Problems with IBM ThinkPad 600X

[sremick]

So being a FreeBSD advocate, I periodically test PC-BSD on a random spare computer. This time I had an IBM ThinkPad 600X I figured would be a good testbed. So I burnt a fresh PC-BSD 1.4 CD and went to work...

Problem 1: Video driver

Detected driver (neomagic) was no good. Highlights on menu items had vertical white lines evenly-spaced all through them. Tried switching to VESA and was even worse... Blues became greens, text fuzzy.

Problem 2: PCMCIA NIC doesn't work

Laptop doesn't have a built-in NIC, so used a Xircom XE2000 10/100 card. Was not recognized on default install. Read the forums and added pccard_enable="TRUE" to /etc/rc.conf (why isn't this there by default?), and still not working. Saw this in dmesg:

pccard0: Card has no functions!
cbb0: PC Card activation failed

Just wanted to pass this feedback along. Going to go try installing Ubuntu now (no, not a "BSD sux! I'm going to Linux!" post. I'm just experimenting with this laptop. I'm a FreeBSD user still and it's my primary desktop at home.) If folks have promising suggestions I can pull Ubuntu back off once I'm done with it and try PC-BSD again (although, not a Linux fan, I do prefer Gnome).

[Oko]

So being a FreeBSD advocate, I periodically test PC-BSD on a random spare computer. This time I had an IBM ThinkPad 600X I figured would be a good testbed. So I burnt a fresh PC-BSD 1.4 CD and went to work...

Problem 1: Video driver

Detected driver (neomagic) was no good. Highlights on menu items had vertical white lines evenly-spaced all through them. Tried switching to VESA and was even worse... Blues became greens, text fuzzy.

Problem 2: PCMCIA NIC doesn't work

Laptop doesn't have a built-in NIC, so used a Xircom XE2000 10/100 card. Was not recognized on default install. Read the forums and added pccard_enable="TRUE" to /etc/rc.conf (why isn't this there by default?), and still not working. Saw this in dmesg:

pccard0: Card has no functions!
cbb0: PC Card activation failed

Just wanted to pass this feedback along. Going to go try installing Ubuntu now (no, not a "BSD sux! I'm going to Linux!" post. I'm just experimenting with this laptop. I'm a FreeBSD user still and it's my primary desktop at home.) If folks have promising suggestions I can pull Ubuntu back off once I'm done with it and try PC-BSD again (although, not a Linux fan, I do prefer Gnome).


Is that a very old laptop or one of the newest I have not heard of? ThinkPads are usually the only laptops which
will allow the configuration of XOrg with Xorg -configure.

It looks to me that for that one you will have to edit xorg.conf by hand!
I also have a very old E390 but miraculously Xorg -configure produces very
decent xorg.conf file.
In my experience old laptops are very painful when it comes to graphics. I was spending usually one hour per lap top to get X going. ( I am FreeBSD user)


I am not sure about PC-BSD but usually getting pccard involves editing
rc.conf file and I believe there should be another file in /etc/ about
pccards

You might neet to load a driver by editing /boot/loader.conf but
I would firstly check if the chipset on your pccard is supported.


Did you read hardware notes for 6.2?