ideal laptop recommendations?

[Darryl Okahata]

"Jesse D. Guardiani" <jesse at wingnet.net> wrote:

> How long have you had the Thinkpad? And do you know where I might purchase
> one besides On-line? (Bestbuy and Circuit City don't carry them)

     I've had it since mid-January or so.  Sorry, I don't know of any
brick-and-mortar stores that carry them.

     Just to give a more balanced view (lest others think that we're all
IBM zealots), my Thinkpad A31 is a nice, solid notebook, but it's not
completely without issues/problems:

* The A31 does not come with a floppy.  You can get an external floppy,
  but it's an USB floppy.  This is not an issue for me (I can still boot
  from CDROM), but it's an issue for some.

* If you want to dual-boot Windows and FreeBSD, and still keep the
  special IBM software that allows you to quickly reinstall Windows from
  an hidden partition (it's very nice), you'll have to specially-install
  FreeBSD, as the IBM software appears to use a "boot track" instead of
  a "boot sector".  The normal FreeBSD approach of installing a new boot
  sector *will* screw things up (for the IBM software, not FreeBSD).

  Note that you don't have to preserve the IBM software.  You can always
  wipe the disk clean and install FreeBSD onto the entire disk.  It's
  only if you want to dual-boot where this becomes a problem.  And,
  it's definitely an issue, as some (many? most? all?) Thinkpads DO NOT
  COME WITH WINDOWS RECOVERY CDROMS.  Unless you pay extra ($20-$30???)
  and order the recovery CDROMs from IBM (I think they're "free" if you
  get them within the first 30 days after getting a Thinkpad), the only
  way to "reinstall" windows is via the special recovery partition (and
  using it REQUIRES an intact/unchanged boot sector).

  [ Just to clarify: you can't change the code in the boot sector, but
    you can change the partition table.  You can resize partitions and
    repartition the disk, but you must not replace the boot code if you
    want to keep the IBM recovery software.  If you don't care about the
    recovery software, you can, of course, blow away the boot sector and
    replace it with something else.  ]

  Here's a procedure for making an IBM A31 Thinkpad dual-bootable:

	http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=70352+75495+/usr/local/www/db/text/2003/freebsd-mobile/20030413.freebsd-mobile

* With 5.0-RELEASE, ACPI is broken.  I haven't tried the latest -current
  with the recent ACPI updates, however, although I am using the latest
  IBM A31 BIOS.

* APM seems to work, but there are issues: I can't get the laptop to
  hibernate (suspend-to-disk), and suspending from X11 causes the resume
  to "hang" (LCD display becomes "blotchy" without displaying any text
  or graphics).  The latter is possibly fixed with newer versions of
  XFree86 (I'm using 4.2.1, and need to upgrade), and the workaround is
  to switch to a vty before suspending.

  [ For some people, using a kernel with "options SC_NO_SUSPEND_VTYSWITCH"
    fixes the "suspend from X11" problem for them.  It does not work for
    me.  ]

* Under WinXP pro (ick), disconnecting the AC while the laptop is going
  into suspend mode (suspend-to-RAM, not disk) seems to eventually
  result in an OS crash/hang.  The laptop may (or may not) successfully
  resume, but a crash/hang seems to occur eventually.

  [ I can't help but wonder if this is an ACPI issue.  ]

* Under WinXP pro (ick), there is a feature where the laptop will go
  into hibernation (suspend-to-disk) if it's been in suspend mode
  (suspend-to-RAM) for a specified period of time.  This seems to work
  only if the suspend mode was entered while the battery was being used;
  if the suspend is entered while on AC, the hibernation does not occur
  (but, it does seem that a forced hibernation does occur when the
  batteries are just about drained).

-- 
	Darryl Okahata
	darrylo at soco.agilent.com

DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
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