# gentoo laptop advice, please - vmware, light, minium cost :)

## kernelcowboy

Hello Gentoo rockers.  I have gentoo/fluxbox on my amd64 devl desktop, my old PII linux server, and my armada m700 PII (really brought a useful life back this this old machine.)

I'm doing more work on the road.  Development and maintenance.  Some clients have VPNs, like Checkpoint, that I can only get to work with Windows.  So, I run vmware+windows+sshd on top of gentoo (amd64), then port forward from the gentoo side to the Windows side.  I then can run jedit/SQL for db work, and browse client side html with firefox, and for a real brain twister, I do RDP with rdesktop to machines on the inside by port forwarding through the Windows vm.  (Sounds weird, but doing this lets me put Windows sessions in different workspaces, or tab them with Fluxbox.)   Was an effort to put together, but not too big, and way way way worth it.  I basically have reduced Windows to a communication wedge.

To my question... my m700 doesn't cut it anymore for work.  It can't handle vmware, so I can't use it.  It can barely deal with Skype.  So, looks like it's time for something new.  

I want something fully supported under gentoo, will run wmware adequately, is a light/travel type setup, and doesn't cost much.   What are the opinions and experiences that could lead me to a minimum spec machine that can do all this and perform decently?

I was thinking DELL 700m or may be something in the IBM line.

Thanks ahead for any time taken to help me out.  This forum rocks.  And, if anyone wants tips on how to get a similar port forward setup going, let me know.  (Although it's not really that hard - and there's probably help out there already.)

cheers

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## przeuj

Hi,

From what I have seen, there are few companys that have got descent linux compatible notebooks. I think that would be hp-compaq (I think they even sell them with linux), and ibms. Not sure about the latter though. You should definetely check out the Linux on Laptops site to check if the model you are buying is gonna work with linux. Broken ACPI is the most common problem.

Regarding your criteria - I think no chance to have it all. Lightweight == expensive and probably less compatible with non-windows OS'es. If you find something - tell us - I would be happy to hear about it  :Smile: 

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## klarnox

I have a Dell 700m and everything I've tried works in Gentoo.  Some took a little configuring, but no show stoppers, and I'm running VMware on it.

The only thing that I'm aware of that doesn't work is the modem.  It's a winmodem so I haven't bothered trying, but it may be possible to make it work.

If you do buy the 700m spend a little extra and get the longer life battery, it's worth it if you work away from a power outlet frequently.

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## HecHacker1

I also have a 700m and so far I have gotten almost everything working. The only problems I am having is with power management. I still need to figure out how to get it to standby when I close the lid; but besides that everything seems to work.

I would recommend you wait for the 710m model that is due out soon. It's probably an update to fix some of the problems with the 700m's. I have no known problems on my, but if you read the dell community forums you'll see a whole list of audio related problems.

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