M6809 + Linux?

Hi All!

I'm new to this forum. Does anyone know whether Linux will run in 32-bit mode on the Emachines M6809 with 3D hardware acceleration?

I know there are all kinds of issues with the 64-bit distros of Linux, which I'm SURE will be fixed in the future, but how about just plain old 32-bit Linux? If it'll run 32-bit Linux with 3D hardware acceleration.

I know Emachines/Gateway won't support Linux on this laptop, but that doesn't mean Linux won't run on this laptop.

I've narrowed down my purchasing choices to the Emachine M6809, and the HP Pavilion zv5000z.

Thanks!

 

Im currently bootstrapping Gentoo, 32-bit x86 stage 1. No problems yet, but I haven't really had the chance to try any graphics yet. The VIA NIC is supported by the standard kernel. I'll post information about any relevant experiences once they happen.

 

I recently picked up "Linux Format" magazine; a publication out of the UK, which included the full community distro for Mandrake 10.0. Unfortunately, it starts and then hangs up. The article said previous versions of Mandrake had issues with USB devices being plugged in during install. I unplugged my USB mouse but to no avail. I'm beginning to wonder if the media readers are using an internal USB connection. I too would like to run Linux on my 6809 so I'm open to any suggestions.

 

Grretings all from the land of 64-bit Linux. Courtesy of SUSE9.1 Professional. Warning! DO NOT BUY IT FROM SUSE DIRECTLY. Their on-line store put my order on backorder. I picked my copy from CompUSA. It's still early, but the sound card was picked up and I'm using Konqueror web browser to write this. Also, it auto-mounted my two windows installations (xp and xp 64bnit) partions as mount points, so file copy should be a breeze.

 

See here:

http://www.ckloiber.com/

Link found on:

http://www.linuxtx.org/x86_64faq.html

64-bit FC2 works fine on my zv5000z, with the exception of the Linux-hostile Broadcom wireless card that HP has stupidly prevented me from replacing with their BIOS whitelist of "acceptable" (ie, sold by HP) cards. You can replace the Broadcom WiFi card on eMachines notebooks (preferably with Atheros). If you can live with the obsolete (but Linux friendly) GeForce 440 Go video chip (think GeForce 440MX on the desktop, low-end 3 years ago) HP may be the better choice. BTW, it looks like the Bluetooth radio on the zv5000z can be made to work (it shows up as a standard USB device) but I've yet to take the time to finish configuring it (awfully complicated), got as far as getting it to find my Bluetooth mouse. I usually use WinXP on my notebook and 64-bit FC2 on my desktop/server though.

 

Well,
The linux world got unstable ... SUSE Linux is very unhappy with something PCM-related in these boxes. I've gone back to the original XP Home build on my 80G drive (XP Pro still onj the 60G) and have installed MS Virtual PC. I can run SUSE in a virtual PC in a window on my XP desktop with no issues. I'm now trying to hook up the printer tied to me desktop thru SUSE. Granted it's an expensive solution (Virtual PC casts $129) but being an MSDN subscriber I get it with a bunch of other stuff.

 

You can bootstrap most of em. Know what your doing though.

Followed these directions for Fedora Core 2 64 Bit : http://www.ckloiber.com/

The kudza -s didnt work for me nor did /sbin/chkconfig --level 2345 kudza off.
I manually made it change. Did a laptop/desktop install and added the
packages for support. Downloaded his xorg.conf file and now I am in
1280x800 with no 3d but ok elsewhere no wireless yet. Ya have to have a
USB mouse and keyboard untill you download and install the new
kernel. ALl works great after that.


Suse 9.1 32 bit used my modem, video, lan and all. It was very
easy to go on.

Suse 9.1 64 bit . Same as above. Excpet it would not use my
lan (via rhineii) Saw my modem but could not connect to get
package needed. I used a pcmcia card to ftp install but then
once rebooted it didnt work.

XP -64 bit. OK didnt get around to check wireless.

Since I am used to red hat I went ahead and used it. I may try
suse again since it looks pretty neat to play with. After all it
is installing on my laptop and linux is mostly linux when
you mostly work with server config files.

I may post my install details if people are interested.

 

Forgot. Mankdrake 64 bit would not even pretend to install.