Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin wrote: [...] Hi Micha, Hi to Everyone, Thanks for your help. I have not gone very far, in spite of much time spent. I thought I ought to tell some details, especially since it might help someone else, or, maybe, convince someone else to step in and tell his/her own experience. At first, I have worked at my sudo problem on Ubunto. I briefly recall what happened : after about one day, any call to sudo ..., generated the following reply : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop You need to set dell-desktop in /etc/hosts. Add a line 127.0.1.1 dell-desktop.local dell-desktop otherwise look in /etc/hosts to see what you machine expects you hostname to be. You can change the hostname to localhost by running hostname localhost It's strange that it's not setup properly. So, I no longer had any possibility to intervene at tasks normally acessible to root or superuser... except if this could be done in Gnome environment, where my pasword still worked... but nothing accessible from an Xterm. Sudo worked all right at the beginning, but it no longer did. I spent a lot of time trying to overcome this, and, in the end, I decided to try ... re-installing Ubuntu from the built-in installation shell. Indeed, I have not felt sorry for having done so, since it was very fast (less that 30 minutes or so, with no questions except in the five last minutes). In the end, I got my system as it was a few days ago, when unpacking. So the sudo fonction did work again... but not for long ! This time, I know what I did just before it failed : Manual network configuration = General Host parameters Hostname : dell- desktop Domain name : blank space here Since I could not find a way to get my WiFi connexion working, I wondered if I should write a domain name. On one of my other computers, the domain name is localdomain... so, I wrote the same thing in the blank space. Needless to say that this did not change anything in my connections. But, ever since then, any call to sudo, gave the same answer as previously mentioned, that is : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop Problem is that, once I removed that domain name from the host parameters box,it did not change anything to my problem with sudo... I maybe forced to re-re-install again ! But then, chances are great that this bug or another one will force me to re-install quite often :) I expect not to have to go through that once I have programs and data installed on this system :( Now, as far as WiFi connexions are concerned, I spent a lot of time, with absolutely no result or quite nearly so. Indeed, I have succeeded in a real normal connection, with my Livebox set to no encryption, and after I disabled the MAC authentification. Then I set my machine to WEP encryption, and then, after a thousand and one trials (well, maybe a little less than that), I got ONE connexion ONCE, it was a real one (82%), and workable one (I tried web pages using Hardy Heron (Firefox)... but it did work no longer that 2 or 3 minutes, after that time the icon stayed there and kept telling 82%, but I could no longer access the web, and a ping 192.168.1.1 resulted in Network Unreachable. I was unable to re-connect, even once. I haven't retried WPA, since there are no reasons that it would work any better than before. what is the output of ifconfig and iwconfig? Yes, I do have wpa_supplicant... but with no config file. In any case, you should not need to fiddle with that on a system that is supposed to be especially installed for that purpose ; you should be able to connect out of the box. I recall that I can't go fiddling with /etc/network/interfaces or launch ifup wlan0, since sudo is not You don't need to play with it if you are using network-manager or wcid, if you are trying to connect without something that sets wpa than you will need a config file. If you are using these you will need to make sure that the interfaces don't appear in /etc/network/interfaces (which means that ifup wlan0 won't work anyway) accessible ; however, at the time when this was still possible, the trials that I carried with interfaces did not lead to anywhere on this system. In the meantime, so as to check if my Livebox was still operating, I restarted my old Thinkpad 600 under Debian Lenny, and I could wifi wep connect right away using ifup wlan0 ; the connection is still up after more than one hour. sounds like there is something wrong since from my experience ubuntu should work out of the box with this (it will probably ask you to install the firmware for the iwl3945 since it's in non-free though) Thanks in advance for more hints Thanks for your help. I have succeeded in overcoming my sudo problem, once I had added 127.0.1.1 dell-desktop.local dell-desktop in my /etc/host file. I had to add this from the recovery mode. Sudo now works. As for WiFi... I am
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:58:49 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: [...] Hi Micha, Hi to Everyone, Thanks for your help. I have not gone very far, in spite of much time spent. I thought I ought to tell some details, especially since it might help someone else, or, maybe, convince someone else to step in and tell his/her own experience. At first, I have worked at my sudo problem on Ubunto. I briefly recall what happened : after about one day, any call to sudo ..., generated the following reply : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop You need to set dell-desktop in /etc/hosts. Add a line 127.0.1.1dell-desktop.local dell-desktop otherwise look in /etc/hosts to see what you machine expects you hostname to be. You can change the hostname to localhost by running hostname localhost It's strange that it's not setup properly. So, I no longer had any possibility to intervene at tasks normally acessible to root or superuser... except if this could be done in Gnome environment, where my pasword still worked... but nothing accessible from an Xterm. Sudo worked all right at the beginning, but it no longer did. I spent a lot of time trying to overcome this, and, in the end, I decided to try ... re-installing Ubuntu from the built-in installation shell. Indeed, I have not felt sorry for having done so, since it was very fast (less that 30 minutes or so, with no questions except in the five last minutes). In the end, I got my system as it was a few days ago, when unpacking. So the sudo fonction did work again... but not for long ! This time, I know what I did just before it failed : Manual network configuration = General Host parameters Hostname : dell- desktop Domain name : blank space here Since I could not find a way to get my WiFi connexion working, I wondered if I should write a domain name. On one of my other computers, the domain name is localdomain... so, I wrote the same thing in the blank space. Needless to say that this did not change anything in my connections. But, ever since then, any call to sudo, gave the same answer as previously mentioned, that is : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop Problem is that, once I removed that domain name from the host parameters box,it did not change anything to my problem with sudo... I maybe forced to re-re-install again ! But then, chances are great that this bug or another one will force me to re-install quite often :) I expect not to have to go through that once I have programs and data installed on this system :( Now, as far as WiFi connexions are concerned, I spent a lot of time, with absolutely no result or quite nearly so. Indeed, I have succeeded in a real normal connection, with my Livebox set to no encryption, and after I disabled the MAC authentification. Then I set my machine to WEP encryption, and then, after a thousand and one trials (well, maybe a little less than that), I got ONE connexion ONCE, it was a real one (82%), and workable one (I tried web pages using Hardy Heron (Firefox)... but it did work no longer that 2 or 3 minutes, after that time the icon stayed there and kept telling 82%, but I could no longer access the web, and a ping 192.168.1.1 resulted in Network Unreachable. I was unable to re-connect, even once. I haven't retried WPA, since there are no reasons that it would work any better than before. what is the output of ifconfig and iwconfig? Yes, I do have wpa_supplicant... but with no config file. In any case, you should not need to fiddle with that on a system that is supposed to be especially installed for that purpose ; you should be able to connect out of the box. I recall that I can't go fiddling with /etc/network/interfaces or launch ifup wlan0, since sudo is not You don't need to play with it if you are using network-manager or wcid, if you are trying to connect without something that sets wpa than you will need a config file. If you are using these you will need to make sure that the interfaces don't appear in /etc/network/interfaces (which means that ifup wlan0 won't work anyway) accessible ; however, at the time when this was still possible, the trials that I carried with interfaces did not lead to anywhere on this system. In the meantime, so as to check if my Livebox was still operating, I restarted my old Thinkpad 600 under Debian Lenny, and I could wifi wep connect right away using ifup wlan0 ; the connection is still up after more than one hour. sounds like there is something wrong since from my experience ubuntu should work out of the box with this (it will probably ask you to install the firmware for the iwl3945 since it's in non-free though) Thanks in advance for more hints Thanks for your help. I have succeeded in overcoming
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin wrote: On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:11:29 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Hi Chris, Hi to Everyone, Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. I don't claim that it is not working, I just say that I haven't been able to get it to work as far as getting a connexion to my DSL router (Livebox). To this point, I'd rather suspect that I have not properly set up the parameters. I had a hell of a hard time to get it to work, Any chance that you setup mac filtering on the router? Took me a couple of hours of serious aggravation last time I tried to setup my wifes ipod touch ... back a few month ago on my desktop with Debian Sarge. It is very complicated, to the point that, on that Desktop and Debian Sarge, I have only been able to get a WPA connexion on my DSL router box, not on places where I brought my computer (meeting rooms for associations), where it did work only under MSWIN. It worked easier with WEP encryption or no encryption. Therefore, I suspect that, if it does not work with my new DELL Inspiron under Ubuntu 8.04, it likely is because I have not properly setup parameters. Amongst most likely suspects, I would put : It may be good to test wep and/or no encription as a start to make sure that everything works and it's just an issue of setting up wep properly. I found the wcid is better at handling wpa by the way that networkmanager which keeps dropping the connection on me. Do you have wpa-supplicant installed? - improper host (my hostname is supposed to be dell-desktop ; I don't know how I got this, it is localhost on my other computers - improper way to send parameters to the system. For instance, under Debian Sarge on my desktop, my interfaces file include commands that shows passphrase under brackets, while the network manager on Ubuntu does not require brackets. There are a few details on my Interfaces file on Debian Sarge that I can't reproduce on Ubuntu, for instance the mode Managed and things of the kind. Such different ways to address parameters, is very confusing indeed ; it leads me to suspect that, as long as I have not found what is the problem, chances are rather slim that I get better results with Debian Lenny or SID. I bet that I would get a connexion right away if I changed the settings or my DSL Wifi to no encryption, or to WEP encryption, but I don't see the point of trying, since I don't intend to use any of these modes. What I did was testing that WPA wifi connexion still worked on my desktop : it does. On my new DELL laptop, no connexion works except cabled DSL connexion. However, as I said, the system works, since it detects neigbourhood wifi points, but can't connect. If you find it useful, I might try to convert my DSL wifi router to WEP encryption, but I bet it will work. Besides, I don't know how to overcome the fact that I can't use sudo : unable to resolve host dell-desktop, which prevents me to modify the file /etc/network/interfaces. I must say, however, that the content of this file does change according to what I specify in the Ubunto/Gnome network interface, so this is a proof that it all works together. Indeed that interfaces file does look funny right now ; it includes a passphrase that I have never typed
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
[...] Hi Micha, Hi to Everyone, Thanks for your help. I have not gone very far, in spite of much time spent. I thought I ought to tell some details, especially since it might help someone else, or, maybe, convince someone else to step in and tell his/her own experience. At first, I have worked at my sudo problem on Ubunto. I briefly recall what happened : after about one day, any call to sudo ..., generated the following reply : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop You need to set dell-desktop in /etc/hosts. Add a line 127.0.1.1 dell-desktop.local dell-desktop otherwise look in /etc/hosts to see what you machine expects you hostname to be. You can change the hostname to localhost by running hostname localhost It's strange that it's not setup properly. So, I no longer had any possibility to intervene at tasks normally acessible to root or superuser... except if this could be done in Gnome environment, where my pasword still worked... but nothing accessible from an Xterm. Sudo worked all right at the beginning, but it no longer did. I spent a lot of time trying to overcome this, and, in the end, I decided to try ... re-installing Ubuntu from the built-in installation shell. Indeed, I have not felt sorry for having done so, since it was very fast (less that 30 minutes or so, with no questions except in the five last minutes). In the end, I got my system as it was a few days ago, when unpacking. So the sudo fonction did work again... but not for long ! This time, I know what I did just before it failed : Manual network configuration = General Host parameters Hostname : dell- desktop Domain name : blank space here Since I could not find a way to get my WiFi connexion working, I wondered if I should write a domain name. On one of my other computers, the domain name is localdomain... so, I wrote the same thing in the blank space. Needless to say that this did not change anything in my connections. But, ever since then, any call to sudo, gave the same answer as previously mentioned, that is : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop Problem is that, once I removed that domain name from the host parameters box,it did not change anything to my problem with sudo... I maybe forced to re-re-install again ! But then, chances are great that this bug or another one will force me to re-install quite often :) I expect not to have to go through that once I have programs and data installed on this system :( Now, as far as WiFi connexions are concerned, I spent a lot of time, with absolutely no result or quite nearly so. Indeed, I have succeeded in a real normal connection, with my Livebox set to no encryption, and after I disabled the MAC authentification. Then I set my machine to WEP encryption, and then, after a thousand and one trials (well, maybe a little less than that), I got ONE connexion ONCE, it was a real one (82%), and workable one (I tried web pages using Hardy Heron (Firefox)... but it did work no longer that 2 or 3 minutes, after that time the icon stayed there and kept telling 82%, but I could no longer access the web, and a ping 192.168.1.1 resulted in Network Unreachable. I was unable to re-connect, even once. I haven't retried WPA, since there are no reasons that it would work any better than before. what is the output of ifconfig and iwconfig? Yes, I do have wpa_supplicant... but with no config file. In any case, you should not need to fiddle with that on a system that is supposed to be especially installed for that purpose ; you should be able to connect out of the box. I recall that I can't go fiddling with /etc/network/interfaces or launch ifup wlan0, since sudo is not You don't need to play with it if you are using network-manager or wcid, if you are trying to connect without something that sets wpa than you will need a config file. If you are using these you will need to make sure that the interfaces don't appear in /etc/network/interfaces (which means that ifup wlan0 won't work anyway) accessible ; however, at the time when this was still possible, the trials that I carried with interfaces did not lead to anywhere on this system. In the meantime, so as to check if my Livebox was still operating, I restarted my old Thinkpad 600 under Debian Lenny, and I could wifi wep connect right away using ifup wlan0 ; the connection is still up after more than one hour. sounds like there is something wrong since from my experience ubuntu should work out of the box with this (it will probably ask you to install the firmware for the iwl3945 since it's in non-free though) Thanks in advance for more hints -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. Do you have the ability to download either the Debian or the Ubuntu live CD's? You mentioned before you were looking to find out if all the hardware worked properly and I see no reason why the LiveCD's wouldn't tell you that. I don't know how the laptop came to you preconfigured, and I think that a clean run of a LiveCD would be just as good at determining if the hardware worked properly. If you get it to work with a LiveCD then it is the configuration; if not then it might be the hardware. Do you get restore discs with the laptop? That way if you do not have access to the LiveCD's (restricted internet access or something) then you should be able to do a fresh install of Lenny and have the drivers work right away. Should you have problems you can restore the original install to call tech support. Hope this helps. Have fun! ~S~ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Wednesday 2009 January 07 08:22:06 Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) This works with the ipw3945 driver in the etch kernel. This works with the iwl3945 driver (plus firmware from non-free[1]) in the etchnhalf kernel. Not sure about the Lenny kernel, but it probably also requires firmware from non-free. