VL on laptops in Switzerland

[j.a.watson]

Hello.  I have been testing|experimenting|playing (choose the term you prefer) with various Linux distributions on several different laptops.  Last week I acquired a netbook, specifically an HP 2133 Mini-Note.  It has a VIA C-7 CPU and associated chipset - meaning Chrome9 graphics, Broadcom wired and wireless network interfaces, and an ADI sound chip.  After trying quite a few other Linux distributions on it, none with complete success and many with complete failure, I finally got around to loading VL 6.0 RC4 - and it works GREAT!  I nearly jumped out of my chair with joy when I saw that everything was working.  Once I figure out one small problem with the screen resolution, I will be able to say it is close to PERFECT.

For the time being, I still have it configured to multi-boot XP Professional, VL 6.0 RC4, openSuSE 11.1 and SimplyMEPIS 8.0 Beta 2.  However, unless something significant changes (on the order of all the snow melting here in Switzerland), I will soon be reconfiguring it to only XP and VL.

My thanks and congratulations to all those who are involved in producing this excellent distribution.

Jamie Watson

P.S. For those who might be interested in netbooks, mini-notebooks or other variations of small laptops, I strongly recommend the HP 2133.  The keyboard is "92% the size of a standard keyboard", according to HP, and I can say that it is by far the nicest keyboard I have ever seen on a netbook.  The display is excellent as well, bright and clear, and while it is 8.9", which is not quite as large as the latest generation of netbooks, once you get to 10" you need to start thinking about where the line is between a "mini" and a "standard" laptop.  I've only had mine for a week, but I already love it; if you are reading these forums because you like/love/use VectorLinux, now that you know it works great on the HP 2133 that is another huge plus.

jw

[rbistolfi]

Hi j.a. !

Welcome to the forum

I believe we owe that success to uelsk8s (one of the main devs) and Steve Tindle from SQI, Inc. Steve's school got some HP-mini, and he was interested in getting VL in them. He did a good work finding solutions, reporting problems to uelsk8s and troubleshooting.

Steve is keeping some notes here: https://vector.ecosq.com/ic/HowTos/HpMini

I think he will be happy to know that VL6.0 works well on it.

[caitlyn]

Welcome to the Vector Linux community.  You'll find the VL community incredibly helpful and friendly.

I briefly had two Sylvania g netbooks (original version) which have the same processor and video chipset.  My experience is the same as yours -- xorg.conf needed tweaking but everything else worked.  Unfortunately both Sylvania g netbooks had hardware problems and I finally traded up to a Sylvania g Meso which just works  

I also have to give kudos to Uelsk8s, Vector, and M0E_lnx who took my feedback from testing in the Sylvania g and incorporated everything needed to make it all work in VL6.

Again, welcome to Vector Linux!