easy laptop install?
I know this list is committed to debian on laptops, but see quite a few
references to debian derivatives, so perhaps this is not entirely OT.
When I install on a desktop box, I can be reasonably sure to get most of
a working system. Sound sometimes needs a tweak, but generally
everything is at least useable. Not so on laptops. I have been using a
couple of older thinkpads (560 and 600E) for some time, but never been
able to get sound, modem, etc working, and sometimes when I close the
lid, applications are frozen when I re-open it. I have now inherited
from my son this Dell Inspiron 8200. The same issues apply, and the
system freezes if I close the lid. I am sure I could overcome many of
these problems if I dedicate two or three days to each, but I don't have
enough time for that. So the question is this:
Are there distros that install on laptops with as much success as
standard net-install does on a desktop? I know that some live cd's
overcome hardware issues better than the normal install. I originally
arrived at debian via knoppix3.1, for example. I keep seeing ubuntu
mentioned here. I have reached the point when I would settle for a
derived system that worked even against my preference to keep all
machines on debian.
Alternatively/additionally, should I backtrack to a 2.4 kernel? udev
seems to require a huge amount of tailoring of things that used to
happen automatically, and again, I don't really have time to learn a
whole new set of manual configurations -- in fact it seems to me like a
step backwards to have to write a configuration for every device by hand
(or perhaps I've misunderstood how udev works).
Any guidance would be welcome.
TIA
--
richard
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