Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

FurryDonkey · 2011-05-06 04:17:43

dhave -thanx for the quick response.

This will help my decision. Now I just have to figure out if I want the T420 or T420s and a hard drive or.SSD etc. Has anyone used and mSata drive on either of these laptops. I either would like to go with a SSD or mSata to speed up boot times. With Arch I think it could be really quick.

bwat47 · 2011-05-06 06:18:26

I'd just try and make sure it doesn't have an ati card, broadcomm wireless, or optimus and you should be all set

Last edited by bwat47 (2011-05-06 06:20:02)

jakerules · 2011-05-06 15:13:46

I use a refurbished laptop I found on a bidding site that was around 200 dollars. I have absolutely no problem with Arch on this system.

Core Duo (core 2 duo, but still 2 cores) 2ghz
60gig hard drive (this is the only thing i don't like about it!)
ATI radeon mobility x1600
1 gig of ram (I want to upgrade, but it's really doing the job for what I use this computer for so far.)
Decent(but old) battery lasting up to 3 to 4 hours with power settings with options of a 12 cell battery upgrade.

Icluding plymouth and starting into slim/gnome 3, it takes around 15-20 seconds to boot into slim. Slim to gnome only takes about 8-10 seconds. I do all of my college work on this thing, but I'm not sure about gaming. Easy to watch things in 720p with the default ati driver. It emulates things well from what I've tested, and most of my multimedia laptop buttons work. Turned my help key into a terminal! On windows I can run left 4 dead 2 at around medium settings, but I haven't even attempted anything like that on arch. xD

As for ATI, they stopped support for my card, but maybe a newer card will have better luck.
I totally recommend anybody to use ubid or even ebay for a great bidding site, but otherwise newegg is a great place to shop as well.

Just my two cents. Enjoy. : )

655321 · 2011-05-06 23:38:27

Cool! sorry guys for being gone for some days had some matters to attend to, thank GOD I didnt buy that Vaio graphics are always the breaking point in my opinion when it comes to linux.

So I think my best choice is to get a thinkpad right now I spent the money for the laptop on something else (lol) So I will have to wait a bit to get but for sure It will be a thinkpad

Thanks a lot for all your help and also thanks to alexcriss for coming back to provide the results on the Vaio laptop

I will leave the thread open for a while if you guys want to keep discusing laptops and mark it as solved when the discussion dies

Last edited by 655321 (2011-05-06 23:40:53)

dhave · 2011-05-06 23:43:23

FurryDonkey wrote:

dhave -thanx for the quick response.
This will help my decision. Now I just have to figure out if I want the T420 or T420s and a hard drive or.SSD etc. Has anyone used and mSata drive on either of these laptops. I either would like to go with a SSD or mSata to speed up boot times. With Arch I think it could be really quick.

I ordered my T420 with the cheapest hard drive and RAM options, then upgraded RAM from Crucial and installed an SSD that I got from from Amazon. An SSD in a T420 makes for a zippy little machine.

lucacuchi · 2011-05-07 20:25:16

I think this laptop will be the best for you http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6834152258

MSI
Model
GE620-021US
Part#
9S7-16G526-021

CPU Type
Intel Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz

Screen
15.6"

Memory Size
8GB DDR3

Hard Disk
640GB

Graphics Card
NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
Video Memory
1GB GDDR3 VRAM

Dimensions
15.09" x 9.83" x 1.27" - 1.46"

Weight
5.28 lbs.

1920 x 1080

$ 1099.99

or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6834152255

Last edited by lucacuchi (2011-05-07 20:27:14)

FurryDonkey · 2011-05-08 17:10:46

dhave wrote:

I ordered my T420 with the cheapest hard drive and RAM options, then upgraded RAM from Crucial and installed an SSD that I got from from Amazon. An SSD in a T420 makes for a zippy little machine.

Do mind me asking what SSD you used? From my research it seems that the T420s requires a 7mm thick SSD while the T420 can use a standard laptop sized SSD. In some other forums I have noticed that people use an intel SSD and take a spacer off of it, but I am wondering if there are other SSD options for the T420s. Basically I am thinking of doing exactly what you did, upgrade the ram and drive myself. I like the pricing of the OCZ Vertex 2 SSD's, but as far as I can tell they are just over 9mm thick so wouldn't fit into the T420s.

655321 · 2011-05-11 00:17:50

@lucacuchi, can you confirm that graphic card performs good under linux? Im talking about the 14' msi with the AMD Radeon graphics card (second link). That laptop looks very promising! and very cheap too

yungtrizzle · 2011-05-11 05:08:17

The only laptops that will run Arch without any hitches are Dells since they officially support Ubuntu. That said, don't touch a Sony or Toshiba, they seem to reinforce win7 and ignore everything else. If you can't get a Dell, go for Acer, you might have small hitches depending on the model but its better that the others.

ctown.myth · 2011-05-13 05:26:06

I would also suggest looking at Acers TimelineX's, the 3820TG can be had for pretty cheap these days (it has a 6550M and a i5 460M), the successor - 3830TG - should have the new Sandy Bridge processors, but it comes with Optimus.

Also the integrated graphics in the Sandy Bridge processors are much better than any previous IGP from Intel, on par with a 6470M and a GT 520M; if you can stomach it the Toshiba Protege R830 and R835 are also some I'd look at.

Now @alexcriss, was the keyboard backlight working properly? Also I recently heard that there was an ALSA patch for getting the mic to work, I think it was on a Ubuntu forum, but I can't find it now.

alexcriss · 2011-05-13 06:46:39

ctown.myth wrote:

Now @alexcriss, was the keyboard backlight working properly? Also I recently heard that there was an ALSA patch for getting the mic to work, I think it was on a Ubuntu forum, but I can't find it now.

