Laptop distro t23

[eriklinuxer]

Hey! I am getting an IBM t23 thinkpad :) / 1.20 GHZ p3 / 512 MB RAM / 30 GB HD / Windows 2000 /

It will be my school PC, so I need to dual boot with 2000 :(

I want a linux distro that I can learn linux on, or mabe programming in C. I want a customisable, but easy to install distro. I want to be able to use eye candy, but also a polished text based distro at the same time. It cant be too hard to install, aka if it is like gentoo difficulty, I need a guide.

WHAT I HAVE USED= I have never used anything but mandrake, suse, ubunutu, many live cd's, floppix, a-linux (the last 2 bieng 2 floppy each distros, used on an ANCIENT laptop, since broken) and a stage 1 gentoo install, up to configuring the kernel. (c7 in handbook) There was no kernel image at the end... not even /arch.... Oh well, try again later.

I want to be able to have as many games in this laptop as I did in my suse install. I like games :) But more importantly I want things like suspend, the IBM blue scroll button, dvd, mp3, wifi, and ethernet. Additional work to accomplish these is fine as long as there is good documentation and it works :)

THANKS!! :D :D

PS- is there any way to get the IBM blue scroll button (Or whatever it's called) to scroll side to side as well as up/down? It is only up/down in windows on my dads T Thinkpad. :(

[techwise]

Ubuntu, Mepis, Debian testing but I use Ubuntu on my IBM laptop and it is great.

[leonpmu]

SuSE 9.3. I am using it on mine, flawless!!

[GavinX]

I'm using an IBM T20 and it's running Xandros without as much as a hiccup. Xandros just works! Is one of those distros which has several flavours, including an Open Circulation Edition, which is free. It has great support at the Xandros Forums and you can download software easily from Xandros Network (XN).

My advice, give it a try and I know you won't be disappointed!

GavinX

[Icarus]

http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ibm.html

There's more then a few of these listed with multiple distros, Red Hat, Debian, Slackware, Gentoo...

[soulestream]

I dont have a IBM laptop, but im using Ubuntu on my new dell 6000. The wireless intel 2200 card worked automatically, I used the keyboard shorcuts settings to setup my autoplay buttons - thats works great. the only thing I cant get to work in Ubuntu is my sd card reader(which I dont use anyway).

[psych-major]

I have an IBM T20 and Mepis works on it like a dream, even supporting my Atheros based D-Link wireless card. The nice thing about Mepis is that it's a live CD, and an installer. Once you get it configured to your liking, click the "Install me" icon and presto!

Another interesting distro is Zen Linux (http://www.zenlinux.org/drupal/). It's another liveCD/Installer, but this one is 100% Debian compatible. Definitely worth a look.

I tried Ubuntu on the above-mentioned T20, but I was less than impressed and switched back to Mepis.

[eriklinuxer]

Thanks! I will try mepis / zen first (Live CD's)
I liked suse 9.0 on my dektop, but it was a bear to install. Never worked. :confused:

Installing SUSE 9.3 on my desktop right now :p

Nobody gonna convince me to slack? :p Never used it though. If I did, I would do it on my desktop first.

Come ON ups! :rolleyes:

Ps- So on mepis, I could configure everything and install stuff, install it, reboot and have all my changes? :eek: How easy is it to keep it from eating windows? Do I partition first or something?

Thanks!!!

[psych-major]

Thanks! I will try mepis / zen first (Live CD's)Nobody gonna convince me to slack? :p Never used it though. If I did, I would do it on my desktop first.

Come ON ups! :rolleyes:

I thought I would just rely on the subliminal message in my sig to lead you toward Slack! In all seriousness, though, slack rules, and is definitely worth the time to get to know it. I run Slack 10.1 on my Dell Latitude D800 with another Atheros-based D-Link wifi card and it is a real pleasure to use. APM seems a liitle spotty, performance profiles work fine but hibernation doesn't work to my satisfaction, and I can't use the volume buttons on the keyboard. (These should actually work on the IBM, as they control the soundcard directly, rather than through software like the Dell) Also, the sound doesn't work through the docking station.
However, with my nVidia video card and downloaded nVidia driver, I can automatically switch between 1024x768 and 1400x1050 resolution when going from docked to undocked. That's handy.
SO, grab a copy of Slack 10.1, read this post (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139240) and go nuts!!!

[eriklinuxer]

Woah- fast! See my previous PS.

(on mepis dual booting and installing what you config on live cd)

Thanks!

I am now sorely tempted to go slacking.............

[psych-major]

First, Mepis has an excellent GUI partitioning tool that can resize NTFS, and it runs from the live CD. In fact, it's the tool I used in my XP/Slackware adventure.

Second, the Mepis install should find and account for your Windows partition automagically, but it wouldn't hurt to have a backup just in case...

The only challenges I had with Slack on my Dell were these:

mouse
sound
wireless


The mouse issue was getting both the touchpad and a regular mouse to work simultaneously. I posted that solution here (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139253).

The sound seems to be Dell-specific, you shouldn't have an issue on the IBM. If you do, try this (http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137197).

Your wireless card may be supported nativiely, and there's a boatload of info on JL about most wireless cards out there, just search on your model.

The only other considerations for Slack are to use the bareacpi.i kernel to get APM support, I'm a KDE fan and therefore didn't even install gnome at all, and if you do want gnome, use the dropline installer for it. This is also well-documented on JL and is quite easy to do. However, that being said, I use swaret to keep my Slack system up to date, and Dropline Gnome made some changes to libraries outside of gnome which then caused issues with updating via swaret. I ended up ditching gnome, but had to reinstall slack rather than fix a bunch of now broken dependencies.
If you do decide to go slack, let me know and I'll help you out with any other gotchas I have encountered.

[eriklinuxer]

Thanks all! The laptop came, and I installed..... suse 9.3 I am however, installing slack on my desktop, and I used quite a few of your tips for my suse install. Thanks!

I AM going to install something else on it (slack or sim) soon.