The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Driver installation?

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by DaBunBun, Jul 6, 2010.

  1. DaBunBun

    DaBunBun Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Quick question, do i need to install laptop drivers for linux OS's? Planning on dual/tri booting with win7 and fedora or (open) solaris.
     
  2. Rodster

    Rodster Merica

    Reputations:
    1,805
    Messages:
    5,043
    Likes Received:
    396
    Trophy Points:
    251
    The cool thing about Linux is the OS will inform you if you need to install drivers. Most of the time i.e. 90% of the time everything gets installed on your initial setup. The only two drivers I had to install were for my Nvidia card and wireless card. That was it.
     
  3. DaBunBun

    DaBunBun Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ic, thanks for the info. Guess I should post in the sager forum for some specific driver details.
     
  4. Thomas

    Thomas McLovin

    Reputations:
    1,988
    Messages:
    5,253
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    I would download a LiveCD and try it out. A LiveCD allows you to run the OS from a CD, without installing it. Also, if you are fairly new, I wouldn't use OpenSolaris, which hasn't come as far as linux in many ways. I also would go with something like OpenSuSE, LinuxMint, or Ubuntu over Fedora.
     
  5. DaBunBun

    DaBunBun Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Guess ill leave it alone for some reason i thought it was a linux runoff/distro. Was going to use with netbeans because it has a nifty analysis feature.
     
  6. Thomas

    Thomas McLovin

    Reputations:
    1,988
    Messages:
    5,253
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    You can get netbeans on just about any linux distribution.
     
  7. DaBunBun

    DaBunBun Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    There was a specific netbean analysis feature that said you need specifically solaris or some other os, can't remember off the top of my head.
     
  8. Thomas

    Thomas McLovin

    Reputations:
    1,988
    Messages:
    5,253
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    I really wouldn't recommend Solaris to anyone.

    For perspective, last time I tried it I had to compile ethernet drivers from source code.

    I spent 3 hours finding the code, an hour finding build instructions, and an hour compiling.

    I won't even get started on wireless drivers, codecs, video drivers.
    It's not suitable as a desktop/laptop OS yet.