Most Upto Date Distro (August 07)

I am testing out Distros on my M1330 to try and get something to install. So far Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon has got the furthest, but crashed near the end.

So I am wondering what is the most upto date stable distro that I can try to install. Do any of the current stable distros support santa rosa properly yet?

Or should I wait until October for Gutsy?

 

New technology + beta OS = trouble.

The most bleeding edge distro isn't necessarily the best. Try Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" for better results. Gibbon is still in development and is meant for testing at this point.

 

I tried Fiesty first, and it does not see the ACHI controllers at all. Gutsy does. That's why I am looking for an alternative stable distro that has support for the newer hardware, but is stable and not flaky like Gutsy.

 

It's a bit more work to setup, but, maybe Arch? Kernel 2.6.22 is out of testing and into the "current" repository.

According to DistroWatch, Gutsy is using the same 2.6.22 kernel, whereas Feisty is at 2.6.20.

For what it's worth, I've found my Arch install perfectly stable, though I imagine it largely depends on which packages you install.

 

Cool so when you say "out of testing" does that mean they have a iso image I can download with the latest packages on it? Or do you have to install using an older version then update?

 

Hmm Cool I see they have a FTP installer CD I wonder if that pulls latest versions of things while installing?

And I see the latest release is August 07 so I will give that a shot.

 

Their "releases" are really just snapshots of a subset of their packages + an installer. Arch uses a rolling release system, where once you update the system, everything's updated to the most up to date version.

And what I meant by "out of testing" is that they have a "testing" repository, and then once it's deemed stable, it gets put into one of the other repositories.

 

Not too long ago Sabayon came out with another release. 3.4 I think it was, and it looked really cool! But sadly I don't know my way around gentoo-based distros, so I was completely lost when my wireless wouldn't work.

 

It is possible to use a Feisty installation with a Gutsy kernel like I do. See this thread. I've actually included the method described there in my procedure to install Ubuntu on a Compal IFL90.

 

I'm also having problems getting distros running on my santa rosa laptop. Ubuntu Feisty is giving me a tty error that i'm trying to solve. But I did get Knoppix working just fine it has great hardware detection. If you want a linux distro that you can install on there and have it work right away get Knoppix.

 

Arch just recently started releasing an install CD for every major kernel release, which is very very nice. I don't think anybody will regularly be as up to date. Of course, you need some experience, or at least patience, to get it installed and setup.

 

yes, Arch takes time to get set up, but on the other hand, spending that time to set it up means you know your system that much more intimately, and are better prepared to fix things when they break down the road.

 

sidux (debian sid) might be worth a try. it's using 2.6.22 kernel for awhile now and they are previewing the next release now. has good detection/compatibility like knoppix.

 

i know its just a beta but openSUSE released 10.3 beta one yesterday and its pretty stable in its current form so you could try that

 

For my T61 santa rosa based laptop Arch worked the best for me. Neither the 7.04 release or tribe 3 would install with graphics. tribe 3 alternate install worked mostly, but X wouldn't load, and i don't know my way around ubuntu. Debian would install but X wouldn't load properly and I didn't know how to fix it. Simply mepis actually worked the best of the distros that try to setup everything for the user using a gui, but it felt very out of date. Arch "Don't Panic" worked the best for me, I just had to use the ide-generic load to get it to recognize the cd drive to install from the cd rather than ftp (though if i had my sata chip in compatibility that probably wouldn't have been necessary). The only problem i ran into besides ide generic was the intel video drivers, which took me some time and searching to get running, but now that its all set up, it works perfectly and I know how to maintain/fix my system if anything breaks; not to mention the great wiki and forum Arch has.

 

I am amazed no one has even mentioned Fedora.

Fedora is precisely composed by bleeding edge software. The only 'problem' for newbies is that it does not include non-free software, but once installed it is very easy to get 3rd party repos to fulfill that gap.

Fedora 7 (the latest) is amazing and quite up to date.

 

Mepis has released an alpha KDE4 disk based on the soon to be SimplyMepis 7 that Warren is working on, that might be worth a look if you want a nose bleed from using your PC

 

Thanks for all the posts.

The latest one I tried is Open Suse Beta. And that installed like a charm. There are some bugs not related the my laptop like menu items not working, but on the whole things are running pretty well.

 

If it's not 64bit, I don't care, it's old tech