On Thu, 4 Feb 2010 10:15:50 +0100 Igor Sobrado <igor.sobr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 4, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Otto Moerbeek <o...@drijf.net> wrote: > > > > There are two models. I have the 10" model. It really has a 10" > > screen, but indeed it runs at 800MHz. Also, while a little video > > hole is there, the camera hardware seems to be absent or not > > connected. The 8.9" version does have a working camera. Dmesg of my > > machine below. > > I had been considering buying one of these laptops in the last months. > These machines are interesting, and I had been looking at them since > they were available a year ago. However, these machines are expensive > so I would prefer not making a mistake here, as buying one will be > challenging to me. It is nice to know what problems they have before > making a decision. The information you are providing about > real/recommended price and hardware weaknesses is very useful. > > However, I would like to ask a question about its firmware. May these > laptops run a generic PMON2000 firmware or do they need a customized > one? It would be nice being able to track the latest releases of the > firmware developed by Opsycon instead of trusting the one provided by > Lemote will be maintained for years on this laptop model (i.e., it > would be nice being able to run the 3.x releases). I made the mistake of not (recently) reading the loongson.html page or reading the links from it... --so at least you're not alone. :-) http://www.openbsd.org/loongson.html The above links to the only known details on the bugs in *SOME* of the 2F processors (supposedly fixed in newer 2F processors). http://sourceware.org/ml/binutils/2009-11/msg00387.html Of course, the above means some 2F processors will have the bug(s) while others will not have them. I have no clue how to tell them apart without errata and part numbers. The fact they are not providing errata or part numbers of effected chips is highly annoying. Also note the "Projects" section of loongson.html. It mentions work to be don on PMON-based boot loader. The source for the Lemote PMON firmware is available. various code: http://dev.lemote.com/code/ particularly: http://dev.lemote.com/code/pmon/ Figuring out the differences between the PMON Lemote is providing, and the PMON Opsycon provides is not impossible, but blindly slapping the Opsycon PMON onto your system could transform it into a very expensive paper weight. -jon
