[NTLUG:Discuss] Fedora core 4 on HP Pavilion notebook?

[Robert Pearson]

On 9/21/05, BBBB <brad.list at thingbuilder.com> wrote:
> I have been interested in an HP laptop for Ubuntu also. They have a
> Customized CD for some models:
> http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/custom/hplaptops
> I am not an IT professional or Linux expert by any stretch of the
> imagination.
> Ubuntu has been great for me as a regular guy trying to break the MS habit.
> After trying a couple of
> other distros, I feel like I can solve most of my problems on my own with
> Ubuntu.
> Is your fear that Ubuntu may be the only distro with these drivers?
> I'm not sure why this is any different than any other laptops that have
> hardware that only works with
> windows. Wouldn't they work with other Debian-ish flavors? I think I must be
> missing the point.

Ubuntu is not a problem.

My HP Pavilion N5290 network card is not seen by Windows either. After
I do a Windows install I have to load a special HP driver for the
network card to work. Windows has screwed me up lately by downloading
updates for a network card it thinks I have but do not.

SuSE 8.2, 9.0, 9.2, 9.3, Red Hat 9, FC1, 2, 3, 4, and Debian "sarge"
all worked without problem on the HP laptop. I tried Ubuntu 4.5 on the
laptop because it worked fine on my desktops and has some of the power
of Debian without the maintenance overhead. I found work-a-rounds for
Ubuntu 4.5 for the HP laptop network card on the Internet. The Ubuntu
updates would have fixed the Ubuntu problem except I have to get on
the network to get them. I don't know how to download the updates
elsewhere and transfer and install them to a different machine. That
might have been a good learning experience but I didn't have the time.

I have not tried a newer Ubuntu release because it doesn't buy me
anything over SuSE 9.3.
This is not a plug for SuSE nor a slam at Ubuntu. I ran FC1, 2, 3 for
a long time and I thought FC4 was a big improvement over the earlier
releases.

Thanks,  Robert