[ale] Good Linux laptops

Tue Apr 9 10:51:05 EDT 2013

I can't speak for that model, but I picked up an envy last summer and I've been running, openSUSE on it. Initially 12.2, now 12.3.
Everything worked out of the box (sound, hdcam, wireless, buttons, touchpad, mic, etc...), including suspend/resume. The only glitch I've run into, is that the screen light turns off during boot, and I have to turn up the brightness before Iogin. I ran across a fix somewhere once, but I lost the link and haven't been irritated enough to go search for it again yet.
-jt

James Taylor
The East Cobb Group, Inc.
678-697-9420
james.taylor at eastcobbgroup.com
http://www.eastcobbgroup.com
>>> Ed Cashin <ecashin at noserose.net> 04/09/13 9:08 AM >>>
Thanks for all the great info.

Does suspend/resume work well?  Any surprises?

On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 12:11 PM, Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com> wrote:
 I told you all that I'd let you know what he ordered and how the install went. He decided on the HP Envy DV6 laptop. It has a 3rd gen i7 chip, which seems pretty quick. I haven't run any performance tests, but if someone knows of a good performance test suite, and is interested, I'll give it a run. 

Here's what he bought:
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AFHP55S/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1>

Predictably, Windows 8 seems slow in comparison to Ubuntu 12.10. I think an SSD drive would have made a big difference. Quite honestly though, he's giving this one to a friend who's a computer novice, and will probably order another one for himself.

The Ubuntu install didn't go as smoothly as I thought it should. I'd heard about the Windows "safe boot" mode, and predicted that there would be some problems. The thing is, the problems didn't manifest themselves as they might should have. If you try to install, or simply choose the option to verify the install CD, it fails to read a particular sector of the CD. It makes it look like the CD (DVD) failed to write correctly. I think I made three or four DVDs, from two different DVD burners before I realized that this just wasn't the case. The MD5sum for the ISO was correct, and the DVD burning software verified the contents of the DVD after each burn. The problem was, the BIOS was expecting a "Secure Boot" image. Yea! Microsoft! Thank you for protecting us, digital overlords!

There were two different settings in the BIOS which I had to change to get everything working. Under the "System Configuration" of the BIOS, there are settings called "Legacy Support" and "Secure Boot". The notes for the Legacy Support setting says: "When Legacy Support is enabled, BIOS will load Compatibility Support Module (CSM) to support Legacy OS such as Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and DOS. When Legacy Support is disabled, it will boot in UEFI Mode without CSM to support newer OS such as Windows 8."

I've forgotten, but I think I had to enable Legacy Support in order to install Ubuntu, but then I could turn it off. It's now disabled, and with Grub2 controlling the Master Boot record, it works just fine. By the way, I had to manually install Grub2 over the Master Boot record. The Ubuntu installer wasn't smart enough to figure out where to install Grub, even though I specifically said to "Install alongside Windows 8" when I was configuring the install. I created a "Linux Secure Remix" install CD, which included a "Boot Repair" application to fix the Master Boot Record. <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LinuxSecureRemix>

The "Secure Boot" setting is also disabled in the BIOS setting. However, Grub2 provides a "Windows UEFI bkbootmgfw.efi" and also a "Windows 8 Boot UEFI loader" option (which I assume are equivalent, because both of them work), to boot Windows 8.

As to my overall impressions of the laptop, I think I'd rate it an 8 out of 10. It's alright, and perfectly acceptable for most people. But I personally don't like the keyboard layout. The Enter key is massive. The arrow keys are stacked in such a way that the up and down arrows are squashed, to make the two of them the same size as a the left and right arrows. (I use these keys, so it sucks for me.) He didn't want me to tear away the plastic covering the webcam, but from the picture it generated through the plastic, it looked acceptable. The monitor was nice, if maybe just a little dimmer on the top left corner, than the rest of the screen, but it's not very noticeable. I think he likes his choice very much.

Thanks again for the help!
Doug Hall

On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 9:40 PM, Doug Hall <doughalldev at gmail.com> wrote:
 A coworker, whom I switched to Ubuntu a little over a year ago, is looking for a nice new linux laptop. I know the Lenovos are usually a pretty good choice. Does anyone else have a laptop they're thrilled with, which will run Mint or Ubuntu? He's not a techie, so compatibility is important. I think he uses it for basic things - pictures, email, web, etc. 

Thanks ahead of time!

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