Sandy Bridge

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Slack Rat <torfree-GANU6spQydw at public.gmane.org>

| Computer is Acer Aspire V5-531-967B4G32Makk which I cannot find listed
| anywhere except the box it came in (Bought in  PT)

Here are specs BUT they generic for V5-531. 
  http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/notebook/2012/Acer/Aspire/V5-531/V5-531sp2.shtml
Footnote 1: "Specifications vary depending on model."
How useless.

| It came with Windows 7, but I took that off as it only has Portuguese
| as a language notwithstanding that the package says EN/PT/ES

Sometimes you have to make that choice at the very first instance and
never allowed to change it later.  I think that I've seen the choice
stamped into the recovery partition, but I'm not sure.

If it is within the first 90 days (I think), and you mumble an
excuse, Acer Support will send you recovery disks.  Otherwise, they'll
charge you for them.  I don't know where they get off deciding that
the software warranty is only 90 days.  Maybe the EU forces it to be
longer there.

If you purchased it recently enough, you will be able get a Win8 upgrade for
Microsoft for about $15.  Otherwise, US$40 will get you a Win8
upgrade.  I would guess that that upgrade will not require a working
Windows installation.

Here's Acer PT's version of the offer (if I get the gist of the
Portugese; notice how much is actually in English):
<http://www.acer.pt/ac/pt/PT/content/windows-upgrade-offer>

You can currently download a test version of Win8 that expires in
January.  It seems to be willing to install to a partition without
wiping the rest of the disk (unlike many other Windows intallations).

| I had to take that off since the install is vicious and notwithstanding
| I can manage most EU languages, including ES, PT is very different from
| ES in many aspects contrary to my - and in fact general - belief.

Really?  Is that just orthograpy, or is it something deeper.

| So I installed Slack 13.1 - installs fine but no X
| 
| So I installed Slack 13.37 - installs fine but no X

I understand this to be purely a matter of the age of the X.  I
understand that Intel has maintained their driver quite well but this
chip is relatively recent, and the pipeline fromm the X developers to a
packaged distro usually involves many months of delays.

Can you force it to use the vesa driver?  That is generally a clumsy
fallback.  Often it gets the resolution wrong but otherwise works
(slowly).

| Reinstalled Win XP of which My daughter has a legal package and the Acer
| limps for want of a better word.

I would expect no Win XP support for modern hardware.  Less chance
than Slackware!

| (If you've formatted the drive there's
| no immediate hope of reinstalling Win 7 as there is no disk and you only
| get one kick at cat for the language if you can reinstall Win 7. You are
| stuck with PT which is what the original install meted out. Trick is
| first to change Sata Mode in the BIOS to IDE from AHCI and go for XP -
| But don't try to load Linux dual boot after that or you'll think you are
| in BSD according to fdisk with different sector sizes and weird drive
| designations and "unallocated spaces" )

Now I see that you are saying some of what I'm saying.

Does that mean you do have the disks or partition to restore Win7 PT?
If so, and you are withing 90 days, you can get Acer support to change the
language for you.  Or google for a hack to accomplish that.

| So I'm waiting hopefully for Slack 14 and failing that shall have to
| change distros after going on 20 years with Slack.

Surely there are slack-specific fora that might include folks who
would answer your primary question: how to use sandy-bridge video with
Slack.

I'm embarassed to know more about Windows installations than Slackware
installations.

Why not use, say, Debian for a few months while you wait for Slack to
catch up.  Switching between Linux distros isn't too jarring.  My
understanding is less dictatorial obout your setup than other distros
and may let you approximate Slackware in look-and-feel (if not init
scripts).

I am expecting the delivery of a Sandy Bridge notebook shortly and will 
possibly share your pain.
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