# Is 2.6 ready for laptops?

## tizzyd

I've got a Dell Inspiron 600m.  It took weeks to get the 2.4.25 kernel configured properly so that I could get ACPI working right.  Now, I think it's time to consider 2.6.  I want DRI to work right.  I want better sound support.  And, I want better performance!

Here are the questions:

I know that 2.6 can run, but can it really run on a portable?

Are all the nice things in 2.4--bootsplash, cpufreq, etc.--in it?

What's the best one to install--vanilla (then patch), gentoo, or others?

I'll be sure to document my exploits here.

And just to make sure you all hear it . . . thanks for all your help!

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## chino_

Well, I got 2.6.0 vanilla on my IBM Thinkpad running since it very first release dates... (updating it soon, when I have some time)

ACPI worked like a charm out of the box, just compile it into the kernel, and works.

cpufreq works as well, no problems here.

ALSA, as far as sound is concerned,  works pretty well, but I didn`t have problems with 2.4 kernels as well.

DRI is also not a problem.

For me, I like 2.6 much more than 2.4 on my laptop, it runs much better, in case of working software.

So I would say, that a 2.6.5 (see I only running 2.6.0 right now) wouldn`t make very much problems on a laptop.

hth,

-chino_

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## tizzyd

 *chino_ wrote:*   

> Well, I got 2.6.0 vanilla on my IBM Thinkpad running since it very first release dates... (updating it soon, when I have some time)

 

I take it you downloaded and built, rather than emerged the kernel.  Not that there's much difference.  Did you install any patches?

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## chino_

 *tizzyd wrote:*   

> Did you install any patches?

 

Not a single one.

Though my next kernel will be a gentoo-kernel of 2.6.x.

edit: oh yes, i built myself.

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## Earthwings

I'm running 2.6.5 on a Thinkpad T41. The only problem so far is that sleep/suspend doesn't work very well. This is however more a problem with ACPI (and X and USB and...) and not kernel 2.6.5.

For more details on setting up ACPI and Power Management, see my howto.

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## Halcy0n

I've been using 2.6 on my laptop since the test series.  The only problem I had was with my wireless card, and that's because it broke the USB standard, once I got that replaced it worked like a charm and I haven't had any problems.  I haven't tried sleep or suspend yet, but everything else works fine.

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## Jefklak

I recently switched from 2.4.22-ac4 (ac-sources) to 2.6.4-klak2 (2.6.4 with some custom patches including ck2 and other funny stuff) and it works GREAT. I never managed to get speedstep working and now it does. The only drawback is a problem with the synaptics touchpad but I'll solve that tomorrow  :Wink: 

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## FatherBusa

I've had 2.6 running (since 2.6.0) on a Dell Latitude C640 and an old Tuxtops portable (compal NW30).

Both work like a charm.  In fact, I've had a much easier time with pcmcia, alsa, ACPI, and udev in the 2.6 series than with previous kernels.

Go for it.

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## kevmille

```
Linux romulan 2.6.5-love1 #1 SMP Mon Apr 5 14:26:35 PDT 2004 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) III Mobile CPU      1000MHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

```

I have been using the 2.6 kernel on my Dell Inspiron notebook since the test 8 kernels.

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## xblinkx

I have 2.6.4 on my toshiba laptop and it runs great

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## lots

i've been using the dev sources 2.6.3 on my laptop for a while now.  I have to admit ever since i upgraded my laptop to 2.6 kernel series.. the entire experience in linux is far superior to that of windows. My sound is better (how odd?) my video is cripser (my ATi mobility U1 finally got some 2D accelleration in X  :Smile: ) and since the 2.6 kernel is a big speed improvement over 2.4 the system as a whole is much more responcive.

Things i havnt set up yet:

Wireless Lan 

Power saving options

tho i dont expect it to be too bad  :Wink:   in fact with this latest kernel i got my laptop running much quicker and easier than i had with the 2.4 series..  Everything pretty much worked right out of the box.  didnt mod a single setting...

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## hbp4c

I am using the Gentoo-dev-sources (2.6.3) on a dell latitude CPxJ laptop for over a month.  I was able to get all the acpi scripts I wanted to work on the laptop, as well as a wireless cisco 350 card.  (I've included links to other references at the end of this post).  

