[ltp] Re: x20 questions

[Charles E. "Rick" Taylor, IV]

On Tue, 2005-07-26 at 23:28 +0200, Rolf Leggewie wrote:

> Actually I meant swapping the battery while there is no electrical 
> outlet in sight by maybe suspending the machine and swapping within say 
> 10 seconds.  IIRC the R4x of my brother can do this.

Never tried it, actually.  Since the X20's my wife's machine and she
usually suspends it with her presentations loaded for her next class, I
am not going to risk trying it right now. :)

Me, I'd just use suspend-to-disk (which works under Linux if you use
APM) or software suspend (if you use ACPI).  That way, there's no risk.

> Probably.  What I thought makes the ultrabase/media slice attractive is 
> that it snugs tightly to the machine which I guess will not be the case 
> with those external batteries.

I've got a media slice (two of them, actually), and I just don't see how
you'd get a battery inside one (assuming that you could find anywhere in
there to hook the power to).  The only thing there's room for is a slim
CD/DVD drive.  It's not like the base of, say, the 570 series - where
there's lots of space inside for several drives and a battery.  The
floppy that's built into the base isn't removable, by the way.

There might be another base for the X20, but I've not personally seen
it.

> >>* Can the X20 be used in dual-head mode under Linux (TFT plus external)?
> 
> > With current software, you can only use the VGA port and internal
> > display at the same resolution.
> 
> Same resolution would be OK, but do they display the same content?

Same content, too.  So, not really dual head support.  It's not
something that either I or my wife need on our laptops, so I haven't
bugged Alex D about it. :)

> > You *can* get accelerated 3D on an X20.  Admittedly, it's not FAST by
> > any stretch of the imagination.  But you can play Tux Racer.

> I am not a gamer.

Me either (at least, not on my computers.  That's what the PS2 is for).
I needed some basic 3D support for apps like Ghemical (3D molecular
structures), Stellarium, and Celestia (astronomy programs).  These run
fine with the limited 3D acceleration that old Mach64 can give, but I
doubt that high-end games would run well.

>  From your homepage I gather you put in a 40GB drive.  I guess that 
> anything up to 128GB should not be a problem, right?  Apart from the 
> fact that I have to see anything that big for a laptop ;-)

I put a 5400 RPM Hitachi 40GB drive in the X20.  No problems at all.  My
wife hasn't filled up the 40GB yet, so I haven't investigated any larger
drives.  The drive quite noticeably sped up loading time on the machine
compared to the slow 10GB drive the laptop had originally.  (hdparm
showed the new drive to be about twice as fast as the old one.)

I may be lucky, but I've never had trouble putting large drives into IBM
notebooks.  I have a 240 with a similar 5400 RPM 40GB drive - no trouble
at all there either.  Same with a 770Z.  If I feel brave one day, I
might dig the 380XD out of the closet and see how large a drive it can
handle.

-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
*  Charles E. "Rick" Taylor, IV <tomalek@mindspring.com>
*  Chemistry instructor / Mad scientist / Linux enthusiast!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
*  Web: http://home.mindspring.com/~charletiv/
--------------------------------------------------------------------