Re: Thinkpad & Linux...

From: Rouben Rostamian (rouben_at_pc18.math.umbc.edu)
Date: 09/16/04 

Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 00:43:48 +0000 (UTC)

In article <cia6n1$gn2$1@domitilla.aioe.org>,
Red_74 <redroy_74@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>Hi there,
>
>I've just started using a Thinkpad (T20) laptop with WinXP, and I want to
>add a Linux distribution there, one that is known to have no problems with
>installing drivers for this hardware, and on the other hand - that doesn't
>require much disk space (I've got 11GB HDD only).
>
>Can you suggest something reliable and relatively small?

I am writing this message on a T21 which is a close relative of T20.
The OS is SuSE 9.0 with the default 2.4 kernel.

Everything works essentially out of the box, including:
    Sound, including volume control buttons
    Keyboard light
    High resolution screen 1400x1050
    Wireless network (Orinoco gold PCMCIA card)
    Wired network (3Com ethernet/modem combo internal card)
    APM (power management, standby/suspend, battery level info)

The root partition is 2GB. It's 82% full because I have installed
a lot of packages. You should be able to install SuSE in well
under 1GB if you select the "Minimal installations with graphics,
without KDE" option during installation. It will result in a pretty
comfortable system. In that case, the window manager defaults to fvwm.
You can use other lightweight window managers with sexier looks if you
don't care for fvwm. (I use a heavily customized fvwm and I like it,
but customizing fvwm is not a job for novices.)

I should add that I have not been able to get the newer SuSE 9.1 (with
the 2.6 kernel) to work properly on this laptop. Everything works
except the power management, but a laptop without power management
is pretty useless. For now, I am sticking to 9.0. I am hoping that
things will improve with SuSE 9.2 which is expected to appear within
the next couple of months. 

-- 
rr
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