From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 28 16:04:03 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F10316A4CE for ; Sun, 28 Nov 2004 16:04:03 +0000 (GMT) Received: from server1.ewido.net (server1.ewido.net [62.146.43.66]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED1C743D4C for ; Sun, 28 Nov 2004 16:04:02 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from paul@ewido.net) Received: from bbox (p54871C4A.dip.t-dialin.net [84.135.28.74]) by server1.ewido.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id E5DA04A8025 for ; Sun, 28 Nov 2004 17:04:00 +0100 (CET) To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org From: Paul Kaletta Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 17:03:50 +0100 Message-ID: <86is7qot95.fsf@ewido.net> User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) XEmacs/21.4 (Reasonable Discussion, berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: How do Dell-Notebooks work with FreeBSD (video/audio/wlan)? X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 16:04:03 -0000 Hi, I think that I'll buy a Laptop soon. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I think that I might buy a Dell, since they're so cheap and I haven't heard many bad things. Those Notebooks come with Windows preinstalled, but I'd like to run FreeBSD if it's possible. Has anyone any experience with them? Is all of the build-in hardware supported? What about accelerated video? There is some choice about different displays, and some of them have very very high resolutions like 1600x1200 on a 15"-screen. Is such a display usable under X? And another very important question: I wanted to play around with audio-software, so how good is the build-in audio-card? Especially I would like to know whether Dell-Notebooks have an line-in, since I'm not certain from the descriptions on the web-site. Also: is the audio-output very noisy or can I use the line in for any recordings? (I don't need very high quality, but I'd like to record myself playing guitar and use that as background-music for improvisations). If it's not feasible to use the build-in hardware, can I use external audio-hardware with FreeBSD? Like pc-card or USB soundcards? I'm not entirely sure, but I think that the wlan hardware kinda works, even if I have to use ndisulator, right? Is there any hope that I don't have use it one day? Sorry that I asked so many questions in one mail, but they really only concern Dell-Notebooks, so someone who has a recent model could probably give me some hints. Thanks Paul