(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

http://www.datamation.com/open-source/l ... aptop.html

This article is including Ubuntu Desktop certified hardware as a link : https://certification.ubuntu.com/desktop/

And it makes a case about Dell and Lenovo being the most compatible with a Linux installation : With both Dell and Lenovo, regardless of which operating system comes pre-installed, both brands do well with Linux installation done by the end user.

Dell does offer some great Linux laptops. One of their best overall has to be the XPS 13. For the price, you get a solid developer friendly laptop that has an attractive form factor to it. This is thin and light.

Lenovo is very hard to beat in the "just works" category. Another reason I like recommending Lenovo is that they have different laptop types depending on your needs.

Station X :
A new comer to the Linux niche, providing high-quality hardware for use with most linux distros.
Link to a review of this laptop and desktop seller : https://itsfoss.com/station-x-linux-computers/

Further reading :
If you are using USB rt2800usb it is the most widely supported. Panda wireless runs this chip and is basically plug and play in Linux.
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/netw ... fi-praxis/

For the last five years or so I have found what I believe to be the most reliably cross platform USB wifi adapters available and I highly recommend them. I cannot recall ever not being able to connect to my office wifi with any computer I was repairing. If you are having difficulty with wifi connections get a Panda wireless USB wifi adapter. They have a website and are distributed by Panther in the US and sold by Amazon for around $15 to $25 US.
https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/netw ... -adapters/

https://askubuntu.com/questions/674116/ ... nk-mt7610u
Ubuntu on Dell: What to Consider?
https://linuxhint.com/ubuntu_on_dell/
Notebooks powered by Zorin OS
https://news.softpedia.com/news/you-can ... 6489.shtml
Best Cheap Linux Laptops to Buy on a Budget
https://linuxhint.com/best_cheap_linux_laptops/
16 Places to Buy a Pre-installed Linux Laptop Online
https://www.2daygeek.com/buy-linux-lapt ... rs-online/

Have been a Puppy Linux user on a Lenovo T60 ThinkPad (XP-era) for 5 years, practically continuously. Puppy developer pemasu was brilliant with his Pupplets that I suggested renaming 'ThinkPads' as 'ThinkPemasu's'. Happy to swear by my Lenovo. With the Advanced Dock and additional monitors its a dream workhorse setup with multiple Puppy flavours, and parts so affordable now on the pre-loved market... Unfortunately my Lenovo X300 motherboard died with only comparatively light use, so I am cautiously biased against the later-model Chinese Lenovo productions. As for Dells, I *used* to judge them badly via second-hand complaints of nearly everyone I knew who owned one (desktops only). Now I have a 12yo Inspiron 1100 that goes above and beyond its remit, happy to follow Mike Walsh's glowing recommendations for Puppy on that hardware. Was debating just last night with the ex about a second-hand business-class Dell or Lenovo laptop for the son's high-school use. Both Lenovo and Dell get ticks from me

UPDATE: Report that TahrPup32, XenialPup64 work really well on my Lenovo X130e - working well for about a month without problems.

+1 on thinkpads, used them for years, T21, T61, T500 and now X201

very robust and all stick working well

I disagree about DELL
I had two Dells at home, and i got so many difficulties to connect with B43 wireless driver. An we are thousands to know this famous B43, to remember it.

I use a Lenovo Thinkpad W510 and it is almost perfect except for the mouse. I use a wireless mouse.
Easy shares the driver. So does Quirky and ............. so when I use my Lenovo Thinkpad BIOS to disable the touchpad I boot up to no mouse. If I try to use Easy or Quirky settings to disable the touchpad I get the same result. NO MOUSE and NO TOUCHPAD.

Hiya, Puppyt.

Puppyt wrote:Now I have a 12yo Inspiron 1100 that goes above and beyond its remit, happy to follow Mike Walsh's glowing recommendations for Puppy on that hardware.

Crikey. I had no idea anyone would take my ramblings seriously about ye olde Dell..! Hope you're enjoying it.

But I stand by those 'recommendations'. Until you learn about the 'workaround' for the onboard graphics, it always looked like I was wasting my time even trying to get Linux on here. Yet simply adding 'i915.modeset=0' to the end of the kernel line in Grub4DOS's menu-entry for any Pup you want to run on the 1100 is all it takes to fix it. Micko even gives that same advice in the release notes for Slacko 5.5, along with specifically stating the need to upgrade the BIOS so as to enable the maximum shared VRAM of 8 MB.

http://01micko.com/slacko5.5/notes.html

You need to upgrade to the A32 BIOS.....and the simplest way to do so is to download it from here:-

http://www.bay-wolf.com/flashbios.htm

.....in the form of a mini-ISO file. Burn it to a CD, then boot into it just like a PuppyCD; it does one thing, and one thing only.....upgrades the BIOS. Takes about 2 minutes; Bob's yr Uncle, all 'done & dusted'! There's no mistakes to make; just follow the simple on-screen instructions. Beats all that faffing around with DOS-based floppy disks in Windows..!