I don't know what you mean with properly It worked in the sense that when you typed the keys lighted up and after some time with no key activity the light turned off. The light sensor didn't work, so you had the backlight working day and night, no difference.

I returned the laptop, so I did not check for ALSA upgrades. I remember that I had mic issues also with the previous Sony VAIO (the old S model listed by the OP) and those where resolved after some kernel iterations, so it's a matter of time or of patching ALSA.

anrxc · 2011-05-13 06:54:45

HP ProBook 4320s

13" screen, with a DVD-RW, and Intel graphics 5700MHD. These are sold with OpenSUSE often, which ensures *everything* works fine. My last ThinkPad can't suspend to ram even to this day in comparison.

ctown.myth · 2011-05-13 06:57:24

alexcriss wrote:

ctown.myth wrote:
Now @alexcriss, was the keyboard backlight working properly? Also I recently heard that there was an ALSA patch for getting the mic to work, I think it was on a Ubuntu forum, but I can't find it now.
I don't know what you mean with properly It worked in the sense that when you typed the keys lighted up and after some time with no key activity the light turned off. The light sensor didn't work, so you had the backlight working day and night, no difference.
I returned the laptop, so I did not check for ALSA upgrades. I remember that I had mic issues also with the previous Sony VAIO (the old S model listed by the OP) and those where resolved after some kernel iterations, so it's a matter of time or of patching ALSA.

Sweet! Working backlight! Thanks

So far this laptop has everything that I needed, but I'm going to wait for the SA coming out first (not to mention me getting a job first).

655321 · 2011-05-14 01:29:34

dhave wrote:

I ordered my T420 with the cheapest hard drive and RAM options, then upgraded RAM from Crucial and installed an SSD that I got from from Amazon. An SSD in a T420 makes for a zippy little machine.

I talked with lenovo live chat technitian today, worse technitian ever, was unable to give me any info so I better ask here

Is it possible to return the windows OS license for a refund?

I also rofled when I asked this:

me: So I can buy a t420s with normal hard drive and then upgrade it with an SSD drive?
techinitian: we havent tested SSD drives under this laptop model

*hint to technitian* you actually SELL a t420s model with a 128GB SSD drive

--sarcasm coming--I guess they built it and start selling it without testing the drive? yeah that may be it

And another one:

me: Can I get the laptop with no OS or get a refund for the windows license?
technitian: All our systems come preloaded with windows OS, you can try one of our resellers
me: Do you provide those resellers with laptops without the windows OS?
technitian: No, all our machines come with windows preloaded.

------end of rofl-------

Its nice to see you can just swap drives and RAM no problem unlike some systems (eeeejjjjmmmm new imacs)

ctown.myth · 2011-05-14 04:09:28

You should be able to get a refund, what manufacturers do is get you to send in the laptop back to them, they remove the partitions, remove the stickers, install something like FreeDOS and send it back. Just keep on calling back or ask for a higher level technition or agent.

thameslink · 2011-08-26 11:32:38

yungtrizzle wrote:

The only laptops that will run Arch without any hitches are Dells since they officially support Ubuntu. That said, don't touch a Sony or Toshiba, they seem to reinforce win7 and ignore everything else. If you can't get a Dell, go for Acer, you might have small hitches depending on the model but its better that the others.

My Toshiba nb100 is Ubuntu certified and came with Ubuntu pre-installed. I find Toshiba laptops to be fine with Linux, I brought a Toshiba r830 a couple of weeks ago and it seems to work reasonably well out of the box under Arch, a few niggles aside.
Having said that, I will never, ever, ever, buy another Sony computer.
Sony inexplicably decided to permanently disable Intel hyper V functionality in the last one I bought.

mips1 · 2011-08-27 15:08:47

FurryDonkey wrote:

This will help my decision. Now I just have to figure out if I want the T420 or T420s and a hard drive or.SSD etc. Has anyone used and mSata drive on either of these laptops. I either would like to go with a SSD or mSata to speed up boot times.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo- … rimer.html

Can I have an internal mobile broadband card in my ThinkPad and still have an mSATA SSD?
No. If you wish to have an mSATA SSD, it will take up the WWAN card slot used for mobile broadband. Your best bet is to either tether wirelessly to your cellular phone or a mobile cellular wifi hotspot (i.e., the MiFi 2200) if you wish to have an mSATA SSD.
Then why would I want one?
The advantage of having an mSATA SSD is that you can have it for your boot drive, and then have a much larger yet less expensive mechanical hard drive at the same time to handle your storage needs.

655321 · 2011-10-26 05:21:35

Hi guys, just coming back to report on my experience!! I ended up getting a T420s with 128 SSD and Intel i5 processor, WORKS GREAT, you can read all about it here

Arch Linux

#26 2011-05-06 04:17:43

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#27 2011-05-06 06:18:26

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#28 2011-05-06 15:13:46

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#29 2011-05-06 23:38:27

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#30 2011-05-06 23:43:23

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#31 2011-05-07 20:25:16

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#32 2011-05-08 17:10:46

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#33 2011-05-11 00:17:50

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#34 2011-05-11 05:08:17

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#35 2011-05-13 05:26:06

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#36 2011-05-13 06:46:39

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#37 2011-05-13 06:54:45

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#38 2011-05-13 06:57:24

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#39 2011-05-14 01:29:34

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#40 2011-05-14 04:09:28

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#41 2011-08-26 11:32:38

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#42 2011-08-27 15:08:47

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

#43 2011-10-26 05:21:35

Re: Will this laptops run Arch Flawlessly?

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