On Thu, 29 Apr 2004, Chris Fuller wrote:

: I recently undertook this project. I have a mobilepro 880.
: The only problems are:
:   I can't switch out of X (yes, I'm using wscons)

I've noticed that too.  However, the X server is accessing the framebuffer
directly, which is part of the problem.  This causes the X server to use
RAWKBD rather than wscons keycodes; it's overriding the wscons handling of
keysyms.  That's why you can't, for instance, change screen brightness
inside of X while you can do Fn-<brightness> outside of it.

:   The USB port is not supported, and the Xhpc Xserver doesn't support serial mice (fixable, I would think)

The USB port is completely supported in the 1.6 branch and in 2.0 and
-current.  Get the GENERIC kernel and tailor it.  It was originally added to
support only the 800, but it was a simple matter of fixing up .h's and
GENERIC options to make it work on the 880 (and both machines' Japanese
couterparts).  :)

I've found that it's not perfect support, but it's usable.  My aue* isn't
happy with it, but my two umass* adapters, my ulpt*, and my uplcom* all work
fine.

I've made a home "docking station" for the machine that consists of an
AC-powered USB hub, an external USB hard drive, external SCSI CD-ROM via a
SCSI<->USB dongle, a USB keyboard, and a USB mouse.  I can then also plug it
into a VGA monitor for the full "desktop experience".

:   NetBSD doens't have a showkeys program.

Related to the keysyms issue above.  I've considered making one for a while,
but until the X server uses normal wscons communication, it's sorta
pointless.

: As for the mouse in X, I would think a pcmcia USB card would fix that,

There is no such card.  They're CardBus (32-bit), which is not supported by
the 16-bit slot on the MobilePros.

: The cursor keys are a little rearranged, but I like it better
: (left/right/up/down). I haven't gotten pgup/dn/home/end to work, but the
: contrast keys seem to work as pgup/dn for many programs, but not all.

As of current 1.6 and 2.0, the keys are more properly mapped in wscons now.
They had an incorrect MC/R600 series keymap previously; I fixed that
recently to match the keycaps.

: Suspend works fine. I haven't left it unpowered while in suspend for more
: then an hour or so, but it should last longer, unless my four year old
: batteries have issues. It used to last several hours like that while in
: WinCE.

Yes, but WinCE's suspend mode is much lower power than NetBSD's.  You'll
find that, while WinCE can last days to weeks in suspend mode, NetBSD will
need to go to a charger base within 12-18 hours before the battery goes
dead.

-- 
-- Todd Vierling <tv@duh.org> <tv@pobox.com>