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. b...@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/ [1] Not sure how long this will be true, ISTR a debian-vote to assume firmware blobs satisfy the GPL until there's evidence otherwise. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 08:22:06 -0600 Stackpole, Chris cstackp...@barbnet.com wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) you want the driver from (compat wireless) http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download you also need firmware (nonfree so not available on live cd) aptitude install firmware-iwlwifi There is also a version in the kernel for the driver so getting the firmware may be enough OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. Do you have the ability to download either the Debian or the Ubuntu live CD's? You mentioned before you were looking to find out if all the hardware worked properly and I see no reason why the LiveCD's wouldn't tell you that. I don't know how the laptop came to you preconfigured, and I think that a clean run of a LiveCD would be just as good at determining if the hardware worked properly. If you get it to work with a LiveCD then it is the configuration; if not then it might be the hardware. Do you get restore discs with the laptop? That way if you do not have access to the LiveCD's (restricted internet access or something) then you should be able to do a fresh install of Lenny and have the drivers work right away. Should you have problems you can restore the original install to call tech support. Hope this helps. Have fun! ~S~ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Hi Chris, Hi to Everyone, Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. I don't claim that it is not working, I just say that I haven't been able to get it to work as far as getting a connexion to my DSL router (Livebox). To this point, I'd rather suspect that I have not properly set up the parameters. I had a hell of a hard time to get it to work, back a few month ago on my desktop with Debian Sarge. It is very complicated, to the point that, on that Desktop and Debian Sarge, I have only been able to get a WPA connexion on my DSL router box, not on places where I brought my computer (meeting rooms for associations), where it did work only under MSWIN. It worked easier with WEP encryption or no encryption. Therefore, I suspect that, if it does not work with my new DELL Inspiron under Ubuntu 8.04, it likely is because I have not properly setup parameters. Amongst most likely suspects, I would put : - improper host (my hostname is supposed to be dell-desktop ; I don't know how I got this, it is localhost on my other computers - improper way to send parameters to the system. For instance, under Debian Sarge on my desktop, my interfaces file include commands that shows passphrase under brackets, while the network manager on Ubuntu does not require brackets. There are a few details on my Interfaces file on Debian Sarge that I can't reproduce on Ubuntu, for instance the mode Managed and things of the kind. Such different ways to address parameters, is very confusing indeed ; it leads me to suspect that, as long as I have not found what is the problem, chances are rather slim that I get better results with Debian Lenny or SID. I bet that I would get a connexion right away if I changed the settings or my DSL Wifi to no encryption, or to WEP encryption, but I don't see the point of trying, since I don't intend to use any of these modes. What I did was testing that WPA wifi connexion still worked on my desktop : it does. On my new DELL laptop, no connexion works except cabled DSL connexion. However, as I said, the system works, since it detects neigbourhood wifi points, but can't connect. If you find it useful, I might try to convert my DSL wifi router to WEP encryption, but I bet it will work. Besides, I don't know how to overcome the fact that I can't use sudo : unable to resolve host dell-desktop, which prevents me to modify the file /etc/network/interfaces. I must say, however, that the content of this file does change according to what I specify in the Ubunto/Gnome network interface, so this is a proof that it all works together. Indeed that interfaces file does look funny right now ; it includes a passphrase that I have never typed, and that is a lot longer than that I have typed. I must precise that, just in case you wouldn't have noticed, I am close to an ignorant as far as wifi config is concerned. At one time, amongst the so numerous options that were offered, I was proposed to type a network pasword. I thought I had to type the WPA TKIP passphrase, so I did... but, two or three caracters before the end, no more was accepted... So it appears that I was supposed to type something else, or nothing at all. It maybe that my typings were translated into a passphrase, which can't be the right one... All this is so very confusing for a newbee... Thanks for more help, on a more ground level basis. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:11:29 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Hi Chris, Hi to Everyone, Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. I don't claim that it is not working, I just say that I haven't been able to get it to work as far as getting a connexion to my DSL router (Livebox). To this point, I'd rather suspect that I have not properly set up the parameters. I had a hell of a hard time to get it to work, Any chance that you setup mac filtering on the router? Took me a couple of hours of serious aggravation last time I tried to setup my wifes ipod touch ... back a few month ago on my desktop with Debian Sarge. It is very complicated, to the point that, on that Desktop and Debian Sarge, I have only been able to get a WPA connexion on my DSL router box, not on places where I brought my computer (meeting rooms for associations), where it did work only under MSWIN. It worked easier with WEP encryption or no encryption. Therefore, I suspect that, if it does not work with my new DELL Inspiron under Ubuntu 8.04, it likely is because I have not properly setup parameters. Amongst most likely suspects, I would put : It may be good to test wep and/or no encription as a start to make sure that everything works and it's just an issue of setting up wep properly. I found the wcid is better at handling wpa by the way that networkmanager which keeps dropping the connection on me. Do you have wpa-supplicant installed? - improper host (my hostname is supposed to be dell-desktop ; I don't know how I got this, it is localhost on my other computers - improper way to send parameters to the system. For instance, under Debian Sarge on my desktop, my interfaces file include commands that shows passphrase under brackets, while the network manager on Ubuntu does not require brackets. There are a few details on my Interfaces file on Debian Sarge that I can't reproduce on Ubuntu, for instance the mode Managed and things of the kind. Such different ways to address parameters, is very confusing indeed ; it leads me to suspect that, as long as I have not found what is the problem, chances are rather slim that I get better results with Debian Lenny or SID. I bet that I would get a connexion right away if I changed the settings or my DSL Wifi to no encryption, or to WEP encryption, but I don't see the point of trying, since I don't intend to use any of these modes. What I did was testing that WPA wifi connexion still worked on my desktop : it does. On my new DELL laptop, no connexion works except cabled DSL connexion. However, as I said, the system works, since it detects neigbourhood wifi points, but can't connect. If you find it useful, I might try to convert my DSL wifi router to WEP encryption, but I bet it will work. Besides, I don't know how to overcome the fact that I can't use sudo : unable to resolve host dell-desktop, which prevents me to modify the file /etc/network/interfaces. I must say, however, that the content of this file does change according to what I specify in the Ubunto/Gnome network interface, so this is a proof that it all works together. Indeed that interfaces file does look funny right now ; it includes a passphrase that I have never typed, and that is a lot longer than that I have typed. I must precise that, just in case
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/6 Koh Choon Lin kohchoonl...@gmail.com: Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? I do not recall _ever_ seeing a USB three-button mouse without a wheel. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Koh Choon Lin wrote: Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? You had mentioned earlier that you were unfamiliar with USB mice, so I just wanted to make sure you understand that the scroll wheel doubles as the third button. (Also, you probably want an optical mouse rather than a roller-ball mouse; fewer moving parts, more reliable generally.) -- Kent West ))) Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? I do not recall _ever_ seeing a USB three-button mouse without a wheel. I am currently using such a mouse from Sun. Too bad its failing and I hope to get a replacement soon. http://www.actionpc.com/ebay_tools/hotlink/imgproc.php?pic=/home/actionpc/public_html/ebaypix/sunusbmnkb-01.jpg -- Koh Choon Lin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Koh Choon Lin wrote: OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? I do not recall _ever_ seeing a USB three-button mouse without a wheel. I am currently using such a mouse from Sun. Too bad its failing and I hope to get a replacement soon. http://www.actionpc.com/ebay_tools/hotlink/imgproc.php?pic=/home/actionpc/public_html/ebaypix/sunusbmnkb-01.jpg Oh I hated those mice! Mostly because they don't have a scroll wheel; you get spoiled to a scroll wheel really fast. (You also get spoiled to the two-finger scrolling on a track-pad fast too. I love it on my Debian lappy and on my Macbook; I get so frustrated when I sit down at a Windows laptop and don't have that feature.) -- Kent West ))) Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. Also, right after a fresh boot up, it will take a few minutes for it to scan/find wireless networks (I kid you not, it takes a full 2 minutes to find my wireless network on my Ubuntu 8.10 laptop). So give it time. Once it scans the area, it should present a drop down menu of all the wireless networks found (left click). If you have your SSID set to hidden you will have to select the connect to Hidden Network option. Both options bring you to the same menu where you can define your network, your encryption, and your password/phrase. That should be it to get you connected. If you try to do networking/wireless the Debian way in Ubuntu, you have to disable/remove network manager first. You will have issues if you don't. You will probably find that people tend to either love or loath network manager. Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? I would give it a trial. Also, please do yourself and anyone helping you a favor and look at the hardware before hand. I have heard several stories of these laptops being shipped with binary blobs for drivers. Also, a friend got one of the first Ubuntu-preinstalled Dell laptops. We were unable to get Etch to install and we were unable to get Lenny working right. The latest Sid and Ubuntu worked though (This was almost a year ago so I hope things have changed for the better). If I were you I would look through all the hardware and do a few Google searches to make sure that the Debian version you are going to install will work (or at least find out how much work it will take to get the drivers to work). I hope this helps. May the drivers be included on install and your configuration smooth! Have fun! ~Stack~ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
From: Stackpole, Chris [mailto:cstackp...@barbnet.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 8:25 AM Subject: RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. Also, right after a fresh boot up, it will take a few minutes for it to scan/find wireless networks (I kid you not, it takes a full 2 minutes to find my wireless network on my Ubuntu 8.10 laptop). So give it time. Once it scans the area, it should present a drop down menu of all the wireless networks found (left click). If you have your SSID set to hidden you will have to select the connect to Hidden Network option. Both options bring you to the same menu where you can define your network, your encryption, and your password/phrase. That should be it to get you connected. If you try to do networking/wireless the Debian way in Ubuntu, you have to disable/remove network manager first. You will have issues if you don't. You will probably find that people tend to either love or loath network manager. Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? I would give it a trial. Also, please do yourself and anyone helping you a favor and look at the hardware before hand. I have heard several stories of these laptops being shipped with binary blobs for drivers. Also, a friend got one of the first Ubuntu-preinstalled Dell laptops. We were unable to get Etch to install and we were unable to get Lenny working right. The latest Sid and Ubuntu worked though (This was almost a year ago so I hope things have changed for the better). If I were you I would look through all the hardware and do a few Google searches to make sure that the Debian version you are going to install will work (or at least find out how much work it will take to get the drivers to work). I hope this helps. May the drivers be included on install and your configuration smooth! Have fun! ~Stack~ One thing I wanted to add to this (just remembered while answering another topic). Debian does have Live CD's that can be tested out [1]. I have had a few issues with them not detecting hardware yet the install had no problems at all. Most of the time these issues have been a simple fix (a module not being loaded or something easy like that). They should be good enough for you to see how much work it is going to require for your devices to function properly. Plus you can test out Etch, Lenny, and Sid to see which one works best for you. That way you don't have to spend time to do multiple installs. Hope everything goes smoothly for you! Have fun! ~Stack~ [1] http://live.debian.net/cdimage/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/6 Kent West we...@acu.edu: Oh I hated those mice! Mostly because they don't have a scroll wheel; you get spoiled to a scroll wheel really fast. That is quite what the OP wanted. (You also get spoiled to the two-finger scrolling on a track-pad fast too. I love it on my Debian lappy and on my Macbook; I get so frustrated when I sit down at a Windows laptop and don't have that feature.) What's that? Link, please! -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 19:29:31 +0800 Koh Choon Lin kohchoonl...@gmail.com wrote: Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? There used to be an ergonomic (right handed) mouse like that from logitec but it was quite a few years back so I don't know if they still exist. Haven't seen any lately. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Dotan Cohen wrote: 2009/1/6 Kent West we...@acu.edu: (You also get spoiled to the two-finger scrolling on a track-pad fast too. I love it on my Debian lappy and on my Macbook; I get so frustrated when I sit down at a Windows laptop and don't have that feature. What's that? Link, please http://www.symphonious.net/2007/05/22/two-finger-scrolling-rocks/ http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=26480 (the second posting, by roadnottaken) -- Kent West *))) http://kentwest.blogspot.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/6 Kent West we...@acu.edu: What's that? Link, please http://www.symphonious.net/2007/05/22/two-finger-scrolling-rocks/ http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=26480 (the second posting, by roadnottaken) Excellent, thanks! You don't want to know what google thinks I'm searching for when I enter two fingers. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, This is my first encounter with Ubuntu... and it is rather hard, ever since I also have to cope with Gnome which is also not familiar to me (used to fvwm). One of the first things that I learnt about Ubunto, is that, by default, the user cannot become superuser (su) using the root pasword ; also, when you open your new machine with Ubuntu installed, it is not being proposed that you register a user root. Instead, you are supposed, for any action that requires permission, to type : sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart (for instance), and the system then requires you to provide your own user pasword. Problem is that it no longer works here, and I don't know how to recover from this. I don't know why it no longer works, I gwess I must have changed something in my config, local parameters or else. It says : sudo : unable to resolve host dell-desktop The shell that appears on my Xterm is : b...@dell-desktop:-$ I can't remember what that shell was yesterday, maybe it has changed... it was 3 in the morning. In any case I hope I can get this fixed. the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. I have just tried this. A left click on the icon just proposes a manual config (it also shows a grayed line Cabled network. After awhile, a box appears though, but the box is blank. At this stage, the system has been up for at least 30 minutes. So, I clicked to manual config. Once there and after authentification with my pasword (it still works there), I clicked on wireless connexion and properties. Once there, I deactivated the roaming mode (I hope there is no confusion in the translation, since most everything is in French on that laptop). Once that mode deactivated, the blue network light came on in the front left of the machine ; it was out before... Ah YES, I just carried another trial... true enough, the blue light did come in only after I deactivated roaming, but, this time, when I tried to reactivate it, the light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). Now, if I ping my livebox, it says Network is unreachable and, if I launch Firefox, http addresses are not found. While testing on my desktop on Debian Sarge, that is, about three months ago, using ifup and ifdown and /etc/network/interfaces, I think that I found that what made the difference was the mode (Managed or else), but on that laptop with Ubuntu, I don't know how to change this ; it may also be another reason why it does not work. I will reply your other questions later on, since I am trying to get rid of my wifi problem first, also to that of my sudo pasword reckognition. Also, right after a fresh boot up, it will take a few minutes for it to scan/find wireless networks (I kid you not, it takes a full 2 minutes to find my wireless network on my Ubuntu 8.10 laptop). So give it time. Once it scans the area, it should present a drop down menu of all the wireless networks found (left click). If you have your SSID set to hidden you will have to select the connect to Hidden Network option. Both options bring you to the same menu where you can define your network, your encryption, and your password/phrase. That should be it to get you connected. If you try to do networking/wireless the Debian way in Ubuntu, you have to disable/remove network manager first. You will have issues if you don't. You will probably find that people tend to either love or loath network manager
RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, This is my first encounter with Ubuntu... and it is rather hard, ever since I also have to cope with Gnome which is also not familiar to me (used to fvwm). One of the first things that I learnt about Ubunto, is that, by default, the user cannot become superuser (su) using the root password [snip] Meh, the sudo thing annoys me. I just `sudo su` and get the root prompt. I will probably get yelled at again for saying that though... the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. I have just tried this. A left click on the icon just proposes a manual config (it also shows a grayed line Cabled network. After awhile, a box appears though, but the box is blank. At this stage, the system has been up for at least 30 minutes. So, I clicked to manual config. Once there and after authentification with my pasword (it still works there), I clicked on wireless connexion and properties. Once there, I deactivated the roaming mode (I hope there is no confusion in the translation, since most everything is in French on that laptop). Once that mode deactivated, the blue network light came on in the front left of the machine ; it was out before... Ah YES, I just carried another trial... true enough, the blue light did come in only after I deactivated roaming, but, this time, when I tried to reactivate it, the light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Tuesday 2009 January 06 14:47:19 Stackpole, Chris wrote: Meh, the sudo thing annoys me. I just `sudo su` and get the root prompt. I will probably get yelled at again for saying that though... sudo -s works even if some crazy has removed/replaced/broken in su binary. You might also want sudo su - or sudo -i instead. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. b...@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/ signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, This is my first encounter with Ubuntu... and it is rather hard, ever since I also have to cope with Gnome which is also not familiar to me (used to fvwm). One of the first things that I learnt about Ubunto, is that, by default, the user cannot become superuser (su) using the root password [snip] Meh, the sudo thing annoys me. I just `sudo su` and get the root prompt. I will probably get yelled at again for saying that though... the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. I have just tried this. A left click on the icon just proposes a manual config (it also shows a grayed line Cabled network. After awhile, a box appears though, but the box is blank. At this stage, the system has been up for at least 30 minutes. So, I clicked to manual config. Once there and after authentification with my pasword (it still works there), I clicked on wireless connexion and properties. Once there, I deactivated the roaming mode (I hope there is no confusion in the translation, since most everything is in French on that laptop). Once that mode deactivated, the blue network light came on in the front left of the machine ; it was out before... Ah YES, I just carried another trial... true enough, the blue light did come in only after I deactivated roaming, but, this time, when I tried to reactivate it, the light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Kent West: Dotan Cohen wrote: 2009/1/6 Kent West we...@acu.edu: (You also get spoiled to the two-finger scrolling on a track-pad fast too. I love it on my Debian lappy and on my Macbook; I get so frustrated when I sit down at a Windows laptop and don't have that feature. What's that? Link, please http://www.symphonious.net/2007/05/22/two-finger-scrolling-rocks/ AFAICS, that's almost exactly what the synaptics touchpad in my five year old laptop could do. It didn't have two-finger scrolling but there were scrolling regions (to the left and the bottom by default) and two-finger click was interpreted as middle click (nice for Firefox). You could even have right clicke by tapping in the bottom right corner. I really liked these features as well. But I must say that I really like the trackpoint of my Thinkpad X200 (doesn't have a touchpad) as well. Scrolling works by pressing the middle button and bending the trackpoint. I got used to the little thing in almost no time (less than two weeks). J. -- I spend money without thinking on products and clothes that I believe will enhance my social standing. [Agree] [Disagree] http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? -- Koh Choon Lin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Hi to Everyone, I've received my new DELL Inspiron 1525... It surely takes some time to get used to such a difference, whatever you speak of the overall size, the keyboard, Ubuntu... and, above all, the touchpad, which I find absolutely horrible. I thought I could just plug any spare mouse, but I now realize that it has to be an USB mouse... didn't even know about these, this is to say how old is my equipment :) Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? I can't keep using that touchpad. The plate is not hard enough, and the course of your pointer does vary depending of how light or heavy is the touch ; most times it appears difficult to go from one screen end to the other. Doing this, if your pointer stays more that a few tenth of a second on a live word, it will carry you there, even without any button pressing. On my old thinkpad, there was a red button in the midst of the keyboard, and it was just wonderful, compared to that failure... To the Ubuntu GNOME desktop, I have to get used to, at least for some time, since I am planning to install Debian Lenny instead, as soon as possible, but not before I have checked that everything worked as is, especially WiFi. For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:38:39 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:05:31 +0100 Vincent Lefevre vinc...@vinc17.org wrote: On 2009-01-04 11:28:10 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. Is there any reason? Is this specific to ThinkPads? From talks on linux-thinkpad it is not currently know exactly why, mostly speculations. Either more agresive throttling of the graphics chip and/or putting pci to sleep. Possibly more optimizations What I can say is that, with my old Thinkpad 600 then running under RedHat 7.2, I could expect at least three hours of work with the battery, even three and a half hours when the battery was new (I used that thing for about 6-7 years, and this is my third battery). Even though I did have a small MSWIN partition (Windows 98), I have never used it long enough to evaluate how long my laptop would work on battery under that OS, but I doubt that it would have be 3X more, that is 9 to 10 hours. This Thinkpad 600 was just a perfect machine. It ran at least 4 hours a day, often 6-8 hours daily for more than 5 years ; everything worked perfectly. I still have that machine, but then I was unable to get satisfactory results when it came to operate WiFi. With WEP encription it worked OK, but no workable issue with WPA. I then tried to install Debian Etch, which worked OK, but not with WPA. Also, using Debian Etch, a few utilities are not working properly, such as fan management and sleep and hibernation modes, which worked perfectly under RedHat 7.2, to the point that I rarely shutdown ; I just closed the lid. Under Debian Etch, the log messages say about fan and sleep management : BIOS too old... I bet I could overcome this, but I thought time might have come My guess is that the laptop uses APM which is really old. Debian must have phased it out, but you can check the packages if there is still APM support instead of acpi. Otherwise you can check if there is a bios upgrade to support acpi (they will probably sell it as compatibility upgrade for win2k - thats how toshiba presented it). to get something newer, since that Thinkpad was only 300 MHz (Pentium 3) with a Hard Drive of 5 Gb. I then ordered a DELL Inspiron 1525, which I It's a lot of bang for the money, but it's a bit heavy and they save money where they don't tell you, such as the touchpad, keyboard, screen. A friend of mine got it just now, we'll see how it holds up. should receive tomorrow. This is an experiment, also a bet, with the advantage of a really
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Bernard: Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? No, any USB mouse will do. For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! lspci iwconfig Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? I don't see why you try to make it all work if you are going to throw the system away anyway. J. -- People talking a foreign language are romantic and mysterious. [Agree] [Disagree] http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On 01/05/09 15:41, Jochen Schulz wrote: [snip] I don't see why you try to make it all work if you are going to throw the system away anyway. Theoretically, the manufacturer has tested the stick configuration. So, if you can get it work with stock, you should be able to get it to work with a different distro. -- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA I like my women like I like my coffee - purchased at above-market rates from eco-friendly organic farming cooperatives in Latin America. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Sorry, sent off list by mistake. On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:29:36 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Hi to Everyone, I've received my new DELL Inspiron 1525... It surely takes some time to get used to such a difference, whatever you speak of the overall size, the keyboard, Ubuntu... and, above all, the touchpad, which I find absolutely horrible. I thought I could just plug any spare mouse, but I Sorry to hear that. now realize that it has to be an USB mouse... didn't even know about these, this is to say how old is my equipment :) Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? You can plug in any usb mouse you want. It's been some time since laptops came with a ps2 port. You can get a usb to ps/2 adaptor if you want but a usb mouse is probably cheaper. I can't keep using that touchpad. The plate is not hard enough, and the course of your pointer does vary depending of how light or heavy is the touch ; most times it appears difficult to go from one screen end to the other. Doing this, if your pointer stays more that a few tenth of a second on a live word, it will carry you there, even without any button pressing. On my old thinkpad, there was a red button in the midst of the keyboard, and it was just wonderful, compared to that failure... The trackpoint I believe it's called only exists on top end dells (latitudes) and thinkpads (t series, not sure if the new t500 and t400 still have it) You should try to play with the touchpad settings. It's probably and alps on that machine so it's a bit more limited than the synaptic touchpad but are still configurable. Have a look at gsynaptic (graphic) or synclient (command line, included in the synaptic x driver package) to play with the settings. You can change speed, acceleration, sensitivity and whether tapping the touchpad works as a button press. To the Ubuntu GNOME desktop, I have to get used to, at least for some time, since I am planning to install Debian Lenny instead, as soon as possible, but not before I have checked that everything worked as is, especially WiFi. For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! Check what wifi card you have installed (lspci possibly with -vv to get more verbose output) and we can probably help more. The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:38:39 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:05:31 +0100 Vincent Lefevre vinc...@vinc17.org wrote: On 2009-01-04 11:28:10 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. Is there any reason? Is this specific to ThinkPads? From talks on linux-thinkpad it is not currently know exactly why, mostly speculations. Either more agresive throttling of the graphics chip and/or putting pci to sleep. Possibly more optimizations What I can say is that, with my old Thinkpad 600 then running under RedHat 7.2, I could expect at least three hours of work with the battery, even three and a half hours when the battery was new (I used that thing for about 6-7 years, and this is my third battery). Even though I did have a small MSWIN partition (Windows 98), I have never used it long enough to evaluate how long my laptop would work on battery under that OS, but I doubt that it would have be 3X more, that is 9 to 10 hours. This Thinkpad 600 was just a perfect machine. It ran at least 4 hours a day, often 6-8 hours daily for more than 5 years ; everything worked perfectly. I still have that machine, but then I was unable to get satisfactory results when it came to operate WiFi. With WEP encription it worked OK, but no workable issue with WPA. I then tried to install Debian Etch, which worked OK, but not with WPA. Also, using Debian Etch, a few utilities are not working properly, such as fan
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/4 Henrique de Moraes Holschuh h...@debian.org: Why not the SL line, something special about them? They're IdeaPads. IdeaPad SL? That sounds like a joint venture between Dell and Tampax if I ever heard one. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On 2009-01-04 11:28:10 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. Is there any reason? Is this specific to ThinkPads? -- Vincent Lefèvre vinc...@vinc17.org - Web: http://www.vinc17.org/ 100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: http://www.vinc17.org/blog/ Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Arenaire project (LIP, ENS-Lyon) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On 01/04/09 08:02, Vincent Lefevre wrote: [snip] French (AZERTY) keyboards are awful Why am I not surprised -- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA I like my women like I like my coffee - purchased at above-market rates from eco-friendly organic farming cooperatives in Latin America. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sun, 04 Jan 2009, Dotan Cohen wrote: 2009/1/4 Henrique de Moraes Holschuh h...@debian.org: Why not the SL line, something special about them? They're IdeaPads. IdeaPad SL? That sounds like a joint venture between Dell and Tampax if I ever heard one. The ThinkPad SL is probably a good enough machine if you're into Microsoft operating systems, and don't want to pay for the really good stuff. But I am not part of the above demographics ;-) -- One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie. -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:05:31 +0100 Vincent Lefevre vinc...@vinc17.org wrote: On 2009-01-04 11:28:10 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. Is there any reason? Is this specific to ThinkPads? From talks on linux-thinkpad it is not currently know exactly why, mostly speculations. Either more agresive throttling of the graphics chip and/or putting pci to sleep. Possibly more optimizations -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sun January 4 2009, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
If this is a QWERTY keyboard, then this is a British keyboard, not
a French keyboard. French (AZERTY) keyboards are awful to use when
programming or working with the shell, since [ ] { } and \ need the
AltGr key.
no, it's French.. trust me.. The DEL key says suppr and the insert key
says Inserer withe the tick mark over the first e.. and the end key
says Fin.
