# Gentoo on Transmeta Crusoe?

## butters

I'm in the market for a new laptop (the Dell latitude CPi finally died, IDE controller got hosed) and I need minimal in the way of processing (enough to do an emerge -u world about one night a week and have it finish before I wake up the next morning).  Actually, I really just need minimal in every sense.  Just enough memory, screen pixels, and hard drive space to be a standard mobile computing client, in the smallest and lightest package possible, with good battery life.  And after my experiences with the CPi, I want it to be brand new when I buy it.  I stumbled on the Syntax Valuebook, a TM5600 (600MHz, like a 1 GHz PIII if you take their word for it) based laptop with 256MB of RAM, 30GB hard drive, DVD/CDRW, 14.1" 1024x768 display, and built in 802.11b for only $800.  It is less than an inch thick, 5.7 lbs, and gets about 5 hours on the battery.  Their site says that models based on the 1Ghz (apparently like 2 Ghz in PR talk) TM5800 transmeta crusoe are coming soon.

This sounds like exactly what I want, at a price that I can't really be too upset about.  However, I have read some stories claiming that the transmeta processors are really slow, especially under linux.  According to their website, Transmeta processors rely heavily on software called code morphing for instruction decoding.  Does anyone know the scoop on how the kernel supports this feature?  I imagine since Linus worked at Transmeta for years that the kernel would have good support for their kit.  Can anyone affirm or deny this assumption from experience?

What does the Gentoo community think about the Transmeta processors, the prospects of running gentoo on them, and this attractive price/feature combination from an unknown OEM (Syntax)?

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## bmichaelsen

 *Quote:*   

> I have read some stories claiming that the transmeta processors are really slow

 

I have a Transmeta Crusoe in  my laptop and yes I have got the feeling it is rather slow. But the reason might rather be the gfx-card ....

 *Quote:*   

>  I imagine since Linus worked at Transmeta for years that the kernel would have good support for their kit.

 

emerge -s longrun

 *Quote:*   

>  According to their website, Transmeta processors rely heavily on software called code morphing for instruction decoding. Does anyone know the scoop on how the kernel supports this feature? 

 

Compile for i686 - there is a software on the cpu translating it to the native language of the cpu.

BTW One cool thing about my crusoe is: no fan! very silent.

hmmm, gota sleep now ....

Greetz, björn

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## slon

For $800 you can do a lot better than Transmeta.

Check out fatwallet.com forums. People there getting pretty good at tracking down rebates, coupons, pricematching. Couple of months ago I got 80gb harddrive and after all wheeling and dealing they paid me $5.

I've seen many good deals on laptops as well.

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## butters

Yeah I can get a 2 GHz Celeron laptop with the same stuff at Best Buy for $800 too.  However, it is 13 inches front to back and 1.75 inches thick.  They didn't post weight, and they lock the things down to the counter, but I'm sure it was at least 7.5 pounds.

There are many cheap laptop deals, but they are mostly these new "desknotes" that suck batteries dry in 2 hours and run hot.  Thin and light notebooks with mainstream processors are at least $1000, and they still can't claim to be less than and inch thick.

Anyone have any advice?  I'm sure someone else is barking up the same tree that I am.

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## lghman

If you looking for something even better, this is my next  notebook.  I am thinking about springing for the Centrino processor, heard alot of great things about it being power friendly!  This with my Lucent Orinoco card is all I need .  I found a few sites on the web that had em cheaper than the manufactorer.

 :Very Happy: 

--sonik

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