Gentoo on Alienware m15x anyone?

[Delta-9]

Hi, my laptop recently died on me and I need a new one. As you can probably tell im quite interested in an m15x but when I called alienware there tech guys told me linux would be extremely hard to set up on it. I know people have got ubuntu running on it with minor problems but I wanted to check if anyone had used gentoo on an m15x as I much prefer it to ubuntu!

Also, does anyone have any idea about the AlienFX lighting i.e. will it work under gentoo and is there any way to customize it?

thank you all in advance
tom

[keet]

I honestly don't know if all the hardware on the laptop will be supported by Gentoo. You should look at the laptop's technical specifications, particularly taking note of the hardware that you consider essential, and determine whether or not there are well-supported and functioning Linux drivers for it (or kernel/module support). It has an Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU, NVidia 8800-series GPU, Intel wireless card, integrated Bluetooth, and I would guess from reading it that the audio is integrated into the motherboard as well, so it's probably something standard. My guess is that most of it would work, and maybe a couple things would require some tweaking.

Here's a link to its technical specifications:

http://www.alienware.com/products/area-51-m15x-notebook.aspx

[Delta-9]

ok, thanks, iv done some research and it looks like most things are supported, i cant find anything about the lights! i had been hoping to find someone with an m15x and gentoo that could do a little list of what doesnt work... perhaps i was hoping for too much lol

[keet]

I haven't found anything about Gentoo users with this laptop, but here's a thread from an Ubuntu forum about it:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=739765&page=3

I think that Ubuntu and Gentoo are somewhat similar. If they can make it work, you almost certainly can.

[Delta-9]

thanks for looking, i found that thread too and though the same!

im pretty sure all the hardware will work! im just a little worried about the lights, the sales guy i spoke to at alienware seemed to think that the lights wouldnt work but one of the guys in the ubuntu thread said that he set the lights how he wanted them in windows then installed ubuntu. im assuming this means that they will work!

i hope so because i want to order the laptop in a few days!

thanks for your help keet, it is much appreciated!