Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 08:22:43 -0700 From: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> To: bschmidt@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Any experience with ThinkPad T420/T520 Message-ID: <20110531152243.5BB791CC0D@ptavv.es.net> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 31 May 2011 07:56:19 %2B0200." <201105310756.19688.bschmidt@freebsd.org>
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> Sender: Bernhard Schmidt <bschmidt@techwires.net> > From: Bernhard Schmidt <bschmidt@freebsd.org> > Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 07:56:19 +0200 > > On Monday, May 30, 2011 18:54:31 Kevin Oberman wrote: > > > Sender: Bernhard Schmidt <bschmidt@techwires.net> > > > From: Bernhard Schmidt <bschmidt@freebsd.org> > > > Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 09:15:53 +0200 > > > > > > On Sunday, May 29, 2011 18:53:43 Kevin Oberman wrote: > > > > I'm about to order new laptop and I am looking at a Lenovo ThinkPad > > > > T520. Does anyone have experience with this model? Anything that should > > > > cause alarm? I plan on getting the nVidia 4200N graphics which should > > > > work with the nVidia driver. > > > > > > What's the current state of "Optimus" support? Last time I've > > > checked the NVIDIA driver had no support for that so you might > > > be stuck with the Intel GPU. > > > > > Oops! I typed too quickly. I just found te thread on Optimus support and > > I'm scanning it now. > > Honestly, I have no clue about the details. The only thing I know > is that there are 2 ways to switch between GPUs, a real hardware > switch (which should work on every system) and plain software, which > didn't last time I've checked, on either Linux or FreeBSD. That > bothered me quite a bit, decided to buy a "gamer notebook" which > clearly stated that it has no Optimus therefore. Bernhard, I have spent some time researching this and it looks like it is partly resolved under Linux. (They call it solved, but it's really a kludge that I would hardly call a final resolution). The "fix" is mostly to ACPI and very Linux specific, as far as I can tell. Not that doing the same under FreeBSD would not be possible, but it will take some work by someone with both more ACPI and graphics knowledge than I have. I decided to save a few bucks and ordered the T520 without the nVidia... Just straight Intel which will be pretty limited, too, until the KMS and GEM work is available. Sigh. Thanks again for the heads up! -- R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4 EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751
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