptop because I am going to be
> travelling.  And I really should like to get it right first time, I do not
> have the time to play with it too much.  Within reason, the cost is not an
> issue; if I am going to spend thousands, then a few hundred extra is not
> going to hurt that much more =8-o.  I am looking for advice on what to buy.
> I do not recall ever having opened the lid on a laptop, let alone typing
> into one.
> 
> I have looked at some stuff on the web and I am a little concerned because
> people seem to have to play around to install Linux.  In particular X sems
> to give trouble.  Also, I thought that IBM and Dell have embraced Linux to
> some degree; that is not obvious from their sites.
> 
> Here is what I need, and a couple of things that I do not need; there may be
> things that I need but do not realise it.  Any well-driected advice will be
> most welcome.
> 
> * This machine will be used to run fvwm, emacs, ppp, and gcc; not much else.
> * medium speed processor is ok, fast is ok too
> * lots of memory, 128mB minimum
> * disc that I can partition, I may need to put MS ? on it
> * any version of Linux, I use Redhat on my desktop, so that is preferred
>    slightly
> * lots and lots of pixels and a first class display,
>    high resolution text is important
> * easy modem connectivity
> * external keyboard plug-in
> 
> I do not care about:
> * sound
> * games
> 
> * Does anyone have experience of buying a machine with Linux already
>    installed?
> * If I need to partition and re-install, how do I get data from a CD-ROM?
> CD
>    drives appear to be accessories, is that right?
> * Does anyone have experience with removeable drives, are they any good?
> 
> * What are the main gotchas, if any?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> dajo
> 
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-- 
Gordon J. Holtslander           Dept. of Biology
holtslander at sask.usask.ca       University of Saskatchewan
http://duke.usask.ca/~holtsg    112 Science Place
tel 306 966-4433                Saskatoon Sk
fax 306 966-4461                S7N 5E2, Canada
L I N U X IS EASY               http://www.linux.org