[LAU] How well do thinkpad notebooks work for audio?

[Paul Remmers]

On Wednesday 29 July 2009 00:27:12 hollunder at gmx.at wrote:

> So, do you have any experience with those for audio work?
> I'd be most interested in the T and R series and more recent models.
> Also helpful would be some data that's impossible to find on websites:
> - What chipsets are built in?
> - do the usb buses and the like share interrupts with something nasty
>   like graphics?
>
> Helpful commands to gather that data:
> cat /proc/interrupts
> lspci
> lsusb
>
Hi,

Although I've never used it for serious audio work here's what I got on my 
(actually my work-) T60p. The only thing that I found that doesn't work is the 
fingerprint reader. That doesn't bother me, because I don't even use it when 
running Windows XP. The other annoying bit was that I needed to install the 
ATI fglrx driver to get a screen in its native resolution of 1600x1200. Other 
than that openSuse 10.3 and up have worked without problems, and I am running 
openSuse 11.1 with KDE 4.2.4 for a while now.

I like this laptop, but again, I've never used it for serious music apps. The 
closest it comes to that is Amarok. Needless to say that works fine.

Thanks
Paul


# cat /proc/interrupts
           CPU0       CPU1       
  0:      76075          4   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:        160          0   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  8:          1          0   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0
  9:        931          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
 12:      31193         11   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
 14:       2828          0   IO-APIC-edge      ata_piix
 15:          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      ata_piix
 16:          1          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb2, yenta
 17:        634          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb3, HDA Intel
 18:          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   uhci_hcd:usb4
 19:        189          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb5
216:       4753          0   PCI-MSI-edge      iwl3945
217:        140          0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth0
218:      14578          0   PCI-MSI-edge      ahci
NMI:          0          0   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:      17357      56496   Local timer interrupts
RES:      10380      13893   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:        318        258   function call interrupts
TLB:         52         85   TLB shootdowns
TRM:          0          0   Thermal event interrupts
SPU:          0          0   Spurious interrupts
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 
945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 
945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition 
Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 
(rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 
(rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 3 
(rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 
(rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI 
Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI 
Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge 
(rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller 
(rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA 
AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 
02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M56GL [Mobility FireGL 
V5200]
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet 
Controller
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] 
Network Connection (rev 02)
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller

# lsusb
Bus 005 Device 003: ID 0483:2016 SGS Thomson Microelectronics Fingerprint 
Reader
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0a5c:2110 Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub