Hi,

We've got a few Lenovo T61 with Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M video cards.

As far as I know, these cards are based on the GeForce 8400M G or GS
chip set (not an expert), and provides some entry level 3D performance,
more than enough to run X.

Will this cards supported in the upcoming 4.3?

mufurcz

My R61 has got the same card, it's supported in 4.3, to the extent that
I have the full panel resolution correctly detected.

However, X is slow, really slow. And there's no acceleration for anything,
including no xvideo mode.

xvidtune doesn't allow any other mode but the native mode.

So, depends what you intend. Basic desk work with `normal apps' like xterm:
no issue.

Fast stuff with accelerated graphics, video -> stay away !!!!


Maybe nouveau will be better.

It's so fucking hard to find a correct laptop where most everything will
work correctly these days...

Generally, the best-supported laptops on OpenBSD are the Lenovo
ThinkPads.  Detailed specifications of the individual chipsets in
current ThinkPad models can be found at
 ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/tabook.pdf
Before purchasing a ThinkPad, it is prudent to compare the chipsets in
those specifications to the list of OpenBSD-supported chipsets at
 http://www.openbsd.org/i386.html
(or at http://www.openbsd.org/amd64.html if you plan to run 64-bit
OpenBSD).

The two most commonly-encountered incompatibilities are with the
wireless and with the graphics chipsets.  OpenBSD does not support the
Atheros wireless chipsets in current ThinkPad models--but the Intel
wireless chipsets (currently Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, and Intel
Wireless WiFi Link 4965AG) are supported.  The graphics chipsets
supported by the intel driver
 http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=intel
also work well with OpenBSD.  NVIDIA and ATI graphics chipsets have
suffered from various incompatibilities with OpenBSD (but it is hoped
that support for ATI will improve now that specifications for their
graphics chipsets are available to the open source developers who write
the drivers).

If you are overwhelmed by the number of different ThinkPad models, then
you should be aware that Lenovo designs some ThinkPads for compatibility
with SUSE Linux.  A link to a list of those Linux-compatible models is
available on the Lenovo notebook main page at
 http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/
Although compatibility with SUSE Linux is no guarantee of compatibility
with OpenBSD, the hardware-compatibility issues present in both
operating systems are similar enough that this list can be a useful
place to start looking for an appropriate model.

isn't espie griping about a thinkpad?

I bought an acer, on clearance, for $350 from CircuitCity, more or less
on a whim.  everything but the card reader works.  the intel graphics
actually works better than any of the graphics devices in other
machines I have.

I think the best advice: buy something you can return.  the first
laptop I got (it was $300), almost nothing was supported, so I took it
back and got the acer instead.

-- 
jakemsr@sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

Yeah, it's boring to have a video card and you cant see at least a 
Exactly... How it's fuckin possible??? With laptops it's ever the same 
thing...You can use console, but no desktop environment. If you want to 
have/use, need to play with linux with blob or windowz... Fuck...
It's better to use console than using other shit :)

I have a laptop with that thing and performance is worse than a 1994 PC
ISA video card.  I ordered a new motherboard so that I can get rid of
it.  I talked with the nvidia guy and he assured me that there is no way
that they'll fix this in the open source driver.

Would like do the same thing, unfortunately NO budget (as usual)!

Looked up the Nvidia site, they provide binary Solaris x64/x86 drivers
(latest version 169.12/26-02-2008):

`To download and install the driver, follow the steps below:

STEP 1:  Review the NVIDIA Software License.
You will need to accept this license prior to downloading any files.`

.........

and, if you have ANY question or problems (sic!):

.........

`If you have any questions or problems, please check the NVIDIA Solaris Discussion forum.

