Do MSi DRM their Wifi? Anyone using an MSi U135DX?
Thanks for your time.
A friend is selling her MSi U135DX netbook. It's not on h-node. I'm
testing it with Trisquel on Monday and would like to know if MSi are
known to DRM their laptop WiFi? Or if anyone has info from using
this netbook with Trisquel already but hasn't yet found time to do
the h-node entry?
You could ask your friend to let you test a Trisquel live CD on it, that would give you the answer.
Side note: I suspect you're wondering about whether the wifi works without nonfree software, rather than whether or not it has DRM (I'm not aware of any DRM in wifi cards).
The DRM is in BIOSes of many laptops, they don't boot if the wifi card
is replaced by one of another vendor. At least some MSi U135DX laptops
have wifi cards requiring nonfree firmware, so they probably won't be
useful without replacing them. (There are also non-replaceable wifi
cards, I don't know what laptops have them.) It's easy to find lspci
output, I don't know if they have this DRM.
MSi U135DX?
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:14:50 +0200 (CEST)
> You could ask your friend to let you test a Trisquel live CD on it,
> that would give you the answer.
Thanks, yes, as I said I'm testing it on Monday.
> Side note: I suspect you're wondering about whether the wifi works
> without nonfree software, rather than whether or not it has DRM (I'm
> not aware of any DRM in wifi cards).
Not quite. The price is low enough for me to consider replacing the
PCI-e Wifi card with a free software compatible one if it doesn't
work. However, some laptop manufacturers put DRM in their BIOSes
which locks the computer to only WiFi cards they make and so I
wouldn't be able to do that. 'DRM the WiFi' was shorthand for this.
Thanks again.
I am a member!
The companies we can confirm use DRM which prevent the replacement of the wifi card with at least some laptops are as follows: HP, Lenovo, IBM, Dell, and Toshiba.
I can't confirm how well the laptop will work (or if it will work) although I think your wifi has a decent chance of working if you replace it.
Chris, does the USB adapter (not wifi card) work for any type of laptop?
I tested & bought it. It's a MSi U135DX MS-N014, the WiFi works, Integrated Intel Gfx works with 3D, Sound works, Ethernet works. But the Bluetooth, Webcam and the SD slot don't. Although only the SD slot is specific to linux-libre. The Touchpad is corner-touch for scrolling and works fine.
Suspend works if you use linux-libre-3.9.0 and add rfkill block / unblock to pm-suspend processing as per the Trisquel Wiki page.
It's 64-bit capable.
Will add it to h-node in due course.
[edit - corrected typo, added some new details]
It's good that a lot of the important things work