Matthew Allen wrote: > >>-----Original Message----- >>From: linux-audio-user-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:linux-audio- >>user-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mark Knecht >> >>I recently ran DSL, Dynebolic, Gentoo LiveCD AND Knoppix in Frys on > > all > >>of the laptops I was considering until I found models that ran all 4 >>CDs. This gave me a lot of confidence that once I got the laptop home >>I'd be able to put Linux on it. It worked. I know watch DVD using Xine >>and Alsa just fine. > > > > Aww man what an awesome idea! This sounds like 3 hours of weekend fun. > And just in time for my laptop buying adventures. > > Thanks > .matt > Good luck. If your experience is like mine you'll get a lot of people looking over your shoulder to find out about Linux. I ended up with Compaq R3070 at a good price. In my case pretty much everything worked well in the store except hdparm -tT speeds. I could see that in my case the Compaq was using a new ATI chipset so I came home, did some snooping and found that DMA support was added somewhere around 2.6.5, so installing that level of kernel when I built the machine solved that problem. However, then under 2.6.6 I had some Alsa problems (<hehe> so what's new about that?!?) which Takashi has recently solved. The machine now works quite nicely in both Gentoo and Win XP Pro running Pro Tools on the road. - Mark
