[oi-dev] New OI hipster ISOs

Thu Oct 24 11:51:03 UTC 2013

Thank you Jim.
Very useful HOWTOs.

My 2010-mid MBP should be a good choice.
Unluckily, the undetectable BlSOD troubles me. Apple's fault.
I have to work in a virtual machine since only Windows is able to recover
from black screen.

On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Jim Klimov <jimklimov at cos.ru> wrote:

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