Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 10:15:47 -0200 From: Patrick Tracanelli <eksffa@freebsdbrasil.com.br> To: David Wolfskill <david@catwhisker.org>, mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Suitability of Sony VAIO laptop for FreeBSD? Message-ID: <4199EF73.5080002@freebsdbrasil.com.br> In-Reply-To: <200411111737.iABHbpFp014244@bunrab.catwhisker.org> References: <200411111737.iABHbpFp014244@bunrab.catwhisker.org>
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[..] > Any warnings as far as running FreeBSD 4.x or 5.x (or 6) on such a > beast? Hail, I've been playing around w/ RELENG_5 on the following laptops Toshiba Satellite A45-S250 (dvd-rw) Toshiba Satellite P25-S670 (dvd-rw) Toshiba Satellite A60 (cd-rw+dvd combo) Sony Vaio PCG - FRV37 (dvd-rw) ECS A Transmeta - 530 (combo cd-rw+dvd combo) You did not mention the Vaio model but according to the hardware setup it is close to the same computer as the noted above, except for the optical drive, the one I played is DVD-RW. FreeBSD 5 simply does not install 'cos it is unable to control the optical device, so it does not load sysinstall; I commented about this misbehaviour on -current some times, but it did not change up to 5.3-R. It shows up the sabe behaviour on 6.0-CURRENT, also does not control the optical stuff (dies on READ_BIG timeout/interrupt (trying 2 more times)). The solution is network install when possible (most laptops does not have floppy devices anymore, so a network boot would be necessary). But among beasties, 4.10-RELEASE just works very nice, luckly; DragonFlyBSD 1.0a also works. burncd(8) works great on 4.10-RELEASE while it doesnt on DfBSD. NetBSD also controls everything nicely, but I did not get long testing it under NetBSD since the goal for the laptop is strictly running FreeBSD. The deal? The Vaio system today runs both, 4.10 and 5.3-R, the first one gets loaded only when dvd writing is needed, and atapicd is not even on the 5.3-R kernel 'cos even after the network install RELENG_5 takes a long to boot, 'til it times out controlling the device. -- Atenciosamente, Patrick Tracanelli
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