I want to install Linux on my laptop! Please help me! [laptop] [linux]
Q: I wanted to learn Linux and I am interested in installing it on my laptop.
Im pretty clueless to Linux, I would be a beginner or a Step-by-step instructions to enjoy what to do that would be awesome! Thank you in advance!
Best Answer: Personally I used Debian. Linux is typically secure provided you only install what you really need. I used it as the gateway/router/firewall for the PRI we had piped into the school I worked at. I also used it for the servers in the school. Samba server for file server. Squid and dansguardian for the proxy server and web filter. The filter weeded out most of the spyware attempting to come in.
If however you are wanting to use Linux as your desktop software for all employees there is always Ubuntu. I have never used it but I am told it is based on Debians build. If you are really anal about security then you would really want to use OpenBSD. You will have some problems with your wireless network card on your laptop but if you get into linux you will find the solution you are looking for.
Good luck and welcome to Linux!
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Re:Originally posted by: guy
Originally posted by: guy
Download Ubuntu iso. Burn said iso to a writable cdrom. Boot from the cooling plastic disc. Follow the on-screen instructions.
I don't claim to be a Linux expert at all, but I think we need a sticky for the OS forum for the ever-increasing questions such as this.
n0c's response should be Step #1.
There was a sticky, but it fubared. Which Linux distro for me (http://{$MySite}/messageview.aspx?catid=34&threadid=1294504&enterthread=y&arctab=y)
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Re:kubuntu recognized everything on my lappy, from sound to wireless to samba already configured. what a breeze
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Re:Thank you for all your replies!!!
So I've been looking through these sites that you guys have provided and I'm still learning, but one question is where can I obtain the Live-On CDs so that I can see whether my chipsets will function properly w/ that particular Linux build?
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Re:Originally posted by: guy
First of all, it would be nice to check out how other people faired with the same make of your laptop. Sometimes there tends to be problems with the ACPI implementations (basically, power management). It's due to the fact that some OEMs use the absolutely (purposely?) sucktacular Microsoft ASL compiler; but you don't need to know the details, only that it's Microsoft's fault
. A search should turn up something. Distro doesn't matter for this, only whether you do or do not have to patch the ACPI tables.
The best I have found for my Dell laptop is Suse 9.2 and 9.3… The ACPI works fine, suspend etc… I have a Dell Inspiron 5100.
This is by far the best place to look for linux on a laptop by make and model:
http://www.linux-laptop.net/
guy
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Re:I highly suggest you first try some live-on-CD builds of linux, i.e. linux that boots completely off of the CD. You can even run most of them on a computer with no hard drive whatsoever, provided you have the RAM. Most of the major forms of linux have live-on-CD builds. This should give you a good idea of what cores will support what hardware on your laptop. The only one I'm really familiar with is Knoppix, which is built from Debian. It runs flawlessly on my laptop — even though it's a Compaq — and even supports my PCMCIA wifi card. I'm not saying Knoppix is the best, I'm just saying it's what works for me.
There are a number of other live-on-CD builds which I'm sure people will be happy to point out. Once you find one that supports your laptop's graphics card all you need to do is go download the corresponding non-live build and install it.
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Re:Originally posted by: guy
I want to do the same thing. I downloaded and installed ubuntu, but it would lock everytime I tried to login…I'm about to try Mepis, and if that doesn't work I have Fedora Core 4 already downloaded and burned as a last resort…
At the end of booting or not?
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Re:You'll definitely want to check out http://www.linuxhelp.net
Enjoy 
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Re:I want to do the same thing. I downloaded and installed ubuntu, but it would lock everytime I tried to login…I'm about to try Mepis, and if that doesn't work I have Fedora Core 4 already downloaded and burned as a last resort…
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Re:Originally posted by: guy
Originally posted by: guy
First of all, it would be nice to check out how other people faired with the same make of your laptop. Sometimes there tends to be problems with the ACPI implementations (basically, power management). It's due to the fact that some OEMs use the absolutely (purposely?) sucktacular Microsoft ASL compiler; but you don't need to know the details, only that it's Microsoft's fault . A search should turn up something. Distro doesn't matter for this, only whether you do or do not have to patch the ACPI tables.
From what I've read, ACPI is a horrible standard and OEMs like shipping with broken implimentations.
Well, no one really takes advantage of all the capabilities of the standard; whether it's because it sucks, I wouldn't know. But I wasn't even talking about broken w.r.t. the whole standard: I was talking about w.r.t. the syntactic rules of ASL and AML.
The Differentiated System Description Table, which does a good deal of behind-the-scenes work between OS and hardware**, is written in a standardized source language and compiled into a standardized bytecode. The MS compiler* will accept source with incorrect syntax and spit out invalid bytecode, and when the standard-compliant ACPI stack in Linux reads an unrecoverably bad DSDT from ROM and attempts to interpret it, it can result in a frozen boot, requiring you to disable ACPI or fix the DSDT using Intel's compliant compiler, then patch the kernel to read the modified DSDT from a ramdisk or hardcode it. Luckily, there's a big database of patched DSDTs for many machines, so you don't have to do that part yourself.
* I said "purposely?" because I personally can't decide whether the production of a buggy compiler that coincides with a similarly buggy ACPI implementation in Windows is done out of malice or stupidity.
** Just so you know the supposed reasons behind ACPI, from the standard's documentation's introduction:
The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification was developed to establish industry
common interfaces enabling robust operating system (OS)-directed motherboard device configuration and
power management of both devices and entire systems. ACPI is the key element in Operating System-
directed configuration and Power Management (OSPM).
ACPI evolves the existing collection of power management BIOS code, Advanced Power Management
(APM) application programming interfaces (APIs, PNPBIOS APIs, Multiprocessor Specification (MPS)
tables and so on into a well-defined power management and configuration interface specification. ACPI
provides the means for an orderly transition from existing (legacy) hardware to ACPI hardware, and it
allows for both ACPI and legacy mechanisms to exist in a single machine and to be used as needed.
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Re:Originally posted by: guy
First of all, it would be nice to check out how other people faired with the same make of your laptop. Sometimes there tends to be problems with the ACPI implementations (basically, power management). It's due to the fact that some OEMs use the absolutely (purposely?) sucktacular Microsoft ASL compiler; but you don't need to know the details, only that it's Microsoft's fault
. A search should turn up something. Distro doesn't matter for this, only whether you do or do not have to patch the ACPI tables.
From what I've read, ACPI is a horrible standard and OEMs like shipping with broken implimentations.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Download Ubuntu iso. Burn said iso to a writable cdrom. Boot from the cooling plastic disc. Follow the on-screen instructions.
I don't claim to be a Linux expert at all, but I think we need a sticky for the OS forum for the ever-increasing questions such as this.
n0c's response should be Step #1.
Re:My laptop (Dell D810) would get a messed up screen during install, so I have not been able to install Linux – I've tried Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora Core 4 – all with the same problem.
Re:First of all, it would be nice to check out how other people faired with the same make of your laptop. Sometimes there tends to be problems with the ACPI implementations (basically, power management). It's due to the fact that some OEMs use the absolutely (purposely?) sucktacular Microsoft ASL compiler; but you don't need to know the details, only that it's Microsoft's fault
. A search should turn up something. Distro doesn't matter for this, only whether you do or do not have to patch the ACPI tables.Re:Download Ubuntu iso. Burn said iso to a writable cdrom. Boot from the cooling plastic disc. Follow the on-screen instructions.
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Tags: laptop, linux