How To Find Out If a Notebook Runs Linux

How To Find Out If a Notebook Runs Linux

There's no fixed answer to this question, because notebook hardware is
constantly updated, and getting the X display, sound, PCMCIA, modem,
and so forth, working, can take a good deal of effort.

Most notebooks currently on the market, for example, use "Winmodems,"
which often do not work with Linux because of their proprietary
hardware interfaces. Even notebooks which are certified as "Linux
compatible," may not be completely compatible.

Information about installing Winmodems in general is contained in the
Winmodems-and-Linux HOWTO. (Refer to "Where Is the Documentation?")

You can find the most current information, or ask other users about
their notebook experiences, on the linux-laptop mailing list, which is
hosted by the vger.redhat.com server. (Refer to "What Mailing Lists
Are There?")

A mailing list for Linux on IBM Thinkpads has its home page at
http://www.topica.com/lists/linux-thinkpad/.

Another Thinkpad mailing list is hosted by http://www.bm-soft.com/.
Send email with the word "help" in the body of the message to
majordomo@www.bm-soft.com.

There is a Web page about Linux on IBM Thinkpads at
http://peipa.essex.ac.uk/tp-linux/.

The Linux Laptop home page is at
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/.

For information about interfacing peripherals like Zip and CD-ROM
drives through parallel ports, refer to the Linux Parallel Port Home
Page, at http://www.torque.net/linux-pp.html.

If you need the latest version of the PCMCIA Card Services package, it
is (or was) located at ftp://cb-iris.stanford.edu/pub/pcmcia/, but
that host no longer seems to be available. Recent distributions are on
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/pcmcia/. You will also need to
have the kernel source code installed as well. Be sure to read the
PCMCIA-HOWTO, which is included in the distribution.


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