Installing Linux on Z-Series

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bazciscor · #1 Post by **bazciscor** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 12:31 am

Hello. I'm looking to install (successfully) Linux on my new Z60t (2511E6U). I tried SUSE 10.1 a few months ago - but, learned that it didn't support the network card. Apparently, this issue is universal with this model, and apparently many others, Thinkpad or other. I just ordered the most recent distro of KNOPPIX (DVD) and will see what happens when it arrives. I'm guessing already, that I'll need to manually configure it to get the wireless network to function. Any others with wisdom they care to share on this topic, especially, which if any distros will function right 'out-of-the-box'? Thanks, Sebastian

smugiri · #2 Post by **smugiri** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 9:44 am

Try SuSE 10 (last version of SuSE that included most non-open source/proprietary drivers). It should work fine even with Atheros & Internet ProSet NICs. Its older buts its better.

bazciscor · #3 Post by **bazciscor** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:10 pm

I tried 10.1 a few months ago - and, came away very dissatisfied with it and Novell's "support." So, are you suggesting SLED? Novell informed that they excluded the necessary drivers in 10.1, but included them in SLED. I appreciate the advice. I'm just very weary of Novell.

BillD · #4 Post by **BillD** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 5:09 am

I have been using with no problems, and I've read many good reviews about Ubuntu 6.06.

Everything worked right out of the box on my laptop and desktop.

smugiri · #5 Post by **smugiri** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:23 am

bazciscor wrote:I tried 10.1 a few months ago - and, came away very dissatisfied with it and Novell's "support." So, are you suggesting SLED? Novell informed that they excluded the necessary drivers in 10.1, but included them in SLED. I appreciate the advice. I'm just very weary of Novell.

No, not SLED. Try SuSE 10.

SuSE 10.1/SLED both do not come with binary or non-GNU licensed apps/drivers so you will not get drivers for the wireless and other stuff out of the box. You will also not have a ton of the application that you would get in binary on 10 like Acrobat/Flash etc. You have to get madwifi (and these other apps) in binary off the web and build/install them for yourself.

With SuSE 10, you will get this stuff out of the box (in binary form but do you care?)

SLED also comes with a different interface that left me feeling very dissatisfied too. It also really fights you on installing multimedia stuff - I could never get DVD playback/MPlayer/VLC to install properly on SLED.

magnus · #6 Post by **magnus** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 10:17 am

I'd definately recommend going with Kubuntu or Ubuntu, Edgy.

Almost everything works right off the bat (at least in Kubuntu).

Only things that don't work immediatelly are:
Queue-freeze for harddisk protection (the sensor works, just not the queue freeze part)
Play/pause/skip on keyboard, requires a bit of setup, but it works as soon as you've assigned buttons to the proper numbers
Middle button scrolling, requires editing xorg.conf

Right now I'm using Gentoo, but it's proving more of a challenge, which is fine by me, but if you're after an OS that "just works", I'd recommend Kubuntu in a heartbeat.

If you don't have any strong preferences between Gnome and KDE, I'd go with KDE, TPB (thinkpad-buttons) has been included in Kmilo (the KDE laptop button utility), wich increases the "just works" factor quite a bit.

Installing Linux on Z-Series

Installing Linux on Z-Series

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