The only thing that I have not gotten to work is also a synaptics touchpad - it works fine via ps2 emulation but I cannot get the advanced features driver to work.  I have only spent a few hours though working on it, so it might clear up soon.

My only reccomendation is that if you really are interested in battery life, and you have an ext3 based file system, use the mm sources instead of gentoo-dev-sources.  MM sources have the laptop-mode patch applied which can significantly increase battery life by spinning down the hard drive and only spinning up every 5-10 minutes to flush data.  I have reiserfs, so this is no benefit to me, and therefore the gentoo-dev-sources fit me well.

For the record, I get about 3.25 hours on a single standard dell battery with this configuration.

I'd be happy to share a .config or any config files, just let me know.

Useful Laptop Links:

ACPI: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=80077

Wireless: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=122435

Using tmpfs: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=132187

2.4 -> 2.6 upgrade: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=70838

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## fintux

I've got my HP OmniBook Xe3, and the 2.6 kernel is running fine. It has Pentium III M, and i830M graphics card. Well, the SpeedStep seemed to work just fine with 2.6.4-rc2, but doesn't work with 2.6.5-rc3 - haven't worked that out yet.

The synaptics touch pad needs the event interface built into kernel - the default setting apparently changed for that, but now it works just fine.

DRI works fine. I don't know what's the difference between DRM and DRI, but trying to emerge xfree-drm doesn't work at least for 4.3.x versions of xfree. Well, glxinfo and glxgears work and report DRI to be in use  :Wink: 

Well, the battery state and things like that do seem to work better on 2.6.5-rc3 than on 2.6.4-rc2. Also the multimedia, sleep, lid and power buttons are detected by the kernel, but I don't know about the functionality of others than multimedia buttons (which do work), because I haven't had that much use for them.

There's nothing really that bothers me.

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## flybynite

 *tizzyd wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Here are the questions:
> 
> I know that 2.6 can run, but can it really run on a portable?
> ...

 

The best thing is you don't have to change anything in your setup. Do what I did, just emerge and install a 2.6 kernel and edit lilo(grub).conf ...  You can swith back to 2.4 with a simple reboot, nothing is lost with your new setup.

Mine works, yours probably will too.  If it doesn't, just take your time getting 2.6 configured for your machine...

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## tizzyd

It appears to be an unmitigated YES, so I shall be taking it on next week.  Thanks for everyone's help, and I'll drop a line back to chat RE: success/failure.

Again, thanks all!   :Laughing: 

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## sklettke

I'll add another "Yes."  I started with ck-sources (2.4.22) and then progressed to love-sources (2.6.0-test) and now am using 2.6.4-ck2 http://members.optusnet.com.au/ckolivas/kernel/ but it's in portage as well (though it may not be updated to ck2 yet).  2.6.4-ck2 has been working great for me.  Sound and ACPI work well.

BTW, my system is a Toshiba 5105-S507.

Scott

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## jserink

Hiyah!

Running a Acer Ferarri 3000 with an ATI Radeon Mobility 9200 and it basically rocks...here's my kernel:

root@johnathlonlinux jserink # uname -a

Linux johnathlonlinux 2.6.2-rc2-mm1 #8 Fri Feb 13 12:53:18 UTC 2004 i686 Mobile AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

I've got CPUFreq and speedfreq working great. Loaded the HDD temperature deamon so now my gkrellm display gives me HDD temp, CPU temp and an assortment of other stuff.

Am presently trouble shooting getting my other video modes to use the entire video panel rather than me having to pan to the screen edges. Oh yah, also got Windoze true type fonts working under X, really improved Open Office performance with Word docs written in word.

Cheers,

John

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## Lews_Therin

Using love-sources 2.6.3-love3 on my Compaq, and it works great. It even has built-in kernel-level wireless lan drivers, and my mouse doesn't go haywire when under load.

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## Hypnos

I can't get suspend to work reliably with 2.6.x, so I'm sticking with 2.4.x until around 2.6.10.

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## ewan.paton

i have a dell latitude 600 and i recently tried mm-sources 2.6.5 only things that buged me were i needed to build my soundcard as a module to use oss without squeaks  and buzzing noises also l should have configered my synaptic touchpad but gave up as i use openmosix so it was more out of curiosity

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