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jamescolter
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 8:12 am    Post subject: Opting to Gentoo. Reply with quote

I have been learning Linux for a while and read Gentoo is a good option to choose. I have Lenovo E51 on which I want to install Gentoo. Question is will it support this laptop?
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jamescolter,

Welcome to Gentoo.

Support for any particular system is down to Linux in general. Its not distro specific.
Lenvo say that your system works with Red Hat EWS 4 and Turbolinux 10.

However, there are various values of works. You may find that some feature that is essential to you is not supported.

You can test drive Gentoo before you install. Try the LiveDVD from that page. Its about 18 months old now so things will have changed. You can also install Gentoo in a virtual machine on your current OS, then move it to the bare metal if you like it.
The former lets you try hardware support, the latter uses the existing OS for hardware support.
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
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jamescolter
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 10:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
You may find that some feature that is essential to you is not supported.


I wonder what would those be. Problem is that I first tried ubuntu before but it wasn't detecting Wi-Fi drivers so I didn't install that. If I face such a problem with Gentoo and it would be a problem for me.
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JackHunt
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 10:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Though your system will likely be supported(as highlighted above) as that is a Kernel issue, I personally would be a little wary of using Gentoo on a Laptop, especially if it is on the older side.

Purely anecdotal, but my old ThinkPad T420 ran so, so HOT when compiling for long periods. I got a core temp warning and it just killed itself! Was ok after cooling down though. So I now use Debian on that laptop.

However, if your laptop is new-ish and has decent cooling then give it a try :)
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NeddySeagoon
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jamescolter,

Boot some random live linux and run the command
Code:
lspci -knn
Post the output.
That will tell us the PCI devices you have, and if we are lucky, the kernel drivers in use.

Now plug in all your USB devices and run
Code:
lsusb
Post the output.
That will tell us the USB devices you have, along with their vendor and device IDs.

That will let us determine support.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.
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asturm
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

JackHunt wrote:
new-ish and has decent cooling

Unfortunately, I often find those two diametrically opposed.
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JackHunt
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

asturm wrote:
JackHunt wrote:
new-ish and has decent cooling

Unfortunately, I often find those two diametrically opposed.


True. It seems that nowadays form trumps function.
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krinn
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

laptops are shitty computer for gentoo, if you accept to build your packages and freeze them, gentoo can do wonder as they are optimize for it.
but if you goes into the rampaging "omg i need to emerge --sync && emerge --update --newuse --deep @world" every days, you'll see laptops aren't made to sustain hard work for hours.
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asturm
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, my Thinkpad X200s went strong for 8 years of heavy Gentoo workload. It died just recently :cry:
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