Gateway MX6440 and Linux
June 27th, 2006 by 
jay
My new laptop is a beast but it has some crappy HW when it comes to Linux support.
Spec:
-AMD Turion 64 (1.8Ghz)
-1 GBRAM
-100GBHD
-Broadcom Wireless Card
-Widescreen 15.4.
I actually got the wifi working after about a week of trying everything.
This laptop is almost more of a beast than my gaming rig (AMD 2200+ w/ 1GBRAM 256VID). This rig was a replacement for my HP and if I had my way I’d have gottn another HP and not a Gateway. Durring short time that I owned this laptop I have ben unable to run most Linux distros. In fact the list of distros that do work is suprisingly very short.
Linux Distros that Do Not Work
Kanotix
Slax
SimplyMEPIS
Linux Distros that Kind Of Work
Knoppix 4.x , 5.x (Cannot find NIC / Monitor Resolution is a Mess)
Fedora Core 5 (Moniotor issues)
Linux Distros that Do Work
Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu 6.06
I have settled on Xubuntu because the Xfce Window Manager is so light weight it makes this rig scream. Also Xubuntu was able to configure my Widescreen Resolution right out of the box and after some tweaking I got the wifi card working.
My advice is DO NOT BUY THIS LAPTOP IF YOU INTEND TO USE IT WITH ANY LINUX DISTROS OTHER THAN UBUNTU/KUBUNTU/XUBUNTU.
July 12th, 2006 at 8:38 am
“My advice is DO NOT BUY THIS LAPTOP IF YOU INTEND TO USE IT WITH LINUX”
And there’s thr rub eh?
The question facing every new Linux user… what the hell CAN I but that does work?
There is no central store of info, jst fragments here & there of mostly out of date info.
Add to that many manufacturers do not even document what exactly is in there machines eg I have an Acer Aspire 3620WXCi I have no idea what type of wireless it has… gggrrrr!!!
July 15th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
This report is included into the TuxMobil: Linux laptop and notebook installation matrix.
January 10th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Let us know how you got the wireless working. I have the same laptop and want to use it with Ubuntu, and can’t seem to make the wireless work.
January 10th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Read this: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=190177