laptop

Led by Obi Bok's Linux Tune-Up Guide "Slipstreaming Windows CD under Linux" I was able to get an XP Install going on the Dell Vostro 1500. My lady bought this system (1.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 160 GB disk, DVD burner) on sale for $600 (with intel wifi and dell bluetooth) and it's pretty sweet, and well-designed for the modern age, it even has slots which can accept a storage cache card for vista (not that we got any of those.) Vista, unfortunately, is a dog, so the goal was to install Windows XP.

Like many laptops, the Compaq nw9440 has a Synaptics touchpad. If you want to scroll like the big boys, which is to say with the right side of the touchpad, then you need to make some changes to your xorg.conf. I also use a USB pointer (Logitech TrackMan Wheel, the second generation Marble) and I wanted to be able to use both at once, either/or, et cetera. The touchpad can supposedly be used pressure-sensitively in The GIMP, which is another possible motivation.

I have a Compaq nw9440 "Mobile Workstation" class system, P/N (or type or something) EZ901#AA. There are a number of different systems called the nw9440 which come in the same case, which are slightly different. I won't go into it here; this isn't an ad for HP. In fact, this laptop has presented (in my opinion) more than its fair share of obstacles in my pursuit of Linux. ACPI is slightly wonky, the modem is from Conexant, and video, of all things, has been a major PITA. This is highly unfortunate because this laptop has quite excellent graphics, in fact carrying the best of breed for its date of release - the NVIDIA Quadro FX1500. In particular, I am able to use the display panel only at its maximum resolution.