Text 8646, 89 rader
Skriven 2006-12-18 11:43:00 av Carol Shenkenberger
     Kommentar till en text av Marc Lewis
Ärende: Re: Vaio and XP vs SuSe 9.1
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*** Quoting Marc Lewis from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

 CS> Ok, here's an odd one.  XP went wonkers on me and cant find my Vaio
 CS> install CD's.  It wont display although very dimly at
 CS> the background, you can tell it's booting.  Cant get at the BIOS
 CS> to see what's up.

ML> So, the keyboard is unresponsive at before POST?

Looks like the FN key problem.  I did some searching and found that the Vaio 
brand has problems with that.  Since the combo to change the brightness is 
FN+F6, that makes it hard to fix.  Now SuSe, it doesnt know what the FN key is 
I think?  


 CS> All is not lost though.  I found out the night before
 CS> we left for vacation in Okinawa, that this happened so tried my
ML>                              ~~~~~~~
 CS> SuSe 9.1 boot CD.  Works fine.

ML> Since I'm unfamiliar with *nix in general (but wanting to learn), plea
ML> explain the "boot CD" you mention.  Is is anything like ERD Commander
ML> for Windows that runs a copy of XP from CD and in Memory rather than f
ML> the boot HD?

Yes, like that.  It runs in memory and then uses the CD as if a HD.  Oddly, it 
didnt want to 'install' and I didnt bring the book with me so didnt find a way 
to reformat the HD to install.  Thats ok.  I'll fix it later today now that I'm

home and can play with it.

I've had odd problems with the Vaio keyboard before.  It's got some strange 
almost 'hidden' features that flip the mode to other things (like a giant 
num-lock setup where most keys dont work at all).

I like the IBM Thinkpad Z60t better.

Oh, if you want to test drive a unix install, I highly recommend SuSe (current 
is 10.2 I believe).  www.suse.com I think is the site.  You can buy it online 
and have it shipped to you or download if you have a broadband connection.  I 
suggest buying it and having the CD sent to you.  Probably can find it at a 
local computer store too.

I know there are other 'flavors' out there and some of them might be 'better' 
but this one is rock-solid at dual booting with XP and will also happily run 
just off CD without touching your WIN-load if you want that.  Do read the book 
carefully where it talks about 'dual boot' and follow the directions but it was

very very easy.

I use the SuSe inbuilt dual-boot software, not a '3rd party' software and have 
been very happy with it.  The only 'drawback' is by default, it will boot to 
Unix until you change that to default to XP (or other).  I remember changing 
that option about 2 weeks after installing it and not finding it very hard to 
do.

Oh, and I'm not a major '*NIX geek' anymore as I havent been a *NIX server 
admin in 8 years.  Collectively though I've been using some varient of it since

1983 even if sometimes more of an end user/operator.  That means when I say 
it's easy, I'm coming at it pretty much from the same direction as you would.

Stability is very important for me.  When I'm at sea for months on end, my 
lifeline home is the WINbox with dual boot SuSe.  Don is NOT computer literate 
and even he can handle the basic reboot to get to email under WIN-XP if 
Charlotte forgot and left it on SuSe so she can 'neopet around'.  I know of no 
other dual-boot software as stable as the set that SuSe installs.


 CS> Coming at ya via SuSe boot off Docs Place with my room's internet
 CS> connection.

ML> I am jealous. :-)

Hehehe well, now I'm at home.  Found the Vaio box at last.  I'll try to restore

the system with that before I strip the machine.  That way I wont lose the 
anti-virus setup.  I'm unsure if i have a backup of that although I have a copy

of the origional software.  I just don't want to end up 'paying again' by 
accident if I can avoid it.
                                       xxcarol

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