Dell laptops

[DW]

Eric Anderson wrote:
> On 07/11/06 11:47, M. Warner Losh wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> What are the current problems, if any, on current Dell laptops have
>> with FreeBSD?
>
>
> I hope that the question is a sign that possible fixes would be on the 
> horizon. :)
>
> I have a Latitude D820 (Dual Core) (and have used a D810, D610, D600 
> with FreeBSD also), and most things work, except suspend to ram (S3) 
> which Nate Lawson is looking into a bit (we've sent him a D610 to work 
> with for debugging) - currently, I can suspend, but resume causes an 
> instant reboot.
>
> Also, the high-definition audio does not work.  I'd *love* to get this 
> working, and even looked into trying to port the azalia driver from 
> netbsd.
>
> As another poster mentioned, the extra buttons and FN buttons don't 
> seem to work, and there may be some acpi_video tweaks that need to 
> happen to make the external vga/lcd screen swapping happen like it 
> should.
>
> I can provide lots of details if needed, and am willing to debug.  We 
> typically have spare Dell Latitude laptops for use in testing also.
>
> Eric
>
>
Well, I know we're talking Dell notebooks here, I'm a Thinkpad guy 
myself, but it seems like the issues are very similar and IBM (I mean 
Lenovo!) and Dell are using many of the same components and presenting 
similar issues such as 3945 support (not good), versus alternative 
.11a/b/g atheros chipset support (good), and the new HiDef audio.

I'd be interested in seeing where the support for this new HiDef audio 
goes. Do (did) the Dells use the same snd_ich driver that the Thinkpads 
have used? And if so I wonder if the new HiDefs are the same as well. 
Hopefully that get resolved soon, it is the only missing piece to 
slapping gold FreeBSD sticker on my new T60. (Well, I'll still need to 
futz with ACPI suspend/resume, but what else is new? Can be a pisser, 
but has never been a show stopper for me.)


For what it's worth, I spent much time on the wireless and the bottom 
line is, if you can get your laptop (Dell or Thinkpad) shipped with 
either the 3945 or the Atheros, *pick the Atheros!* If it's not at 
option (boxed purchase from reseller, like my T60 from PCConnection), 
then buy an atheros after market and swap them out. Forget the 3945 for 
now. (Although I understand that the driver is going on openbsd, but 
hasn't been ported to FreeBSD yet. But still very experimental in openbsd?)

-DW