Sounds like a relatively easy install,...
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| Author | Content |
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| JaseP Aug 09, 2010 10:45 AM EDT |
It seems like his installation experience was pretty easy. I suspect that was because the system he installed to was a relatively "vannila" system. I think that if he was to install Windoze on a machine that has more exotic hardware and driver requirements, his experience would have been different. In my own (recent) experience with XPee and a Pepper Pad 3, it was very different. XPee was a pain to get even somewhat stable. Still, it locks up and freezes for unknown reasons. I have done it because the PP3 was gathering dust and I came to the realization that with all the hardware out there that only comes with Windoze install/reflash/configuration utilities, that it was just plain easier than looking for or inventing a work-around to get those things configured. All said,... If hardware vendors support Linux for their hardware and their hardware setup utilities, and other hardware manufacturers did not practice FoxxCon style deceptive lock-out practices, one could totally avoid Windoze and M$ if they were so inclined. My experiences have also driven home that most of the problems installing Linux are there by design,... to intentionally make it more difficult to put your own choice of OS on the hardware that you buy... Vendor lock-ins, attempts at forcing paid updates and app installation, sweetheart deals regarding nice, new, innovative hardware... etc. All this is why I couldn't get a Gigabyte MID based on Compal hardware specs a couple of years ago, and had to send away to Hungary for the Gigabyte M912m I have now (the company has since removed their USA export pages, & I'm still looking for an extra battery for the M912m). It's why we still have problems with GMA500 based chipsets and EC (embeded controller) activation routines, BIOSes that lie to any OS other than the one intended for the machine by the manufacturer. If you've noticed, it's extremely difficult to get a machine, that because of its specs, runs Linux noticably better than Windoze in the USA, especially with Linux pre-installed. But those machines exist in vast quantities... and have existed for several years. Look at those $100-$200 range Android tablets, now available. Only one is available at a regular USA retailer, and that one a piece of junk. |
| hkwint Aug 09, 2010 11:34 AM EDT |
JaseP: You might be interested in this list; [url=http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=android tablet&CatId=0&shipCountry=us]http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=android table...[/url] No guarentee, probably no support either, some of them you can't buy 1 piece at a time. But definitely interesting. |
| Steven_Rosenber Aug 09, 2010 2:28 PM EDT |
This was a relatively "easy" install. The way Windows is distributed now bothers me in more ways that it did before I actually owned a "licensed" copy of Windows. On my crapware-laden Lenovo G555, I have the option of "one-key restore," which will put my system back to the way it came from the factory (with all that crapware), or to the way I last had it configured. And like most Windows preloads, all the drivers are already installed. But instead of creating DVD images with Lenovo's built-in software, I opted to use a "clean" ISO of Windows 7, which I burned to a DVD, and then add drivers manually. It's doable but not anywhere near as easy as installing a modern Linux distribution that generally supports all of my hardware without needing to search for up to a dozen different drivers. It also reinforces my thought that if hardware vendors took more responsibility in terms of writing and maintaining open-source drivers for their various hardware bits, the Linux and BSD experience would be even better than it is. And with my new ability to compare my Linux experience with my Windows 7 experience, I'm more encouraged than ever that both Linux and the BSDs are doing great with both installation ease and hardware autoconfiguration. Whatever you think of Windows, the ability to use a crapware-free ISO to reinstall a licensed version of the OS, even if you have to gather up a dozen drivers, beats the junked-up desktop I was presented with when first booting the Lenovo. In the week or so that I've had this dual-boot setup, I have yet to boot into Windows again. If I solve my issues with the crappy Conexant sound chip in the Lenovo (hint: AVOID Conexant if possible), which in Linux and BSD thus far doesn't mute the speaker when something's plugged into the headphone jack and doesn't mute the internal mic when something's plugged into the mic jack. it's a bit of a deal-breaker in terms of capturing audio with the internal sound card. My external USB sound card http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.22475 (costs about $2) does work, so I'm covered, but I'd love to see a fix for the Conexant, which works as it should in Windows by the way. (Maybe the fix will make it into ALSA at some point ...) As far as installers go, the Linux installers I've used recently (Fedora, Ubuntu) rank very highly in my opinion. I'm not so crazy about the Debian installer these days because I can't seem to get a network mirror to work during a network install (which makes a network-install image less than valuable .... |
| jdixon Aug 09, 2010 5:01 PM EDT |
> ...which in Linux and BSD thus far doesn't mute the speaker when something's plugged into the headphone jack and doesn't mute the internal mic when something's plugged into the mic jack. That should be a hardware function, not a software function. The jacks should be wired such that inserting something into them breaks the connection to the internal speaker/mike. If they're not, then the Lenovo is broken by design, and I'll seriously have to reconsider my heretofore good opinion of Lenovo hardware. |
| Steven_Rosenber Aug 10, 2010 9:41 AM EDT |
It's software - muting works in Windows. Looks like there's a hack to fix this in ALSA for this: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=537986 But said hack hasn't made it as a patch into any existing distros. |
| caitlyn Oct 14, 2010 10:58 AM EDT |
I had to use an Ubuntu patch to fix output to my internal speaker on my netbook under SalixOS 13.1.x and Slackware 13.1, which means I had to compile my own package. (Reminder to self: contribute that package.) The process isn't painful or difficult. |
| Steven_Rosenber Oct 14, 2010 12:01 PM EDT |
I finally did fix the speaker-muting issue in F13 (and I'll be linking to a blog post on same). It required alsa-utils 1.0.23 plus a line in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf: options snd-hda-intel model=thinkpad Unfortunately or not (because this kind of hackery is a pain), this seems to be a fairly standard workaround for these chips. |
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