I try OpenBSD 4.3 on the $0 Laptop

Long story short, even though OpenBSD 4.3 isn't scheduled to be released until May, it is available in the mirrors under snapshots.

Since version 4.3 is supposed to have ACPI enabled by default, I figured I'd burn a CD and try it on the $0 Laptop, on which I'd love to control my noisy CPU fan. I've written recently on how FreeBSD seems to do a fine job in this regard, but only for a day before reverting to the previous noisiness.

Now, I've never actually seen any concrete tips on exactly how to control a CPU fan in OpenBSD, but just maybe ... maybe it would work automatically.

No such luck. The CPU fan blew. I'll give it a bit of time, and I might even try FreeBSD again. Am I the only person with this problem? Seems like it.

Anyway, this is my third or fourth OpenBSD install, and the process is quite quick. I figured out how to boot the OpenBSD partition with GRUB (a first for me). Here's the /boot/grub/menu.lst entry for OpenBSD, which I installed on hda2:

title                 OpenBSD on hda2
rootnoverify    (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

Yep, I used the ol' chainloader.

Just for variety's sake, here's the menu.lst for FreeBSD 7:

title         FreeBSD on hda2
root        (hd0,1,a)
kernel     /boot/loader

Next time I multiboot Slackware, I'm using the chainloader, since I've never been able to figure out how to get Slackware 12 to boot from GRUB. Or ... the best way is to install Slackware with LILO, then add the GRUB package (on disc 3 ... or the Slackware FTP), which should write GRUB to the master boot record and create a /boot/grub/menu.lst in Slackware that has the proper entry. That's the theory anyway.

Summing up, I didn't really expect OpenBSD to magically control the Gateway's CPU fan, and I wasn't too disappointed. OK, so I was. I'll file it under "projects," and see how things go in the weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, despite all my complaining, Debian is running great on all my boxes, and I expect the new Ubuntu, due in 9 days at this point, to be a somewhat solid system, which I might multi-boot on this laptop just to see if it holds together for me.