Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 09:18:51 +1030 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: jose@dial.pipex.com (Jose Marques) Cc: freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: What does "unsupported" really mean? Message-ID: <199711252248.JAA00367@word.smith.net.au> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:00:40 -0000." <v02140b00b0a0cf986bf0@[193.130.246.212]>
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> I'm thinking of buying a laptop to run FreeBSD (yet another disillusioned > Mac user abandoning ship). The models I've looked at all have some form of > "unsupported (at the current time) by FreeBSD" hardware, i.e. CardBUS, XV > ports, USB ports etc. Does this mean that I can't use FreeBSD on these > machines? Or (hopefully) can I still use FreeBSD but not use the hardware > in question? You need to consider whether the hardware is critical to the system's operation or not. For example, this Toshiba 220CDS has a USB port (unsupported) and software-selectable PCMCIA/CardBus ports. USB isn't critical, and I can disable the CardBus stuff, so it works really well. When you're buying a laptop, there are two *critical* things to look at: - The pcic type (PCMCIA interface chip). Toshiba, Dell, NEC, Sharp, and IBM all use parts that are compatible with FreeBSD. Acer (at least) does not. YMMV; if at all possible, boot a FreeBSD kernel built with pcic support in order to find out what you're looking at. - Video chipset. The undisputed 'best supported' chipset at the moment is the C&T 655xx family. If you are willing to buy the Accelerated X server then you can look at units using the Cirrus 754x and NeoMagic chipsets. Avoid the rest, as X will not work. mike > Ta. > > >
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