--
Paul Cartwright
Registered Linux user # 367800
Registered Ubuntu User #12459
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Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sun, 04 Jan 2009, Koh Choon Lin wrote: I would be looking at a ThinkPad for my next laptop and hopefully, comes with full support from a free GNU/Linux distro. Full support? ThinkPad T or ThinkPad X are the best bets. After that, ThinkPad W or ThinkPad R. You are likely to meet an ALPS touchpad if you get a ThinkPad R, though. And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. -- One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie. -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On 2009-01-04 07:15:28 -0500, Paul Cartwright wrote:
my Dell XPS laptop is over 3 years old. I travel with it all the
time.. in.. out of the case, through airport security, rental cars,
hotels... I busted the V key last year, replaced the keyboard
myself. I didn't understand the ordering thingie and ended up with a
French keybord. The \ isn't written on the right key,but I know
it's there, and it has the British pound symbol, not # above the
3.
If this is a QWERTY keyboard, then this is a British keyboard, not
a French keyboard. French (AZERTY) keyboards are awful to use when
programming or working with the shell, since [ ] { } and \ need the
AltGr key.
--
Vincent Lefèvre vinc...@vinc17.org - Web: http://www.vinc17.org/
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: http://www.vinc17.org/blog/
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Arenaire project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)
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Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Paul Cartwright wrote:
On Sun January 4 2009, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
If this is a QWERTY keyboard, then this is a British keyboard, not
a French keyboard. French (AZERTY) keyboards are awful to use when
programming or working with the shell, since [ ] { } and \ need the
AltGr key.
no, it's French.. trust me.. The DEL key says suppr and the insert key
says Inserer withe the tick mark over the first e.. and the end key
says Fin.
French keyboards are quite different. Not only they are AZERTY, but the
symbols are in some very different positions, compared to the US
keyboard. They do have the £ sign, but not in the same key as the 3. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layouts#French .
--
... bleakness ... desolation ... plastic forks ...
Eduardo M KALINOWSKI
edua...@kalinowski.com.br
http://move.to/hpkb
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Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat, 03 Jan 2009, Koh Choon Lin wrote: Yes. And don't ever make the horrible mistake of getting any non-ThinkPad Lenovo laptop, nor the ThinkPad SL. The Linux support is non-existant, and it is nowhere near the quality of a true bloodline ThinkPad (models X, T, R, W). Why not the SL line, something special about them? They're IdeaPads. -- One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie. -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat January 3 2009, Daryl Styrk wrote: My T-61 has far surpassed what I expected of it.. Expensive?? Depends on what you consider expensive.. A $29 bag of chips is expensive.. A lappy built to take abuse and somehow remain useable is priceless.. my Dell XPS laptop is over 3 years old. I travel with it all the time.. in.. out of the case, through airport security, rental cars, hotels... I busted the V key last year, replaced the keyboard myself. I didn't understand the ordering thingie and ended up with a French keybord. The \ isn't written on the right key,but I know it's there, and it has the British pound symbol, not # above the 3. For $10 I should get a real US keyboard, but it hasn't agravated me enough yet. I keep hoping it will die, so I can get a new laptop.. I'm jealous of my wifes new Dell Inspiron 1525!!! -- Paul Cartwright Registered Linux user # 367800 Registered Ubuntu User #12459 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Friday 02 January 2009 13:20:05 Douglas A. Tutty wrote: On Fri, Jan 02, 2009 at 11:22:39AM -0500, Damon L. Chesser wrote: had my Dell Vostro 1500 for one year now. No issues. I can run it for 5 or 6 hours on battery. As for price, I never buy anything $500 USD as you can boy three or four of those per every expensive machine. So Even if it breaks after one year, technology moved forwared, spend another $500 USD, and buy a slightly newer version. After three years you are greatly ahead in terms of $$ and, if you had to replace your cheap box, technology. Just my 2c worth. Treating laptops as disposable is a bit hard on the environment. Doug. Ehh, we can make more (environment). -- Damon L. Chesser da...@damtek.com 404-271-8691 Cell 678-401-8420 hm http://www.linkedin.com/in/dchesser -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On 2009-01-04 16:55:39 -0200, Eduardo M KALINOWSKI wrote: French keyboards are quite different. Not only they are AZERTY, but the symbols are in some very different positions, compared to the US keyboard. They do have the £ sign, but not in the same key as the 3. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layouts#French . Apple's French keyboards are also different (I can see that on what is written on the keys of the AZERTY keyboard of my PowerBook, even though I've remapped it to some kind of QWERTY). -- Vincent Lefèvre vinc...@vinc17.org - Web: http://www.vinc17.org/ 100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: http://www.vinc17.org/blog/ Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Arenaire project (LIP, ENS-Lyon) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:05:31 +0100 Vincent Lefevre vinc...@vinc17.org wrote: On 2009-01-04 11:28:10 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. Is there any reason? Is this specific to ThinkPads? From talks on linux-thinkpad it is not currently know exactly why, mostly speculations. Either more agresive throttling of the graphics chip and/or putting pci to sleep. Possibly more optimizations What I can say is that, with my old Thinkpad 600 then running under RedHat 7.2, I could expect at least three hours of work with the battery, even three and a half hours when the battery was new (I used that thing for about 6-7 years, and this is my third battery). Even though I did have a small MSWIN partition (Windows 98), I have never used it long enough to evaluate how long my laptop would work on battery under that OS, but I doubt that it would have be 3X more, that is 9 to 10 hours. This Thinkpad 600 was just a perfect machine. It ran at least 4 hours a day, often 6-8 hours daily for more than 5 years ; everything worked perfectly. I still have that machine, but then I was unable to get satisfactory results when it came to operate WiFi. With WEP encription it worked OK, but no workable issue with WPA. I then tried to install Debian Etch, which worked OK, but not with WPA. Also, using Debian Etch, a few utilities are not working properly, such as fan management and sleep and hibernation modes, which worked perfectly under RedHat 7.2, to the point that I rarely shutdown ; I just closed the lid. Under Debian Etch, the log messages say about fan and sleep management : BIOS too old... I bet I could overcome this, but I thought time might have come to get something newer, since that Thinkpad was only 300 MHz (Pentium 3) with a Hard Drive of 5 Gb. I then ordered a DELL Inspiron 1525, which I should receive tomorrow. This is an experiment, also a bet, with the advantage of a really low cost. It costs about as much as those new mini-computers or internet-computers, but this is a real machine. If it fails, I will take advantage of the warranty and services, and, in any case, that will be an experience. True enough : if I decide that it is a mistake, no warranty that good reliable computers such as Thinkpad T61 will then still be available... I will let you know of my impressions when I receive that laptop. It is supposed to run on Ubuntu, but I wish to install Debian Lenny instead. Indeed, Ubuntu is probably OK, but I bet that it will include something like Gnome or KDE, and I am more at ease with fvwm. I hope that the removal of Ubuntu and replacing by Lenny will not genearate problems as far as managing fan, video, sleep and hibernation modes, or with WiFi capabilities with WPA encryption. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:38:39 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:05:31 +0100 Vincent Lefevre vinc...@vinc17.org wrote: On 2009-01-04 11:28:10 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. Is there any reason? Is this specific to ThinkPads? From talks on linux-thinkpad it is not currently know exactly why, mostly speculations. Either more agresive throttling of the graphics chip and/or putting pci to sleep. Possibly more optimizations What I can say is that, with my old Thinkpad 600 then running under RedHat 7.2, I could expect at least three hours of work with the battery, even three and a half hours when the battery was new (I used that thing for about 6-7 years, and this is my third battery). Even though I did have a small MSWIN partition (Windows 98), I have never used it long enough to evaluate how long my laptop would work on battery under that OS, but I doubt that it would have be 3X more, that is 9 to 10 hours. This Thinkpad 600 was just a perfect machine. It ran at least 4 hours a day, often 6-8 hours daily for more than 5 years ; everything worked perfectly. I still have that machine, but then I was unable to get satisfactory results when it came to operate WiFi. With WEP encription it worked OK, but no workable issue with WPA. I then tried to install Debian Etch, which worked OK, but not with WPA. Also, using Debian Etch, a few utilities are not working properly, such as fan management and sleep and hibernation modes, which worked perfectly under RedHat 7.2, to the point that I rarely shutdown ; I just closed the lid. Under Debian Etch, the log messages say about fan and sleep management : BIOS too old... I bet I could overcome this, but I thought time might have come My guess is that the laptop uses APM which is really old. Debian must have phased it out, but you can check the packages if there is still APM support instead of acpi. Otherwise you can check if there is a bios upgrade to support acpi (they will probably sell it as compatibility upgrade for win2k - thats how toshiba presented it). to get something newer, since that Thinkpad was only 300 MHz (Pentium 3) with a Hard Drive of 5 Gb. I then ordered a DELL Inspiron 1525, which I It's a lot of bang for the money, but it's a bit heavy and they save money where they don't tell you, such as the touchpad, keyboard, screen. A friend of mine got it just now, we'll see how it holds up. should receive tomorrow. This is an experiment, also a bet, with the advantage of a really low cost. It costs about as much as those new mini-computers or internet-computers, but this is a real machine. If it fails, I will take advantage of the warranty and services, and, in any case, that will be an experience. True enough : if I decide that it is a mistake, no warranty that good reliable computers such as Thinkpad T61 will then still be available... T61 is a bit old now but still available. Reviews of the t500/t400 seem to be mixed (especially regarding the keyboard, not sure about the screen). I will let you know of my impressions when I receive that laptop. It is supposed to run on Ubuntu, but I wish to install Debian Lenny instead. Indeed, Ubuntu is probably OK, but I bet that it will include something like Gnome or KDE, and I am more at ease with fvwm. I hope that the removal of Ubuntu and replacing by Lenny will not genearate problems as far as managing fan, video, sleep and hibernation modes, or with WiFi capabilities with WPA encryption. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 12:45:09AM +0200, Micha Feigin wrote: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic but it's time for a new laptop that will run linux solely and I'm looking for recomendation on what has a good build quallity (will travel), descent battery life, although more important is good computing power and a good screen at 15.4 (needs to be workable with the screen) at a price range of around 1500$ rough ballpark. Good service is a must since it's a working laptop. I know that hp and compaq are a big no no (build quality is shaky at best). I also have the worst experience possible with Sony support on just about every continent (haven't managed to run into worse). Lenovo 3000 series also has a bad track run at our uni in terms of build quallity, no experience with the ideapad pad heard that they are not much brighter. I will definitely recommend anything made by Asus. I own an Eee PC (obviously way smaller and cheaper than what you are looking for), but I have to say the build quality is acceptable. I've had the keyboard break once, the touchpad buttons are crap (but this is acceptable since the touchpad itself is slick to the touch and tap sensitive; it's gorgeous in that regard)(also, my Eee is one of the original models, so the hardware isn't as reliable as the newer Eees/higher end Asus laptops). Other than that, the hardware is reliable. I've had no internal problems whatsoever, and Asus' tech support is fantastic; they've given me no problems (as I've yet to mod my Eee), and their techs are generally knowledgeable. Thanks Not a problem. -- Follow my Tweets at http://twitter.com/pobega Or read my blog @ http://pobega.wordpress.com An Open World AIM:BlockMeHarder MSN:pob...@gmail.com JIM:pob...@jaim.at SIP:pob...@ekiga.net ICQ:467047394 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Wed,10.Dec.08, 18:39:18, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: On Wednesday 2008 December 10 16:45:09 Micha Feigin wrote: Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of current Thinkpads. Since this thread has been revived... I have an R61 Thinkpad bought new last July. Before that I had an A21p and R50e (both IBMs, second hand). The R50e I gave to my mother and she is very happy about it. IMO ThinkPads are not very stylish, but they are very sturdy. Some models have Suse pre-installed. Regards, Andrei -- If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. (Albert Einstein) signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 12:02:16 +0200 Andrei Popescu andreimpope...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed,10.Dec.08, 18:39:18, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: On Wednesday 2008 December 10 16:45:09 Micha Feigin wrote: Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of current Thinkpads. Since this thread has been revived... I have an R61 Thinkpad bought new last July. Before that I had an A21p and R50e (both IBMs, second hand). The R50e I gave to my mother and she is very happy about it. IMO ThinkPads are not very stylish, but they are very sturdy. Some models have Suse pre-installed. Up to the 61 series that was certainly true. The problem is that with the t400 and t500 etc lenovo has started to cut corners (cut holes in the keyboard backplate to make it lighter but ruined the keyboard). I'm also not clear on the support agreements between lenovo and IBM. With last thinkpad (t61) I gave it to IBM which repaired it under international warranty (which I didn't even know I had) with no problems within a week, but I heard (don't know if it is true) that they are going to stop their support agreement. Could be that they are still as good, will be happy to know so since I'm a bit hesitant regarding the next laptop whether to go with a thinkpad or a mac. Top end dells seem to also be an option but I've read on this thread and elsewhere a lot of bad stories about customer support and the quality of the lower end ones. If it's any indication then most companies I know work with thinkpads and Dells. Regards, Andrei -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
OT: laptop recomendations
