[linux-audio-user] linux preinstalled laptops for audio

[Rob]

On Tuesday 12 September 2006 23:33, Ken wrote:
> Check out these laptops with pre-installed Ubuntu...
> No hassles!?!
> http://system76.com

I can't speak for System 76 (going to their site and 
seeing "ultralight" and "starting at 5 pounds" together just 
made me laugh), but I'm typing this on a Thinkpad X41 with 
Ubuntu preinstalled from Emperor Linux.  They have a reputation 
as being one of the oldest and best surviving Linux laptop 
dealers.

Here's my experience: I ordered the thing on the Friday before 
LinuxWorld, which may explain some of the following.  Their 
website indicated that the laptop was in stock.  A week and a 
half and a ton of emails and phone calls later, it turned out 
that not only was the laptop not in stock, but had been 
discontinued.  They bumped me up to the next higher model, which 
I guess was nicer than just cancelling my order out from under 
me.  I finally got it after not quite 3 weeks of trying to make 
do with an old, cranky Via C3 laptop since my own laptop's IDE 
had died.  (Meanwhile, the web site still indicated, right up 
until the day before my replacement model arrived, that the one 
I ordered was "in stock, order now".)

There were some issues with the preinstalled stuff.  This 
Thinkpad is a tablet, and they preinstalled Wacom support (which 
is... or was... really nice) and two different handwriting 
programs.  One was Jarnal, which was apparently hardcoded to use 
a newer JRE than they had installed.  The other was Rosetta, 
which is more like Graffiti on a Palm than handwriting 
recognition.  They neglected to include the trainer program for 
it, so it doesn't do anything.  They also included a driver, 
seemingly written by a non-English-speaker, for the thumbprint 
scanner on the edge of the screen.  I don't really believe in 
that stuff, but I tried it out anyway.... it works at console 
login prompts but not the normal Ubuntu gdm login screen.

Naturally, since their main distro is Fedora and they have only 
recently started supporting Ubuntu, they installed everything 
in /opt and just seem to have dumped the files out there rather 
than making and installing packages.  I mention this because 
this is my first Ubuntu experience and it sure would have been 
nice if as many files as possible were owned by packages so I 
can figure out what depends on what.

More seriously, they neglected to mention that the version of 
X.org they included (needed for the xrandr stuff so you can flip 
the lid around and use it as a tablet) had no GLX support, and 
the custom kernel they rolled had no snd-usb-audio module 
(making it kinda hard to use my Midiman 1x1 or my Roland PCR-30 
or Edirol UA-30), nor did it have the Ingo Molnar patch.  I 
requested that patch, but told them to never mind when they told 
me that applying it would add 3-4 days to my delivery time.  
Judging by the fact that their Ubuntu rescue instructions make 
reference to installing RPM's, I get the sense they don't like 
to stray too far from the script.

They gave me a fix for the Jarnal thing, though I'm sure I would 
have figured it out eventually.  All the other problems are 
still outstanding, and when I asked whether I would get the 
X.org update that provides GLX free of charge, they clammed up 
and I haven't heard from them since.  If you google around a 
bit, Emperor Linux has a reputation for ignoring emails but 
answering the phone right away.... that is, if you call during 
business hours.  My "dick around with my notebook" time is 
pretty much right now, at 2 in the morning, since I can't 
exactly call when I'm sitting there at a client site.  Anyway, I 
can confirm that that reputation is deserved.

So then, when I built the snd-usb-audio module and did make 
modules_install (long after a member of their target market 
would have thrown up his hands in frustration), the laptop's 
wireless card stopped working (dmesg says it wouldn't take the 
firmware.)  I switched to a stock Ubuntu kernel, and now I have 
wifi and MIDI with no compiling or hand-tweaking needed -- 
meaning they actually DISABLED the USB audio stuff on their 
custom build -- but no tablet functions whatsoever.

On the plus side, I love the Thinkpad itself.... much nicer than 
my old Dell X200, though I wish I could mute the console beep 
since it's far louder than the sound card output.  When the 
tablet stuff works, it's sweet to be able to open up the GIMP 
and just draw something, or fire up Jarnal and jot down network 
diagrams and notes and stuff.  And now that I'm running a stock 
kernel, MIDI is plug-and-play.  

But was this experience worth the $800 markup over the stock 
Thinkpad tablet ($1000, if they hadn't given me the upgrade for 
nothing?)  Ummm.... no.  No way, no how.  Do I have time to 
demand my money back and then buy and wait for another laptop?  
I hate to say it because they're really nice and all their help 
speaks English and I want Linux laptops to be a viable 
market.... but, I kinda wish I did.  (Going back to the plus 
side, at least I still haven't been tempted to boot the thing 
into XP.)

In conclusion, I'd go with a Linux laptop dealer if you want all 
the builtin stuff to work and never plan to hook up another 
device to it.... but if you want to do Linux audio, you'll 
probably spend more time trying to get it to work without 
wrecking all their custom stuff (or recovering from it when you 
do) than you would have spent just buying your laptop of choice 
and installing your distro of choice and rolling your own kernel 
with your choice of patches and modules.  

Hassle-free?  Not even close.  No one is serving our market yet, 
and it may be a while before anyone does.  I actually think 
Ubuntu (or something else, but it sure is looking like ubuntu) 
is going to have to become the worldwide standard before things 
like universal "it just works" peripheral support and actual 
hassle-free notebook preinstalls start happening. 

Sorry for the rant, but when it costs a grand more to get free 
software preinstalled, I think people should see what they're 
getting into before they do it.

Rob