This was the first notebook computer under 2 Kg that could run OpenBSD, as far as I know. It's been out of production for a while. I stopped using it when pc-card support stopped working in OpenBSD 2.3. It started working again in 2.5, if you change the list of available irqs, but since you can't turn pc-card power off or on without rebooting the machine it's not very useful to me. I now travel with my Palmpilot.
You can replace the 120 MB disk drive with a larger one, up to 4 GB, if you follow these instructions. Jeff Blum also has some great info on opening the Handbook and replacing the batteries, the cmos/ram backup battery, and the disk drive.
OpenBSD 2.6 works pretty well but my Wavelan card fails. A 3c589 works fine in this machine.
pcic0 at isa0 port 0x3e0/2 iomem 0xd0000/16384 pcic0 controller 0:has sockets A and B pcmcia0 at pcic0 controller 0 socket 0 pcmcia0: CIS version PC Card Standard 5.0 pcmcia0: CIS info: Lucent Technologies, WaveLAN/IEEE, Version 01.01, pcmcia0: Manufacturer code 0x156, product 0x2 pcmcia0: function 0: network adapter, ccr addr 3e0 mask 1 pcmcia0: function 0, config table entry 1: I/O card; irq mask ffff; iomask 6, iospace 0-3f; rdybsy_active wp_active bvd_active io16 irqpulse irqlevel wi0 at pcmcia0 function 0 "Lucent Technologies, WaveLAN/IEEE, Version 01.01": address 00:60:1d:f0:92:42 irq 3wi0: tx buffer allocation failed wi0: mgmt. buffer allocation failed pcmcia1 at pcic0 controller 0 socket 1 pcic0: irq 9 biomask 4040 netmask 4048 ttymask 52ca dkcsum: wd0 matched BIOS disk 80 root on wd0a rootdev=0x0 rrootdev=0x300 rawdev=0x302 wi0: tx buffer allocation failed wi0: mgmt. buffer allocation failed wi0: xmit failed wi0: device timeout ...
OpenBSD ramdisk kernels later than 2.2 do not work for me. They run for a few seconds then panic with a kernel page fault. Custom built non-ramdisk kernels work fine. I installed 2.4 by using Norton diskedit and the 2.1 boot floppy.
You might also be interested in my OpenBSD Hacks page.
pc-card
The list of available irqs doesn't work on any computer I know of.
This patch fixes the list so that the 3c589 ethernet will work on several
different machines. I haven't tried any modems.
todr
Don't update time-of-day register on halt.
Try this if your Handbook hangs on halt or reboot.
wdc
Don't "clear pending interrupt" if no atapi bus is configured.
Try this if you your disk refuses to spin down,
immediately spins back up, or gets a disk error just after spinup.
Also compute block numbers correctly on a restarted transfer.
Make kernel compile if we have IDE controller but no wd drive.
locore
Don't trust what the BIOS gives for %fs and %gs.
apm
I removed the hlt instruction from the idle loop to suppress an annoying
speaker buzz. This was suggested to me by
Todd Williamson <toddw@rb.isl.secom.co.jp>.