i386 Laptop Status

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This is a list of laptops known to be working with OpenBSD 2.6.

If your laptop isn't listed below that doesn't mean that it isn't working, and you will most likely find a similar model that is listed below. As of OpenBSD 2.6, we know of no laptops that do not work minimally. Of those that have problems..

• Some exhibit problems with APM support. Note that apm -S fails to suspend some laptops, but this is not a major concern.
• Many lack sound support
• A few have subtle bugs with their PCMCIA support
• XFree86 does not support their displays properly
• Or some other built-in device doesn't work..
• Cardbus is not supported at all. However, pcmcia works fine.
• Some have problems with pcmcia card eject interrupts.

If you have your laptop working (or not working) and it isn't listed below, please mail chris@openbsd.org so that it can be listed. Please supply as much information as possible.

APM problem reports should be sent to our APM developers, Michael Shalayeff and Tobias Weingartner.

Laptop	Notes
Sony VAIO F430	As of OpenBSD 2.6-Current (Feb 17/00) APM: "zzz" suspend works, as does the keyboard suspend. "halt -p" and "apm -S" don't. (but I've yet to look for phdisk utilities below - will be investigating shortly.) DVD drive, floppy all function. Ethernet works after wakeup with the card I'm using (3Com 3c589). Contact Bob Beck.
Sony VAIO z505r	APM support: "zzz", suspend via keyboard, hibernation via keyboard, and "halt -p" all work. "apm -S" wakes up immediately. Hibernation uses a block at the end of the disk, approximately 3-5MB larger than the memory in your machine. To repair hibernation, use "phdisk.exe /create /partition" to setup the partition. The phdisk program is available on the boot floppy image provided on the first recovery CD. Built-in ethernet works fine, but requires reset after suspend using "ifconfig fxp0 down; ifconfig fxp0 up". After a suspend, the profiling clock is not running. Patches are being worked on. Sound is not supported in 2.6. As of mid-April 2000, it is supported with a neomagic device driver. When the memory stick slot is empty, it can cause errors which overflow the dmesg buffer, and thus confuse the OpenBSD install program. The BIOS Setup, (accessed using F2), has an option to disable the memory stick. An XF86Config file suitable for use with XFree86 3.3.X may be found here. Contact Theo de Raadt.
Sony VAIO z505s	Similar to the VAIO z505r, except that the provided USB floppy has some problems. Contact Niels Provos.
Sony VAIO 747	As of OpenBSD 2.6, XFree86 and APM do work. Ships with a PCMCIA modem card (COM One MCC220 Platinium Card), which works. Sound works (8 bit only). APM behaviour similar to the VAIO z505r, except that hibernation has not been tested. USB does not work. An XF86Config file can be found here. Contact Markus Friedl.
Sony VAIO PCG 505-FX	Unknown.
IBM Thinkpad 701C	All features including hibernation and APM work. Contact Todd Fries.
IBM Thinkpad 770Z	As of OpenBSD 2.6, XFree86 and APM do not work. Newer versions of XFree86 support X, and patches are available. APM has been fixed post-2.6 as well, and patches are forthcoming. Sound works fine. Contact Angelos Keromytis.
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 T20	Running OpenBSD 2.7 (and later) apm mostly works. The only thing that failed so far is halt -p (won't power down). Goes into suspend mode when top is closed. Restores nicely when top opened. Built in modem is a winmodem... ignore it. Actually it is on a `mini-pci' card so it can probably be removed. Audio works, but you have to turn off PCI sleep mode in the BIOS. See http://www.snafu.org/t20/ for info regarding X11 support. Contact Marco S Hyman.
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 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. An XF86Config file suitable for use with XFree86 3.3.X may be found here. Contact Todd Miller.
Toshiba Libretto 100CT	Most of the information listed in the Libretto 50CT entry apply to the 100CT as well. X11 works in 800x400 mode. An XF86Config file suitable for use with XFree86 3.3.X may be found here. Contact Todd Miller.
Toshiba Portege 660CDT	APM is completely broken. The mixed sb and wss sound hardware can cause some grief. Newer versions of the flash BIOS are worse, since they are less flexible about what interrupts they allow. Contact Theo de Raadt.
Digital HiNote VP735	APM works fully. Everything on the machine works. The only hint is to enable PCIBIOS, BIOS32, PCIBIOS_INTR_FIXUP, PCIBIOS_BUS_FIXUP, options in the kernel, so it would assign irq to USB controller and configure cardbus cotroller. An XF86Config file suitable for use with XFree86 3.3.X may be found here. Contact Michael Shalayeff.
Fujitsu Lifebook C325	APM works fully. Sound works when the BIOS is told to activate SB emulation mode. Everything else on the machine works. Contact Tom Knienieder.
Fujitsu Stylistic 500	APM works. Serial port doesn't work. Some tweaks needed for small memory kernel (4Mb). X 'works' (thrashes like crazy). Contact David Leonard.
Siemens SCENIC Mobile 360	APM works fully. Sound works, using OSS. Contact Dan Carlsson.
Dell Inspiron 3200 D233XT (Bios release: A10)	APM works fully. Suspend (to ram or disk) does not work under X (X server does not restore screen upon resume), but DPMS do (screen is turned off after a while if the machine isn't used). BIOS APM settings (for automatic suspend) interfere with X server, and should be disabled. Suspend to disk needs a DOS (FAT16) partition containing a file named "SAVE2DSK.BIN". This file which is created via Dell tools under Windows 98 (it's present out of factory), is sized (ram size + 2 or 3 MB). An ad hoc DOS partition is thus required (it must be the first partition on disk). PCMCIA: works except "live" card ejection or insertion (which lock the machine, a hard reset is required). USB: does not work, if enabled, kernel hangs at boot during USB controller detection. Contact Dan Carlsson.
Toshiba Tecra 500CS	APM is broken, However it halt -p does work. Sound works by default with the GENERIC kernel, but with the speakers is not really worth it. X runs nicely as well. Contact Eric Jackson.
Toshiba Tecra 500CDT	APM is completely broken (and can trash your disk). XFree86 works (800x600 16bpp). Sound works (21739 Hz, half duplex stereo). Contact Brad Smith, or David Leonard.
Toshiba Tecra 550CDT	APM deep sleep (zzz) works, but -S wakes up immediately. XFree86 works beautifully. Sound works, after some IRQ tinkering in the BIOS. USB works; at least, I plugged a digital camera in, and the ugen driver detected and configured it. The built-in modem does not work since it requires software only available in Windows; that is, it does not implement a true RS232 communication port. The pcic is broken in this machine, so I cannot accurately comment on PCMCIA attach/detach. Contact Aaron Campbell.
NEC Versa 2000	APM works fully. Everything on the machine works. Contact Michael Shalayeff.
Acer TravelMate 345	As of OpenBSD 2.7-CURRENT, APM works. XFree86 works (800x600 16bpp). Sounds works. Lucent modem does not work. Contact Kevin Lo.
Compaq Armada M700	APM works correctly, but you cannot suspend while in X. You must suspend from the console. CardBus works. Internal 10/100 Ethernet (for those models that have it). Works beautifully with the fxp driver. No sound support as of now. People are supposedly working on this. No internal modem support as of now. (It's a winmodem.) There is a binary only driver for Linux. There is also the linmodem project that is trying to make an opensource winmodem driver. Contact Nathan Binkert.