How to test a laptop for Linux compatibility?

[brakthepoet]

I've been shopping around for a new laptop, armed with a Knoppix disk and questions that stymie the salespeople. The Knopppix disk has been pretty good at running on most of the hardware, but I'm not sure of everything that I should do to be sure that the hardware works.

The machines I'm looking are all have wireless and wired ethernet ready, but the store's networks are locked down. Is there a way to check with Knoppix (or any other live CD) whether or not the hardware is recognized when a connection isn't possible? I thought running ifconfig might tell me something. But I can only pick up lo and not eth0 when I run ifconfig on a machine without a connection but with a card that I already know works. Any ideas or recommendations?

Also, it's pretty easy to tell if, say, the keyboard or screen are recognized. If Knoppix won't recognize it, then it's likely I'll have extra work ahead of me. But what about some of the other hardware that isn't easy to easy to verify that it's working with just a look? Are there any other tests that you put a machine through before purchasing to be the other hardware will work?

[Karl]

If you run "ifconfig eth0" it will show you the information about eth0 when it is not active but is detected.

Also "iwconfig" will show you any wireless devices that have been loaded.

[snarkout]

Buy a thinkpad. Seriously. Or buy a machine sold by a linux-on-laptops vendor after reading what they say works correctly on said lappy. Either that, or post to some lists asking what other people are running successfully, and what they're running on it. This will give you a much better idea than a salesperson who's never seen linux in his/her life.

Also, unless you plan on running knoppix on your new lappy, I don't think knoppix is really a good acid test since it runs on a lot of stuff OOTB other distros won't.

[Tsuroerusu]

I've found that Centrino-based laptops are very good with modern Linux distros, no problems on that one.

[Patrick]

My advice is to check the compatability lists:
http://www.linux-laptop.net
https://wiki.ubuntu.com//HardwareSupportMachinesLaptops

I'm looking to get a laptop early next year so I'm in the same boat as you. Most laptops work well under linux. It seems the big sore spots, wireless and modems are slowing improving. Ndiswrapper has helped immensely with wireless card compatability. It helps if you can actually try a bootable distro (Kanotix, Knoppix, DSL) and see what comes up. A couple of months back I checked out a cheapie HP laptop. The sound would not work with any of the bootable distros. Not a good sign.

[Tsuroerusu]

My advice is to check the compatability lists:
http://www.linux-laptop.net
https://wiki.ubuntu.com//HardwareSupportMachinesLaptops

I'm looking to get a laptop early next year so I'm in the same boat as you. Most laptops work well under linux. It seems the big sore spots, wireless and modems are slowing improving. Ndiswrapper has helped immensely with wireless card compatability. It helps if you can actually try a bootable distro (Kanotix, Knoppix, DSL) and see what comes up. A couple of months back I checked out a cheapie HP laptop. The sound would not work with any of the bootable distros. Not a good sign.

I've run SUSE Linux on about five different Centrino laptops, WiFi worked out of the box on all five. My experience is that the standard ipw2100 and ipw2200 cards work fine under Linux.

[treehead]

<snip>...armed with a Knoppix disk and questions that stymie the salespeople. The Knopppix disk has been pretty good at running on most of the hardware, but I'm not sure of everything that I should do to be sure that the hardware works.
<snip>

;one problem you may encounter having tested with knoppix is that your favorite distro may not use the same configuration or system tools. i have found that wireless card picked up by knoppix aren't recognized by other distros, for instance, or that sound may not be recognized by knoppix but works out of the box on fedora core... so the livecd approach may present you with some false positives.

;i'd agree with patrick regarding compatibility lists. also check out: tuxmobile.

;i'd suggest a laptop with an nvidia video card, simply because nvidia will at least cough up binary (if proprietary) drivers.

;unless the exact chipset and version are known to work with your distro, i'd stay away from a laptop with integrated wireless (mini pci) and favor a seperate pcmcia card with a known, well-supported chipset. these cards often have two antennas and better radios anyway.

;i'm actually think of buying my next laptop from linux certified.

;treehead