If it's any indication then most companies I know work with thinkpads and Dells. Dell have Inspiron and Latitude while Lenovo has Thinkpad and Lenovo models. Would there be a difference in support? -- Koh Choon Lin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/3 Koh Choon Lin kohchoonl...@gmail.com: If it's any indication then most companies I know work with thinkpads and Dells. Dell have Inspiron and Latitude while Lenovo has Thinkpad and Lenovo models. Would there be a difference in support? Yes, especially for non-US support. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat, 03 Jan 2009, Koh Choon Lin wrote: If it's any indication then most companies I know work with thinkpads and Dells. Dell have Inspiron and Latitude while Lenovo has Thinkpad and Lenovo models. Would there be a difference in support? Yes. And don't ever make the horrible mistake of getting any non-ThinkPad Lenovo laptop, nor the ThinkPad SL. The Linux support is non-existant, and it is nowhere near the quality of a true bloodline ThinkPad (models X, T, R, W). If you're considering a Lenovo laptop that is not a ThinkPad X, T, R or W, just buy Dell. You'd be much better off. -- One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie. -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Andrei Popescu: I have an R61 Thinkpad bought new last July. Before that I had an A21p and R50e (both IBMs, second hand). The R50e I gave to my mother and she is very happy about it. IMO ThinkPads are not very stylish, but they are very sturdy. Some models have Suse pre-installed. I bought a Thinkpad X200 the week before christmas and I must say I am quite satisfied. The build quality is what I expected after seeing (not owning) older models. I got a three year warranty which has become quite seldom, at least here in Germany. And linux support is great, too. I had to follow some advice from thinkwiki.org to get suspend-to-ram and the trackpoint running, but since this model is still quite young I think that's ok. The video driver is only available in experimental right now, but that's due to Debian's current release state. J. -- At night I go to the kitchen; specifically, the knife drawer. [Agree] [Disagree] http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 I bougth Dell 1310 with Intel video+wifi+CPU inside. All's working like a charm, I had no problems, using debian/ubuntu on it. :D -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAklfdbAACgkQmrRsq68K75WFwwCeK3oNfCI7w6n167Q1+9w9wEA4 25EAoJoU702CBY3wbDYviksW7miwAoZt =yeSq -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Yes. And don't ever make the horrible mistake of getting any non-ThinkPad Lenovo laptop, nor the ThinkPad SL. The Linux support is non-existant, and it is nowhere near the quality of a true bloodline ThinkPad (models X, T, R, W). Why not the SL line, something special about them? -- Koh Choon Lin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Mark Allums wrote: In general, I think Dell's hardware is unreliable. They work fine initially. But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. raju Don't blame Dell for the video being defective, in this case. The culprit is NVidia, and all laptop makers are at their mercy. (Other issues, like battery life, I have no knowledge of, and cannot speak to.) I did not blame Dell just because I had problems with my laptop. I reached at that conclusion after watching my friends laptops' performance etc., At least five friends of mine who bought Dell laptops have had various problems. What I have observed (over the past 4 years or so) is that, typically after 1 year (and even before 2 years) things start going bad. It could be a hard drive failure, it could be that fans stop working (so the processor heats up... leading to its failure), it could be black spots on the monitor, it could be power supply failure, it could be mother board going bad. In my case it just happens to be battery, faulty video card. The fact of the matter is Dell's laptops are made with cheap (quality wise) hardware. So they cost less. If you can put in more money, and if you would like to use the same laptops for more than 1-2 years go for some other brand. I do not know what that other brand should be. But I do know that Dell laptops are not the correct investment for a long term reliable laptop. hth raju -- Kamaraju S Kusumanchi http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/kk288/ http://malayamaarutham.blogspot.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Carl Fink wrote: On Thu, Jan 01, 2009 at 02:00:49PM -0500, Kamaraju S Kusumanchi wrote: As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. That isn't a video card error, it's a driver problem (or it would happen under Linux). See if there's a newer, better driver for your chipset. I will try this. You might be right on the money that it is a driver issue, not a hardware issue. raju -- Kamaraju S Kusumanchi http://malayamaarutham.blogspot.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 11:45:39 -0500 Kamaraju S Kusumanchi raju.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote: Mark Allums wrote: In general, I think Dell's hardware is unreliable. They work fine initially. But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. raju Don't blame Dell for the video being defective, in this case. The culprit is NVidia, and all laptop makers are at their mercy. (Other issues, like battery life, I have no knowledge of, and cannot speak to.) I did not blame Dell just because I had problems with my laptop. I reached at that conclusion after watching my friends laptops' performance etc., At least five friends of mine who bought Dell laptops have had various problems. I saw that with quite a few consumer laptops. Unless you really baby them they start falling apart after about a year. What I have observed (over the past 4 years or so) is that, typically after 1 year (and even before 2 years) things start going bad. It could be a hard drive failure, it could be that fans stop working (so the processor heats up... leading to its failure), it could be black spots on the monitor, it could be power supply failure, it could be mother board going bad. In my case it just happens to be battery, faulty video card. The fact of the matter is Dell's laptops are made with cheap (quality wise) hardware. So they cost less. If you can put in more money, and if you would like to use the same laptops for more than 1-2 years go for some other brand. I do not know what that other brand should be. But I do know that Dell laptops are not the correct investment for a long term reliable laptop. hth raju -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
initially. But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. My DELL Latitude is approaching 8 years of heavy usage (~ 10 hours daily) and running fine, the screen hinge fell off two years ago and I am currently running it with an external monitor. I would be looking at a ThinkPad for my next laptop and hopefully, comes with full support from a free GNU/Linux distro. -- Koh Choon Lin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat, 3 Jan 2009 20:09:01 +0800 Koh Choon Lin kohchoonl...@gmail.com wrote: If it's any indication then most companies I know work with thinkpads and Dells. Dell have Inspiron and Latitude while Lenovo has Thinkpad and Lenovo models. Would there be a difference in support? At least thinkpad is still supported by ibm, don't know if lenovo is. It would make a difference. The problem with lenovo is build and parts quality. If you need the support -- too much -- that it doesn't matter how good it is. Dell is the same issue. Inspiron is mostly junk. Latitude is durable. If you look deeper than the buzz words (cpu speed, screen size) you will see the difference (build quality, finish, chipset, or even as far as touch pad quality - alps vs synaptic - and keyboard quality). And as to your question, yes there is a difference in support. If you look at what you are paying for, part of it is corporate support vs. home user support. They take companies more seriously that regular users (unlike Sony for example that just ignore everyone altogether ...) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Dotan Cohen wrote: As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. Which video card do you have? The ATI x1400 in this card was a pain in the beginning, but now that ATI supports Linux it is great. I am very happy with the video performance. $lspci | grep ATI 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M52 [ATI Mobility Radeon X1300] I can't complain about video performance. My complaint was with the memory parity errors when flash videos are played on Windows XP. The error is *** Hardware malfunction Call your hardware vendor for support NMI: Parity check/ memory parity error *** The system has halted*** It occurs pretty randomly. Sometimes while watching a flash video it can occur at 35th minute sometimes it can show up at 7th minute. Sometimes it might not even show up after the full video (say 60 minutes). The videos play fine in Linux. raju -- Kamaraju S Kusumanchi http://malayamaarutham.blogspot.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:43:19 -0500 Kamaraju S Kusumanchi raju.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote: Dotan Cohen wrote: As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. Which video card do you have? The ATI x1400 in this card was a pain in the beginning, but now that ATI supports Linux it is great. I am very happy with the video performance. $lspci | grep ATI 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M52 [ATI Mobility Radeon X1300] I can't complain about video performance. My complaint was with the memory parity errors when flash videos are played on Windows XP. The error is *** Hardware malfunction Call your hardware vendor for support NMI: Parity check/ memory parity error *** The system has halted*** It occurs pretty randomly. Sometimes while watching a flash video it can occur at 35th minute sometimes it can show up at 7th minute. Sometimes it might not even show up after the full video (say 60 minutes). The videos play fine in Linux. Perhapse you should run memtest (aptitude install memtest86+, then reboot, choose the memtest option and let it run for a couple of hours). Could be that you have some faulty memory that windows is hitting and linux not for some reason (x3100 is a shared memory card), possibly due to video mode, double buffering etc. (although I don't know if memtest can check the video memory, you should probably set it to the minimum in the bios for the test if possible) raju -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin wrote: On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:43:19 -0500 Kamaraju S Kusumanchi raju.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote: Dotan Cohen wrote: As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. Which video card do you have? The ATI x1400 in this card was a pain in the beginning, but now that ATI supports Linux it is great. I am very happy with the video performance. $lspci | grep ATI 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M52 [ATI Mobility Radeon X1300] I can't complain about video performance. My complaint was with the memory parity errors when flash videos are played on Windows XP. The error is *** Hardware malfunction Call your hardware vendor for support NMI: Parity check/ memory parity error *** The system has halted*** It occurs pretty randomly. Sometimes while watching a flash video it can occur at 35th minute sometimes it can show up at 7th minute. Sometimes it might not even show up after the full video (say 60 minutes). The videos play fine in Linux. Perhapse you should run memtest (aptitude install memtest86+, then reboot, choose the memtest option and let it run for a couple of hours). Could be that you have some faulty memory that windows is hitting and linux not for some reason (x3100 is a shared memory card), possibly due to video mode, double buffering etc. (although I don't know if memtest can check the video memory, you should probably set it to the minimum in the bios for the test if possible) FWIW, A little search in google tells that the fans of world of warcraft also have the same issue. (See http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=69639514sid=1pageNo=1 for more info). They happened to encounter it while playing that game (which, I assume, consumes a lot of RAM, CPU cycles). So it sounds like a hardware issue. hth raju -- Kamaraju S Kusumanchi http://malayamaarutham.blogspot.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
I just buy a NEC Versa Laptop s5500, made in china. the lcd broke to pieces after a month i use it. luckly the support is reachable and quite friendly. But i have to spent another USD300 to replace it. I am running debian. Only work on the latest lenny kernel. It get it working except for the webcam.. On 1/3/09, Kamaraju S Kusumanchi raju.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:43:19 -0500 Kamaraju S Kusumanchi raju.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote: Dotan Cohen wrote: As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. Which video card do you have? The ATI x1400 in this card was a pain in the beginning, but now that ATI supports Linux it is great. I am very happy with the video performance. $lspci | grep ATI 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M52 [ATI Mobility Radeon X1300] I can't complain about video performance. My complaint was with the memory parity errors when flash videos are played on Windows XP. The error is *** Hardware malfunction Call your hardware vendor for support NMI: Parity check/ memory parity error *** The system has halted*** It occurs pretty randomly. Sometimes while watching a flash video it can occur at 35th minute sometimes it can show up at 7th minute. Sometimes it might not even show up after the full video (say 60 minutes). The videos play fine in Linux. Perhapse you should run memtest (aptitude install memtest86+, then reboot, choose the memtest option and let it run for a couple of hours). Could be that you have some faulty memory that windows is hitting and linux not for some reason (x3100 is a shared memory card), possibly due to video mode, double buffering etc. (although I don't know if memtest can check the video memory, you should probably set it to the minimum in the bios for the test if possible) FWIW, A little search in google tells that the fans of world of warcraft also have the same issue. (See http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=69639514sid=1pageNo=1 for more info). They happened to encounter it while playing that game (which, I assume, consumes a lot of RAM, CPU cycles). So it sounds like a hardware issue. hth raju -- Kamaraju S Kusumanchi http://malayamaarutham.blogspot.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
(sniped everything because it was trashed anyway..) You who have been top posting suck Really? seriously. GWTFP. My T-61 has far surpassed what I expected of it.. Expensive?? Depends on what you consider expensive.. A $29 bag of chips is expensive.. A lappy built to take abuse and somehow remain useable is priceless.. -- The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time. —ABRAHAM LINCOLN -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: On Friday 02 January 2009, Mark Allums m...@allums.com wrote about 'Re: OT: laptop recomendations': Don't blame Dell for the video being defective, in this case. The culprit is NVidia, and all laptop makers are at their mercy. The laptop in question (Inspiron E1505) has an Intel video card. My mistake, but the principal is the same. Drivers *and* hardware, in NVidia's case. Mark Allums -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Friday 02 January 2009 01:09:35 Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: On Thursday 01 January 2009, Kamaraju S Kusumanchi raju.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote about 'Re: OT: laptop recomendations': Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: On Wednesday 2008 December 10 16:45:09 Micha Feigin wrote: Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of current Thinkpads. I own a Dell Inspiron E1505. I do not recommend it. Get something else (preferably non-Dell). I always have problems with their batteries, video card. No matter how many times I replace the batteries, they seem to go bad after some time. I replaced the battery 3 times. After 3-4 months the battery life will be reduced to less than 1 hour and then after some time, they just don't work. I'm still using the original battery, although I did get a spare for when I will eventually wear out. It depends on what I'm doing, but 4 hours of battery life is not unheard of, nearly 1.5 years after the purchase date. Running the DVD drive constantly *significantly* reduces that, but I can still use it for at least 90 minutes watching a DVD while running on the battery. As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. Link please? I'd never even consider installing MS Windows on mine, but I've never had a video-card related kernel panic or even X crash. I've played plenty of flash-based video in Linux. The card / drivers don't seem to like each other a whole lot though. My Etch/Lenny mix I had on it until Dec. 8th needed to be switched to a test-mode VC and back before it would display anything after a resume. The openSUSE 11.1 (for work I need turnpike and the Novell/Nortel plugin) I'm running on it right now appears to do that for me. In general, I think Dell's hardware is unreliable. They work fine initially. But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. Mine is a work laptop. I generally use it 8 hours, 5 days a week. It gets even more use if I've got some problems with my desktop, up to ~12 hours, 7 days a week. The only hardware-related problem I had with it was a stuck *row* in the LCD panel. I lived with it for a while, even using it as a guide for how I partitioned my desktop with windows (to hide it in the window borders). However, when I finally got around to calling Dell, they replaced the LCD panel with no cost to me, sending a technician w/ parts to my workplace so downtime was minimal. Anyway, I'm not sure my experience with a laptop is norm. You probably should get multiple (3) opinions on vendors/models you are considering. Well, had my Dell Vostro 1500 for one year now. No issues. I can run it for 5 or 6 hours on battery. As for price, I never buy anything $500 USD as you can boy three or four of those per every expensive machine. So Even if it breaks after one year, technology moved forwared, spend another $500 USD, and buy a slightly newer version. After three years you are greatly ahead in terms of $$ and, if you had to replace your cheap box, technology. Just my 2c worth. -- Damon L. Chesser da...