XFree86 on laptop Dell inspiron 2650

[K Anderson]

Jerry McAllister wrote:
>>Fabio Miranda Hamburger wrote:
>>
>>>Hi.
>>>I love unix and freebsd and I would like to install it on my laptop but I
>>>would like to know if it is waste of time install freebsd on a laptop.
>>>I know how stable and flexible is freebsd on servers but I dont know if i
>>>am wasting m time trying to set up X on a system that is not prepared for
>>>that.
>>>Is practical to instgall freebsd on a laptop? or it is better to choose XP
>>>or linux ?
>>>Where ca n i get howtos for freebsd on laptop?
>>
> 
> As long as the laptop hardware is supported, you should have no problem.
> Lots of people run FreeBSd on their laptops - and some even make dual boots
> with other OSes such as MSWin (just for fun - can't imagine any useful reason).
> 
> The documentation would be the handbook and supported hardware lists
> on the FreeBSD site.    Also, there are things on other web sites with
> people discussion their experience with configuration, etc.  Use Google
> to find those.
> 
> ////jerry
> 
> As for the response below, I don't understand what it has to do with the
> question.  Maybe he had too many windows open and got confused with which
> one he was responding to.
> /jrm
> 
> 
> 
>>>---
>>>Fabio Andres Miranda
>>>Ingenieria de sistemas informaticos
>>>Universidad Latina - Costa Rica
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
>>>http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
>>>To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>>>
>>
>>I recently did a diskless setup using the Dell 2650. That is, having my 
>>server do most of the work such as the scheme of diskless setups. The 
>>kernel ran wonderfully, you'll have to compile a kernel just for the 
>>2650 being sure to turn off the EISA option or the kernal hangs.
>>
>>Once the diskless setup was done and its kernel created the 2650 ran 
>>like a charm and it even ran X like a champ.
>>
>>As far as how-tos, just follow the same process to install it on a 
>>regular system. To get the sound going  you'll have to enable the PCM 
>>device/option as mentioned in the multimedia section of the manual. I 
>>didn't try to set up the modem as it wasn't a requirement of mine. Nor 
>>did I tweak X enough so that when you exited it the screen would return 
>>to normal. It was scrambled so I would have to reboot to correct the 
>>problem.
>>
>>Anyway have at it and best of luck.
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
>>http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
>>To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>>
> 
> 
> 

There was no confusion.
I was just saying that I got freebsd up on a 2650, although diskless 
boot, and it works just fine. Next I said I got X windows going on it. 
If it works for diskless then guess what, it must certainly work for 
your standard setup. With this warning. When you make a custom kernel, 
you will need to take out the 'option EISA' or the kernel will get stuck 
at bootup for some reason.

The OP asked if it was practical to install FreeBSD on a laptop, I was 
saying it was (Ok, in a round about way). The OP then asked about X 
windows, and yep by golly I did get it going on it too (Except for the 
modem, that wasn't one of my requirements, and the minor tweaks I didn't 
perform to it). The OP asked for a how-to. On the 2650  you really don't 
need to worry about it. It's pretty much a generic setup just like you 
would do for a non-laptop. As long as you follow the docs all ready 
presented on the FreeBSD website you're good to go.

And like you said Jerry, do a google search and find people's 
experience. Hey that was my experience with the 2650. I'm just sharing 
it and OP didn't have to do a google search. When I did the google thing 
there was to much noise but I did manage to find the tidbit about the 
EISA problem. I feel that you are the confused one. I don't understand 
your answer it's full of...As long as's and do googles. Where I was 
saying, yes it works and have fun.

Hopefully common sense would say to check the HCL (Hardware 
Compatability List) but if the list doesn't have the hardware then it is 
a hit and miss thing.

No confusion on my part. Oh, and I found on PWP (personal web page) that 
said he got a bum 2650 when he did memtest but Dell wouldn't help them 
because it wasn't Windows. So he put Windows back on got the problem to 
crop up and after some, probably, heated debating got it taken care of.

Best of luck on getting FreeBSD going. It was easy enough.