[vox-tech] Installing a desktop upon my laptop

[Ken Bloom]

On Sat, Sep 25, 2004 at 12:06:55PM -0500, Jay Strauss wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I want to preface this, I'm not whinning :)
> 
> Since replacing my failed hard drive on my laptop (IBM thinkpad A30,
> model 2652 3CU), I'm really trying to make the switch to a linux
> destop.  I've always run Debian for my servers and am most
> comfortable with that.  I've never had to worry about sound cards,
> IR ports, wireless cards...

Debian can give you a system that is much slimmer than most others
(with the possible exception of Slackware and Gentoo)

> What I find when I install Sarge, and pick the desktop option is:
> 
> 1) It installs a ton of stuff, that I just don't need now.  For
> example, I don't need 10 different console and terminal apps, 5
> different web browsers, sound recording/mixing..., games, HTML
> editors, both KDE and Gnome...

You'll want to eschew this "desktop environment" checkbox, and instead
do some research into your own packages. You can always apt-get new
programs when you need them, as I do.
 
> 2) it doesn't do a good job of identifying and configuring
> components.  Examples: a) doesnt identify my video card as ATI b)
> doesn't setup my XFConfig-4 correctly c) Sound only works if I use
> KDE first.  That is if I log into Gnome after boot I have no sound,
> if I log into KDE then Gnome I get sound.  But even then the sound
> volume controls doesn't work d) The wireless card can't be picked
> during the install because the settings don't last/work after that
> initial install reboot

I don't know anything about this. I haven't needed to Debian hardware
detection in a while.

> 3) Its kinda slow.  I'm running a 1Ghz pentium III, 384 MB ram, 5400
> rpm drive.  It takes something like 10 seconds after I enter my
> userid into GDM before I get my desktop

I have similar stats (but only 128MB ram), and I don't have any
complaints about my login speed. Of course, I'm not logging into GNOME
- I'm using Fluxbox 0.9.9, and I have only a couple of small programs
that run before that (launching a lightweight toolbar, setting the
keyboard layout)

> Maybe I'm picking the wrong distribution to run as a desktop (or I
> hate to say it, maybe I'm spoiled because M$ stuff does all this so
> well).
> 
> So my question is:
> 
> Can anyone suggest a route for installing on my laptop that will
> help me detect/identify all the components on my laptop (network
> card, wireless card, ir port, monitor, sound card...), give me a
> nice slim install, and ideally use APT for software administration

-- 
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See http://www.gnupg.org/ for info about these digital signatures.

G'mar Chatima Tova
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