Subject: Re: IBM Thinkpads w/ NetBSD (or other recommendations?)
To: None <port-i386@netbsd.org>
From: Peter Seebach <seebs@plethora.net>
List: port-i386
Date: 08/15/2001 11:58:23
In message <20010815161741.24557.qmail@patheticgeek.net>, "Kevin Lahey" writes:
>I need to buy a laptop for work (my employer is picking up the bill), 
>and I'm still trying to figure out what to get.  The IBM Thinkpad X 
>and T series look pretty good to me, but it isn't clear to me that
>they are completely supported by NetBSD.  Will the internal Ethernet
>and/or 802.11 interfaces work under NetBSD?  I've about given up on modems,
>but since I haven't used one in five years, I figure that won't bother
>me.  What about audio?

*internal* 802.11?  Wow, that's cool.

>Any suggestions?  Even suggestions about places to look to see if
>a laptop is NetBSD compatible?

Nothing I've found.  I gave up and got a laptop based on "relatively cheap,
has all the features I want", and I'm trying to get it up and running from
there.  So far, I have video working under both NetBSD and BSD/OS, although
BSD/OS has to use 16 bit color, and NetBSD can't restore the console after
X.  Sound is a dead-end, for now, but there's some hope of getting a Maestro 3
driver (and/or an Allegro driver) based on docs we may be able to get from
ESS.  There is an existing driver, but it requires a GPL'd chunk of code
to be downloaded to a DSP.

Cardbus/pcmcia works under both OS's, built-in ethernet is a Tulip clone
which works under NetBSD... it's pretty usable.  Slightly moreso under NetBSD,
but I expect that to change a little as I get my hands dirty on the kernel
stuff.

(BTW, a hearty "Thanks" to the people who finished getting the prism2 code
working in the wavelan driver, I stole bits of it to get them working on
BSD/OS too.)

-s