Linux on a Compaq Evo N800w
I'm installing Red Hat Linux 7.3 on a Compaq Evo N800w. (No, it's not mine unfortunately, it's for a colleague.)
Considering that 7.3 is much older than the hardware it does pretty well. There are a couple of traps: USB doesn't work with the default 7.3 kernel, or with the kernel on the LNX-BBC 2.1 either for that matter. Booting with the kernel parameter nousb fixes that.
Also, Red Hat's Kudzu hardware detection program locks up when scanning the machine, so you need to boot single user and disable it.
Aside from that everything seems to work. The Radeon 9000 video card is partially supported in XFree86 4.2, and reportedly has better acceleration in 4.3.
The machine looks pretty nice. The screen is enormous and crisp, and probably pretty fast with the proper drivers installed. It's less heavy than some other full-featured machines like the IBM A21, in part because HP/Compaq has finally been smart enough to drop the floppy drive. (Getting a floppy drive on a new laptop in 2003 is like getting a tail on your child....)
posted Wed 18 Jun 2003 in /computers/hardware | link
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