[kwlug-disc] good live CD to test laptops in store

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

Don't know about "stress test".

I always do this: walk in the store with a CD, but I use the target distro I
plan to use, not any other CD. For example, Kubuntu 9.10 at present. Mainly
I check for hardware compatibility.

Things to check: lspci, dmesg, lshw, ...etc.

However, it is not fool proof. There is only so much you can do in 20
minutes.

For example, for my previous laptop,  sound worked in the store, but then I
found that plugging in headphones do not make the sound come only from the
headphones, but also from the main speakers.

In another case (my current laptop), the WiFi was detected and could scan
for APs. Given that you do not know the passwords for the APs at the store,
you assume that it would work at home. It did, but only after I got over the
Intel iw5100 drivers downloaded and compiled.

On on older version of Kubuntu, I saw the SD card detected, but it would not
mount. I did some configuration in /etc/modules, and it did work after that.

So beware of such gotchas, and use the target distro CD.

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 11:57 AM, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday at crashcourse.ca>wrote:

>
>  i'm thinking of taking along a live CD/DVD to test various laptops
> for linux compatibility at a couple computer stores.  is there any
> particular live version that people have found that is more useful
> and/or informative than the others?  a good distro that will really
> stress test the box?  thanks.
>
> rday
> --
>
> ========================================================================
> Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA
>
>            Linux Consulting, Training and Kernel Pedantry.
>
> Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
> Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
> ========================================================================
>
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-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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