linux on toshiba a105-s1013 laptop - use simply mepis
A month ago I got a toshiba satilite a105 1013 laptop computer. I like the machine quite a bit and I wanted to put linux on it. As is often the case with laptops, putting Linux on can be problemsome.
I tried a lot of livecd distributions. Puppy Linux 1.8 and DSL 2.2 did not boot. Knoppix cd 4.02 did work but without sound. I installed it in a Hard drive partion (dual boot machine) after using qtparted to resize the win xp ntfs filesystem.\, but I kept looking for a livecd that would provide sound as well as work with my wifi card. Knoppix, using ndiswrapper was able to connect to my wireless router but it was a bit slow and had problems with firefox.
I later tried slax livecd linux (booted ok, but had a hard time with network). Sound was OK but the maintainers had pulled the hard disk install feature. I then tried vector linux. I could not get the network stuff to work with ndiswrapper and the windows drivers for my wifi card. I then tried Kanotix. Sound was ok, but the network stuff only worked once in a while and was very slow. It installed on the hard drive fine, but the network problems really defeateded me.
Finally I tried Simply Mepis and it all worked fine. It even detected my wifi card and used ndiswraper to set it up - I did't have to do anything except setup the essid and key parameters. I installed it on the hard drive with the provided utility. The pdf user's guide on the mepis web site is really good. I was able to play videos and music.
I should note that knoppix is the base for simply mepis but the mepis folks took out some stuff and replaced it with more hardware detection and setup features. There is only one desktop (kde - which is what I like to use anyway) and very few games (none are the ones I like). I used synaptic &/or the kde package manager to get what I wanted without any problems - dependencies were taken care of and everythin installed without any problems. Knoppix remains the gold standard and provides a great base for other's to develop specialized versions.
I tried a lot of livecd distributions. Puppy Linux 1.8 and DSL 2.2 did not boot. Knoppix cd 4.02 did work but without sound. I installed it in a Hard drive partion (dual boot machine) after using qtparted to resize the win xp ntfs filesystem.\, but I kept looking for a livecd that would provide sound as well as work with my wifi card. Knoppix, using ndiswrapper was able to connect to my wireless router but it was a bit slow and had problems with firefox.
I later tried slax livecd linux (booted ok, but had a hard time with network). Sound was OK but the maintainers had pulled the hard disk install feature. I then tried vector linux. I could not get the network stuff to work with ndiswrapper and the windows drivers for my wifi card. I then tried Kanotix. Sound was ok, but the network stuff only worked once in a while and was very slow. It installed on the hard drive fine, but the network problems really defeateded me.
Finally I tried Simply Mepis and it all worked fine. It even detected my wifi card and used ndiswraper to set it up - I did't have to do anything except setup the essid and key parameters. I installed it on the hard drive with the provided utility. The pdf user's guide on the mepis web site is really good. I was able to play videos and music.
I should note that knoppix is the base for simply mepis but the mepis folks took out some stuff and replaced it with more hardware detection and setup features. There is only one desktop (kde - which is what I like to use anyway) and very few games (none are the ones I like). I used synaptic &/or the kde package manager to get what I wanted without any problems - dependencies were taken care of and everythin installed without any problems. Knoppix remains the gold standard and provides a great base for other's to develop specialized versions.
posted by konstantine at 9:26 AM
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