7 replies to this topic

[shadowx]

Hello everyone!

Ive tried one or two linux distros on my laptops but always the same snag... none/terrible widescreen support, i tried the live CD knoppix and mandriva and another i think that i cant remember...

So my question is, is there a linux distro with good widescreen support for 128OX8OOpx dimensions? to be more specific its 15.4in screen with the afore mentioned pixel dimensions. my GFX card is labelled as "ATI Radeon Xpress 2OOMnwith PCI Express Graphics up to 128mb memory" i think only the last part is relevant to the GFX specs but i included it all just in case.

Im really trying to avoid windows vista so if anyone says "stick to windows" or "go to vista" i will unleash a virtual slap!

Any advice or links are welcome here!

[truefusion]

I installed Kubuntu 6.10 on my friend's computer—he plugs his wide-screen TV to the computer—and it works fine. He also upgraded to 7.04 and it works fine there, too. So, if you haven't tried Ubuntu yet, go with it now. From what i got from your post, you seem to be more interested in KDE, so go with Kubuntu.

[rvalkass]

I use Kubuntu but it took a little while for me to get the screen resolution working right - I had to install a package called 915resolution to get my laptop's integrated graphics to go to 1280x800 rather than the 1280x768 Kubuntu seemed to prefer. A 'proper' graphics card should work better, especially if you can find some specific Linux drivers for it.

If you don't want to try Kubuntu, OpenSuse seems to handle the graphics side of things better, but there are a few downsides to that distribution too. Get hold of some Live CDs for each distribution you want to try and see if it detects the graphics correctly. Also, take a look at the Ubuntu Wiki as people have posted results for using the distribution on their laptops up there, so you can get specific information for your machine - and the exact way to fix it!

[shadowx]

I shall try Kubuntu first, its downloading as i type this. I did actually have a kubuntu live and installation disk but as with all things important, i lost it!

If it doesnt bring much joy then ill try OpenSuse too.

Just got to get through the hairy process of partitioning etcetera as i dont have that much hard drive space as it is.... though maybe i can salvage an old drive somewhere

[rvalkass]

You don't need a huge amount of space. I have 10GB for the root partition (7GB of that is being used at the moment) a 2GB swap partition and the rest as my /home partition. Its always a good idea to keep /home on a separate partition so that if you ever need to reinstall, you can keep all your data on there and tell the installer not to format that partition.

AMD offer a range of ATI drivers here. There are a few on Linux, so see if you can find your card there and download the official driver.

[Ucrg]

Ubuntu certainly is a good choice, thanks to its sheer simplicity and user-friendliness. If you have some networking to put to action (specially wireless), I would recommend BackTrack3. I found a link here on trap, for downloading the ISO. You can either search the Trap or Google Backtrack3 for results. Anyway, my laptop has its native resolution of 1280 X 800 and the live CD iso that I downloaded automatically adjusted it as such, along with the rest of the device drivers. Try BT3 if you like.

[jlhaslip]

Ubuntu 8.04 handled my Laptop 1280 x 768 screen size out of the box. Never an issue.

[erepublikve]

I use ubuntu hardy 8.04 and it comes with widescreen support, you might have to install third party drivers (nvidia, ati) to get full functionability though. I'm currently running at 1680x1050 (16:10) and no problems at all. Not sure about other distros, but there shouldn't be any problem with any of them right now when it comes to widescreen support.

Remember, the most important thing is to install drivers, even if those are not made by your OS community.