<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Thank you Jim.<br></div>Very useful HOWTOs.<br><br></div>My 2010-mid MBP should be a good choice.<br></div>Unluckily, the undetectable BlSOD troubles me. Apple's fault.<br>I have to work in a virtual machine since only Windows is able to recover from black screen. <br>
<div><div><div><div><div><br><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Jim Klimov <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jimklimov@cos.ru" target="_blank">jimklimov@cos.ru</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im">On 2013-10-24 10:58, WarGrey Gyoudmon Ju wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I want to buy a new laptop for Openindiana.<br>
What's the official suggestions?<br>
Are those in the list with blank 'notes' okay?<br>
<a href="http://wiki.openindiana.org/oi/Laptops+and+Netbooks" target="_blank">http://wiki.openindiana.org/<u></u>oi/Laptops+and+Netbooks</a><br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
>From my general experience (though mostly "burnt fingers") and vague<br>
knowledge from list-reading, I think the currently suggested rigs<br>
should involve:<br>
1) Ability to test in-shop or return due to incompatibility with your<br>
software. Many sales points don't allow that - are not required to,<br>
but some do. Risk of incompatibility is high, so you might want to<br>
take precautions or even overpay a bit for that (i.e. two weeks for<br>
the returns no-questions-asked).<br>
2) KVM virtualization - IIRC it is officially done for Intel CPUs with<br>
VT-D, and an experimental branch is worked on for equivalent AMDs.<br>
So if interested in KVM, you'd prefer intel now :) VirtualBox should<br>
be fine on both (my AMD E2 works ok).<br>
3) WiFi - some NICs are supported better than others (i.e. have native<br>
illumos drivers, have sleep/wakeup for hibernation, support WEP/WPA),<br>
so you might lean towards Intel ones which are mostly supported well,<br>
though there are half a dozen drivers in the tree for various models.<br>
4) Somewhat likewise for Ethernet NICs, though the Free NIC Drivers<br>
project can help here: <a href="http://homepage2.nifty.com/mrym3/taiyodo/eng/" target="_blank">http://homepage2.nifty.com/<u></u>mrym3/taiyodo/eng/</a><br>
5) Don't expect USB3 out of the box right now, might not work even to<br>
power up a mouse or cell phone. Maybe some drivers will be made and<br>
published soon, but for now - make sure at least some USB2 ports are<br>
available on the laptop.<br>
6) Audio may work, may be quiet, and there may be a mixup between for<br>
example a MoBo audio chip and a videocard's HDMI audio support.<br>
In my case both were driven by "audiohd" driver, and I needed to<br>
rename some device files in order to have the physical audio be<br>
the default output.<br>
7) Video support - AFAIK certain NVidia chips have binary drivers for<br>
Solaris which work in illumos. Maybe also Intel. My AMD E2 Radeon<br>
(built-in to the CPU, er, "APU") works only as a VESA adapter and<br>
does not support hibernation in OI, for example.<br>
8) CDROM is not strictly required, but in my case lack of one caused<br>
me to install the system using the HDD in legacy IDE mode.<br>
When I boot off an USB LiveMedia, my "SCSI" (SATA/USB) devices have<br>
different naming/ordering than when I boot off the SATA-mode HDD,<br>
so my SATA rpool can not be imported.<br>
9) Some advanced laptops include an ability to drive 2 or 3 storage<br>
devices, such as 2 HDDs and an mSATA SSD. For performance work and<br>
safe storage, you might want that (i.e. OS and cache on SSD, and<br>
mirrored HDDs for bulk data). RAM depends on you usage, 8Gb suffices<br>
for me including 1-2 VMs for some tests; though perhaps more complex<br>
"labs" of VMs and zones might need more. Some laptops allow 32Gb...<br>
10) And as usual with the laptops, make sure the KBD and screen are<br>
convenient for you. You don't want to save money on health :)<br>
Probably you'd want a 15"+ laptop with proper full-sized keyboard<br>
and preferably good resolution (at least 1920*1080).<br>
In particular, my Lenovo TP E335 lacks the "numeric keyboard" and<br>
its associated arrow keys completely, which is sometimes important,<br>
as well as any kbd LEDs and some advanced keys like Pause/Break -<br>
this is not always convenient for coding/debugging ;)<br>
<br>
HTH,<br>
//Jim Klimov<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
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