From owner-freebsd-mobile Wed May 1 11:53:59 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from totem.fix.no (totem.fix.no [80.91.32.29]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9D82F37B416; Wed, 1 May 2002 11:53:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: by totem.fix.no (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 76C5320326; Wed, 1 May 2002 20:54:16 +0200 (CEST) Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 20:54:16 +0200 From: Anders Nordby To: mobile@FreeBSD.org, current@FreeBSD.org Subject: Avoid: Acer TravelMate laptop + -current Message-ID: <20020501185416.GA33717@totem.fix.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.27i X-PGP-Key: http://anders.fix.no/pgp/ X-PGP-Key-FingerPrint: 1E0F C53C D8DF 6A8F EAAD 19C5 D12A BC9F 0083 5956 Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Hi, While doing network installs of recent -current versions (FTP & NFS), I have experienced a problem I can't live with - and which needs the laptop to be sent to Acer to get fixed. The problem is: the installation freezes (usually quite early in the installation process, doing /bin or something), and after a hard reset (power off + on), the darn craptop has "PlatinumPAS - PreBoot Authentication Services Verify" enabled.". This is a protection mode which needs a valid smartcard to unlock the computer, which makes the BIOS not let you boot from anything. I didn't ask for it to get enabled, and the smartcards I got with the computer are not valid. I can't even boot a floppy at that stage, and I don't know of any way to fix it except send it to Acer for repair (already did it once, I'm not happy about doing it once more in one week). I'm planning to stop using this laptop (since it belongs to my company: ask them to throw it to the junkyard or something), unless there is some neat trick to disable the PlatinumPAS thing, or if there's a solution to making -current not switch it on. In the meantime: my advice for all Acer TravelMate users is to not use or try -current on them. Cheers, -- Anders. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message