I believe ypu can make it work with slackaware9.1, i also have descnote but its an earlier model of what you have. The win modem is also a pain, it can not connect properly to internet although kppp recognized it. The video works fine, i was able to play vcd using totem. BTW i also used dropline for a more elegant gnome.
gus On 04 Feb 2004 21:02:50 +0800 "Dean Michael C. Berris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > This post is more for the information of people thinking of getting a > very nice laptop and planning on putting linux on it too. Insights and > comments are welcome. > > I'd just like to say how RH has really done a great job of coming up > with a really nice and easy to use distribution -- I just tried RH 9 > just out of curiosity and now I know why people actually like it. > Having put that aside, I have used Redhat and Debian on my ECS > Desknote A530+, and so far mileage has really varied. > > First of all, the Debian installer (7 CD Debian Woody installer) works > fine, except for the vga mode for the installation process. Since the > A530+ uses a SiS card which has issues with the framebuffer code in > the older 2.4.18 kernel, a kernel option needs to be put in to set the > vga video mode to 16 bit console mode. Aside from that, the > installation process is a breeze. > > Another issue with the Woody install would be the X driver for the SiS > video controller that comes with the XFree86 server which doesn't work > with the SiS 315PRO that's in the Desknote. To get X working, you'd > have to make do first with a VESA driver for it just to work, then get > the drivers from Tom Winischhofer's page (hope I spelled that > correctly) at http://www.winischhofer.net/ and A LOT of information > (technical and otherwise) on the SiS framebuffer and SiS video > controller chipsets. > > Needless to say, too many things have to be done on the Debian side > for the video to work (on Woody, or even Sid/Sarge). > > It isn't really much less work on the RedHat side, but then you'd go > through the same agony just in case you wanted everything to work > well. > > Some hardware also wouldn't work well in any of the distro's I've > tried on the A530+ out of the box. However, there are a alot of > workarounds to get some of the hardware to work even partially -- I'm > referring to the winmodem and the 802.11b wifi internal USB > transciever. > > For the USB internal wifi transciever, I've gotten the wlan-ng > 0.2.1-pre16 drivers to handle the hardware, but I have yet to get a > lasting connection (in AdHoc mode) for more than 10 seconds. It might > be some issues with the configurations, but I've still to play with it > around more. > > As for the winmodem, (Ali Intel 537, M5457 AC-Link modem) I have been > able to get it to actually dial using the slmodem 2.9.5 driver, but > alas still no connection to the internet with it. I've still got to > figure out why it won't work right, or I might just wait for support > from the driver writers. > > And the ethernet card that comes with the A530 is a Realtek based > ethernet controller supported by the linux kernel. > > With the video working right, watching DVD's on the CDR/W Combo drive > will be a pleasant experience on a very crisp 15" LCD display. I > haven't actually weighed it, but it is not too heavy to be lugging > around for a guy like me. > > Although the transmeta crusoe processor that comes with the A530+ > isn't something to cheer about (clocked at 599 Mhz, with 512 MB L2 > cache) at 43K, it definitely works for me. > > The only down side that I see with this Desknote is that it doesn't > have PCMCIA support, so for people who already invested previously on > PCMCIA extension cards, they'd be virtually useless with the Desknote > A530+. And with the hardware that isn't readily supported by Linux out > of the box, on a budget it certainly is something to consider. > > -- > Dean Michael C. Berris > http://mikhailberis.blogspot.com > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > +63 919 8720686 > GPG 08AE6EAC > > -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