You can also contact Sun Microsystems for support at http://sunsolove.sun.com, or your local
service provider.`

Stinks!  Burlesque .....

mufurcz

that's rather horrendous..
anymore info on this? Was he referring to the nv developers from being
able to "figure out" the magick? or that his nVidia people were
unwilling to intervene? both?

so frustrating..

thanks for sharing!

regards,
~Jason

He said that the clock on the chip is running in the lowest possible
speed during boot and he added that clock settings won't be added to the
open source driver.  Setting a registry somewhere is obviously is a
major IP hurdle to overcome.

Stay away from this thing.  I swear I have the fastest possible laptop
to only run at PII speeds when compiling code.  Text scrolling is super
slow and consumes the cpu at 100%.  I can not code on the box because of
that so I tend to run it either over the network or without X.  It is an
awesome laptop when not in X.  Can't wait for my motherboard with intel
graphics...

OpenBSD 4.3-current (GENERIC.MP) #0: Fri Apr 25 12:16:15 CDT 2008
    root@moobly.marcolab.com:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC.MP
real mem = 3755974656 (3581MB)
avail mem = 3633864704 (3465MB)
mainbus0 at root
bios0 at mainbus0: SMBIOS rev. 2.4 @ 0xf68a0 (63 entries)
bios0: vendor Dell Inc. version "A05" date 11/05/2007
bios0: Dell Inc. Latitude D830
acpi0 at bios0: rev 2
acpi0: tables DSDT FACP HPET APIC ASF! MCFG SLIC TCPA SSDT
acpi0: wakeup devices PCI0(S5) PCIE(S4) USB1(S0) USB2(S0) USB3(S0) USB4(S0) USB5(S0) EHC2(S0) EHCI(S0) AZAL(S3) RP01(S3) RP02(S4) RP03(S3) RP04(S3) RP05(S3) RP
06(S5) LID_(S3) PBTN(S4)
acpitimer0 at acpi0: 3579545 Hz, 24 bits
acpihpet0 at acpi0: 14318179 Hz
acpimadt0 at acpi0 addr 0xfee00000: PC-AT compat
cpu0 at mainbus0: apid 0 (boot processor)
cpu0: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7800 @ 2.60GHz, 2593.86 MHz
cpu0: FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,DS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,SBF,SSE3,MWAIT,DS-CPL,VMX,EST,TM2,CX16 ,xTPR,NXE,LONG
cpu0: 4MB 64b/line 16-way L2 cache
cpu0: apic clock running at 199MHz
cpu1 at mainbus0: apid 1 (application processor)
cpu1: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7800 @ 2.60GHz, 2593.50 MHz
cpu1: FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CFLUSH,DS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,SBF,SSE3,MWAIT,DS-CPL,VMX,EST,TM2,CX16 ,xTPR,NXE,LONG
cpu1: 4MB 64b/l...
[ message continues ]

Damnit, my T61 will arrive next week, and I didn't know how serious
this issue was when I ordered the laptop =(
I may be stuck with it, since Lenovo takes almost a month to deliver a
laptop here in Brazil, and if I decide to change the motherboard, I
wouldn't like to even think about the time it would take.

How about using the vesa driver instead?

On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 2:29 PM, Leonardo Rodrigues

I've been using/testing the vesa driver for about a week now with my
(older) 6200 PCIex, as I was experiencing similar sporatic lockups in
X. My only issue with the vesa driver is support for running mplayer
in full screen mode.. no problems other than that.


cheers,
~Jason

Do you mean basic support for the card or for 3D?
Basic performance (no 3D) should be supported by Xorg`s nv driver.
There seems to be some problems with that though
(https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14803).

On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 6:06 AM, Leonardo Rodrigues

Those performance issues with the open source nv driver for X are a
real problem, and there's almost not chance to see them fixed.

There is some hope that the nouveau driver (the new driver developed
independently from nvidia) will work better, but it's still a long
road before it's supported under OpenBSD.

So OpenBSD's graphical performance is going to suck on those machines
for quite some time.

Avoid nVidia hardware for open source work.
-- 
Matthieu