[jmc]

I have the above-mentioned laptop, currently it has WinXP Home (yick). I'm sort of looking for a new laptop, because though I love the formfactor of this tiny thing (2.2#), it's slower than an old dog.

I'm wondering, though, if anyone has ever installed Linux on this (or another) Fujitsu laptop? I'm a Linux newbie, but do have a working (but not much experiemented with) RedHat 8.0 install on an old Shuttle box. Which tells you how long ago I seriously fiddled with Linux.

Wireless networking must work, and so does filesharing with Windows computers. I've got the Linux box working through the proxy I use, so I know that shouldn't be an issue. Does Thunderbird work through a proxy on Linux? I know it won't on Windows (which sucks). Also, this laptop has a touchscreen, not sure if that's possible in Linux.

So, how about it? Is installing Linux on the laptop doable? Which distro is most likely to work? What do I need to know, and can you point me at some good resources on the net that will help me successfully complete this mission, should I choose to accept it?

Thanks for any advice!

[jakoval]

A few resources to start you off:

http://tuxmobil.org/

http://www.linux-laptop.net/

http://www.linux.org/hardware/laptop.html

[jmc]

jakoval, thanks. Nice to know it's been done. I'll keep researching this for a while... I did find the page on installing Fedora Core 1 to my exact machine, but the notes say it's dog slow, and that's what I'm trying to improve by moving to Linux. Also, he can't get the touchscreen to work.

Perhaps a different distro, or an older one, would run faster? I'm not doing anything super fancy with it - I use the laptop for word processing (OpenOffice, email (Thunderbird or web) and surfing (Firefox), and need an app that'll do some very light image processing (basic fix and shrink).

Keep the suggestions coming, I'd really like to try this, but I'm wondering if I'm too much of a newbie to try a laptop install of Linux just yet...

[jakoval]

Found another one:
http://interstice.com/journals/Simon/20030911.html

He seems to have gotten the touch screen working.

I have to say, though, that it seems to me that this might perhaps not be the ideal candidate for a linux install.

[jmc]

When you say 'this', do you mean the machine itself, or this particular attempt? And, why not?

[jakoval]

Sorry for the confusion - I mean this machine.

I'm not saying 'Don't do it" or "It can't be done" - obviously it can - but it seems to require an inordinate amount of tweaking and massaging to get things accomplished. If your primary objective is to learn lots about linux and/or to get rid of xp then by all means go ahead. On the other hand, if you're simply looking for a way to improve the performance of your machine and linux seems like a way to accomplish this - tread carefully.

The absence of a cdRom neccessitates a network install which adds a complicating factor.
As well, hardware support varies between distributions. This is particularly true with such things as wireless networking, touch screens, laptop power management. My personal preference (admittedly as someone just barely past the linux newbie stage) is to try various live cd distros to see which one gets along best with a given machine. This also gives you the opportunity to assess the 'feel' of a given distribution while leaving the existing system intact. It doesn't seem that this approach wold be possible here.

If you want to go ahead with this, I would suggest:
- See if you can find a way to get it to boot from a usb cdrom. The fellow who did the Mandrake install said " Although the p1120 BIOS setup screens seem to imply that the machine can be booted from a USB cd-rom, I've had no luck doing so." It would make things much easier if this was possible.
- Go with a recent distribution - the newer the distro the more likely it will support your hardware 'out of the box'

[jmc]

Thanks. Sounds like very good advice. Obviously, I'd need to devote a lot of time to this project - time I'm not sure I have right now. It'd still be interesting, a learning experience if nothing else.

[THEByleDuct]

Sorry, I just came in on this thread. I have recently loaded Gentoo onto a P1120. I am still fine tuning it but I choose the Gentoo distro because everything is compiled from source meaning it is optimised for the machine it is on which of course translates into a faster OS. If you see this and you want to find out what I did feel free to contact me.

Cheers

James

[GeekGawd]

Try Knoppix 3.7 too. Use the Live CD. Boot from it (external drive for your notebook).
It should detect and load all the drivers, except Wifi. But is a good distro to get a feel of things. It has everything you need - office stuff, multimedia, lnux games,etc.
It is based on DEbian. So if you like what you working wth you can go ahead and install it or whatever.