Any experience with Linpus Linux?

[joe.pelayo]

Hello everybody.

A cousin is looking forward to buy a laptop and asked me to help him with his purchase. Since he does not have lots of money to buy, nor the need to get a top of the line PC, I was looking for a budget machine, and after making a bit of research about a cheap HP laptop, I found the ideal machine:

It is an Acer Aspire 3690:
Intel Celeron M 420 (1.6GHz, 1MB L2, 533MHz)
512MB DDR2
60GB HD (5400RPM)
CD-RW/DVD
Intel Graphics 940GML
Linpus Linux (boot only).
5-1 internal SD reader.

Considering the fact it has Linux installed in the first place I want to think all needed drivers are also there. On the other hand, reading about that Linpus I learned it is an old version of Fedora, which makes me think I will want to update it. Regarding this issue I have some questions:

Has anybody tried this Linpus? Perhaps a similar Acer machine? Are all devices properly supported?
what does that "boot only" thing mean?

Supposing it has all the needed drivers for 'special devices' (such as the card reader), and considering it is Fedora based, is there a method by which I can save the drivers? I would like to put Fedora 7 on it and those drivers would be useful.

Thanks.
Joe.

[John the train]

Hi Joe. Have you had a look at the Distrowatch entry for Linpus? The apps. in the latest version look pretty up to date - Oo 2.2.1, Firefox 2, though Gimp is still a 1.2 version, while some distros are shipping 1.3 - so it's possible that Fedora was the ' departure point ' but Linpus has been customised. I'm running SAM Linux, which has a 2.6.18 kernel, but with wireless drivers that aren't in the 2.6.21 F7 launched with. If the drivers are in a custom kernel they were probably compiled against that kernel, which ( I suspect ) would rule out copying them into Fedora as pre-compiled binaries.
I'd say, give Linpus a try, it may do all your cousin needs out of the box, and being Fedora based Fedora methods should work OK for installing any extras such as Flash.

[joe.pelayo]

Originally Posted by John the train

Hi Joe. Have you had a look at the Distrowatch entry for Linpus? The apps. in the latest version look pretty up to date - Oo 2.2.1, Firefox 2, though Gimp is still a 1.2 version, while some distros are shipping 1.3 - so it's possible that Fedora was the ' departure point ' but Linpus has been customised. I'm running SAM Linux, which has a 2.6.18 kernel, but with wireless drivers that aren't in the 2.6.21 F7 launched with. If the drivers are in a custom kernel they were probably compiled against that kernel, which ( I suspect ) would rule out copying them into Fedora as pre-compiled binaries.
I'd say, give Linpus a try, it may do all your cousin needs out of the box, and being Fedora based Fedora methods should work OK for installing any extras such as Flash.

I have already seen in distrowatch. In fact the kernel version it has (supposing the machine has Linpus 9.3) is the 2.6.13. Somewhat old for my taste but, if it works OK, I'll let it go. Most of the laptop's components are widely supported: Intel wireless, GMA; however I want to know if the Media Card reader works as well.

Sometimes I wonder why do these OEMs use 'strange' Linux distros (except for Dell), while it could be great for them (and for the user) to use an existing mainstream one.

Joe.

[sailor]

I have a Acer Aspire 3000 running FC6...never could get the internal Broadcom wifi working (I think some Acers have a hardware switch for the wifi card that doesn't work with linux. I took the easy way out and bought a DLink G650 (atheros chipset) pcimcia card which works fine with the kmod-madwifi drivers....

[joe.pelayo]

Originally Posted by sailor

I have a Acer Aspire 3000 running FC6...never could get the internal Broadcom wifi working (I think some Acers have a hardware switch for the wifi card that doesn't work with linux. I took the easy way out and bought a DLink G650 (atheros chipset) pcimcia card which works fine with the kmod-madwifi drivers....

I would blame Broadcom instead, well, at least in my Acer Aspire 5102WLMi (this) all the Linux's I have used (not just RH derivatives) are able to use my 'stock' Atheros wireless card.

Joe.

[joe.pelayo]

Unfortunately I did not have the pleasure of meeting Linpus Linux after all. Today I went along with my cousin to get the laptop Acer Aspire 3690-2914.

