i386 Laptop Status

This is a list of laptops known to be working with OpenBSD.

If your laptop isn't listed below doesn't mean that it won't work, and you will most likely find a similar model that is listed below. Most laptops work very well, however some will still have minor issues.

Of those that have problems,

• Some exhibit problems with APM support. Note that apm -S fails to suspend some laptops.
• Some lack sound support
• A few have subtle bugs with their PCMCIA and CardBus support
• XFree86/X.org does not support some displays properly. Sometimes switching between both of them helps.
• Some other built-in device doesn't work.
• Some have problems with pcmcia card eject interrupts.
• Almost all modern laptops with on-board modems have "winmodems", which are not currently and are unlikely to ever be supported. Use a PCCard modem if you need one that works. You can assume any modem on the machines below does NOT work unless indicated.
• IBM Thinkpads (and perhaps other notebooks, too) with Phoenix-style BIOSes offer a so-called "hibernation mode", where memory is written to disk. You can use this feature with OpenBSD. Generate the partition for hibernation using the /usr/ports/sysutils/tphdisk utility from the ports collection.
• IBM Thinkpads with mini-PCI slots can be forced to work with other cards than those supplied by the manufacturer by using the /usr/ports/misc/tpwireless utility from ports.

Laptop	Notes
Acer Aspire 1360	OpenBSD 3.7 works. It comes with AMD Sempron 2800+. Everything works fine (mini-PCI slot, VIA S3 Unichrome PRO, VIA RhineII-2). Contact Maxim Bourmistrov. dmesg ¦ xorg.conf
Dell Inspiron 4100	OpenBSD 3.7 works. apmd(8) is fully functional. Integrated xl(4) works fine. Integrated auich(4) works fine. USB works fine with my mouse. Both PCMCIA slots work. The Modem does not work. Contact Robert Nagy. dmesg ¦ xorg.conf
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo D 7820	OpenBSD 3.6 works. APM is not working (boot with boot -c and then disable apm). Sound works fine. Everything else on the machine works. Contact Alexander Schmid. dmesg ¦ XF86Config
IBM Thinkpad 701C	All features including hibernation and APM work. Contact Todd Fries.
IBM Thinkpad 760	As of OpenBSD 2.6, XFree86 and APM do not work. Newer versions of XFree86 support X, and patches are available. MWave modem/sound does not work. APM has been fixed post-2.6 as well, and patches are forthcoming. Contact Todd Fries.
IBM Thinkpad T23 model 26478NU.	Works fine with OpenBSD 3.7-current (April 2005). If using a boot floppy the system may hang when probing ahc. Workaround: boot with -c and disable ahc. A GENERIC kernel does not have this issue. Serial ports must be enabled in BIOS. "ctrl:nocaps" in X puts the control key in a proper location Apm mostly works -- suspends OK Hibernation not tested, but should work with /usr/ports/sysutils/tphdisk from the ports collection. The audio chipset is supported (auich). See http://www.snafu.org/t23/ for more info. Contact Marco S Hyman. dmesg ¦ xorg.conf
IBM Thinkpad X31	Works with OpenBSD 3.7-current (April 2005). Nearly all Hardware is supported, except FireWire. APM is well supported. Suspend mode (apm -s/zzz) works without problems. Hibernation (suspend to disk) works also fine but requires a small MS-DOS partition with a hibernation file at the beginning of the harddisk. You can create this file with tphdisk from ports (/usr/ports/sysutils/tphdisk). The two extra keys around the cursor block can be configured via xmodmap. Example: xmodmap -e "keycode 233 = Page_Down" xmodmap -e "keycode 234 = Page_Up" The integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 in my X31 (Model 2672-C8G) works with the ipw(4) driver. But you need to download the unfree firmware first to get it working. For more details read ipw(4). I'm planning to replace this card with a ral(4) or an ath(4). For these cards, no unfree firmware required. To replace it, I'll have to unlock the bios first because IBM allows only special IBM wireless cards to be installed. The bios can be patched with the tpwireless program (/usr/ports/misc/tpwireless, use on your own risk!). The integrated CF-Card reader (really nice!) is supported as well. Enhanced SpeedStep is supported. You can adjust the cpu speed via sysctl (sysctl hw.setperf). The on-board fxp(4) and auich(4) are working without problems. The keys for mute, volume up and volume down are working fine. No special software is required. If you'd like to get the big "Access IBM" button to work and have a nice on-screen display, you can install tpb from ports. (/usr/ports/sysutils/tpb) This works just fine and you have nice on-screen messages when you change volume and brightness settings or enable/disable the ThinkLight. Contact Bernd Ahlers. dmesg ¦ xorg.conf
IBM Thinkpad X40	OpenBSD 3.7 works fine. SD Card Slot is not presently supported. The built-in "Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG" works only with additional firmware. See iwi(4) for more information. The use of other 802.11 cards may be restricted by the BIOS. However, non-IBM supplied cards can be used after running the /usr/ports/misc/tpwireless utility. APM works fine, including suspend to hard-disk (hibernation) If you want to use Hibernation, you must have a small msdos partition with a save2dsk.bin. For this, you can use /usr/ports/sysutils/tphdisk. Perhaps one of the best supported notebooks because several developers also use it. Contact Marcus Popp. dmesg ¦ xorg.conf
