Fujitsu LifeBook T1010

[knowtree at aloha.com]

> knowtree at aloha.com wrote:
> > New question: which WiFi chipset is better supported in FreeBSD, Atheros
> > XSPAN or Intel® WiFi Link 5100 AGN? What kind of witch's brew is required
> > to make them work?
> 
> HEAD has the iwn driver that supports 4965 parts but not the newer 5000
> parts.  I've not heard of anyone working to add 5000 support.
> 
> Atheros XSPAN is a class of parts.  HEAD supports 5416 parts in legacy
> mode.  I have experimental code to support 9160 parts (legacy only
> again) but haven't sent it out yet.  I also have code to support 9280
> and 9285 parts but no hardware to test against and I am unwilling to put
> out the code untested.

Thanks Sam, and Ian, for your help. This is just a progress report.

1. I made sure both computers had a PCMCIA slot, so that I can use a
well-supported WiFi card until the internal drivers are supported.

2. I called Fujitsu and wound up talking with a very helpful tech support
guy. He did not have part numbers but he understood my question and set out
to get the answer. I told to mail me the result. Still waiting ...

3. To get get high quality video from the larger T1010 I still need to use
the port replicator. The T1010 inself only puts out VGA. The port
replicator puts out VGA, DVI, and HDMI. The P1620 alone has an "external
monitor" port, let's assume that's VGA. Regrettibly, it's port replicator
does nothing more. So for presentation tasks the T1010 with port replicator
wins, unless I am willing to be limited to VGA connections, which of course
all LCD projectors use. Crazy, isn't it?

4. I just saw on slashdot that Linux 2.6.27 is out, and it includes "...
support for the Intel wifi 5000 series and RTL8187B network cards, a new
ath9k driver for the Atheros AR5008 and AR9001 chipsets ..." That's good,
no? If it is in Linux, it can't be too much longer before it gets to
FreeBSD, right? OK, so maybe it isn't as easy as that, but I am clinging to
hope here.

5. Here is your dumb-guy question of the day: What is HEAD? Is that the
same as running CURRENT?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Gary Dunn
Honolulu
Open Slate Project 
http://openslate.net/