I was pretty excited when I got home: a new lappy! However after I unpacked it (my cousin is not very tech savvy so I am in charge of setting it up) I became upset to find that instead of Linpus there was a pirate version of Windows XP, along with Office 2003 and most of the stuff a Windows fan would love (Nero, etc). Since the computer was perfectly packaged I assume this came from Acer itself (can not demonstrate if though, but it would not surprise me if they preferred to have people running pirate Windows instead of legitimate Linux). My 'anger' was diluted when I found they made other mistakes as well: the processor was not the advertised (an Intel Celeron M 430 @1.73GHz instead of an Intel Celeron M 420 @1.6GHz), and the hard drive was bigger (a 80GB drive instead of a 60GB).

Immediately after finding the installed Windows was not genuine, commenced loading livecds of Linux. Finally erased the drive and installed F7. The only 'trick' I had to make was to add the parameter noapic to the kernel in order to boot (I don't know what this darn instruction actually does but it has saved me several times). Even though the machine is inferior to my Acer Aspire 5102WLMi, I feel a little jealous because its Intel graphics card runs Desktop Effects like a charm (as opposed to my ATI).

I am posting from the mentioned laptop (while updating it).

Thanks.
Joe.

[marcrblevins]

Take it back. How much difference in price at the store between Intel Celeron M 430 @1.73GHz & Intel Celeron M 420 @1.6GHz laptops?

[joe.pelayo]

Originally Posted by marcrblevins

Take it back. How much difference in price at the store between Intel Celeron M 430 @1.73GHz & Intel Celeron M 420 @1.6GHz laptops?

Not sure about the exact difference, I believe it is about $100, but the 430 model has Windows Vista. Besides it is a factory problem (the machine was properly packaged and the store did not have the model with the better processor).

Right now it is flawlessly running Fedora 7 so, long live to it!

Joe.

[Gnafu the Great]

Originally Posted by joe.pelayo

Not sure about the exact difference, I believe it is about $100, but the 430 model has Windows Vista. Besides it is a factory problem (the machine was properly packaged and the store did not have the model with the better processor).

Right now it is flawlessly running Fedora 7 so, long live to it!

Joe.

Have you tried getting the wireless to work yet?

[joe.pelayo]

Originally Posted by Gnafu the Great

Have you tried getting the wireless to work yet?

My cousin has just taken the machine with him, I configured everything (the only part that refused to work was the Media Card reader). Surprisingly enough for me EVERYTHING worked out of the box (even Beryl) and the Network Manager showed since the very beginning the section "Wireless networks".

I have not tried to connect to any wireless network since there are none nearby, but I'll check that as soon as possible.

Joe.

[joe.pelayo]

The only thing that did not work exactly as expected was VCD playback, but I would not care about it, I don't like watching pirate movies, and hopefully the inability to play them will prevent my cousin from buying them.

Before he arrived I was watching a DVD with no problems at all.

Joe.

[Gnafu the Great]

Originally Posted by joe.pelayo

My cousin has just taken the machine with him, I configured everything (the only part that refused to work was the Media Card reader). Surprisingly enough for me EVERYTHING worked out of the box (even Beryl) and the Network Manager showed since the very beginning the section "Wireless networks".

I have not tried to connect to any wireless network since there are none nearby, but I'll check that as soon as possible.

Joe.

That's great to hear .

[joe.pelayo]

Originally Posted by sailor

I have a Acer Aspire 3000 running FC6...never could get the internal Broadcom wifi working (I think some Acers have a hardware switch for the wifi card that doesn't work with linux. I took the easy way out and bought a DLink G650 (atheros chipset) pcimcia card which works fine with the kmod-madwifi drivers....

MMM, interesting, my cousins laptop is an Acer Aspire 3690 and the included Broadcom wifi worked out of the box with Fedora 7. Are you referring to the switch in the front? In both my Acer laptop and his, that switch is turned on by default.

[John the train]

Rather surprised that the media card reader wouldn't work. I've had 3 different readers, all ' off brand ', working on Fedora and now SAM out of the box, though they were USB, I assume yours is built in to the laptop?

[joe.pelayo]

Originally Posted by John the train

Rather surprised that the media card reader wouldn't work. I've had 3 different readers, all ' off brand ', working on Fedora and now SAM out of the box, though they were USB, I assume yours is built in to the laptop?

The card reader is built in to the laptop (not sure about the connection because the also built in webcam is supposedly connected through USB). The only thing I know is in that both cases (my cousin's laptop and mine) it is an ENE media card reader. Searching in internet I found out that this company is not Linux friendly (does not provide Linux drivers).

To bypass this issue I bought an external (USB) card reader, and in the webcams side...I don't like to use it anyway, it disrupts my privacy.

Joe.