FreeBSD 4.5 on a Dell Inspiron 8100

Video

Two video chips are available in the 8100: the nVidia GeForce2 Go and the ATI Mobility RADEON. Do NOT get the nVidia. XFree86 (4.2.0) does not support it; Linux-only drivers from nVidia are necessary, which means Linux is necessary.1 XFree86 4.2.0 does support the ATI chip, and works quite beautifully with no esoteric configuration. The ports collection hasn't been updated to 4.2.0 yet, so I had to install the binaries from ftp.xfree86.org manually. They work. In order to use the external VGA connector (with a projector, for example), you'll have to fiddle with the LCD stretch/center control (Fn-F7), the CRT/LCD/both control (Fn-F8), and the XFree86 resolution control (Ctrl-Alt-[+-]), but it does appear to work. (If I could disable the virtual screen (panning) in XFree86 so that changing resolution also changes screen/desktop size, I'd be ecstatic. Suggestions?)

Sound

The sound chip is an ESS Maestro 3i. Load the snd_maestro3 kernel module (by adding snd_maestro3_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf). PCM audio works quite well; I didn't test CD audio, though it should work.

Network

The builtin Ethernet card is some variety of an Intel EtherExpress Pro/100. It simply works, out of the box, using the fxp(4) driver. The modem is (of course) a Winmodem. The comms/ltmdm port should work, though I didn't try it. A builtin wireless adapter is available, though this machine didn't have it. I believe it's just a relabeled Lucent/Orinoco card and should work just fine using the wi(4) driver.

APM

I didn't test the APM support at all, but typing the apm(8) command reports the line and battery status correctly (online versus offline, percent battery charge, approximate time remaining, and number of batteries and battery slots).

USB

I plugged in a Microsoft Wheelmouse and it worked (after I configured XFree86).

PCMCIA/PCCARD

I inserted an ancient Megahertz 14.4 modem, a generic 10 Mb Ethernet card, and a Lucent/Orinoco wireless card. All were detected and attached properly. I didn't really test the first two, but the wireless card worked quite well.

Configuration Files, Command Output, etc.

Footnotes

1 If you are unfortunate enough to own a laptop with an nVidia GeForce2 Go, see any or all of the following:

Last updated: Mon Apr 15 17:50:33 EDT 2002