After you've done that, go into the BIOS and set the max shared VRAM of 8GB. Then, open 'menu.lst' with Geany, and add the magic incantation above to the kernel line of every Pup you're running. Instead of 640x480 squashed into the top-left corner, you'll get the full glory of all 1024x768 in full technicolor!

---------------------------------------------------------

I've done that much upgrading to the 1100, my specs are now over and above its big brother's, the 5100. From a 2.2 'Celly' to a 2.6 GHz 'proper' P4; 128MB to 2 GB RAM (the 845 chipset will 'handle it'; Intel well & truly 'buried' that info away in the depths of a 2002 'white paper' on their chipset's capabilities.....and it took some tracking down!);

(https://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/d ... asheet.pdf - page 109; section 5.2.1 - Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM Interface Overview

"The MCH includes support for:
• Up to 2 GB of 200/266 MHz DDR SDRAM (in fact, it'll support up to 400MHz, but they don't mention that bit!)
• DDR200/266 unbuffered 184 pin DDR SDRAM DIMMs
• Maximum of 2 DIMMs, single-sided and/or double-sided
•Configurable optional ECC")

.....64 GB KingSpec IDE/PATA SSD; and a pair of 128 GB SanDisk 'Ultra' nano-sized USB 3.0 drives in the rear ports as 'external storage'. The only place the 5100 beats the 1100 is in the built-in wireless; a NetGear 'RangeMax' PCMCIA adapter in the CardBus slot below the hard-drive caddy solves that one, using the 'ath5k' driver that's been in the kernel for ever!

They're built like a brick outhouse, and there's loads of space inside for routine maintenance.....which needs doing. Especially the heatsink being cleaned-out, and the TIM being regularly replaced, whether you think it needs it or not. Take care of that small chore, and they're as reliable as they come.

Nah, the 1100's a good old 'bus'; slow & steady.....but it just keeps chugging along. And it's way more capable than Dell would have you believe. Puppy re-juvenated her. Mine's 15 yrs old.......& counting..!


Mike.

Hi Mike,
just replying briefly to your post here, and in my recent tracings of your Dell Inspiron 1100 adventures through the Murga forum, am mindful that the OP's title could more appropriately be "laptops most compatible with VARIOUS Linux KERNELS"!
As you note in several posts over the last couple of years describing how you've actually tamed the Dell, various hardware innovations (?) have required individualised solutions not otherwise available to the mainstream kernel. I'm still to wrangle the best out of a Pupplet/Official puppy that will give the best from the Digital Flat Panel dimensions (Xorg version and i915.modset=0 calls notwithstanding), pcmcia wifi, ALSA etc to a TahrPup32-like consistency that I've been spoiled with in my Lenovo laptop builds. Mind you, it's been a scattergun approach as I've magpied a range of eclectic Puppy versions in the past that I thought might do OK in this 2003 Laptop (e.g., Legacy OS 2017 (Puppy 2.14 based); X-slacko-slim 4.3) - when I should really be *starting* with TahrPup6.0.5 official, and working backwards... [facepalms off-screen]
I'm tempted to start an entirely new thread devoted to the Dell Inspiron 1100, but as you are the trailblazer in that department, happy to add my notes to any thread you have already kicked off. How to collate everything for a Dell-happy fan new to Puppy or the forums - that's the kicker

Hi PuppyT and Mike,

That be a fun thread - yes had good experiences with Dells. I own three a Dell D620, Dell Inspiron 6400 and Lattitude 6500 and all worked great with Linux distros and Puppy except blanking probems with pup 4 don't know why.

My other favourite Laptop is a Thinkpad T42 which runs darry1966's AnitaOS.