@damtek.com 404-271-8691 Cell 678-401-8420 hm http://www.linkedin.com/in/dchesser -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Fri, Jan 02, 2009 at 11:22:39AM -0500, Damon L. Chesser wrote: had my Dell Vostro 1500 for one year now. No issues. I can run it for 5 or 6 hours on battery. As for price, I never buy anything $500 USD as you can boy three or four of those per every expensive machine. So Even if it breaks after one year, technology moved forwared, spend another $500 USD, and buy a slightly newer version. After three years you are greatly ahead in terms of $$ and, if you had to replace your cheap box, technology. Just my 2c worth. Treating laptops as disposable is a bit hard on the environment. Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On 01/02/09 12:20, Douglas A. Tutty wrote: On Fri, Jan 02, 2009 at 11:22:39AM -0500, Damon L. Chesser wrote: had my Dell Vostro 1500 for one year now. No issues. I can run it for 5 or 6 hours on battery. As for price, I never buy anything $500 USD as you can boy three or four of those per every expensive machine. So Even if it breaks after one year, technology moved forwared, spend another $500 USD, and buy a slightly newer version. After three years you are greatly ahead in terms of $$ and, if you had to replace your cheap box, technology. Just my 2c worth. Treating laptops as disposable is a bit hard on the environment. He must be a Republican. Or Al Gore. -- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA I like my women like I like my coffee - purchased at above-market rates from eco-friendly organic farming cooperatives in Latin America. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/1 Kamaraju S Kusumanchi raju.mailingli...@gmail.com: I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of current Thinkpads. I own a Dell Inspiron E1505. I do not recommend it. Get something else (preferably non-Dell). I always have problems with their batteries, video card. No matter how many times I replace the batteries, they seem to go bad after some time. I replaced the battery 3 times. After 3-4 months the battery life will be reduced to less than 1 hour and then after some time, they just don't work. I have not experienced the issue, but I can add that the standard six-cell battery is good for no more than an hour and a half of usage with Compiz and Wifi enabled. As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. Which video card do you have? The ATI x1400 in this card was a pain in the beginning, but now that ATI supports Linux it is great. I am very happy with the video performance. In general, I think Dell's hardware is unreliable. They work fine initially. But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. I use the laptop at _least_ eight hours a day! I can confirm that things do fall apart: I have had to tighten the clamshell screws several times, there is a dead vertical vector on the LCD matrix, the rubber shoes were all falling out after only a month, and other little things that add up. The CD-ROM drive, fan, and hard drive are very noisy. Oh, and on battery the hard drive spin up and spin down cycles are maddening. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: On Wednesday 2008 December 10 16:45:09 Micha Feigin wrote: Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of current Thinkpads. I own a Dell Inspiron E1505. I do not recommend it. Get something else (preferably non-Dell). I always have problems with their batteries, video card. No matter how many times I replace the batteries, they seem to go bad after some time. I replaced the battery 3 times. After 3-4 months the battery life will be reduced to less than 1 hour and then after some time, they just don't work. As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. In general, I think Dell's hardware is unreliable. They work fine initially. But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. raju -- Kamaraju S Kusumanchi http://malayamaarutham.blogspot.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Thu, Jan 01, 2009 at 02:00:49PM -0500, Kamaraju S Kusumanchi wrote: As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. That isn't a video card error, it's a driver problem (or it would happen under Linux). See if there's a newer, better driver for your chipset. -- Carl Fink nitpick...@nitpicking.com Read my blog at blog.nitpicking.com. Reviews! Observations! Stupid mistakes you can correct! -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Kamaraju S Kusumanchi wrote: Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: On Wednesday 2008 December 10 16:45:09 Micha Feigin wrote: Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of current Thinkpads. I own a Dell Inspiron E1505. I do not recommend it. Get something else (preferably non-Dell). I always have problems with their batteries, video card. No matter how many times I replace the batteries, they seem to go bad after some time. I replaced the battery 3 times. After 3-4 months the battery life will be reduced to less than 1 hour and then after some time, they just don't work. As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. In general, I think Dell's hardware is unreliable. They work fine initially. But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. raju Don't blame Dell for the video being defective, in this case. The culprit is NVidia, and all laptop makers are at their mercy. (Other issues, like battery life, I have no knowledge of, and cannot speak to.) Mark Allums -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Thursday 01 January 2009, Kamaraju S Kusumanchi raju.mailingli...@gmail.com wrote about 'Re: OT: laptop recomendations': Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: On Wednesday 2008 December 10 16:45:09 Micha Feigin wrote: Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of current Thinkpads. I own a Dell Inspiron E1505. I do not recommend it. Get something else (preferably non-Dell). I always have problems with their batteries, video card. No matter how many times I replace the batteries, they seem to go bad after some time. I replaced the battery 3 times. After 3-4 months the battery life will be reduced to less than 1 hour and then after some time, they just don't work. I'm still using the original battery, although I did get a spare for when I will eventually wear out. It depends on what I'm doing, but 4 hours of battery life is not unheard of, nearly 1.5 years after the purchase date. Running the DVD drive constantly *significantly* reduces that, but I can still use it for at least 90 minutes watching a DVD while running on the battery. As for the video card, if I play a flash based movie in windows XP, there will be a blue screen memory map error after some time. FWIW, the movies work fine in Linux. I searched in google for this and found that the video cards in Dell Inspiron E1505 are defective. Link please? I'd never even consider installing MS Windows on mine, but I've never had a video-card related kernel panic or even X crash. I've played plenty of flash-based video in Linux. The card / drivers don't seem to like each other a whole lot though. My Etch/Lenny mix I had on it until Dec. 8th needed to be switched to a test-mode VC and back before it would display anything after a resume. The openSUSE 11.1 (for work I need turnpike and the Novell/Nortel plugin) I'm running on it right now appears to do that for me. In general, I think Dell's hardware is unreliable. They work fine initially. But after 1 year or so, things start to fall apart. This is if you plan to use laptop intensively (say 8-10 hours a day). But if you just use it for 1-2 hours a day, then it's life might be more. Mine is a work laptop. I generally use it 8 hours, 5 days a week. It gets even more use if I've got some problems with my desktop, up to ~12 hours, 7 days a week. The only hardware-related problem I had with it was a stuck *row* in the LCD panel. I lived with it for a while, even using it as a guide for how I partitioned my desktop with windows (to hide it in the window borders). However, when I finally got around to calling Dell, they replaced the LCD panel with no cost to me, sending a technician w/ parts to my workplace so downtime was minimal. Anyway, I'm not sure my experience with a laptop is norm. You probably should get multiple (3) opinions on vendors/models you are considering. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. b...@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/ signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Friday 02 January 2009, Mark Allums m...@allums.com wrote about 'Re: OT: laptop recomendations': Don't blame Dell for the video being defective, in this case. The culprit is NVidia, and all laptop makers are at their mercy. The laptop in question (Inspiron E1505) has an Intel video card. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. b...@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/ signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:49:43 -0200 Ismael Scalcon thesupermo...@gmail.com wrote: That's why we recommend a netbook. It's light, small and the power supply of my EEE 701 is smaller than my cell phone charger. Like I said in my original post, it's an issue of screen and computing power. I'm looking for a powerful laptop (core2 T9500 or simillar) with a 15 display so that I can work on it without using an external monitor at home and in the office. Netbooks are nice for the occasional work outside, carrying and repairing presentation and watching movies on the go. They are not work machines. They do have the advantage of being cheep, but like I said, I was looking for sane in work terms (~1500$) so that is not the issue. I do have a friend who claims that he can run matlab on an eee pc, but I still think that it's fiction ;-) 2008/12/14 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il: On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:34:48 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:37:04 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Dotan Cohen wrote: 2008/12/11 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic Thank in advance for your any advice or recommandation. I would go with the vosotro line if you want to save money and stick with dell. The inspiron is similar to all other home lines which are cheap in all respects, not just the money. I like the t61 but it's old now. the t500 are out, but the reviews are mixed, apparently the keyboard has been replaced with a cheaper one. They are not cheap of course, but you abuse your laptop it will probably pay off. A friend of mine has the vosotro 1440 I think (I believe it has been replaced also with a newer model) and he is rather happy with it. Another one is willing to kill anyone who considers anything other than macs. Thanks for those hints. I will carry a bit more search into the vosotro line. At the time I had purchased my old Thinkpad 600, it was bound to be my main home personal computer, so I was prepared to pay the price for something really good and nice for my eyes..., but now that I mostly use a recent good desktop, my new laptop will only serve on an occasional basis ; however I want it reliable and not fragile, and powerful enough as far as wifi is concerned. One other thing that people often forget to look at when buying a laptop. If you plan to have it mobile, check out the size of the power supply. The cheaper laptops may look initially not much heavier than the more expensive ones but the power supply can be a serious brick that can add more than an extra pound to the total weight -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
That's why we recommend a netbook. It's light, small and the power supply of my EEE 701 is smaller than my cell phone charger. 2008/12/14 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il: On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:34:48 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:37:04 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Dotan Cohen wrote: 2008/12/11 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic Thank in advance for your any advice or recommandation. I would go with the vosotro line if you want to save money and stick with dell. The inspiron is similar to all other home lines which are cheap in all respects, not just the money. I like the t61 but it's old now. the t500 are out, but the reviews are mixed, apparently the keyboard has been replaced with a cheaper one. They are not cheap of course, but you abuse your laptop it will probably pay off. A friend of mine has the vosotro 1440 I think (I believe it has been replaced also with a newer model) and he is rather happy with it. Another one is willing to kill anyone who considers anything other than macs. Thanks for those hints. I will carry a bit more search into the vosotro line. At the time I had purchased my old Thinkpad 600, it was bound to be my main home personal computer, so I was prepared to pay the price for something really good and nice for my eyes..., but now that I mostly use a recent good desktop, my new laptop will only serve on an occasional basis ; however I want it reliable and not fragile, and powerful enough as far as wifi is concerned. One other thing that people often forget to look at when buying a laptop. If you plan to have it mobile, check out the size of the power supply. The cheaper laptops may look initially not much heavier than the more expensive ones but the power supply can be a serious brick that can add more than an extra pound to the total weight -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin wrote: On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:37:04 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Dotan Cohen wrote: 2008/12/11 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic Thank in advance for your any advice or recommandation. I would go with the vosotro line if you want to save money and stick with dell. The inspiron is similar to all other home lines which are cheap in all respects, not just the money. I like the t61 but it's old now. the t500 are out, but the reviews are mixed, apparently the keyboard has been replaced with a cheaper one. They are not cheap of course, but you abuse your laptop it will probably pay off. A friend of mine has the vosotro 1440 I think (I believe it has been replaced also with a newer model) and he is rather happy with it. Another one is willing to kill anyone who considers anything other than macs. Thanks for those hints. I will carry a bit more search into the vosotro line. At the time I had purchased my old Thinkpad 600, it was bound to be my main home personal computer, so I was prepared to pay the price for something really good and nice for my eyes..., but now that I mostly use a recent good desktop, my new laptop will only serve on an occasional basis ; however I want it reliable and not fragile, and powerful enough as far as wifi is concerned. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On 12/14/08 09:34, Bernard wrote: [snip] Thanks for those hints. I will carry a bit more search into the vosotro line. At the time I had purchased my old Thinkpad 600, it was bound to be my main home personal computer, so I was prepared to pay the price for something really good and nice for my eyes..., but now that I mostly use a recent good desktop, my new laptop will only serve on an occasional basis ; however I want it reliable and not fragile, and powerful enough as far as wifi is concerned. In that case, why not get a netbook? -- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA How does being physically handicapped make me Differently-Abled? What different abilities do I have? