[ltp] [just joined] Linux on a Thinkpad A21m?

[Vivek Dasmohapatra]

On Thu, 19 Apr 2001, Joane Lispton wrote:

> - Does XFree86 4.x run correctly under the frame buffer? Any glitches?

I do not belive you need the fb any more to run X, but they coexist fine
on my A20p. [In fact, the version of X I have demands that the vesa fb
be running first to initialise the card, but I understand that this was 
fixed about 2 days after I installed Xfree86 4] Do you have the Rage
chipset or the S3?

> - Does APM work correctly? I read about some problems concerning the A20m 
> and screen blanking under X... Is this a thing of the past?

Not sure. Haven't encountered any problems myself. APM seems to work - I
can suspend the machine fine. I have been unable to get the machine to
hibernate though - it seems to be a question of creating exactly the right
sort of partition of the right(ish) size, and then doing some black magic,
but there appears to be no real consensus about what exactly needs to be
done. 

> - Is the Intel combo card supported? I read that most problems were found 
> when using the 3com card; with the Intel card, do both Ethernet and 56k 
> modem work correctly?

The Intel card has been reported to work fine - I ordered one from IBM,
but they said they'd discontinued them, so I settled for a 3com - I don't
really use the modem anyway.

> - Can I use a key combination (with my 760ED it was Fn+F3) to temporarily 
> shut down the LCD screen?

Umm.. I think so.. doesn't seem to be working for me right now, but I seem
to remember it working at some point.

> - What about dimming the LCD? My 760ED had a manual switch for doing this, 
> but the A21m seems to lack this feature; is it possible to do this under 
> Linux using a key combination?

Fn-HOME and Fn-END serve this purpose on the A20p: look for the blue
symbols on various keys.

> - Does USB work correctly?

No idea - only just acquired a USB device, not yet tried it on the laptop.

> - Is it possible to clock down the processor (using the PIII's SpeedStep 
> feature) under Linux?

This happens automagically when the TP loses power. You can fiddle w. bios
settings to configure this, and tpctl might tweakthe same settings as
well.

-- 
He's been shot through the chest with an arrow.
What about his horse?
I don't think anyone's shot him with that.


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