NetBSD + old laptop adventure

[anomie]

Perhaps a fun weekend project if you're looking to revitalize an old laptop w/ wireless: NetBSD 4.0 seems to be running like a champ on my old Dell Latitude CPx. I purchased a low end D-Link pcmcia wireless adapter for it, which NetBSD detected without problems.

Wireless / WPA setup is nicely documented in the wiki:

http://wiki.netbsd.se/index.php/How_to_get_connected_using_WPA

A few simple lines to add to /etc/rc.conf (and /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf) and you're ready.

Worth checking out if you would like to try something different. :)

[Nobber]

Hello. My name is Nobber and I fully endorse this idea of running NetBSD on an old laptop.

In fact, I've been running NetBSD 4.0 (RC4, to be precise) on an HP Omnibook xe4100 (2002 model) with a D-Link DWL-G630 cardbus wireless adapter (using WPA) for several months now. Oddly enough, I got wireless networking going without a hitch, but NetBSD refuses to recognise the onboard (wired) NIC - a standard VIA Rhine affair that's been recognised by pretty much every other OS I've thrown at it.

For the record, I'm also running FreeBSD 7.0 on the same laptop, and things are going smoothly with that too. Most noticeable thing about FreeBSD 7.0 is the speed with which it boots up and shuts down (compared with 6.2), but I suppose this is the wrong thread in the wrong forum to talk about that, so I'll shut up now.

[anomie]

That's funny -- my experience was somewhat similar. My wireless adapter is a WNA-1330 (basically whatever was on sale at officemax or officedepot). NetBSD 4.0 instantly recognized it, and getting WPA set up couldn't have been simpler.

On the other hand, the pcmcia (wired) ethernet adapter that came with the laptop had all kinds of issues. It is a Xircom, which I understand is perhaps not very nice hardware, but only NetBSD had a problem with it. (FreeBSD, no prob; GNU/Linux, no prob; Windows, no prob...).

The xi(4) manpage BUGS section reads:
The Xircom multifunction cards which contain both Ethernet and modem
interfaces are known to have problems. This is due to the card not
reporting itself correctly as a multifunction card.

I'll say... Anyway, it has been a lot of fun playing around with NetBSD so far.

[mish]

NetBSD 3.0 macppc installs painlessly on a Powerbook G3 Bronze Keyboard (Lombard). I used it as a springboard before permanently installing OpenBSD 4.1-release then -current on the thing. That laptop uses an Orinoco Gold(b) PCMCIA card for wireless.

[tonyex]

hehe,

my laptops adventures, hp omnibook 800 , freebsd and openbsd can not run here , compaq armada 600 & ibm thinkpad t40.
my current HW s an Asus pundit. I'm tired of having fans or laptops and I got a fit-pc.
http://www.fit-pc.com/new/
I am going to burn netbsd on it today.
I let u know later,
Reg /T