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:34:48 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:37:04 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Dotan Cohen wrote: 2008/12/11 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic Thank in advance for your any advice or recommandation. I would go with the vosotro line if you want to save money and stick with dell. The inspiron is similar to all other home lines which are cheap in all respects, not just the money. I like the t61 but it's old now. the t500 are out, but the reviews are mixed, apparently the keyboard has been replaced with a cheaper one. They are not cheap of course, but you abuse your laptop it will probably pay off. A friend of mine has the vosotro 1440 I think (I believe it has been replaced also with a newer model) and he is rather happy with it. Another one is willing to kill anyone who considers anything other than macs. Thanks for those hints. I will carry a bit more search into the vosotro line. At the time I had purchased my old Thinkpad 600, it was bound to be my main home personal computer, so I was prepared to pay the price for something really good and nice for my eyes..., but now that I mostly use a recent good desktop, my new laptop will only serve on an occasional basis ; however I want it reliable and not fragile, and powerful enough as far as wifi is concerned. One other thing that people often forget to look at when buying a laptop. If you plan to have it mobile, check out the size of the power supply. The cheaper laptops may look initially not much heavier than the more expensive ones but the power supply can be a serious brick that can add more than an extra pound to the total weight -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008, Micha Feigin wrote: 100% is too much for normal work, the battery has a better lifespan if you limit it to 90% or so, but AFAIK this is only possible with (possibly newer) thinkpads. No, it is possible with every non-ancient real ThinkPad. And all new real ThinkPads. WARNING: The Thinkpad SL is NOT a real ThinkPad, so don't buy that one to run Linux. It is completely unsupported (it does have battery charge control in Windows). -- One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie. -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008, Daryl Styrk wrote: My t61 always stops at 96% You have set it to do that (maybe the last time when you ran Windows and the battery life maximizer system decided you didn't really need it at 100%.. it informed you of that, but you might not recall it), and it will retain that setting until you remove AC and all batteries. IBM thinkpads and Lenovo models older than the T61 will power down the EC when they are turned off, and AC is removed. The T61 and everything newer than that apparently power down the EC only if both AC and the batteries are unplugged. A Renesas H8S EC (which is what ThinkPads use since basically forever) draws a few micro watts when in sleep mode, so one can see why Lenovo decided to just not power it down to retain all settings and keep an eye on the battery pack permanently (the battery pack is a SBS battery pack, and therefore also has a microcontroller that is NEVER powered down. In fact, it knows when it was first used, how much of its lifetime it has spent charging and discharging, etc). -- One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where the shadows lie. -- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:24:35 -0500 Celejar cele...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:39:26 -0200 Ismael Scalcon thesupermo...@gmail.com wrote: ... Also, my girlfriend has bought herself an Acer Aspire (not the One), and, so far, we had no problems with it. I've been using an Acer (Aspire 3690) for about two years with no problems yet, but I baby it; I've never dropped it, spilled anything into it, sat on it, etc. The battery life is quite low, only about an hour and a half when new, but I nearly always use it on AC. [Tangent: my impression is that that will help preserve the battery life, as charge / discharge cycles reduce it. Is this true?] Not completely, what newer batteries hate is heat, over and under charging. If it's always plugged in it may kill the battery rather quickly. What I have on my current thinkpad is the ability to stop charging before 100% and that can add quite a bit of like to the battery. A friend of mine as a lenovo 3000 (very bad track record with them with the university staff), which was always plugged in and almost always on, the battery is mostly dead in a year. I've never dealt with Acer support. This was already a low end machine when I purchased it, but it is quite usable for my needs: Celeron M 420 @ 1.6GHZ 512MB RAM (recently upgraded to 2GB, not because I needed it, but because I found a steal on RAM) 60GB HDD Broadcom wireless (4318, supported perfectly by b43) 15 inch screen, Intel 945GM graphics Intel 82801G stuff inside The OP asked about performance, but IIUC, that will depend mostly on the actual components used, not on the build quality or any special sauce of the integrator. I daresay I'm oversimplifying, and I'll appreciate corrections Celejar -- mailmin.sourceforge.net - remote access via secure (OpenPGP) email ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il writes: Not completely, what newer batteries hate is heat, over and under charging. If it's always plugged in it may kill the battery rather quickly. What I have on my current thinkpad is the ability to stop charging before 100% and that can add quite a bit of like to the battery. How do you do this? I've got a thinkpad R60, and I've been plugging it in when it runs low, then (when I remember), unplugging it when it reaches full charge. Is there some way to automate this? I know the Windows partition has some configuration options, but I don't know how to do this under Debian. Thanks, Tyler -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On 12/12/2008 12:58 PM, tyler wrote: How do you do this? I've got a thinkpad R60, and I've been plugging it in when it runs low, then (when I remember), unplugging it when it reaches full charge. Is there some way to automate this? I know the Windows partition has some configuration options, but I don't know how to do this under Debian. Install the tp_smapi modules. See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi for more information. Winfried -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On 12/12/2008 05:58 AM, tyler wrote: Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il writes: Not completely, what newer batteries hate is heat, over and under charging. If it's always plugged in it may kill the battery rather quickly. What I have on my current thinkpad is the ability to stop charging before 100% and that can add quite a bit of like to the battery. How do you do this? I've got a thinkpad R60, and I've been plugging it in when it runs low, then (when I remember), unplugging it when it reaches full charge. Is there some way to automate this? I know the Windows partition has some configuration options, but I don't know how to do this under Debian. Been using settings for charge control from here for a year or so: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi#Battery_charge_control_features -- Kind Regards, Michael Shuler -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Well, both my EEE Pc and my girlfriend's Aspire 4520 stop charging the battery when 100% (the battery charging light turn off and the OS energy manager just says Using AC instead of Charging. Both in my EEE Pc Debian and My girlfriends Aspire Windows XP. 2008/12/12 Michael Shuler mich...@pbandjelly.org: On 12/12/2008 05:58 AM, tyler wrote: Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il writes: Not completely, what newer batteries hate is heat, over and under charging. If it's always plugged in it may kill the battery rather quickly. What I have on my current thinkpad is the ability to stop charging before 100% and that can add quite a bit of like to the battery. How do you do this? I've got a thinkpad R60, and I've been plugging it in when it runs low, then (when I remember), unplugging it when it reaches full charge. Is there some way to automate this? I know the Windows partition has some configuration options, but I don't know how to do this under Debian. Been using settings for charge control from here for a year or so: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi#Battery_charge_control_features -- Kind Regards, Michael Shuler -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Winfried Tilanus winfr...@tilanus.com writes: On 12/12/2008 12:58 PM, tyler wrote: How do you do this? I've got a thinkpad R60, and I've been plugging it in when it runs low, then (when I remember), unplugging it when it reaches full charge. Is there some way to automate this? I know the Windows partition has some configuration options, but I don't know how to do this under Debian. Install the tp_smapi modules. See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi for more information. Great, thanks! Cheers, Tyler -- ``I have no intellectual property, and I think that all claimants to such property are thieves.'' --Wendell Berry http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/resist.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 tyler wrote: Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il writes: Not completely, what newer batteries hate is heat, over and under charging. If it's always plugged in it may kill the battery rather quickly. What I have on my current thinkpad is the ability to stop charging before 100% and that can add quite a bit of like to the battery. How do you do this? I've got a thinkpad R60, and I've been plugging it in when it runs low, then (when I remember), unplugging it when it reaches full charge. Is there some way to automate this? I know the Windows partition has some configuration options, but I don't know how to do this under Debian. Thanks, Tyler My t61 always stops at 96% -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAklCjioACgkQejxzjThnMmJ/RwCgrgUEr1kTgjj5Th2vRZGRVeVa vkgAoM+eKI1ikyBhxh0374rwLGsH+KlS =7hCg -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
tp_smapi config [Was OT: laptop recomendations]
Winfried Tilanus winfr...@tilanus.com writes:
Install the tp_smapi modules. See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi
for more information.
oops. I'm missing something. I just installed the tp-smapi packages for
my kernel, and according to the documentation on thinkwiki, I can set
the start and stop thresholds with this:
echo 40 /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/start_charge_thresh
echo 70 /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/stop_charge_thresh
Except that there is no /sys/devices/platform/smapi directory on my
system, and I cannot create the directory with mkdir. I searched my
entire system for smapi directories, BAT0 directories, or files names
{start,stop}_charge_thresh, but none exist. I tried rebooting, in case
there was some mystic kernel thing going on, but that didn't help. I
tried modprobe -l, which confirmed that the smapi modules were loaded:
/lib/modules/2.6.26-1-686/extra/tp-smapi/thinkpad_ec.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.26-1-686/extra/tp-smapi/tp_smapi.ko
I'm a little over my head - What do I need to do to get this set up?
Thanks,
Tyler
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Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Hi, skip picked up a thinkpad T42 off lease, nice machine, everything works out of the box. also have an acer aspire, amd, nvidia, everything worked out of the box. alienware m9700, everything works except webcam. About apire... No problems with hot keys? No problems with suspend/resume? -- Best regards, Serge -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:20:03 +0200 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il wrote: ... Not completely, what newer batteries hate is heat, over and under charging. If it's always plugged in it may kill the battery rather quickly. What I have on my current thinkpad is the ability to stop charging before 100% and that can add quite a bit of like to the battery. Thanks for the information. I've been using my laptop for about two years, for an average of probably several hours of power-on a day. The design_charge is 200, and the current / now charge is 1792000, so I suppose it hasn't degraded too badly yet. This is, I believe, a bottom of the barrel battery, on a rather low end system, which I guess also means less power draw, although my understanding is that the Celeron has crippled power management. When new, I got a fairly consistent 1.5 hours till shutdown, and I haven't done a drain test recently. You mention overcharging; as Ismael says in another message in this thread, the system seems to know when the battery is full and stops charging; the power LED goes from red to green, and ACPI reports full, not charging. Does it really keep charging, to the detriment of the batter? Celejar -- mailmin.sourceforge.net - remote access via secure (OpenPGP) email ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:12:47 -0200 Ismael Scalcon thesupermo...@gmail.com wrote: Well, both my EEE Pc and my girlfriend's Aspire 4520 stop charging the battery when 100% (the battery charging light turn off and the OS energy manager just says Using AC instead of Charging. Both in my EEE Pc Debian and My girlfriends Aspire Windows XP. 100% is too much for normal work, the battery has a better lifespan if you limit it to 90% or so, but AFAIK this is only possible with (possibly newer) thinkpads. 2008/12/12 Michael Shuler mich...@pbandjelly.org: On 12/12/2008 05:58 AM, tyler wrote: Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il writes: Not completely, what newer batteries hate is heat, over and under charging. If it's always plugged in it may kill the battery rather quickly. What I have on my current thinkpad is the ability to stop charging before 100% and that can add quite a bit of like to the battery. How do you do this? I've got a thinkpad R60, and I've been plugging it in when it runs low, then (when I remember), unplugging it when it reaches full charge. Is there some way to automate this? I know the Windows partition has some configuration options, but I don't know how to do this under Debian. Been using settings for charge control from here for a year or so: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi#Battery_charge_control_features -- Kind Regards, Michael Shuler -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:10:35 -0500 Celejar cele...@gmail.com wrote: On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:20:03 +0200 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il wrote: ... Not completely, what newer batteries hate is heat, over and under charging. If it's always plugged in it may kill the battery rather quickly. What I have on my current thinkpad is the ability to stop charging before 100% and that can add quite a bit of like to the battery. Thanks for the information. I've been using my laptop for about two years, for an average of probably several hours of power-on a day. The design_charge is 200, and the current / now charge is 1792000, so I suppose it hasn't degraded too badly yet. This is, I believe, a bottom of the barrel battery, on a rather low end system, which I guess also means less power draw, although my understanding is that the Celeron has crippled power management. When new, I got a fairly consistent 1.5 hours till shutdown, and I haven't done a drain test recently. You mention overcharging; as Ismael says in another message in this thread, the system seems to know when the battery is full and stops charging; the power LED goes from red to green, and ACPI reports full, not charging. Does it really keep charging, to the detriment of the batter? It depends on how good they built the circuitry. If the led changes color then I guess that it actually stops charging. The issue is like this, battery charge percentage isn't an exact value, to make sure that you are at a 100% you need to over charge it and see that it stops there. If you stop at approximately 80% you're not over charging. Apart from that, if you disconnect and reconnect again, you start charging again even if it dropped just to 99.5%. What I do is set a stop charge limit at 85% and a start charge limit at 75% so it doesn't immediately start charging again. The problem is that this is possible only with newer thinkpads AFAIK. Celejar -- mailmin.sourceforge.net - remote access via secure (OpenPGP) email ssuds.sourceforge.net - A Simple Sudoku Solver and Generator -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: tp_smapi config [Was OT: laptop recomendations]
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:23:35 -0400
tyler tyler.sm...@mail.mcgill.ca wrote:
Winfried Tilanus winfr...@tilanus.com writes:
Install the tp_smapi modules. See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi
for more information.
oops. I'm missing something. I just installed the tp-smapi packages for
my kernel, and according to the documentation on thinkwiki, I can set
the start and stop thresholds with this:
echo 40 /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/start_charge_thresh
echo 70 /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/stop_charge_thresh
Except that there is no /sys/devices/platform/smapi directory on my
system, and I cannot create the directory with mkdir. I searched my
entire system for smapi directories, BAT0 directories, or files names
{start,stop}_charge_thresh, but none exist. I tried rebooting, in case
there was some mystic kernel thing going on, but that didn't help. I
tried modprobe -l, which confirmed that the smapi modules were loaded:
do lsmod to make sure that they are loaded
/lib/modules/2.6.26-1-686/extra/tp-smapi/thinkpad_ec.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.26-1-686/extra/tp-smapi/tp_smapi.ko
I'm a little over my head - What do I need to do to get this set up?
