1690 Series and Linux

Has anybody tried to load linux on one of these babies? I am looking at getting a 1691, and would like to dual boot.

I was told a live CD is a good try-before-you-buy way to tell if a distro is supported. Anybody tried this even?

I gather from reading that SuSE is the best distro for laptops. I wonder if the support for the WiFi, Card Reader, BT and X700 are in there :| Not likely

Cheers,
Dave

 

Hi I did!!!
I got a Aspire 1694... it looks pretty nice.

I put Ubuntu on my D:. I got it quite easily but now I'm trying to solve a problem with the Acer eRecovery program under windows. It was used to see a D> fat32 partition and now It doesn-t like the new D: ext3 disk.

SOmeone knows someting about this problem? I was thinking to made a new D: fat32 partition on windows C: partition to let eRecovery to find its stuff.

I didn't had the time to test Linux and my installation was quite incomplete (I haven't been able to connectet to internet with my laptop so I cannot upgrade it). It doesnt find Modem, Eth0, and I cannot see DVD film (but I can read DVD and CD).
No problems with USB, Touchpad (It doesn't see the scroll button), ATI X600, Microphone, Sound Card.

Golan T.

 

On my 1692 I've installed a Debian Testing (Sarge)
If you have problem on installation use: linux pci=off

- LCD resolution 1280x800. OK
- ATI X600 linux driver. OK (flgrx module) but has only 2D support. ATI X700 has full 3D support.
- AUDIO with ALSA. OK
- TOUCHPAD. OK (xsynaptic module)
- USB. OK
- PCMCIA. OK
- ETHERNET. OK (tg3 module)
- WIRELESS. OK (ipw2200 module)
- BLUETOOTH. OK (Bluez module)
- MODEM. OK (Linuxant demo version only 14.4)
- CD/DVD BURNING. NOT YET TESTED

Very satified.

I've tried an old Knoppix live distro, start but only with nousb option.

 

Thanks for your replies. This is all great news. =D

If your using Debian, Ubuntu might be a good live CD for me to try right? I believe Debian and Ubuntu can be almost considered the same.

I can't believe the BT and Wifi and everything are working, that is amazing! And you say the ATIx700 will run in 3D mode. Woahh! I am excited

Dave

 

Correct. Ubuntu is based on Debian.
Another great distro based on Debian and IMHO better than Ubuntu is Mepis. I don't know if there is a live version.
[8D]

 

I tested it with pure Debian, and run smoothly with my 1692 (sometimes you need put i810_audio in blacklist of recover and hotplug). However, the only really problem for me is that I can't use ALT+F10 after POST any more, even if the hidden partition is still there, and with two Fat32 partitions -- C Acer), D AcerData). Though I can still use Recovery CDs to restore my windows.