movin to linux, please help me out

[live4nothing]

I just got a new laptop, it is not a top of the line thing but had vista installed in it, and it's terrible, so slow that can't do anything. I'm thinking about going back to xp, but i want the up-to-date products with full supports. Xp kinda out of date to me. After doing many research out linux, i link kubuntu the most, but the only thing that prevent me from switching is driver issues. I'm so new to linux, is there a list of supported drivers or hardware for kubuntu? And what should i do in prepare before installing kubuntu in my laptop? This is the link to my new laptop. Thanks for all your help

link:
http://www.gateway.com/retail/mt3705.php

[aysiu]

Re: movin to linux, please help me out

You might run into some problems with that model.

[poohbear]

Re: movin to linux, please help me out

This: ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M chipset has given some distros running older kernels problems with sound.
One thing I can say about it is no 3d acceleration support as noted per:
The Radeon IGP chipsets do not have discrete video ram. They share system ram much like the Intel i8xx chips, and VIA/S3 ProSavage/Twister chips. There is support for 2D and 3D acceleration for the IGP chipsets in DRI and Mesa CVS. There is no 3D for Xpress 200M Northbridge integrated gpus due to undisclosed memory initialisation (july 2006).

All I can suggest is start trying live disks. I know that isn't much help but I thought I'd give a little insight about those chips as I have the Xpress 200 chipset on my desktop.

[live4nothing]

Re: movin to linux, please help me out

Thank you for all the helpful information. After seeing other having difficulties in this laptop, i decide to wait for the next version, hopefully they have this issue fixed. I tried to run kubuntu in a virtual machine (vmware player) to be familiar with linux and learn a few things about it. THe weird thing is that i also have the sound problem inside the virtual machine. I though it will emulate a different sound card than my host's. After playing with it a few hours, i still don't have a clue how to get the sound fixed in my VM. Can someone help? I use the website easyvmx.com to generate my VM and run it in vmware player. Thanks

[dibl]

Re: movin to linux, please help me out

If you have a bit of time to play around, give Elive a try. While I prefer Kubuntu, I have an Elive system on my boot list as well. It seems to be a bit friendlier to the hardware it finds. Here is the link:

http://www.elivecd.org/

[poohbear]

Re: movin to linux, please help me out

Just so you know I'm running Mepis 6.5 beta right now which would not work with my sound so don't try that. I just snapped in a sound card for now. I did have good luck with PCLinux Test releases working with all my hardware but they just released test #3 so it will most likely be at least another couple weeks before the final comes out.

I also had good luck with vector 5.8 except I had to use vesa drivers for graphics, but I'm not into fancy screening goodies anyways so no rub there.

My suggestion to you, since your new to linux and if you don't have any luck with any of the buntu goodies, is to wait for PCLinux to release the final (which will be soon) which I think will work out of the box on your system. It is a very easy to use distro and the documentation is good for new users also.

Also I ought to mention that I have not tried new fiesty version of the buntus on this system as of yet.
That will come soon I'm sure. I suppose I ought to do so in the next couple days just to see what happens.