[PD] It really works!,,and laptops

[David Plans Casal]

> Anyone bought a laptop recently & running PD smoothly under Linux?

Running pd 0.34-3 rpm for RH 7.2 on Dell Inspiron 2500. After some grief
with building an X server which would work with the intel 810 chipset, got
kernel patches (botha) and started up. This particular chipset is
diabolical with sound also; finally had to buy OSS license for it. I hear
other Dell laptop models (later ones) have stopped using it, so maybe more
luck there. In all, after the initial hurdle, it runs great; it even likes
usb midi...now I just have to get rid of Dead Rat and try demudi...

btw, has anyone put up any comments/suggestions on pd/demudi after Havana?

DC

david casal                   --0+
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d.casal at uea.ac.uk             --9+
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www.ariada.uea.ac.uk/~dcasal  --)+

On Wed, 23 Jan 2002, Nick Fells wrote:

> 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?
> 
> 
> 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
> 
>