Compaq laptop without OS or preloaded with linux

[c***@gmail.com]

Has anyone been successful in purchasing a Compaq laptop either without
an OS or possibly loaded with a distro of linux? ... with an AMD X2
processor??

Thanks,

Ralph.

[Phil Wroe]

Post by c***@gmail.com
Has anyone been successful in purchasing a Compaq laptop either
without an OS or possibly loaded with a distro of linux? ... with an
AMD X2 processor??
Thanks,
Ralph.
_______________________________________________
LinuxR3000 mailing list
http://lists.pcxperience.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxr3000
Wiki at http://prinsig.se/weekee/

I have a Compaq Presario R3000. It came with WinXP and I was successful
in loading Linux, The only thing I was unable to do is get it to work my
Broadcom wireless chip set.

Phil

[John Jason Jordan]

On Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:45:26 -0400

Post by Phil Wroe

Post by c***@gmail.com
Has anyone been successful in purchasing a Compaq laptop either
without an OS or possibly loaded with a distro of linux? ... with an
AMD X2 processor??

I have a Compaq Presario R3000. It came with WinXP and I was successful
in loading Linux, The only thing I was unable to do is get it to work my
Broadcom wireless chip set.

If it has the Broadcom 4306 you can get it working with ndiswrapper.
Some people also report success with the new bcm43xx open source
driver, but I could never get it to work, so I always go back to
ndiswrapper. Works flawlessly for me.

[Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas]

Post by John Jason Jordan
If it has the Broadcom 4306 you can get it working with ndiswrapper.
Some people also report success with the new bcm43xx open source
driver, but I could never get it to work, so I always go back to
ndiswrapper. Works flawlessly for me.

--Can you get WAP encryption to work with ndiswrapper?

[John Jason Jordan]

On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 00:06:05 -0400

Post by Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas

Post by John Jason Jordan
If it has the Broadcom 4306 you can get it working with ndiswrapper.
Some people also report success with the new bcm43xx open source
driver, but I could never get it to work, so I always go back to
ndiswrapper. Works flawlessly for me.

--Can you get WAP encryption to work with ndiswrapper?

I believe I have seen that referenced in Ubuntu forums and elsewhere.
In fact I think I saw it on our R3000 wiki. But I don't remember what
it said. I don't even know what WAP stands for. :(

The short answer: I have no idea.

[Ken Hughes]

Post by John Jason Jordan
On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 00:06:05 -0400

Post by Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas

Post by John Jason Jordan
If it has the Broadcom 4306 you can get it working with ndiswrapper.
Some people also report success with the new bcm43xx open source
driver, but I could never get it to work, so I always go back to
ndiswrapper. Works flawlessly for me.

--Can you get WAP encryption to work with ndiswrapper?

I believe I have seen that referenced in Ubuntu forums and elsewhere.
In fact I think I saw it on our R3000 wiki. But I don't remember what
it said. I don't even know what WAP stands for. :(

I've used WEP and WPA encryption with ndiswrapper on my 32-bit R3000.

Ken

[Gary Baribault]

I had it working with NDISWrapper as well, but recently re-formatted for
a clean install of OpenSuSE 10.2 and it discovered it out of the box and
set it up right out of the kernel!

Gary B

Post by John Jason Jordan
On Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:45:26 -0400

Post by Phil Wroe

Post by c***@gmail.com
Has anyone been successful in purchasing a Compaq laptop either
without an OS or possibly loaded with a distro of linux? ... with an
AMD X2 processor??

I have a Compaq Presario R3000. It came with WinXP and I was successful
in loading Linux, The only thing I was unable to do is get it to work my
Broadcom wireless chip set.

If it has the Broadcom 4306 you can get it working with ndiswrapper.
Some people also report success with the new bcm43xx open source
driver, but I could never get it to work, so I always go back to
ndiswrapper. Works flawlessly for me.
_______________________________________________
LinuxR3000 mailing list
http://lists.pcxperience.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxr3000
Wiki at http://prinsig.se/weekee/

[Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas]

Post by Gary Baribault
I had it working with NDISWrapper as well, but recently re-formatted for
a clean install of OpenSuSE 10.2 and it discovered it out of the box and
set it up right out of the kernel!
Gary B

--Are you running 32 bits or 64 bits?

[alan]

Post by Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas

Post by Gary Baribault
I had it working with NDISWrapper as well, but recently re-formatted for
a clean install of OpenSuSE 10.2 and it discovered it out of the box and
set it up right out of the kernel!
Gary B

--Are you running 32 bits or 64 bits?

I am running 64bit. To get it to "just work" it needs the firmware in
/lib/firmware. Also, it seems to have been broken in the 2.6.20 kernels.
Not certain why yet. (MadWifi also broke at the same time. This is why I
have three wifi cards.)