Hi Robert123,
as luck would have it, after I saw your post I had a bit of a glitch with the Dell. Turns out the battery (original!) just died without warning - I had a stressy hour testing ram, the Hdd etc etc thinking the mbo had expired. No response to switch on bar 10 flashes from the front LED's. Thought it was the Hdd LED, but on closer inspection saw it was the battery...
Long story short - I cobbled a 128Gb SDD recycled from my dead Lenovo x31, into the Dell 1100. It needed a 2.5" SATA-to-50-pin ATA adapter - which I happened to have lying around - bought as an incorrect part for another project. I didn't "twig" that I could do this until a PM from Mike Walsh earlier today on another matter gave me some insight. So, chuffed with my discovery I think I *will* start a dedicated thread to the Inspiron range of laptops,
Cheers

Update 20 March 2018 - http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... ?t=111681[ for the link to the thread

Was thinking about starting a new thread, what laptop do you like, when I found this thread. So I am a Dell guy but Lenovo looks good. How would Tahrpup run on this laptop ?
https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-T430-LED- ... nkpad[url]


I need very little hard drive. I just want speed and good wireless. It comes with Windows 10. No need for that. Opinions and advice welcome.

I'm running xenialpup64 on an x230

known problems are no brightness or volume control and lid suspend not working

fatdog64 710 does not have these issues and everything works properly

I found some Lenovo laptops on ebay that are running linux. It may be simple to buy one running Mint and just replace that with Tahrpup. Should be fast with 4 GB RAM and an SSD.

J_D_ wrote:I found some Lenovo laptops on ebay that are running linux. It may be simple to buy one running Mint and just replace that with Tahrpup. Should be fast with 4 GB RAM and an SSD.

Never mind. I came across a low mile 2012 Acer Aspire for $100. 1000 gig hard drive and 6 gigs of RAM. I popped in my hard drive from my old Dell that has Tahrpup on it and its good to go. My 30 meg internet now downloads at 30 megs. First time ever.
May put Tahrpup on the 1000 gig HD just for the fun of it but I will never use more than 20 gigs or so.

Acer Aspire will be perfect With Puppy Linux ! Just take a glance on temperature. Wireless is really easy. 100 USD ?

eeePC's with model #'s 900<X<1010 and most Acer Aspire One's do well with Puppy > 3.0.1 Lots of these used in the usual places on-line. Many used ones come with Ubuntu or Mint already installed.

Naturally, best thing about Puppy is if NO or borqed HDD, a USB stick solves.

Regards
8Geee

Goodwill Industries, a non-profit organization that provides job training, refurbishes and sells donated laptops. On newer laptops, they install Windows 10 Home; Mint 19 on older machines. I'm assuming that anything that runs Mint 19 can be made to run Puppy and planning to buy one of the older ones if I can find one that looks good. I see recommendations on this thread for Acer Aspires, Dell Inspiron and Latitudes, and Thinkpads. Are there any others you would especially recommend or any older laptops or components that should be avoided?

Bill3

@ Bill3:-

I think if there were any real 'stinkers' to avoid, we'd know about them by now.

Certain brands have always been a reliable bet where Linux is concerned. Dell, for instance; even today, you can buy Dell models with Linux pre-installed. The Thinkpads (IBM- or Lenovo-built), appear to be another. Apparently Richard Stallman himself swears by Thinkpads!

Most can usually be 'coaxed' into running Puppy in one fashion or another. There's nothing special about Windoze code, as compared to Linux.....it's all 'machine-code', as far as your CPU's concerned. Much of it boils down to stuff like driver availability, and BIOS support; basic stuff like that.

We've had our old Inspiron 1100 for coming up to 16 years now. It was purchased at the time when you generally bought direct from Dell.....before they starting selling through the High Street dealers & chainstore outlets. It's always been as good as gold, provided small amounts of semi-regular maintenance are lavished upon it; mostly centering around care for the heatsink, and keeping ventilation maximised. These things were built at a point in time before the low-power mobile CPUs we're all used to even existed, and ran with 'full' desktop CPUs inside them.....and Pentium 4's were notorious for running hot, even in a desktop tower. Imagine that in a small, enclosed space.....

It's on its second 'power-brick', third battery, and apart from the afore-mentioned CPU & RAM upgrades, it's had the internal storage upgraded twice; once from HDD to SSD, and then again to a larger SSD.

I'd recommend Dells to anyone who wants a trouble-free Linux experience, whatever distro you eventually go with.


Mike.

If you are going with old used laptops.

Intel parts are going to be best supported.
Intel integrated graphics in early days had issues. Intel was still trying to get it right.
Early 2008 they released the complete developer documentation for their hardware, so Linux developers could really build third party drivers.
Intel Linux drivers are very good now if the hardware can use the Intel i915 driver.
Nvidia graphics hardware has better Linux support.
Nvidia makes drivers for Linux and the generic Nouveau driver is not bad now.

Try not to get anything using Brodcom hardware for wifi.

BROADCOM

just correcting.