I apologize for any language mistakes, English is not my native language.
As for Linux, I never tried it before.
Quick specs:
Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M3438G laptop
915 chipset
Pentium M 770
GeForce Go 6800
2GB RAM
17" 1440x900 display
Linux Mint 18.3 XFCE 32bit
Yes, it's quite old laptop, but it's OK for office work, watching FHD movies and playing ~15 years old games. I'm searching for the best suitable Linux distribution. Nine distros testes so far, only two of them are working that is: Linux Lite 3.6 and Linux Mint 18.3.
As for Mint, I liked it from the beginning, it runs quite well, there is only one problem.
The default nouveau graphics driver works fine, but I wanted to install official Nvidia driver. So I did it through the drivers panel, which showed me: "304.135-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 Nvidia legacy binary driver v 304.135". I chose it, the installation went well, but after reboot, my screen resolution is 1024x768, and I can only change it to lower (800x600 and 640x480). It should be 1440x900. Another weird thing is Nvidia panel, which is almost empty, there are only two tabs: apps profiles and nvidia settings.
Before that, I tested Linux Lite 3.6, I installed the same Nvidia driver v304.135, through the drivers panel. And after reboot, everything works well! My screen resolution was 1440x900, the Nvidia panel was complete (colours change, resolution change, 3D settings, thermal diode and many more).
inxi -Fxz :
Code: Select all
mm@mm-Amilo-M3438-Series ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System: Host: mm-Amilo-M3438-Series Kernel: 4.13.0-26-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.28) Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: System: FUJITSU SIEMENS (portable) product: Amilo M3438 Series
Mobo: N/A model: P71EN0
Bios: American Megatrends v: 1.10C date: 10/05/2005
CPU: Single core Intel Pentium M (-UP-) cache: 2048 KB
flags: (nx pae sse sse2) bmips: 4266 speed: 2128 MHz (max)
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA NV41M [GeForce Go 6800] bus-ID: 03:00.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: vesa (unloaded: fbdev) FAILED: nvidia,nouveau
Resolution: 1024x768@61.00hz
GLX Renderer: N/A GLX Version: N/A Direct Rendering: N/A
Audio: Card Intel 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-26-generic
Network: Card-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network Connection
driver: ipw2200 v: 1.2.2kmprq bus-ID: 01:03.0
IF: wlp1s3 state: up mac: <filter>
Card-2: Realtek RTL8169 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: c800 bus-ID: 01:05.0
IF: enp1s5 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (15.1% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: FUJITSU_MHT2060B size: 60.0GB
ID-2: /dev/sdb model: FUJITSU_MHT2060B size: 60.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 53G used: 15G (30%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.14GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-0
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 22.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 163 Uptime: 2 min Memory: 429.6/2012.4MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35
mm@mm-Amilo-M3438-Series ~ $
Regards.
Mariusz