Laptop/Notebook support

[Gawrysiak, Piotr (GILW)]

I am running FC2 on T21 and the support is only partial. Things not working
"out of the box":

- suspend/resume/hibernate (ACPI must be manually configured, but I am still
fighting with it, APM does not work at all)
- hot/warmswap (and I do not have an idea how to do it :-)
- 3D acceleration (experimental DRI driver for the card exists, but is not
included in FC2)
- on screen controls (must be manually added - tpb package)
- thinkpad configuration tools (as above - tpctl)
- modem (I am not sure if a driver exists at all :-)
- software synth (well, one might argue, but WinXP comes with bundled
software synth package for MIDI playback etc. (T21 does not have hardware
one) - on FC should install & configure equivalent solution imho (like
Timidity).

I have not yet tested PCMCIA and IR, but of that what I read at least FIR
will also not be configured automatically and must be tweaked manually
(although the software exists).

In short - I am not very impressed, especially because most of the above are
configuration problems and not just lack of software... On the other hand -
other distributions are not much better either (Suse 9.1, Debian/Knoppix - I
have not yet tested Mandrake 10).

Piotr Gawrysiak


-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Cannon [mailto:peter at cannon-linux.freeserve.co.uk] 
Sent: 27 May 2004 10:53
To: For users of Fedora Core releases
Subject: Re: Laptop/Notebook support


Hi Cam

On Wednesday 26 May 2004 20:10, Cam wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm concerned about the level of support for laptops / notebooks in
> Fedora Core. I get the impression that most desktop systems and 
> hardware largely work but notebooks tend to have problems with power 
> management, suspend, cpu throttling, hardware buttons and integrated 
> hardware (eg. wireless devices).

I get the impression that there are lots of Laptop users on this and other 
lists you can judge that by the number of problem postings since FC2's 
release.

I was keeping track of how many postings (Just for fun) but gave up when it 
spilled over the 3000 mark.

> So if anyone out there has a notebook model that is fully working,
> let's have a show of hands. How many models are available where 
> everything just works?

I run a DELL Latitude CPXj its an ex US model that I have upgraded and
changed 
for UK use it is a PIII 700, 256MB, 40GB HDD I have a 3com PCMCIA network 
card which I connect  to my office and home networks under separate profiles

I am running FC1 and don't have any problems every thing seems to work fine 
apart from a silly problem that started a couple of months ago where I have 
to eject the PCMCIA during start up and shutdown but I'm not that bothered
as 
at least the base system works (I cant say the same for certain applications

but thats configuration not hardware)

> I've got one but it's only just started suspending reliably, the power
> management is not working and features like screen brightness have not 
> worked since leaving APM for ACPI. Although I love the latest software 
> that comes with Fedora I feel it's badly let down by it's hardware 
> support.

Mmm I'm no expert but I do sell a heck of a lot of second hand/refurbished 
Laptops generally they have no OS but we do load Windows for customers who 
purchase a Licenses the one thing we do is disable suspend modes for screens

& hard drives while it seems like a good idea in our experience a large 
amount of machines go into a terminal hibernation far better to have a
screen 
saver and shut the thing down when you don't want it any more.

I don't use hibernation, my power is fine however if yours is broken I hope 
someone can suggest a fix for you.

-- 

Regards

Peter Cannon

peter at cannon-linux.freeserve.co.uk

"And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain
he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer"


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