JVC MP-XP 7250DE	OpenBSD 3.6-current (October 2004) works. Everything works fine except APM and the built-in SD card reader. Since OpenBSD 3.4 the boot loader does not boot correctly from USB CDROM on this machine -- workaround: take 3.3 and upgrade or boot via network or PCMCIA floppy. The audio chipset is supported. Wireless 802.11b PRISM 2.5 (USB) is supported, too. X (XF4) works fine. More infos (dmesg and XF86Config) can be found here. Contact Joerg Zinke.
Sony Vaio z505n	OpenBSD 3.6-current (as of August 2004) runs. Installation is cumbersome, though. The Sony CD drive does not boot the snapshot CD. Installation by USB floppy: The floppy36.fs of the snapshot (august 2004) can be brought to boot if one disables the following (boot -c, wait for the UKC> prompt): disable pcibios disable fxp disable pcic After this there is no USB, no PCMCIA, no Cardbus and no network. This means that the laptop has no input/output! So you have to put the install sets on a partition from some other OS or earlier installations of OpenBSD. The install script can mount ffs and msdos partitions. The kernel as supplied with the snapshot boots alright and recognizes all the relevant hardware (no firewire, no memorystick, no JogDial). Sound (yds) works. The XFConfig from the OpenBSD install works without modification. Contact Matthias Bauer.
Sony VAIO PCG C1XD	OpenBSD 3.6 works, but there are some minor issues. USB and built-in sound (Yamaha) work just fine. My 3com Megahertz Cardbus LAN Card xl(4) works ok. Jog Dial and the mini camera were useless to me, so I never tested them. While the GENERIC Kernel works fine, the installation ramdisk kernel hangs on booting since OpenBSD 3.3 or so. Disabling the cardslot and PCMCIA subsystem in UKC before booting makes the ramdisk come up, too. But then you have to install from images you left on the hard disk before (e. g. in a discardable filesystem in the partition you want to use for swapping later), because you can't access LAN or WLAN without the cardslot. Removing cards from the PCMCIA/Cardbus slot on a running system may cause system freeze or instant reboot sometimes. My D-Link DWL-650 (PrismII) works for some time, but then locks up and has to be reinserted to work again. This, however, causes the problems mentioned above. APM works partly: "halt -p" switches off the machine, but sometimes, you can't wake up from "zzz". Contact Alexander von Gernler. dmesg ¦ XF86Config
Toshiba Libretto 50CT	APM works but you need to be careful not to use the last 32meg or so of the disk since that's where the BIOS dumps the long time hibernation image. You can take a look at the bios geometry in disklabel to see exactly how many sectors it wants. Failure to do so will cause filesystem corruption during suspend. The libretto uses a single IRQ for both sb(4) and wss so the best thing to do is to choose one and disable the other in the kernel. The pcmcia external floppy drive is not currently supported by OpenBSD, but it can be used during the install. Installation can be a bit tricky with only a single pcmcia slot. The best way to do this is to do a network install. To do this, load the boot floppy and at the boot prompt, enter boot -c. When you see the UKC prompt, unplug the floppy drive, plug in your network card, and then type exit. The kernel will then probe the network card and you should be able to do a normal network install. You may find it necessary to disable the sound devices in the BIOS in order for the boot floppy to correctly detect your network card. Note that the chips driver was broken in XFree86 4.1 (it is fixed in XFree86 4.2) and hence the XFree86 that ships with OpenBSD 3.0 does not work on the libretto. I have compiled the old XFree86 4.01 chips driver (which does work) for XFree86 4.1. Just grab chips_drv.o and copy it to /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/chips_drv.o That will make XFree86 4.1 work on the 50CT and 70CT. Contact Todd Miller. XFree86 4.X ¦ XFree86 3.3.X
Toshiba Libretto 100CT	Most of the information listed in the Libretto 50CT entry apply to the 100CT as well. X11 works in 800x400 mode. There are sample XF86Config files for both. Contact Todd Miller. XFree86 4.X ¦ XFree86 3.3.X
Toshiba Satellite 2410S	It's running OpenBSD 3.7-current. All stuff are working fine (graphics, sound, PCMCIA, APM, ethernet), except infrared and the built-in SD card reader. There's a bug with certain toshiba laptops and XFree/X.org. Ratio is too quick, and some chars are repeated. To avoid that, disable X's kbd handling, and load a modmap with xmodmap if needed. Contact Alexandre Anriot. dmesg ¦ xorg.conf

If your laptop under OpenBSD is not listed above, feel free to mail www@openbsd.org to cure this. Please supply as much information as possible, such as:

• Notebook exact manufacturer, name and model.
• Latest OpenBSD version known to work on it (must be the latest release or -current).
• List of working/not working things with OpenBSD.
• List of hacks you used to get certain things running.
• Links to your dmesg and xorg.conf.
• Contact name and email address.