[PD] It really works!,,and laptops

[Orm Finnendahl]

Hi,

I own a laptop which runs Linux and PD runs very smoothly on it.

The model is an Acer Laptop 528 TXV (PIII, 850 MHz) and it worked
right out of the box (with LAN builtin, PCMCIA, DVD, USB, sound
bidirectional). Also APM seems to work (without the suspend to disk
hibernation mode). Acer kinda support Linux (at least they claim to be
supportive) although there is no Laptop with preinstalled linux
available.

If you want to learn more about Linux on Laptops, follow the top link
if you search for "Linux Laptops" at google. It'll lead you to the
Linux Laptop site, which is a Database with howtos for installation on
hundreds of laptops provided by their users and sorted by brand. 

I have the impression that right now it seems to be hard to find a
laptop, which doesn't run linux although there might be minor problems
with exotic parts sometimes. Generally speaking: If linux is supported
and the soundcard works with ALSA you're fine concerning pd.

Yours,
Orm

P.S.:

The whole PnP issue is a little unclear to me since the interrupt
configuration of pnp cards under linux is done in the /etc/isapnp.conf
file (with very clear explanations how to do that in the isapnp
howtos), but I'm no hardware specialist.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Am Mittwoch, den 23. Januar 2002 um 17:28:10 Uhr (+0000) schrieb Nick Fells:
> Hi,
> 
> Just wanted to follow up this little thread of a couple of months ago
> (see marco's message below)
> 
> Marco (or anyone) - d'you know of any progress on this issue of laptop
> BIOS?
> 
> Anyone bought a laptop recently & running PD smoothly under Linux?
> 
> Looking to buy...
> 
> Nick
> 
> -- 
> Dr Nick Fells,	
> Music Department,
> University of Glasgow,		Tel: +44 (0) 141-330 4096
> Glasgow G12 8QQ			Fax: +44 (0) 141-330 3518
> UK.				http://www.music.gla.ac.uk/~nick
> 
> 
> -----------------------------
> from marco trevisani.... 11/12/01....
> 
> 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