From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 16 12:16:07 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 9CC5E16A4CE for ; Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:16:07 +0000 (GMT) Received: from parati.mdbrasil.com.br (parati.mdbrasil.com.br [200.210.70.4]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 75D3943D2D for ; Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:16:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from eksffa@freebsdbrasil.com.br) Received: (qmail 59981 invoked by uid 1003); 16 Nov 2004 12:14:44 -0000 Received: from eksffa@freebsdbrasil.com.br by parati.mdbrasil.com.br by uid 82 with qmail-scanner-1.20 (uvscan: v4.1.60/v4288. Clear:RC:1(200.251.184.89):. Processed in 0.232685 secs); 16 Nov 2004 12:14:44 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO freebsdbrasil.com.br) (200.251.184.89) by parati.mdbrasil.com.br with SMTP; 16 Nov 2004 12:14:43 -0000 Message-ID: <4199EF73.5080002@freebsdbrasil.com.br> Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 10:15:47 -0200 From: Patrick Tracanelli Organization: FreeBSD Brasil LTDA User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.5) Gecko/20031207 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: David Wolfskill , mobile@freebsd.org References: <200411111737.iABHbpFp014244@bunrab.catwhisker.org> In-Reply-To: <200411111737.iABHbpFp014244@bunrab.catwhisker.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Suitability of Sony VAIO laptop for FreeBSD? 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: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:16:07 -0000 [..] > 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