Lenovo IBM Thinkpad T60

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2006 19:33:23 +0100
> From: Richard Arends <richard at unixguru.nl>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Two months ago i mailed this list with a question about
> the T60 and the wireless card that's included.
> 
> After the answers i got here and some further investigation
> on my side, i ordered the T60. A few days ago, finaly, it
> was deliverd, so now i can show the first results :)
> 
> First of all, i am not using the standard built in Intel wireless
> card, but an Atheros that can be ordered via IBM. The shop was
> kind enough to build it in for me, so no hassle at that part.
> 
> I installed 6.2 (beta3) and CURRENT, both installed without
> a problem from CD. Everything seems to work except sound and
> the em interface. In CURRENT sound (snd_hda) works, so i
> think somebody needs to MFC that driver. (why was it removed
> from stable?)
> 
> X works (perfect) at 1400x1050 with framebuffering.  I did not
> look (yet) at an ATI drivers, since FB is all i need :)
> 
> Pro:
> - Robust look and feel
> - Quality!
> - Nice keyboard
> - Keyboard light (i love it :) )
> - Mousepointer between the keys (my former laptop was a toshiba)
> 
> Con:
> - Fan speed. It hasn't dropped below 2500 rpm
> - Battery time (now running 30 minutes on battery and i have a
>   remaining cappacity of 72%. I suspect the fan as a battery drainer.
> 
> Loading acpi_ibm.ko enables a nice set of knobs that can be read
> or set with sysctl. So, my first impression, if the cons are fixed,
> this is a perfect laptop when running FreeBSD. If you're preferred 
> OS is written by Microsoft it will probably work without any hassle,
> but i did not try that.

First, snd_hda had never been in STABLE. It is quite new and was added
to CURRENT too late to be adequately tested before the freeze to prepare
for 6.2-Release. I suspect it will be MFCed fairly soon as the the
freeze on STABLE should be thawing (or might already be doing so).

I believe that acpi_ibm should provide some fan control, but the fan is
really not much of a power sink. Make sure that you install radeontool
from ports. It will let you turn off the display (not just the
back-light) and the DAC for the video out.

Try setting hw.pci.do_power_nodriver="1" in /boot/loader.conf. That will
help (or crash the system). It works on my T43. You can then up the
value to "2" or "3". I have yet to try "2", but "3" prevents by T43 from
booting. Maybe the T60 will do better. Larger values result in more
aggressive PCI power control.

Finally, limiting the CPU speed while on battery is a winner. If you
use Gnome, use the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor and kill powerd. You
can then manually set the speed. Try to enable EST. Add
hint.est.0.disabled="1" to /boot/loader. It is not a win for my system,
but it should be.

Even though I have these on my T43, Windoows still stretches battery
quite a bit. I get about 3.5 hours on FreeBSD and about 5 on Windows.
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634
Key fingerprint:059B 2DDF 031C 9BA3 14A4  EADA 927D EBB3 987B 3751
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