INstalling an OS on a laptop

[edblor]

Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone has installed recently an OS (any...Win2K, WinME, Linux...) on a laptop.

I have a Compaq 1247 laptop (with Win98Se on it) and it's quite nice, but I like Linux and Win2k...My question is:

Will it detect the touchpad OK?
Will it detect the PCMCIA slot OK?
Will it detect the integrated devices and all...as well as it would on a desktop system?

The above questions both relate to Win2k and Red Hat 6.1 which I am torn between using next on this little guy!!!

If any of you experienced users out there can assist, plz PM me or reply to this post!!

Thank you,

Edblor

 

[Wizkid]

I installed win2k on my laptop a few weeks ago. It detected most devices properly, but I did have to download drivers for certain things (network card, modem, etc.). Go to the manufacturer's website (www.compaq.com) to download the drivers that you need...

 

[edblor]

Thank you!!!

Anyone with help installing Linux???? PLZPLZPLZPLZPLZPLZPLZPLZ

Edblor

 

[Damaged]

Personally I think Mandrake has the best support for laptops. RH isn't bad either, but I've found Mandrake does a better job of detecting and setting stuff up.

 

[edblor]

Mandrake eh....

I have no prob experimenting with that flavor of Linux

Can I get the ISO somewhere???
Can I get the image to burn to disk as a bootable CD? Or is that question the same as the first

hehe

LMK plz,

Edblor

 

[Damaged]

Yes, you can grab an ISO from many, many ftp sites. Just find one that's fast for you. Here's their latest list:



Mandrake FTP download sites list

 

[edblor]

ty again,

Edblor

 

[Workin']

I have Win 2k on an older IBM ThinkPad (you know the one - from the 64MB vs. 104MB thread), everything was found and configured with no intervention and no additional drivers needed.

I also just put Red Hat 6.2 on an even older NEC laptop. Everything (touchpad, PCMCIA, APM, etc.) works great but I had to write a custom modeline for the XF86config file to get the display to work properly under X. But I think I'm going to switch it over to Mandrake 7.2 in the next few days, just to try something different.

 

[edblor]

Thanx Workin',

I was following ur thread on the Laptop RAM and I'm pleased you got some performance out of it

Thanks for the input bud!!

Edblor

 

[wyvrn]

I have a 1247, Edblor. I tried to install Win2k (and it worked even with stock 32 RAM, I have since upgraded). But I could not get the sound card and video card to be recognized by Windows. Of course, compaq does not have the drivers on its website, and they don't officially support NT based OS for that laptop. I even went as far as to load the ESS sound driver (found on the web) but Compaq's ESS soundcard must be proprietary because it did not work. If you could figure out how to extract the drivers from the quick restore cd would be the only way I could think of to install the soundcard and vid card.

Good luck.

From now on, I will never buy a comcrap. HP, Toshiba, et al. have NT drivers for almost all of their laptops on their webpage.

 

[edblor]

Hey thanks wyvrn,

You rock man and that just about decides it 4 me...

I'm going with Linux this time around!!! Just D/Ling the ISO for Red Hat 7.0 now...thank you w

Edblor

 

[thornc]

edblor:
Nice choice going with linux, remember to download the patchs for RH7.0 at their site also..
RH7.0 came out a litle buggier than usual.....

I've been running linux on every sort of laptops I could find, and the only thing I haven't
managed to put to work was those "dam" winmodems they supply.

Check out the:
Linux on Laptops!!

 

[edblor]

TY thornc,

I'm D/Ling the ISO from redhat this moment and I'll PM you later for help...

Edblor

 

[thornc]

Ok, but I'll be leaving for home soon......just do a normal kde workstation install...it should
do the trick. You can further customiza later....

 

[wyvrn]

NP my pleasure.

I bet Linux runs smooth on that laptop. If my wife was not the one using it, I would have gotten rid of Win98 by now. I still might, anyone know if Staroffice is compatible with Office 2000? Her schoolmates use Office stuff so it has to be compatible with all recent office distros...

 

[edblor]

Hey bud,

Yes Staroffice is compatible.....

Edblor

 

[SeTeS]

Ditto on the Comcrap post by wyvern...

I just installed w2k on a Presario 1245 and although the sound worked, I couldn't get the built-in modem working. And compaq doesn't provide drivers for w2k. Ended up having to slap in an old 3com combo lan/33.6 pccard.

That and the system seems to crap out a lot during restarts - - e.g. locks w/ scrn garbage during post.