BSD laptop

With the exception of the AMD64 requirement, I use Fujitsu
laptops
extensively, running Linux, FreeBSD, and XP.

They are good solid machines, and you will be happy.

STR seems solid, I never use suspend to disk.

My current sitch is that I use XP, with vmware for FreeBSD
and linux,
so I have not delved into it much, but I used it FreeBSD
exclusively in the past for years.

....

I am currently using HP nx6310; after the initial problem
with npx
freezing when MULTIPROCESSOR is on, I an reasonably happy
with it. The
wireless (wpi) works (but not with wpa_supplicant for me),
the
Ethernet (bce) as well (I just have to disconnect the power
supply for
a moment when rebooting from XP). The only minor gripe is
that I could
not get the audio (azalia) work through the speakers, but it
works
fine through the headphones; also the SATA controller has to
be set to
compatibility mode for NetBSD, which is weird, as the native
mode is
supported by both OpenBSD-current and FreeBSD-current. I
haven't yet
tried seriously suspend/resume. The graphics - Intel 945 -
works in
VESA mode under XFree86, but I installed Xorg 6.9 from
pkgsrc and this
is now served by the I810 driver, so it's OK. Otherwise it
looks quite
well built; one may not like the 15" screen with
1024x768 native
resolution. though (or, maybe, like - depends on one's
eyes...).

As far as OpenBSD-current is concerned, I just booted the
installation
CD and collected the dmesg (posted earlier in
current-users), but it
looked OK at this stage.

I tried at one stage FreeBSD6.2 Beta1, but did not get the
wireless
and the azalia working straight from the CD (I found an OSS
audio
driver, but did not want to deal with bits from outside of
it; as I
have another ath wireless card, which worked, I did not
bother to look
at the wpi one).

Chavdar

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with Lenovo or
ThinkPad
laptops?

Thanks,

-- 
David Chapman                    | "tar is not a
plaything"
dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca  | bsimpsondt.springfield.edu

Lots.  They're great for the BSDs.  Awesome.  They're the
only laptops we use.

On 11/15/06, David Chapman <dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca> wrote:
> Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with Lenovo
or ThinkPad
> laptops?
>
> Thanks,
>
> --
> David Chapman                    | "tar is not a
plaything"
> dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca  | bsimpsondt.springfield.edu
>
>

  Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with Lenovo or
ThinkPad
  laptops?

On most Thinkpads (Lenovo or IBM - I have seen no real
changes), BSD
runs fine.  I or friends have had good experiences with

  760ED
  600
  600E
  T22
  T30
  T42
  T43(p)
  X31
  R51

I know have a T60, and it is basically ok under NetBSD
current, with
minor annoyances

  no ACPI suspend (NetBSD)
     (T60 has no apm support)

  ATI graphics not supported by X, so using vesa driver,
which works

  intel gige chipset PHY a bit odd, but I think that's being
fixed.
  Works fine at gige, ok at 10 Mb/s after forcing, lame at
100.

  of course the winmodem doesn't work

  disk controller "AHCI" not supported, set in
BIOS to 'legacy' and it
  looks like PIIX and works fine.

  after exiting X or switching back to text console, it's in
some
  large font that lets me see only the upper left corner of
the
  screen.

  switching to external display

  audio works, but is a bit funny - azalia(4) support is
still
  improving.  Not sure if mic is ok, but someone just gave
me hints.


So dual CPUs, disk, DVD drive, atheros wireless, USB, all
work fine.
Order it with atheros ("IBM a/b/g") instead of
Intel.   While the
above sounds negative, I'm glad I got it.

I expect the X60 is similar.  I have one at work and should
try again
- NetBSD current is a lot better on X60/T60 now than it was
last
spring when I last tried the X60.

I don't know anything about the low-end non-thinkpad lenovo
line.  I
would not conclude that they are as nice as thinkpads
compat-wise, but
I also don't have any particular reason to think they are
trouble -
just never tried and appears to be different lineage.

Lenovo/Thinkpad service is still great.  I bought 9 T43p
systems and
have had some fan failures (but these machines have a
demanding work
environment).  The normal repair is still call, explain (day
1), have
mailer arrive, send back (day 2), fixed (day 3), fixed unit
arrive
(day 4).

David Chapman <dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca>
writes:

> Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with Lenovo
or ThinkPad
> laptops?

My Thinkpad R60 works fine with OpenBSD (recent -current).  

The only thing I can find wrong with it is the wpi (wifi)
card which
needs a you to manually fetch a blob and dump in the right
place
before it will wake up and do something useful.  You only
need to do
the fetching once, though.

-- 
Peter N. M. Hansteen, member of the first RFC 1149
implementation team
http://www.blug.lin
ux.no/rfc1149/ http://www.datadok.no/ http://www.nuug.no/
"First, we kill all the spammers" The Usenet Bard,
"Twice-forwarded tales"
20:11:56 delilah spamd[26905]: 146.151.48.74: disconnected
after 36099 seconds

Hi!

I know that we are already discussing the subject
on this list, but I want to ask a more specific
question regarding laptops for NetBSD.

Is there any notebook (dualcore if possible) available
new in the stores that has the following devices working
with NetBSD:
-serial or parallel port (both if possible but parallel is a
must)
-USB
-WLAN
-LAN
-touchpad
-sound with internal speakers
-switching to external monitor
-12,1" to 15" display (the smaller the better)
-DVD-Burner
-working graphics (ok, vesa if nothing else available, but
what about Intel,
Via
or SiS?)

Problems with ACPI and APM are not critical.

Any ideas which company is producing my dream-machine?

Thanks for your help,
Jeff

* David Chapman <dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca>
[2006-11-15 17:14]:
> Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with Lenovo
or ThinkPad
> laptops?
> 
Thanks for all the replies!

I am looking at perhaps a A31 or R51 or R52, T30 perhaps.  I
have been
looking at http://lap
topcloseout.ca/canada/store.html in their IBM
section.

Anybody know of any hints or issues with these?

Thanks again for your time,

-- 
David Chapman                    | "tar is not a
plaything"
dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca  | bsimpsondt.springfield.edu

* David Chapman <dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca>
[2006-11-16 15:02]:
> * David Chapman <dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca>
[2006-11-15 17:14]:
> > Does anyone have any thoughts or experience with
Lenovo or ThinkPad
> > laptops?
> > 
> Thanks for all the replies!
> 
> I am looking at perhaps a A31 or R51 or R52, T30
perhaps.  I have been
> looking at http://lap
topcloseout.ca/canada/store.html in their IBM
> section.
> 
> Anybody know of any hints or issues with these?
> 
Thanks again, guys.

Looks like it'll be the A31.  Does this require iwi(4) and
the
iwi-firmware?

Thanks,

-- 
David Chapman                    | "tar is not a
plaything"
dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca  | bsimpsondt.springfield.edu

Looks like plans might change.  I've been looking at some HP
laptops
and I'm impressed with the bang for buck ratio.  I am
considering the
dv9013ca, English, the nx6325, English, or the dv5117ca,
English.

Anybody have any experience with these?  Will the amd64 port
of NetBSD
work?  Will it work with MULTIPROCESSOR on?

Anything else I should know about them?

Thanks once more,

-- 
David Chapman                    | "tar is not a
plaything"
dchapmancanwest.victoria.bc.ca  | bsimpsondt.springfield.edu