honest question.

[Patrick Soltani]

>
>Hi, I have been using freebsd since 3,0-release, but now I have a dell
>inspiron 2650 laptop with dual xp and fbsd.
>What I want to do is install freebsd using whole harddisk and install
>vmware and run windoze xp for multimedia stuff.
>The problem is Xfree86 just support 24 bit color quality, and 
>vmware under
>freebsd is still bogus, the apm feature doesnt work.

Did you add the following line in your kernel file?
device          apm0    at nexus? flags 0x20 # Advanced Power Management

Any specific errors/behavior? or Did you try the bios to disable the power management?

I don't have the your make and model laptop, but been very successful in doing apm on many machines, even when XP says "now you can turn the computer off" after issuing shutdown :-).

Each laptop has slightly different attitude towards power management, but I am sure you'd be able to find some help on the freebsd mailing list and/or "googling" it.

>
>Okey, to be honest i like freebsd but I am affraid freebsd is 
>not an ideal
>os for a laptop.
>What u guys think?
>I dont like linux, but I am forced to switch, what u think?
>
>

Have you updated the /usr/ports?  Although Xfree86 is not as simple as it should be, however, have had very little problem with compiling it from source or installing it from CD.

What has worked for me is "portupgrade" that automatically upgrades my ports with little hassle.

Regards,
Patrick Soltani.