[tamlinek]

so what's the recommendation? I've downloaded suse 10.2, 64bit ver, and really I don't know to install it or not. I don't have any experience with linux, just macos, apart from that, this is my gfriends laptop, to make her like linux everything must work smoothly from the beginning :/

[Snu]

well, installing and getting everything to work wont be easy if you dont know linux, and will take a bit of time. however, once everything is installed and configured, its smooth sailing.
also, the 64bit version will likely be even harder to install, tho i dont know about suse.

[learnincurve]

Hi,

Thanks for the posts, especially regarding getting ALSA to work, which was how I found the thread.

I just wanted to say that Debian Sid 64 bit (unstable) installs, and baring the one or two bugs you've all seen, seems to work fine. I used sidux (currently at rc 3 ) to install very painlessly. I don't recommend going for vanilla Sid, as unstable does mean just that, but the Sidux team does an excellent job of smoothing out the rough ride, and I've had very little trouble since I started using Kanotix (sadly no longer Sid, but from which Sidux is derived). My experience is also that it's easier to get difficult hardware working with the help of the many workarounds the Kanotix/Sidux team provides. There's a very simple script for upgrades for example, which also takes care of kernels and ati drivers (shame about AIGLX/ATI).

The advantage of Sid is that it's just about the most cutting edge collection of software around anywhere, so, if it exists anywhere, the chances are it's there for Sid, and there's a fair chance of getting it working.
I'll be trying to iron out the drivers for the cam, wifi and bluetooth (if it exists) and post back about my findings. There seems to be some confusion about whether this machine has Bluetooth. It looks like the American model (with a dual core CPU) does, whilst the European model may have a button, and room for an internal module (under the mainboard), but that this is not factory installed. This has been my experience with other Acer Laptops.

Cheers!

Marius

[moman]

Hey, I wrote a guide to get slackware 11.0 working on my aspire 5102wlmi (here) and working on a Fedora Core 6 guide (here). Hope it help someone, and if anyone has anything to add please contact me and I'll cite you if I add it. Have fun!

[Jessard]

I have (what sounds like) an Acer model identical to m00sem00se's, and I've had pretty good luck with Ubuntu (6.10) so far; sound and wireless seem to work fine without fiddling, though like other people I haven't bothered to mess with bluetooth stuff or the card reader. In general I've been pretty amazed at how well Ubuntu handles hardware, so that's my recommendation right now. I haven't run it on the laptop long enough to see if I have any of the (relatively few) problems people listed for Ubuntu, though like I said, wireless required no configuration whatsoever for me, so that's a pretty good sign.

Also, thanks a ton for your slackware guide, moman! I'd been wondering if it would be reasonable to try slackware on this thing, but figured it would be a world of pain (I have enough trouble with slackware on desktop hardware, though I love it anyway for some reason)

And finally, on a slightly related note, if anybody is interested in keeping vista installed and dual booting, you can NOT resize the vista NTFS partition! I didn't bother reading about that ahead of time, since I never thought it would be a problem, but apparently doing so screws up vista, and it won't boot.

[njc]

Hello everyone

I am currently using Fedora 8 64bit addition on the 5100 laptop with the same configs as the first posted machine. I use linuxant for the wireless connection in where I used the drivers from the windows side. It will cost you 20 dollars but it is worth it. Wireless works great. I do not see the camera working or memory cards. Have not installed anything for the ati yet. Did before and didn't get any improvements with Fedora 6. Sound was the same as posted with an Ubuntu install. Fedora 6 had me using the volume control to set it up all the way and then back down to get the sound to come out the left side. Fedora 7 or Fedora 8 I did not have any sound problems. I also am running VitrualBox, Eclipse on it and also added packages from freshrpms.net to get my dvd playing and xmms to play mp3s.

Nathan