Summary: Notebook for Solaris x86

From: Peter Utama (putama@ect.enron.com)
Date: Mon Aug 24 1998 - 10:34:07 CDT


Original questions:

> The list of notebook PC in the hardware compatibility list for Solaris x86 is
> rather old (Prior to March 1996) and it seems that Sun is not going to
release
> an updated list for the notebook (I think Sun hinted that they are going to
> drop the support for notebook PC).
>
> Does anyone have first hand experience with Solaris x86 on newer notebook
PCs?
> I would really appreciate anybody sharing their experiences (good or bad)
with
> them.

By now, it is pretty much confirmed that Sun is not going to support Solaris
x86 on notebooks beyond the ones they listed in the HCL (notebook part is dated
March 96) HCL can be found in http://access1.sun.com/drivers/hcl/hcl.html

David Robson <robbo@box.net.au> worked with Sol 2.5.1 on Toshiba Tecra 740 and
760 CDT and encountered problem with video driver (resolved with latest driver
update), PCMCIA SCSI driver and sound card. With Sol 2.6, he encountered X
crashing.

Dave Wreski <dave@nic.com> suggested to invest in the AcceleratedX server
from Xig (http://www.xig.com) and reminded that Linux might be a better option.

Michael Galloway <mgx@spruce.lsd.ornl.gov> had problems installing Solaris x86
onto Gateways laptops and ended up running linux and was happy with it

Chi-Man Wu <r25781@email.sps.mot.com> successfully installed 2.6 on Toshiba
Tecra 720CDT except for the PCMCIA Ehternet+Modem Card (Xircom) and got answer
from Sun that they have no plan to support it.

Andrew Mitchell <afm@colltech.com> worked with IBM Thinkpad 380. It worked
except for the NeoMagic video chipset. He is running it without X.

I tried to look for similar list on the net and didn't find anything useful,
but I found quite a bit of information on notebook support for Linux. One of
them, http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop is very informative
and gets updated regularly.

I think I will buy a Toshiba Tecra and try to install Solaris first, and if it
is unsuccessfull, linux is always there.

Thanks to all who repplied.

Regards,

-- 
Peter Utama                        Information Technology
mailto:putama@ect.enron.com        Enron Capital & Trade Resources
voice: (713) 853-6752              1400 Smith Street, EB3416B
fax:   (713) 646-3010              Houston, TX 77002-7361



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