Laptops
Apple MacBook Pro
I purchased refurbished version of this laptop in August 2008. This means I'm currently owning and using two laptops. T61p is still my primary laptop while MacBook is used for experiments.
Installing Solaris
I installed OpenSolaris 10 version 2008.05 on MacBook. There was a problem with disk partitioning during installation process that had to be resolved by manually running fdisk utility.
Lenovo W500
I bought this laptop shortly before Christmas 2009 and since then I'm running Fedora 12 on it.
IBM T61p
Fedora 12
As of November 21st, 2009. I'm using Fedora 12. Here is the list of additional tweaks I had to do:
- Added RPMFusion repositories.
- Installed 64-bit version of Adobe's Flash player. It turned out that it's not so easy to find where you can download this package, so here is the direct link.
Fedora 11
From Fedora 10 to 11 I did an upgrade. It worked (although painfuly slow) but I somehow think that the newest features haven't been used because of that.
Fedora 10
As of 20081207 I completely transitioned to the Fedora 10. It was rocky for a few days after the transition because of the mess with the PackageKit package, but now it's ok.
Fedora 9
As of 20080606 I completely transitioned to the Fedora 9.
The following table lists peripherals and what's working.
| Component | Model | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wireless network | Intel PRO / Wireless 3945ABGN | N/A | Haven't tried it yet |
| Graphic Card | nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 256 MB graphics | Works | 3D support only with NVIDIA's propriatery driver |
| Modem | ? | N/A | Haven't tried it yet |
| Wired network | Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network | Just works | |
| Bluetooth | Just works | Tried to pair it with Nokia N73 and Palm TX | |
| 4in1 Card reader | Just works | ||
| Fingerprint Reader | Works | Install xzy package and add line into /etc/pam.d/system-auth file | |
| IEEE 1394 | N/A | Haven't tried it yet | |
| LED for keyboard | Just works | ||
| IBM Active Protection System | Works | Install driver from http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi | |
| Bay | Works | Before removing device in bay the following commands should be executed:
echo 1 > /sys/class/scsi_device/1\:0\:0\:0/device/delete After inserting device into the bay scan is automatically started. If not, you can initiate it by executing the following command: echo 0 0 0 > /sys/class/scsi_host/host1/scan |
I wasn't able to configure NetworkManager for Croatian UMTS provider VIP. It seems that something's wrong with the card initalization. But, there is no wayy to control AT commands sent to the card, at least I wasn't able to find them. Anyway, I turned off NetworkManager and turned on old network script in the /etc/init.d directory. Then, I copied configuration files from F8. The only drawback is that I can not initiate connection as an ordinary user (possibly due to the SELinux) but this is not so important.
Fedora 8
I'm running Fedora 8 on this laptop with no other OS installed along it. After F8 was released I did complete reinstallation of OS and there were no problems. Still, as graphic card is not yet supported by the open source driver, the installation process had to be performed in text mode. After finishing installation I just added NVidia's driver and it works.
There were some problems when I tried to install F8T3 and F7 over the network. The installation process just stucked. So, I installed CentOS 5, and then upgraded it with current setup. It wasn't so easy, but eventually it worked. Furhtermore, I believe that the problem I had was related to a bug in installer when the installation is performed over the network.
There are problems with VMware Server 1.0.4. After powering on virtual machine the whole computer just freezes. It turned out that there is some collision between VMware and kvm module. So, kvm and kvm_intel modules have to be unloaded and VMware works just fine.
The following table lists peripherals and what's working.
| Component | Model | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wireless network | Intel PRO / Wireless 3945ABGN | N/A | Haven't tried it yet |
| Graphic Card | nVIDIA Quadro FX 570M 256 MB graphics | Works | Only with NVIDIA's propriatery driver |
| Modem | ? | N/A | Haven't tried it yet |
| Wired network | Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network | Just works | |
| Bluetooth | Just works | Tried to pair it with Nokia N73 and Palm TX | |
| 4in1 Card reader | Just works | ||
| Fingerprint Reader | Works | Install xzy package and add line into /etc/pam.d/system-auth file | |
| IEEE 1394 | N/A | Haven't tried it yet | |
| LED for keyboard | Just works | ||
| IBM Active Protection System | Works | Install driver from http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi | |
| Bay | Works | Before removing device in bay the following commands should be executed:
echo 1 > /sys/class/scsi_device/1\:0\:0\:0/device/delete After inserting device into the bay, to initiate scan by the kernel, execute the following command: echo 0 0 0 > /sys/class/scsi_host/host1/scan |
Web resources for this ThinkPads and this model in particular:
http://www.nabble.com/T61p-with-nVIDIA-Quadro-FX-570M---WUXGA-on-15.4%22---t4423812.html
HP nx6125
This was my previous laptop that I used for two years. I had no problems with it so, for now, I think that HP has very good laptops.
The following table lists peripherals and what's working.
| Hardware/Functionality | Status |
|---|---|
| Wireless LAN | Fully works with ndiswrapper |
| BCM4318 works with driver in kernel, but I didn't try to connect with wpa_supplicant | |
| Builtin SD/MS/Pro/MMC/SM/XD Reader | Works after applying this |
After installing FC6 you should install some additional programs in order to make Fedora more useful for everyday work. These are random notes of what I'm doing to achieve this.
Much more information on customization and use of FC one can find on the following sites:
I also recommend the following two sites that describe additional steps necessary to better customize Fedora. They are useful because they describe how to install some software that is not allowed to be distributed on mentioned by Fedora Core policy.
The reason I use FC is that I'm used on RedHat's methods of configuration and organization system. The other reason is that Fedora very quickly evolves and this suits me for my personal use! If stability is of main concern then I recommend either RedHat or CentOS.
Fedora Core 6
Acrobat Reader
Go to www.adobe.com and download RPM version of Adobe Viewer. Then, using rpm tool install it:
# rpm -Uvh <rpm_file_name>
TODO: Change default application viewer for PDF documents.
VMWare Server
I'm running 64-bit Fedora and there are some problems when installing VMWare server.