6-STABLE (2007.04.08.19.20.49 UTC) is the current FreeBSD version on this laptop. It is a dual boot system, other OS being MS Windows XP. Everything works except ...
Below are some of the interesting components of my T42 ...
... extrinsic hardware ...
... some output ....
... and some related settings ...
While dri module has been loaded in X,
on resume (after a suspend operation in X) screen is not properly restored.
Lacking dri implies no 3-D acceleration and X not
loading the glx module.
There was discussion around Jun-Jul 2005 about it on one of the FreeBSD
mailings lists. IIRC, one can have dri loaded AND be able to
have X screen properly restored IF suspend operation is done on the console.
(I think that had already been discovered quite earlier in the life of FreeBSD
5.x.)
For some reason, changes to sound volume via sound buttons provided on the laptop do not reflect in mixer(8) output. This issue was also discussed on the mailing list(s). There may be a patch or some workaround in newer versions of FreeBSD or other operating systems.
Closing the lid, laptop goes into a sleep. I have not tried yet if a press of power button would also put the computer into sleep.
Suspend/Resume operations work great either on console or in X (given lack of
dri). The computer actually goes into more of a nap than a deep
sleep as in hibernation. That results in some energy loss; if AC is not
connected, there will be noticeable loss of battery power.
I have read that hibernation is quite doable, but i have not tackled it as of
yet due to mainly lack of motivation. If/When i would embark on the project,
i might have to arrange for restore/backup of the FAT32 slice
after the FreeBSD slice.
Intel 2200BG works, rather the last time I tried, with iwi driver as long as a static IP address was assigned to the network interface. DHCP did not work (could not get an address) when I tried with Linksys WRT54G v4 wireless unit. That is just plain a pain. I am now quite happily using above mentioned Belkin cardbus card which does both DHCP and WPA with help of ath driver.
X (Xorg 6.8.2 w/ ati driver) works just fine in 16bit depth and
1024x768 pixels of resolution;
/etc/X11/xorg.conf and
gzipped Xorg log
are available.
I had successfully tested that this computer is perfectly capable of providing simultaneous video output both to a (analog) projector and the LCD. For the next time, i will have to remember either to change the xterm's font size or X screen resolution. Otherwise, text comes out quite tiny.