[Gary Baribault]

32 bit, I have never tried the 64bits, too many complications with
drivers that where not quite there.

Gary B

Post by Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas

Post by Gary Baribault
I had it working with NDISWrapper as well, but recently re-formatted for
a clean install of OpenSuSE 10.2 and it discovered it out of the box and
set it up right out of the kernel!
Gary B

--Are you running 32 bits or 64 bits?

[Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas]

Thank you.

I tried the 64-bit driver (vanilla kernel 2.6.20), but it doesn't seem
to run right. Do I need to install additional files like with the Intel
wifi? TIA.

Post by Gary Baribault
32 bit, I have never tried the 64bits, too many complications with
drivers that where not quite there.
Gary B

Post by Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas

Post by Gary Baribault
I had it working with NDISWrapper as well, but recently re-formatted for
a clean install of OpenSuSE 10.2 and it discovered it out of the box and
set it up right out of the kernel!
Gary B

--Are you running 32 bits or 64 bits?

_______________________________________________
LinuxR3000 mailing list
http://lists.pcxperience.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxr3000
Wiki at http://prinsig.se/weekee/

[Jonathan Berry]

Post by Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas
Thank you.
I tried the 64-bit driver (vanilla kernel 2.6.20), but it doesn't seem
to run right. Do I need to install additional files like with the Intel
wifi? TIA.

For the open-source driver? Yeah, you will need the firmware, just
like with the Intel cards. That's about all I know about it :-).

Jonathan

[Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas]

Thank you. I did some googling. Here is what I discovered:

Although bcm43xx has made it to the kernels starting with 2.6.17, legal
issues prevent the direct distribution of the firmware. In order to
install the firmware, you need to extract it with a program called
'fwcutter'. There are two different choices of firmware, "SoftMAC" and
"MAC80211." You should download and install one of the two, depending
on your card (I think). More details here:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-409194-postdays-0-postorder-asc-start-0.html

In my case, I recently upgraded to openSuSE 10.2 (which, after the
recent pact with the devil, I think will soon become
junked-SuSE-in-favor-of-Ubuntu). Anyway, the 'smart' package manager
located fwcutter, which I installed ('smart' uses rpm). After an
'lsmod | grep bcw', I saw modules with the word "soft" already
installed, so I decided to extract with 'fwcutter' (as described in the
URL above) the firmware from the SoftMAC file. After that, I did a
'rmmod bcm43xx' (because it was already loaded, LOL), and then a
"modprobe bcm43xx' and BINGO!!!!!! I saw the blue light blink!!!!
iwconfig, and iwlist worked as expected. I dhcpc'ed to the access
point and I was surfing!!!!!! The connection remained stable for over
15 minutes. I then shut it down. I have not tried WPA encryption yet
(nor WEP encryption, but I assume this will work --I never got WPA to
work with ndiswrapper).

A few oddities: As others have remarked, the wifi now appears as eth1
instead of wlan0. Second, I observed that when I turn (toggle) the
radio off while there is wifi traffic (e.g. when pinging), the blue
light stays on contnuously instead of turning off! Otherwise, things
seem to work fine, at least as good as under ndiswrapper.

I am running 64-bit SuSE 10.2 with an updated vanilla kernel 2.6.20.3,
with full preemption enabled.

I hope this helps others. Maybe it should be posted on the wiki if
there are no inaccuracies.

Post by Jonathan Berry

Post by Constantine 'Gus' Fantanas
Thank you.
I tried the 64-bit driver (vanilla kernel 2.6.20), but it doesn't seem
to run right. Do I need to install additional files like with the Intel
wifi? TIA.

For the open-source driver? Yeah, you will need the firmware, just
like with the Intel cards. That's about all I know about it :-).
Jonathan
_______________________________________________
LinuxR3000 mailing list
http://lists.pcxperience.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxr3000
Wiki at http://prinsig.se/weekee/

[c***@gmail.com]

Putting linux on a laptop isn't the problem ... I'm interested in
learning if anyone has either purchased a laptop with linux
pre-installed, or were able to get a rebate for not using their windows
installation, or have purchased their laptop without an OS. Sorry for
the confusion.

Thanks,

Ralph.

Post by Phil Wroe

Post by c***@gmail.com
Has anyone been successful in purchasing a Compaq laptop either
without an OS or possibly loaded with a distro of linux? ... with an
AMD X2 processor??
Thanks,
Ralph.
_______________________________________________
LinuxR3000 mailing list
http://lists.pcxperience.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxr3000
Wiki at http://prinsig.se/weekee/

I have a Compaq Presario R3000. It came with WinXP and I was
successful in loading Linux, The only thing I was unable to do is get
it to work my Broadcom wireless chip set.
Phil
_______________________________________________
LinuxR3000 mailing list
http://lists.pcxperience.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxr3000
Wiki at http://prinsig.se/weekee/