Tiny Core Base > TCB Talk
ideal laptop from ebay...
Leee:
I'm using a hand-me-down HP ENVY x360 Convertible (X0S30UA#ABA) (2015 vintage, I think).
I have booted it under 32 bit Tiny Core 14.0 and 13.1, though only briefly - it has 12 GB of RAM, so I nearly always run it with 64 bit.
Like Rich, I'm running it with the lid closed and an external monitor and the, so I haven't had occasion to fiddle with the touch screen - I suspect that might be problematic.
Both wired and wifi network are good out of the box.
The CPU is an Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6200U CPU @ 2.30GHz (2 cores, 4 threads)
Sound initially didn't work for me because it was sending sound to the HDMI monitor - but my monitor has no speakers. I found the simple solution to that here on the Tiny Core forums and now sound comes out the audio jack with no problems.
Similarly, Xorg tried to "stretch" my desktop across the builtin screen and the external monitor, even though I had the lid closed. Again, I found the solution here on the Tiny Core forums. I love it when shtuff works!
Not sure what these go for on ebay as mine came from a family member for $0.00. (I love it when MS Windows -doesn't- work! ;D )
---
I've successfully used Tiny Core on a few other HP laptops. The only one that gives me trouble is a little 11 inch HP Stream 11 on which the GUI often doesn't recover when the screen blanks. I haven't found a way to tell the BIOS not to blank the screen but I'm using xdotool to jiggle the mouse (when I remember to run my script!) to keep it from blanking. Earlier today I forgot to start the mouse jiggler and it blanked and the graphics failed to recover -BUT- I was able to log in via ssh so it wasn't completely crashed. I was able to pkill Xorg then go back to the netbook itself and run startx. So maybe the HP Stream 11 would be one to avoid.
GNUser:
I'm running TCL15-alpha pure 64bit on an X230 ThinkPad with coreboot. Everything just works. US$200-250 on ebay.
P.S. The only change I made to the laptop was to swap out the wireless network card for one with Atheros AR9382 chip (also known as "AR5BHB116"), which works without needing to load any special extensions--all it needs is the ath9k kernel module, which is part of TCL's base system and gets loaded automatically at boot when the chip is detected.
Rich:
Hi Leee
--- Quote from: Leee on January 16, 2024, 05:58:44 AM --- ... Similarly, Xorg tried to "stretch" my desktop across the builtin screen and the external monitor, even though I had the lid closed. ...
--- End quote ---
I had the same issue. The problem was the window manager would
start opening apps on the laptop screen when it felt there wasn't
enough empty space on the main monitor. Then I would have to mouse
over to the app and drag it back to the main monitor.
I solved it by detecting the presence of the external monitor in .xsession
and copy a special xorg.conf to /etc/X11. I start a second copy of the
window manager on the laptop screen. You can move the mouse cursor
between the screens but apps can't be dragged to the other screen.
You can only have the wbar on one screen but the desktop popup menu
works on both screens. Best of all, with 2 window managers, each one
only launches apps on its own screen.
I've attached copies of xsession and xorg.conf.2monitors in case you are
interested. I also attached a script for turning the touchpad On/Off.
Set TouchpadName to match your hardware.
PropertyName should not need to be changed.
The script contains explanations.
Rich:
Hi GNUser
--- Quote from: GNUser on January 16, 2024, 12:41:51 PM --- ... all it needs is the ath9k kernel module, which is part of TCL's base system ...
--- End quote ---
Really? I use the same module and it's part of wireless-KERNEL.tcz. I also see
ath9k listed here:
http://tinycorelinux.net/15.x/x86_64/tcz/wireless-6.6.8-tinycore64.tcz.list
Leee:
Thanks Rich!
I hadn't really even considered using both the built-in and the external monitors, nor the touch screen, primarily because I keep the laptop closed (usually with shtuff piled on top of it!)
The idea of running a separate window manager on each screen actually makes me want to open up the laptop screen and play with it some. I don't suppose it would even have to be two instances of the -same- window manager - although jwm on one side and flwm on the other might damage the ole brain a bit. :)
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