(long) update on IBM A30p with FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE

[Jesse D. Guardiani]

Well, here's the verdict for FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE:
-------------------------------------------------

Internal Wireless LAN Card works great! It's a PRISM 2.5
chipset. I haven't tried it, but it initializes just fine
with the WI driver, so I'm sure it's in good shape.

Firewire appears to work. The devices detect without
errors on boot.

X windows works great. No problems. ATI Mobility Radeon
chipset is well supported.

USB works great (duh).

My Floppy drive (NOT standard equipment on these models!)
works great, and has been a real lifesaver a few times
during this install.

CD-ROM/DVD works great, but I wish it was a CD-RW/DVD-RW.
I guess I'm just waiting for those peripherals to become
available from IBM as Ultrabay drives. Or I'll get an
external firewire drive... we'll see.

Built-in LAN works great.


So what doesn't work?
---------------------

Two things: APM and Sound.

I can still work without these, but it's highly annoying.
I have to fully shut down the system if I want to take
the laptop with me. Sure, it's a heck of a lot better than
lugging around a full sized workstation, but it's still
annoying and inconvenient.

Unfortunately, APM isn't even detected at boot time.

And when I tried to compile PCM support into my kernel,
the kernel said it didn't recognize the PCM device, then
it locked up on PCI0.

5.1-BETA
--------

I tried to install 5.1-BETA, but I get a massive lock up
while the kernel is detecting devices. It's right after
firewire is successfully detected, so I'm thinking it might
be sound support that is causing the problems. Does 5.1
"ship" with sound support enabled in the kernel?

I'm going to try 5.1-BETA2 in a few minutes. The ISO is
burning while I type. I doubt it'll work any better though.


My current questions...
-----------------------
1.) Does anyone have any tips to help get this stuff working?

2.) How do I log the kernel boot messages if the system
    doesn't fully initialize? Serial cable and a telnet console?

3.) How do I install 5.1 or 5.0 if I can't get the kernel to
    load properly with the ISO CD-ROM? cvsup my source tree?

Thanks!

-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
423-559-LINK (v)  423-559-5145 (f)
http://www.wingnet.net