Question about installing Linux on a Dell

Michael ODonnell michael.odonnell at comcast.net
Sat Dec 4 15:52:01 EST 2004


I don't have specific info about the laptop in question
but, unfortunately, it seems to be very common these days
for laptop manufacturers (as well as the manufacturers
of the various components) to be just howlingly stupid
about Linux support.  It's infuriating!

For example, I have Debian running on my HP zd7000 (which
I bought for its gloriously huge screen) and the results
are mixed.  Debian rocks, of course, so the parts that
work are working very well, but three key components
(video, WLAN and memory-card reader) are either poorly
supported or entirely unsupported, all as a direct result
of the manufacturers' mindlessly phobic attitudes about
publishing their HW specs.

Nvidia do at least provide a precompiled module for
their GeForce FX Go 5600 graphics controller, which works
mostly OK.  But the dimwits at Broadcom refuse to even
consider suporting the BCM4306 WLAN controller; same for
the ENE Technology CB710 card reader, so the only chance
for those components to be used with Linux is if I try
one of the fake-out hacks like NDIS wrapper, something
I've so far not got around to trying.

So if you're not having any luck finding info about Linux
support for your laptop as a whole then you might try
searching for war stories about (lack of) Linux support
for the various specfic components included in your model,
drawing on other people's experiences with laptops that
incorporate them.
 



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