From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 17 22:20:46 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1044F106566C for ; Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:20:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from markus.hoenicka@mhoenicka.de) Received: from smtprelay04.ispgateway.de (smtprelay04.ispgateway.de [80.67.31.32]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9FCA28FC17 for ; Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:20:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [93.135.128.78] (helo=yeti.mininet) by smtprelay04.ispgateway.de with esmtpa (Exim 4.68) (envelope-from ) id 1P7bR3-0008Oo-CW for freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org; Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:10:33 +0200 X-Mailer: emacs 23.1.1 (via feedmail 8 I); VM 8.0.14 under 23.1.1 (i386-portbld-freebsd8.0) From: "Markus Hoenicka" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <19643.29787.88224.821906@yeti.mininet> Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:10:35 +0200 To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Df-Sender: 472582 Subject: FreeBSD on subnotebooks X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:20:46 -0000 Hi all, along the lines of a query about FreeBSD on netbooks which appeared on this list lately, I'd like to ask for some advice on current subnotebooks. I've been running FreeBSD versions 6.2 through 8.0 on a MSI S260 subnotebook. This used to be a real nice companion. However, after roughly five years the internal speakers are dead, the battery jack is unreliable and requires endless juggling to get the battery charged (not to mention that the battery lasts only 30-odd minutes these days), and the screen backlight works at the lowest setting only, making the machine usable only at night :-( I'd like to purchase a replacement which is equally capable of running FreeBSD. My preferences are as follows: - dual core if at all possible - screen resolution something like 1280x800 or 1366x768 - screen size roughly 12' or 13', no more, no less - graphics should allow hassle-free watching of DVDs and Flash movies, but I don't have any interest in gaming. Also, I'll have to run OpenOffice presentations quite often, which are painfully slow on my current box as soon as animations are involved - FreeBSD will be the sole OS on this box - VGA jack is a must (I frequenly need a data projector) - WLAN must be supported - CD/DVD reader/burner may be built-in, but an external USB device would be ok too (I assume FreeBSD can handle this) - price should not exceed 700 EUR/$ (yes, the exchange rate for EUR and $ seems to be close to 1.0 in terms of computer prices) I'm aware of the FreeBSD Laptop compatibility list at http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/index.html, but I couldn't find two models which look quite interesting to me. These are: HP Pavillion DM3/1120eg Stylebook Lenovo Z360 Core i5 I'd be glad if anyone could confirm or deny that FreeBSD works properly on these boxes, or post any experiences on these boxes regarding my computing requirements. I'd also be glad if you could point me to comparable boxes that positively do run FreeBSD. One more question: I've noticed that most subnotebooks ship with 4GB of memory these days. If I understand correctly, I can use that much memory only when using the amd64 branch of FreeBSD. Will that affect hardware compatibility in any way? thanks in advance Markus -- Markus Hoenicka http://www.mhoenicka.de AQ score 38