On 2016-04-01 21:07, Yasha Karant wrote: > My spouse's laptop appears to be failing in hardware -- there are repeated > errors coming from the SL 6 boot screen including what appears to be a > failing hard drive (but this could also be the mother board disk controller). > > As we cannot afford a linux certified laptop, and I plan to upgrade her to a > machine that is provisioned for 64 bit operation, we will need to find a > commodity laptop at a big box merchandiser (typically under $500). However, > all of these machines will have MS Win preinstalled. In the past, if we are > considering the purchase of such a machine, I have inserted a bootable > standalone with Xwindows and network SL DVD -- if all of the hardware is > recognized (that is, drivers exist), we will consider the machine. If the > machine has proprietary MS Win hardware (drivers not part of the "stock" SL > distribution), we look elsewhere. > > Is SL-72-x86_64-2016-02-03-LiveDVDkde.iso > <http://ftp1.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/7x/x86_64/iso/SL-72-x86_64-2016-02-03-LiveDVDkde.iso> > the correct image to burn to a DVD to be able to perform the above test > (bootable, runs, but does not install anything on the existing hard drive)? > I prefer KDE to Gnome 3, but could burn the gnome variant > (SL-72-x86_64-2016-02-03-LiveDVDgnome.iso > <http://ftp1.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/7x/x86_64/iso/SL-72-x86_64-2016-02-03-LiveDVDgnome.iso>). > Will this test the WNIC as well as the video and audio cards in the machine? > Are there any predefined login/password accounts on the above ISO images, > and if so, what account and password? Typically, there were none. > > Yasha Karant >
I read there is a linux edition from the 'Inspiron 15 3000', but I haven't had it in my own hands. Maybe you can find some dedicated linux report. -- olli
