Centrino - Made for Microsoft Windows XP?

[Robert Storey]

I recently purchased a new laptop, an IBM X31 ThinkPad, which uses the Centrino processor. I had high expectations for this machine.

Alas, my expectations have been shattered. All attempts at installing FreeBSD 5.2.1 quickly end with a crash. Interestingly, I have an old FBSD 4.8 CD - that installs fine. Lest anybody think my 5.2.1 CDR is bad, I went and downloaded it a second time, plus I also tried a network install. Failure every time.

Nor is the problem limited to FreeBSD. MEPIS Linux crashes during the install as well. Knoppix Linux installed but dmesg was putting out lots of error messages (for example, it could not mount a journaled ext3 partition, so it mounted as ext2). In the end, I got Knoppix to install and run reliably only by using the older 2.4.26 kernel and by disabling APIC.

After doing some Googling and seeing that others were having issues, my suspicion is that Centrino's power management features are to blame. But I could be wrong.

So I guess my question is this: Has anybody here gotten FreeBSD 5.2.1 to install on a Centrino laptop? If so, did you need to do anything special to make it work? Any tips, tricks or hints I should try? Or should I just wait for FreeBSD 5.3 to come out and hope it works? Or should I file a PR?

If others are not having problems with the Centrino chip, I might to back to IBM and demand that they replace the motherboard, but I tend to think they'll just tell me to reinstall Windows XP and all will be well. There is indeed a sticker on the laptop saying "Made for Microsoft Windows XP" (well, there was, I ripped the sticker off, but I still can't install FreeBSD).

best regards,
Robert