[PD] It really works!,,and laptops

[marco trevisani]

Little story:

Yes it really works....even in _emergency_ situations like in my concert in 
Cuba at ICMC (Miller was there)...when Guenter tried to boycot my concert :-) 
plugging a 110 volts computer into a 220 volts...melting right away the power 
supply..:-(
But that was a real good test, because we had to use a new computer, we 
installed linux few hours before the concert, recompiled the kernel (this is 
my favorite hobby...Michael Edwards would say),  PD and my heavy 
patch...tested with the Hammerfall, we had to give up on this card because it 
uses an independent source of power and even if Guenter this time plugged it 
into the correct voltage we found that Cuba uses different Hz so the card was 
too
noisy...so we had to install Alsa (one hour before the concert) and my Delta 
Midiman.
We (Guenter and I) had a machine perfectly up and running simply....30 minutes 
before the concert, just the time for a sound check.
Everything worked very well during the concert.
This was THE real test for:
Linux (DeMuDi) --> Alsa --> Delta Midiman --> PD
They all passed it with A+.

Laptops:

Unfortunatelly i must say i would not run to buy a laptop right now...as i 
did...:-(

Due to a new policy introduced (let say imposed) by Microsoft...all new 
laptops (and soon i guess also all desktops), do NOT allow anymore access to 
the BIOS at booting time. This means (briefly) that you are not able for 
instance to disable PnP and other things and the Linux is not able to assign 
IRQs to "non vital" devices..i.e. PCMCIA, Sound cards, video (TV) 
output,firewire...etc.not a very pleasant situation.

All these functions, now, must be controlled and set by and from within the OS.
ACPI (that is going to replace APM) will be the way to gain access to the BIOS 
from the OS but has not reached yet a level of sofistication to make this 
process easy (if even possible).
The only ultra ugly solution right now is to hard link IRQs in the Kernel 
itsefl....(no comments)
Right now even power management is really limited to the minimal.
This is a work in progress, and i guess (hope) that will be solved in few 
months (also because i wiped out W_XP right away from my laptop so i really 
hope is just a matter of months...).I'm myself working on it (at least as far 
it concerns my specific laptop).

For record:
I got a Toshiba Satellite 5005-S504 which features seem promising:
- DVD- CD-RW - CD
- Sound card with ADC DAC line + headphone + SPDIF optical
- Firewire
- Video (TV) output RCA
- a bouch of USB (neither serial nor parallel)
-Smart Card
- And another card slot i now forgot what is supposed to be for...
- PCMCIA
- 512MB, 1.1Ghz, 30Gb

A part for CD and an external  USB mouse, none of these features are working 
right now....
Hopefully very soon, since the card is supported by alsa, firwire should be 
and video (tv) out should be as well.....
So after this legacy free problem will be solved should be a great machine.
(BTW: 2000USD....:-( now you can find it cheapper...already)

What i found good for now (in this bad situation) is that even if Toshiba does 
not support officially Linux, they have a very active and helpfull linux 
deprtament (i dont know if "department" is the right definition) in Europe and 
Japan, and they really help and they do their best to solve problems (like 
this one).
(they have mailing list and they are very responinve and quick)
..and by consequence also the Linux Toshiba community ( i mean toshiba owners)
is very alive and efficient...
After this experience i had (this is my fist laptop), i would reccomend to put 
this as FIRST priority when you think about getting a laptop. Also, even if 
you will find a bit more expensive i would consider to buy from a reseller 
that ships computer already with Linux...if you dont want to spend about a 
month (with no problems such as mine raising on the way) to tune it up....

Sorry for this long and almost off topic message, but i think it is also 
important to share these issues amongst us,because many of us, like me, they 
have the dream of going to a concert with thier laptop, their PCMCIA or USB 
professional sound card, and give the concert....with battery only, in order 
to avoid the "Guenter-effect"...:-))

	ciao,
	marco


PS.
If by any chance you want to check my installation report...
http://www.mobilix.org/toshiba_s5005_s504.html


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      marco trevisani   (to get the real email address take out "__")
email________________:  m__arco at ccrma.sta__nford.edu      
Web________________:  http://trevisani.mine.nu	 
      DeMuDi -- Debian Multimedia Distribution 	 
demudi email_________:  m__arco at dem__udi.org              demudi 
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