Thanks,
Tyler
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Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Dotan Cohen wrote: 2008/12/11 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic but it's time for a new laptop that will run linux solely and I'm looking for recomendation on what has a good build quallity (will travel), descent battery life, although more important is good computing power and a good screen at 15.4 (needs to be workable with the screen) at a price range of around 1500$ rough ballpark. Good service is a must since it's a working laptop. I know that hp and compaq are a big no no (build quality is shaky at best). I also have the worst experience possible with Sony support on just about every continent (haven't managed to run into worse). Lenovo 3000 series also has a bad track run at our uni in terms of build quallity, no experience with the ideapad pad heard that they are not much brighter. Currently the best candidates are the lenovo thinkpad series (either stick with the older and probed t61 or go with the t500 or similar), mac (not sure about the one button issue although the design is nice). Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). Toshiba local dealers didn't prove themselves with a friends laptop. Can't find anyone with experience with lg and fujitsu. Will be happy for feedback/experience/hardware trouble/Service experience in case of mulfunciton etc. Thanks I've got a Dell Inspiron E1505 / 6400 2.0 gHz Duo Core laptop with 2GB of RAM that I've been lugging on my back since January 2007. 15.4 1680x1050 screen, works great with Compiz, wifi, bluetooth. Terrific keyboard too. At the time it was about $1200 but it should be less now. My only regret is the 80 GB hard drive, which is too small. Be sure that you get a 7200 RPM hard drive no matter what size you buy. I have read this thread with much interest, since I am planning to purchase a new laptop. My old IBM Thinkpad 600 is too old (about 8 years old). I might have bought a Lenovo Thinkpad T61, but they are awfully expensive here : in the range 1800 to 2400 Euros, while DELL is much cheaper (380 Euros for a DELL Inspiron 1525, which is 4-5 times cheaper). The Inspiron 1505 no longer exists, as they write on their website, pointing out that the new 1525 is better and cheaper. Does anyone know about that DELL Inspiron 1525 ? It is being sold with Ubuntu v8.04 installed, but I plan to install Debian Etch instead, maybe even Lenny. Its default characteristics are as follow : - Intel Celeron processor 560 (2.13 GHz, 533 MHz FSB - 1 MB L2 cache - screen WXGA 15.4 (1280x800) - HD 120 GB 5400 rpm - battery 6 cells (I suppose it is a Li-ion, but it is not specified) There is an extra charge of 85 Euros if you want a HD 160 GB that spins at 7200 rpm ; an extra charge of 240 Euros for a processor Intel Core 2 duo TB100 ; and an extra charge of 300 Euros for Intel Core 2 duo TB300 I might request the HD that spins at 7200 rpm since it is being said that it is safer in case of fall. Thank in advance for your any advice or recommandation. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:37:04 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Dotan Cohen wrote: 2008/12/11 Micha Feigin mi...@post.tau.ac.il: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic but it's time for a new laptop that will run linux solely and I'm looking for recomendation on what has a good build quallity (will travel), descent battery life, although more important is good computing power and a good screen at 15.4 (needs to be workable with the screen) at a price range of around 1500$ rough ballpark. Good service is a must since it's a working laptop. I know that hp and compaq are a big no no (build quality is shaky at best). I also have the worst experience possible with Sony support on just about every continent (haven't managed to run into worse). Lenovo 3000 series also has a bad track run at our uni in terms of build quallity, no experience with the ideapad pad heard that they are not much brighter. Currently the best candidates are the lenovo thinkpad series (either stick with the older and probed t61 or go with the t500 or similar), mac (not sure about the one button issue although the design is nice). Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). Toshiba local dealers didn't prove themselves with a friends laptop. Can't find anyone with experience with lg and fujitsu. Will be happy for feedback/experience/hardware trouble/Service experience in case of mulfunciton etc. Thanks I've got a Dell Inspiron E1505 / 6400 2.0 gHz Duo Core laptop with 2GB of RAM that I've been lugging on my back since January 2007. 15.4 1680x1050 screen, works great with Compiz, wifi, bluetooth. Terrific keyboard too. At the time it was about $1200 but it should be less now. My only regret is the 80 GB hard drive, which is too small. Be sure that you get a 7200 RPM hard drive no matter what size you buy. I have read this thread with much interest, since I am planning to purchase a new laptop. My old IBM Thinkpad 600 is too old (about 8 years old). I might have bought a Lenovo Thinkpad T61, but they are awfully expensive here : in the range 1800 to 2400 Euros, while DELL is much cheaper (380 Euros for a DELL Inspiron 1525, which is 4-5 times cheaper). The Inspiron 1505 no longer exists, as they write on their website, pointing out that the new 1525 is better and cheaper. Does anyone know about that DELL Inspiron 1525 ? It is being sold with Ubuntu v8.04 installed, but I plan to install Debian Etch instead, maybe even Lenny. Its default characteristics are as follow : It's a bit of apples and oranges. The dell inspiron is a home laptop, which should be compared (somewhat) to the r series if you go for the proper thinkpad line or the lenovo 3000 which at least in our uni, they recomend the staff to avoid since people have had a lot of problems with. The t61 is more comparable to the latitude line (business) and vostro (small business, cheaper but a bit heavier) In general Dells are cheaper though, but they also give you less. - Intel Celeron processor 560 (2.13 GHz, 533 MHz FSB - 1 MB L2 cache Thats borderline for a new computer - screen WXGA 15.4 (1280x800) Thats the low end screens. If there is an option for 1440xwhatever or 1680x1050 I would go for it as those are better screens - HD 120 GB 5400 rpm - battery 6 cells (I suppose it is a Li-ion, but it is not specified) There is an extra charge of 85 Euros if you want a HD 160 GB that spins at 7200 rpm ; an extra charge of 240 Euros for a processor Intel Core 2 duo TB100 ; and an extra charge of 300 Euros for Intel Core 2 duo TB300 What are you planning to use the laptop for? For office and network it's ok, if you want a little more I would go with the core 2, although I don't know these models. I might request the HD that spins at 7200 rpm since it is being said that it is safer in case of fall. Don't know about safer in case of a fall, it's not due to the 7200rpm, could be a harddisk feature. My current t61 thinkpad has accelerometers that park the drive (software daemon) in case of a fall or a hit. Depends on drive support for parking the heads though Thank in advance for your any advice or recommandation. I would go with the vosotro line if you want to save money and stick with dell. The inspiron is similar to all other home lines which are cheap in all respects, not just the money. I like the t61 but it's old now. the t500 are out, but the reviews are mixed, apparently the keyboard has been replaced with a cheaper one. They are not cheap of course, but you abuse your laptop it will probably pay off. A friend of mine has the vosotro 1440 I think (I believe it has been replaced also with a newer model) and he is rather happy with it. Another one is willing to kill anyone who considers anything other than macs.
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
2008/12/11 Micha Feigin [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic but it's time for a new laptop that will run linux solely and I'm looking for recomendation on what has a good build quallity (will travel), descent battery life, although more important is good computing power and a good screen at 15.4 (needs to be workable with the screen) at a price range of around 1500$ rough ballpark. Good service is a must since it's a working laptop. I know that hp and compaq are a big no no (build quality is shaky at best). I also have the worst experience possible with Sony support on just about every continent (haven't managed to run into worse). Lenovo 3000 series also has a bad track run at our uni in terms of build quallity, no experience with the ideapad pad heard that they are not much brighter. Currently the best candidates are the lenovo thinkpad series (either stick with the older and probed t61 or go with the t500 or similar), mac (not sure about the one button issue although the design is nice). Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). Toshiba local dealers didn't prove themselves with a friends laptop. Can't find anyone with experience with lg and fujitsu. Will be happy for feedback/experience/hardware trouble/Service experience in case of mulfunciton etc. Thanks I've got a Dell Inspiron E1505 / 6400 2.0 gHz Duo Core laptop with 2GB of RAM that I've been lugging on my back since January 2007. 15.4 1680x1050 screen, works great with Compiz, wifi, bluetooth. Terrific keyboard too. At the time it was about $1200 but it should be less now. My only regret is the 80 GB hard drive, which is too small. Be sure that you get a 7200 RPM hard drive no matter what size you buy. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin wrote: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic but it's time for a new laptop that will run linux solely and I'm looking for recomendation on what has a good build quallity (will travel), descent battery life, although more important is good computing power and a good screen at 15.4 (needs to be workable with the screen) at a price range of around 1500$ rough ballpark. Good service is a must since it's a working laptop. I know that hp and compaq are a big no no (build quality is shaky at best). I also have the worst experience possible with Sony support on just about every continent (haven't managed to run into worse). Lenovo 3000 series also has a bad track run at our uni in terms of build quallity, no experience with the ideapad pad heard that they are not much brighter. Currently the best candidates are the lenovo thinkpad series (either stick with the older and probed t61 or go with the t500 or similar), mac (not sure about the one button issue although the design is nice). Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). Toshiba local dealers didn't prove themselves with a friends laptop. Can't find anyone with experience with lg and fujitsu. Will be happy for feedback/experience/hardware trouble/Service experience in case of mulfunciton etc. Thanks I love my Dell XPS. I have a 13.3', but there are versions with larger screens. They can be bought with Ubuntu preinstalled, so you know for sure that Linux works on these systems. Also some Inspirions can be bought with Ubuntu, which saves you a Windows licence. Sjoerd -- () ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail /\ www.asciiribbon.org - against proprietary attachments signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
I am running sid in a toshiba satellite a205-S5831, circuit city for $400 usd (scratches, etc). Sound card crappy, wifi had to be activated with madwifi (see wiki.debian.org). Otherwise, good laptop. --- On Wed, 12/10/08, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: OT: laptop recomendations To: debian-user@lists.debian.org Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 7:39 PM On Wednesday 2008 December 10 16:45:09 Micha Feigin wrote: Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). I'm happy with my Dell Inspiron E1505. My roommate is happy with his more recent laptop purchase from Dell. My other roommate likes his Thinkpad, but it is a much older system, so I can't say that reflects the quality of current Thinkpads. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.org/ \_/
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:08:14 +0100 Sjoerd Hardeman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: Hello, Sorry for being a bit off topic but it's time for a new laptop that will run linux solely and I'm looking for recomendation on what has a good build quallity (will travel), descent battery life, although more important is good computing power and a good screen at 15.4 (needs to be workable with the screen) at a price range of around 1500$ rough ballpark. Good service is a must since it's a working laptop. I know that hp and compaq are a big no no (build quality is shaky at best). I also have the worst experience possible with Sony support on just about every continent (haven't managed to run into worse). Lenovo 3000 series also has a bad track run at our uni in terms of build quallity, no experience with the ideapad pad heard that they are not much brighter. Currently the best candidates are the lenovo thinkpad series (either stick with the older and probed t61 or go with the t500 or similar), mac (not sure about the one button issue although the design is nice). Runner up is Dell, although the hardware seems a bit cheap when looking at the drivers (especially the touchpad which tends to be alps which isn't up to par with the synaptic). Toshiba local dealers didn't prove themselves with a friends laptop. Can't find anyone with experience with lg and fujitsu. Will be happy for feedback/experience/hardware trouble/Service experience in case of mulfunciton etc. Thanks I love my Dell XPS. I have a 13.3', but there are versions with larger screens. They can be bought with Ubuntu preinstalled, so you know for sure that Linux works on these systems. Also some Inspirions can be bought with Ubuntu, which saves you a Windows licence. Sjoerd -- Hi, I concur with the DELL idea. I have an Precision M60 3-years old and it's a tank. still using initial battery. I would recommend that you explore the refurbished supply for a more reasonable price. Mine has been dropped, rained on, slipped off the car hood and sat-on with never a hiccup. But of course, YMMV. My .02 Jack -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: OT: laptop recomendations
On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 08:54:41AM -0600, Jack Schneider wrote: -- Hi, I concur with the DELL idea. I have an Precision M60 3-years Is that an answer or a signature? '-- ' on a line of its own is a signature separator. If you really like '--' as a separator line, just don't put the extra space after it. As in: -- Tzafrir Cohen | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | VIM is http://tzafrir.org.il || a Mutt's [EMAIL PROTECTED] || best ICQ# 16849754 || friend -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
