Little story:
Yes it really works....even in _emergency_ situations like in my concert in Cuba at ICMC (Miller was there)...when Guenter tried to boycot my concert :-) plugging a 110 volts computer into a 220 volts...melting right away the power supply..:-( But that was a real good test, because we had to use a new computer, we installed linux few hours before the concert, recompiled the kernel (this is my favorite hobby...Michael Edwards would say), PD and my heavy patch...tested with the Hammerfall, we had to give up on this card because it uses an independent source of power and even if Guenter this time plugged it into the correct voltage we found that Cuba uses different Hz so the card was too noisy...so we had to install Alsa (one hour before the concert) and my Delta Midiman. We (Guenter and I) had a machine perfectly up and running simply....30 minutes before the concert, just the time for a sound check. Everything worked very well during the concert. This was THE real test for: Linux (DeMuDi) --> Alsa --> Delta Midiman --> PD They all passed it with A+.
Laptops:
Unfortunatelly i must say i would not run to buy a laptop right now...as i did...:-(
Due to a new policy introduced (let say imposed) by Microsoft...all new laptops (and soon i guess also all desktops), do NOT allow anymore access to the BIOS at booting time. This means (briefly) that you are not able for instance to disable PnP and other things and the Linux is not able to assign IRQs to "non vital" devices..i.e. PCMCIA, Sound cards, video (TV) output,firewire...etc.not a very pleasant situation.
All these functions, now, must be controlled and set by and from within the OS. ACPI (that is going to replace APM) will be the way to gain access to the BIOS from the OS but has not reached yet a level of sofistication to make this process easy (if even possible). The only ultra ugly solution right now is to hard link IRQs in the Kernel itsefl....(no comments) Right now even power management is really limited to the minimal. This is a work in progress, and i guess (hope) that will be solved in few months (also because i wiped out W_XP right away from my laptop so i really hope is just a matter of months...).I'm myself working on it (at least as far it concerns my specific laptop).
For record: I got a Toshiba Satellite 5005-S504 which features seem promising:
- DVD- CD-RW - CD
- Sound card with ADC DAC line + headphone + SPDIF optical
- Firewire
- Video (TV) output RCA
- a bouch of USB (neither serial nor parallel)
-Smart Card
- And another card slot i now forgot what is supposed to be for...
- PCMCIA
- 512MB, 1.1Ghz, 30Gb
A part for CD and an external USB mouse, none of these features are working right now.... Hopefully very soon, since the card is supported by alsa, firwire should be and video (tv) out should be as well..... So after this legacy free problem will be solved should be a great machine. (BTW: 2000USD....:-( now you can find it cheapper...already)
What i found good for now (in this bad situation) is that even if Toshiba does not support officially Linux, they have a very active and helpfull linux deprtament (i dont know if "department" is the right definition) in Europe and Japan, and they really help and they do their best to solve problems (like this one). (they have mailing list and they are very responinve and quick) ..and by consequence also the Linux Toshiba community ( i mean toshiba owners) is very alive and efficient... After this experience i had (this is my fist laptop), i would reccomend to put this as FIRST priority when you think about getting a laptop. Also, even if you will find a bit more expensive i would consider to buy from a reseller that ships computer already with Linux...if you dont want to spend about a month (with no problems such as mine raising on the way) to tune it up....
Sorry for this long and almost off topic message, but i think it is also important to share these issues amongst us,because many of us, like me, they have the dream of going to a concert with thier laptop, their PCMCIA or USB professional sound card, and give the concert....with battery only, in order to avoid the "Guenter-effect"...:-))
ciao,
marco
PS. If by any chance you want to check my installation report... http://www.mobilix.org/toshiba_s5005_s504.html
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marco trevisani (to get the real email address take out "__")
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