Please have a look at the Linux on Laptops at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/ I am still wondering why people buy a laptop without checking here first, it really does have a lot of userfriendly information. scsijon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Radule Soskic" <rms@telekom.yu> To: "SuSE Mailing List" <suse-linux-e@suse.com> Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 7:03 AM Subject: [SLE] HP OmniBook 6000: A Disaster Report
Hi everybody!
I spent my holidays trying to install my brand new SuSE 7 Pro on a brand new HP OmniBook 6000. Now, here's some of my bitter experience:
1. I cut one half of 20Gb Win2K partition with fips and installed SuSE, but had some problems with lilo and "1024 sector limit". Obviously, my 9Gb were too far from the begining of the disk to keep lilo pleased. I am new to Win2K, and also I read some "not-so-clear-to-me (being newbee)" instructions in the manual about coexistence of NT and Linux (lilo) - not a word on Win2K, so I finally (rather early) switched from Win2K to 98SE. I definitely wanted to keep any sort of Windows and make a dual boot between Win and Linux. I also had dual boot 95(98) with SuSE 6.4 on my two desktop Pentiums, where everything works fine. So, I felt it's good move to go for something more familiar to me. 2. So I switched to 98 and did all again. I decided to leave the lilo problem (1024 limit) for later time (downloaded the newest lilo and put it aside) planning to put lilo on floppy first, and later to replace it with the new one in MBR. I understood the new one doesn't care about the physical position of the linux boot partition... 3. Yast 2 went to the point where the boot floppy should be made and prompt for the 2nd CD should appear (what actually happenned first time) But now it decided somehow to reboot the system, going again to the very begining of installation, instead of asking me for the rest of the disks. I was still full of enthusiasm, so I did it all again, this time slightly more modest - choosing "default with office" (previously it was "almost everythinng"). 4. Now I had more success. My system was up and running (running in a broad sense of the word) In fact, here's the list of what wasn't running: - Sound system was not found (ESS Maestro PCI Audio) - Network was not found (3com 10/100 Mini PCI Ethernet) - Modem was not found (3com 56K V.90 Mini PCI) - Graphics was only able to work in 1024x768. I tried all the possibilities - no success! (whereas in Win it shows excellent 1400x1050) My ATI Rage Mobility-M1 AGP was simply not on the list... 5. At the end, I was prepared to stick on 1024x768 because it really was clean and nicely working, even though the screen of 15" XGA deserved better. If only I could fix the rest of problems. But, nothing nice happened to make my holidays up. No sound. No network. No modem. Ende! OK, I know about so called win-modems and even win-printers, but ethernet and sound cards - could it be that what I have here is a kind of Win-notebook??? Sounds scary. 6. OK. I dig out an old modem/ethernet combo PCMCIA and this started to breath, but who wants 33.6K and 10Base-T once he has 56K and 100Base-T in the pack? By the way, I love Linux because of network stuff (for Office and other games I can stand MS Win...). 7. One more thing: every time I try to switch to other console (ctrl-alt-FN2 to FN6)there happens somethiing that looks horrible: all the screen starts toglow briht white, not at once, but part by part like something was badly broken inside....No, nothing like text-mode console or anything. Just burning screen...Fortunately, on ctrl-alt-FN7 my original screen revives back (what a releif !). Virtual consoles - another Linux beauty defunct... 8. To conclude, even my new lilo refused to install. Sorry - I can not recall the reason any more. It just was the part of the night when my intellect shows its superiority to the body, giving up and falling asleep, while dumb muscles still keep running. So, finally, my reflex motorics took revenge by firing up the good old fdisk. Now I have my C: and D: drives back and Win 98 lauging at me every time I boot up my shiny new notebook....Baaaad, huh? 9. I am not saying I am giving up. I just need a break now, that's all.:-)
In the mean time, I am ready to receive all sorts of suggestion. If anybody wants to(or can) help, of course...
I still think my OmniBook is a great machine. Also I beleive Linux is a great OS, and SuSE is a great distribution. Also, know that this mailning list is a great place, with a lot of great people, great spirit. I already received great advices from some of you. So, I will shut up now. (I talk too much for my English...)
Waiting in silence. rms
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