Can Linux comfortably support a Laptop? [Archive] - ForumsHQ

[erek[NOT BANNED]]

...I believe it can.

After only a few weeks on my new Dell Inspiron 9300 i became very bored with Windows XP. The operating system just feels very archaic in design anymore. We've seen the same 'general' GUI, Kernel, and driver model for quite some time. Windows XP was released in 2001...and Windows Vista Beta definitely does not seem like a huge innovative OS. The "aero-glass" experience is basically a Composite Engine which apparently uses your video card as hardware acceleration. Big Deal? I want SPEED, PRODUCTIVITY FEATURES, and most importantly Rock Solid stability. For being a 'Professionally' made Microsoft sure isn't fufilling my hopes.



Given all those reasons for me disliking windows brought me to Linux. Specifically Gentoo stage1 (a completely source based distribution).



i came across a little site via a friend on IRC called linux-laptop.net which archives user experiences with various distributions of Linux on laptops that are listed by System Builder.



Gentoo on the Inspiron 9300: http://gentoo.kaeptnovi.ch/



that url helped me tremendously and as you can see linux provides a very impressive amount of support for my laptop. infact i was able to configure all my hardware to be just as comfortable on Linux as it was on Windows XP. that includes disabling my touchpad's tapping.



my dmesg:

Linux version 2.6.12.3 (root@localhost) (gcc version 3.4.4 (Gentoo 3.4.4, ssp-3.4.4-1.0, pie-8.7.8)) #15 Sun Aug 14 12:44:03 EST 2005

BIOS-provided physical RAM map:

BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f000 (usable)

BIOS-e820: 000000000009f000 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)

BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ffda000 (usable)

BIOS-e820: 000000003ffda000 - 0000000040000000 (reserved)

BIOS-e820: 00000000e0000000 - 00000000f0007000 (reserved)

BIOS-e820: 00000000f0008000 - 00000000f000c000 (reserved)

BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec10000 (reserved)

BIOS-e820: 00000000fed20000 - 00000000fee10000 (reserved)

BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)

127MB HIGHMEM available.

896MB LOWMEM available.

On node 0 totalpages: 262106

DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1

Normal zone: 225280 pages, LIFO batch:31

HighMem zone: 32730 pages, LIFO batch:15

DMI 2.3 present.

ACPI: RSDP (v000 DELL ) @ 0x000fc9b0

ACPI: RSDT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d50615 ASL 0x00000061) @ 0x3ffda7d3

ACPI: FADT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d50615 ASL 0x00000061) @ 0x3ffdb400

ACPI: MADT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d50615 ASL 0x00000047) @ 0x3ffdbc00

ACPI: MCFG (v016 DELL CPi R 0x27d50615 ASL 0x00000061) @ 0x3ffdbbc0

ACPI: BOOT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d50615 ASL 0x00000061) @ 0x3ffdb7c0

ACPI: SSDT (v001 PmRef Cpu0Ist 0x00003000 INTL 0x20030522) @ 0x3ffdabe6

ACPI: SSDT (v001 PmRef Cpu0Cst 0x00003001 INTL 0x20030522) @ 0x3ffdaa0e

ACPI: SSDT (v001 PmRef CpuPm 0x00003000 INTL 0x20030522) @ 0x3ffda813

ACPI: DSDT (v001 INT430 SYSFexxx 0x00001001 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x00000000

ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000

ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x00] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)

Processor #0 6:13 APIC version 20

ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x01] disabled)

ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x00] high edge lint[0x1])

ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x01] high edge lint[0x1])

ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x01] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])

IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 1, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23

ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)

ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)

ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.

ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.

ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.

Enabling APIC mode: Flat. Using 1 I/O APICs

Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information

Allocating PCI resources starting at 40000000 (gap: 40000000:a0000000)

Built 1 zonelists

Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda3

mapped APIC to ffffd000 (fee00000)

mapped IOAPIC to ffffc000 (fec00000)

Initializing CPU#0

PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 65536 bytes)

Detected 1862.515 MHz processor.

Using tsc for high-res timesource

Console: colour VGA+ 80x25

Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)

Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)

Memory: 1035648k/1048424k available (2204k kernel code, 11960k reserved, 408k data, 144k init, 130920k highmem)

Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.

Calibrating delay loop... 3670.01 BogoMIPS (lpj=1835008)

Mount-cache hash table entries: 512

CPU: After generic identify, caps: afe9fbff 00100000 00000000 00000000 00000180 00000000 00000000

CPU: After vendor identify, caps: afe9fbff 00100000 00000000 00000000 00000180 00000000 00000000

CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K

CPU: L2 cache: 2048K

CPU: After all inits, caps: afe9fbff 00100000 00000000 00000040 00000180 00000000 00000000

Intel machine check architecture supported.

Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.

CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz stepping 08

Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.

Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.

Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.

ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs

..TIMER: vector=0x31 pin1=2 pin2=-1

NET: Registered protocol family 16

PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfbaae, last bus=10

PCI: Using MMCONFIG

mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)

ACPI: Subsystem revision 20050309

ACPI: Interpreter enabled

ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing

ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)

PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)

PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 0000:00:1f.2

Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0

PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 9 10 *11)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 5 7) *10

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs *9 10 11)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 5 *7 9 10 11)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.AGP_._PRT]

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCIE._PRT]

Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay

pnp: PnP ACPI init

pnp: PnP ACPI: found 10 devices

SCSI subsystem initialized

Linux Kernel Card Services

options: [pci] [cardbus] [pm]

PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing

PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq". If it helps, post a report

pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x4d0-0x4d1 has been reserved

pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x1000-0x1005 could not be reserved

pnp: 00:01: ioport range 0x1008-0x100f could not be reserved

pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0xf400-0xf4fe has been reserved

pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x1006-0x1007 has been reserved

pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x100a-0x1059 could not be reserved

pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x1060-0x107f has been reserved

pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x1080-0x10bf has been reserved

pnp: 00:02: ioport range 0x10c0-0x10df has been reserved

pnp: 00:07: ioport range 0x900-0x90f has been reserved

pnp: 00:07: ioport range 0x910-0x91f has been reserved

pnp: 00:07: ioport range 0x920-0x92f has been reserved

pnp: 00:07: ioport range 0x930-0x93f has been reserved

pnp: 00:07: ioport range 0x940-0x97f has been reserved

Simple Boot Flag at 0x79 set to 0x1

highmem bounce pool size: 64 pages

SGI XFS with no debug enabled

Initializing Cryptographic API

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:01.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:01.0 to 64

assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability

Allocate Port Service[pcie00]

Allocate Port Service[pcie03]

ACPI: AC Adapter [AC] (on-line)

ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present)

ACPI: CPU0 (power states: C1[C1] C2[C2] C3[C3] C4[C3])

ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports 8 throttling states)

ACPI: Thermal Zone [THM] (47 C)

Real Time Clock Driver v1.12

PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:KBC,PNP0f13:PS2M] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12

serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12

serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1

io scheduler noop registered

io scheduler deadline registered

loop: loaded (max 8 devices)

libata version 1.11 loaded.

ata_piix version 1.03

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64

ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1F0 ctl 0x3F6 bmdma 0xBFA0 irq 14

ata1: dev 0 cfg 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7f09 84:4003 85:3469 86:3c09 87:4003 88:203f

ata1: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/100, 156301488 sectors: lba48

ata1: dev 0 configured for UDMA/100

scsi0 : ata_piix

Vendor: ATA Model: ST9808211A Rev: 8.03

Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05

ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xBFA8 irq 15

ata2: dev 0 cfg 49:0b00 82:0210 83:1000 84:0000 85:0000 86:0000 87:0000 88:0407

ata2: dev 0 ATAPI, max UDMA/33

ata2: dev 0 configured for UDMA/33

scsi1 : ata_piix

Vendor: SONY Model: DVD+-RW DW-D56A Rev: PDS7

Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 05

SCSI device sda: 156301488 512-byte hdwr sectors (80026 MB)

SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back

SCSI device sda: 156301488 512-byte hdwr sectors (80026 MB)

SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back

sda: sda1 sda2 sda3

Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray

Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice

NET: Registered protocol family 2

IP: routing cache hash table of 8192 buckets, 64Kbytes

TCP established hash table entries: 262144 (order: 9, 2097152 bytes)

TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)

TCP: Hash tables configured (established 262144 bind 65536)

NET: Registered protocol family 1

NET: Registered protocol family 10

IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver

NET: Registered protocol family 17

input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0

XFS mounting filesystem sda3

alps.c: Enabling hardware tapping

Ending clean XFS mount for filesystem: sda3

VFS: Mounted root (xfs filesystem) readonly.

Freeing unused kernel memory: 144k freed

input: PS/2 Mouse on isa0060/serio1

input: AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint on isa0060/serio1

Adding 257032k swap on /dev/sda2. Priority:-1 extents:1

ieee80211_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'

ieee80211: 802.11 data/management/control stack, 1.0.3

ieee80211: Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Intel Corporation

ipw2200: no version for "ieee80211_get_crypto_ops" found: kernel tainted.

ipw2200: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200/2915 Network Driver, 1.0.6

ipw2200: Copyright(c) 2003-2004 Intel Corporation

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:03.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17

ipw2200: Detected Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection

nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:01:00.0 to 64

NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module 1.0-7667 Fri Jun 17 07:01:04 PDT 2005

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1e.2[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1e.2 to 64

intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 49376 usecs

intel8x0: clocking to 48000



turns out i learned that my HD and DVDRW are both on the SATA interface and i didn't require ANY ide drivers at all, pure SATA. my drive gets 37MB/Sec in Linux.



my video card/xorg output:

(**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling experimental RENDER acceleration

(**) NVIDIA(0): Use of NVIDIA internal AGP requested

(--) NVIDIA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xC0000000

(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xDD000000

(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU detected as: GeForce Go 6800

(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 05.41.02.29.a8

(--) NVIDIA(0): Interlaced video modes are supported on this GPU

(II) NVIDIA(0): Detected PCI Express Link width: 16X

(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoRAM: 262144 kBytes

(II) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s): DFP-0



needless to say NVIDIA provides EXCELLENT drivr support for my video card under Linux. PCI Express rocks. i get 65FPS in Doom 3 HQ @ 1024x768 (NV40-based config Doom 1.3).



i just love how fast linux is compared to windows.. even the gaming experience feels better to me.