I recently bought a new laptop and I waited for Zenwalk Live 5 to try this distribution; in the meantime I've been trying various distributions and I'd like to know if the hardware detection from the LiveCD [usually] varies from that of the full install.

Let me elaborate, various LiveCD's I've tried will only boot if I set the "acpi=off" parameter, which makes the power saving features useless. Some others, like Zenwalk Live, don't recognize my graphics card (nVidia GeForce Go 6100) properly and won't let me set the correct screen resolution (1280x800.)

I'm a Linux starter and I'm not familiar with the drivers' installation yet, but having used Windows since it's 3.11 series I know how 'painful' it can be to find the proper drivers for your OS. I've downloaded various Linux drivers from the laptop and/or peripherics manufacturers, and I guess that once installed they should solve the hardware detection problems; but then there are some distributions, like Mandriva One 2008, which correctly detect every single part of my laptop by default.

Is it correct to 'judge' the hardware detection of a distribution based on its LiveCD version?

Let me begin by saying the Zenwalk LiveCD is one of the best I've ever used, and I have used a lot! I can send you the box of discs I have, if you don't believe me!

Normally ZW Live get things right and what you see from the Live will be what your install gives you, but, yes there is a but, there are some proprietary items, like nvidia graphics that won't fully give you the complete setup without the binary driver installed. That's available using netpkg to install from the ZW mirrors.

Most of the newer laptops I've tried ZW Live on have been configured wonderfully, no problems. Now if Mandriva set up the graphics right on the liveCD, they may have included something "extra" in it to get that for you. Do they use a CD or DVD? Most of the bigger distros are using a DVD now, which gives you quite a bit more and is an unfair comparision (4.7GB vs 700mb).

Hope that helps a bit to answer your question but not turn you off from giving ZW a try! You'll not find any distro faster or more reliable!

BandiPat

Why I'm not scared about my drivers, I installed Windows (before XP or 2000) on many different computers without having a single driver, so I know how difficult it can be. I'm quite sure that was more difficult than it's with Linux nowadays.
I asked because I've only been trying the LiveCD versions of distributions, and I wasn't sure I did 'fair' judgements about them for the device detection might be highly improved after a full install.
Zenwalk Live gives me problems with the display and with my DVD-ROM (it makes some weird noises.)

Mandriva One is the LiveCD version of Mandriva, so, yeah, it's a CD just like Zenwalk Live and it must provide propietary drivers by default as there's an nVidia splash screen during boot. It won't boot without the 'acpi=off' parameter though, which takes off every and all power saving features (it doesn't even know whether it's using the battery or the AC.)

Ok, just as I suspected then with Mandriva Live. Some of the distros will do things like that to draw you in, then get you to sign up for their software program for a year you can't get out of. Sorry, I know a local user that got roped into one of Mandriva's programs. So you have a simple fix for the graphics in ZW. Even the LiveCd will let you use netpkg to download your nvidia driver! You should be good there, but the DVD noises is something else. I remember when Mandriva was killing some either cdrom or dvd drives with it's install, but I can't recall anyone ever mentioning a problem with drives in ZW. Certainly not killing one, but not sure what you have going on there.

have fun!
BandiPat

I'm not sure it's a DVD-ROM problem for I have no idea about hardware. I 'think' it's the DVD-ROM as there's this low 'tic-tic' sound every 10 or so seconds and it comes from the area where my DVD-ROM is located, but it can be something else. I've only been using this new laptop for a few days and I don't remember that sound while using other OS.
I would like to be more specific but I cannot boot Zenwalk after installing the 'nVidia-new' drives using netpkg. I already wrote a post about it in a recent nVidia topic.

I'm sure I'll solve my device detection issues and keep on using Zenwalk, after all, these are the same issues I had while using Zenwalk Live so I knew where I was heading.