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Here it is: http://www.walmart.com/ip/19581017

I like the specs (4-core AMD, 6GB RAM, 2/2 USB 2.0/3.0 ports, 17" LED screen), price, and look of the laptop, otherwise I would forget about it.

Anyways, I found this post about how this laptop is incompatible with Ubuntu: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11851198&postcount=298

To summarize, the GPU portion of the APU (CPU + GPU on a single die) doesn't work. The problem apparently lies in the AMD drivers for that particular GPU. There is integrated graphics on the motherboard, so you can disable the on-die GPU, but I think it's pretty safe to assume the integrated graphics is vastly inferior to the on-die Radeon HD 6620G.

Question #1: How likely is it that AMD plans to fix this issue?

Question #2: How likely is it that, if a laptop works on Ubuntu, it will also work on OpenSUSE? Are drivers cross-distro?

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Your link shows him using 11.10. I trump that with a link that uses 12.04 and it looks like it improved a fair bit.

Regarding the questions:

  1. No-one knows. Not even AMD ;)

  2. Yes, in case of the AMD drivers it is cross platform. The installation of the Catalyst driver even state so:

Instructions for any general Linux system (recommended):

  • Download the latest AMD Catalyst™ Proprietary Linux x86 Display Driver from here. The latest driver works the best, and although it has "x86" in the name, it works on 64-bit machines as well.
  • Go to a terminal. Know where you saved the amd-driver-installer-XX-XX-x86.x86_64.run file.
  • Run the command cd /path/to/amd/driver , replacing /path/to/amd/driver with the location you saved the driver installer to.
  • Run the command sh amd-driver-installer-*-x86.x86_64.run .
  • Enter your password when the prompt for it pops up.
  • Follow the default installation configuration. If the installer refuses to install, it's probably because you have FGLRX already installed. Follow the third bullet of the instructions in the 'FGLRX troubleshooting after upgrading' section below and retry these instructions from step 4.
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I read your link last week or so, so I've forgotten what exactly it said, but as I recall, there were still some significant issues. In addition to creating this thread, I also contacted AMD, asking if they had planned to fix their Linux drivers, but I got no response. Unfortunately I'll probably be buying my first Intel computer ever in the coming months, but that's ok because they seemed to have superior battery life anyways. – Michael May 14 '12 at 1:03
"but I got no response" typical ... Do what hurts them most: buy Intel. – Rinzwind May 14 '12 at 6:35

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