Just got a new laptop, a Thinkpad T410. It's quite nice, and a review will be forthcoming, but for now, here's what you need to know to install Linux on it:
This post will be updated as I continue working.
Xubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
Bluetooth: Not yet tested
Graphics: Mine has switchable graphics. It appears that the Nvidia card is automatically used, and this works fine right out of the box, though a restricted driver is available.
Touchpad: No multitouch, other than that, works fine
Wireless: Requires install of linux-backports-modules-karmic, see http://www.linux-archive.org/ubuntu-kernel-team/295421-fix-iwl6000-does-not-work-2-6-31-kernel.html
Hotkeys: Brightness, ThinkLight, Wireless on/off, touchpad/trackpoint work fine.
Suspend/Resume: Suspends fine, freezes on resume.
Fingerprint reader: Does not appear to be supported by ThinkFinger. It is a "Upek Biometric Touchchip/Touchstrip Fingerprint Sensor" where Thinkfinger only supports the older SGS hardware. Will work more later.
Will work more and update this post.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Technology and Openness
Why isn't more technology more open? As a computer-science student, gearhead, and technically-inclined tinkerer, this is a question I seem to be wondering more and more each year.
Here's an example of what I mean:
A while ago, I got Forza Motorsport 2 for my Xbox 360. It required a couple gigs of hard drive space to be installed (my annoyance at that could be a post by itself) and this filled my hard drive to capacity. So I decided to upgrade.
Now, the Xbox 360 comes, or has come at various times and in various configurations, with hard drives of 20 GB, 60 GB, 120 GB and 250 GB. These hard drives hold all your saved games and data, so if you were to upgrade, you have to transfer all of that. You would think that since there were so many different drives available, upgrading from my 20 GB wouldn't be TOO hard to do.
But no. I tried to find an upgrade drive to buy, but it was harder than trying to buy a hooker in the middle of the Vatican. Best Buy didn't have them. Game Stop didn't have them. I tried EVERYWHERE and the only places that sold them were Amazon and Ebay. And the prices were ridiculous. A 120 GB hard drive for a laptop (not an Xbox) goes for $50 or less, and the smaller sizes aren't even readily available, the technology has come so far. But the stupid Xbox drive would have gone for $150 if I had been able to find it. That made no sense to me, but what's worse is that if Microsoft can screw anyone who wants to upgrade into paying that (and they can, read on) then WHY aren't the things available everywhere? If I could get people to pay a 300% markup on MY widget, I'd have them in every store in the land!
Being a techie, I know that the hard drive in the Xbox is a completely ordinary laptop-size hard drive. It's enclosed in a plastic case so it doesn't LOOK like it, but inside that case is a hard drive that can be plugged into any computer. Being a computer geek, my first thought was that perhaps it would be possible to disassemble the casing, replace the drive inside, and transfer the data manually. I'd built many computers, I was a senior Computer Science student and reasonably competent programmer....how hard could it be?
VERY hard, apparently. Turns out that the drive in the Xbox is not as ordinary as I had thought. It is a very specific model that has non-standard firmware on it. Firmware is the program code burned into the silicon chips on the drive's controller board--it tells the parts inside the drive how to move to get your data on and off. If you haven't heard talk of hard drive firmware before, it is because it is something that nobody, not even computer people like me, should ever have to deal with. It is typically loaded in at the factory, and only under very unusual circumstances should it need to be changed. Furthermore, there is no need for Microsoft to change it. To load nonstandard firmware seems to me to serve only one purpose--to keep technical people from working around that 300% hardware markup by putting their own drives in!
That's not the end of that idea though. Turns out that there are good tutorials on replacing your drive in exactly this manner, but you need the EXACT same drive model as Microsoft would have used, which is so old you can't find it anymore. Plus you have to replace that dreaded firmware yourself. And if you DO manage to overcome these hurdles, Microsoft can ban you from Xbox Live for having the temerity to do this!
OK then. I was defeated. I'd spent enough time and effort, I figured I'd just cough up the $150 and get it working. After much searching, I found a Game Stop that had a used 120 GB hard drive for $100. Nice. But there was one catch....how would I transfer my data onto the drive? There is a transfer cable and disk you can use, but the used drive I had bought didn't come with it. Back to the Internet I went.
This transfer cable is an item in high demand, apparently. Nobody had one. The cables themselves could be bought on Amazon, but the disks that were also required were nowhere to be found (and burning your own isn't an option because the Xbox won't run burned disks). So I asked around, and after much annoyance (including a trip to a skeevy little shop in Salem that was supposed to have one, but the owner of which's friend had absconded to New Hampshire with) I found that one could order the fabled cable from Microsoft. But not on their website, no. That would be too simple. Instead, you have to call their tech support line--dun dun DUN!
So, this all-day odyssey emcompassing stores, the Internet and the dark corners of Salem, which should have been a 15-minute trip to the Game Stop down the street, culminated in a 45-minute phone call to tech support. 10 minutes to find the number on the website, which Microsoft tries to hide, then 32 minutes fighting with the automated menu system, and once I reached a real person, a mere 3 minutes to order the frigging cable! Now all I have to do is wait a few weeks for them to ship the thing, and I should be able to once more enjoy my Xbox.
THIS is why technology should be open! Microsoft just lost any residue of goodwill they had from me by dragging out what could be a simple process (PS3 anyone?) and making it the most frustrating waste of an afternoon I've had in weeks! Would it have hurt them any to make the drive user-replaceable? No. Or at least make the replacement part readily available! I'm pretty sure it'd be easier to buy drugs than that stupid thing!
Here's an example of what I mean:
A while ago, I got Forza Motorsport 2 for my Xbox 360. It required a couple gigs of hard drive space to be installed (my annoyance at that could be a post by itself) and this filled my hard drive to capacity. So I decided to upgrade.
Now, the Xbox 360 comes, or has come at various times and in various configurations, with hard drives of 20 GB, 60 GB, 120 GB and 250 GB. These hard drives hold all your saved games and data, so if you were to upgrade, you have to transfer all of that. You would think that since there were so many different drives available, upgrading from my 20 GB wouldn't be TOO hard to do.
But no. I tried to find an upgrade drive to buy, but it was harder than trying to buy a hooker in the middle of the Vatican. Best Buy didn't have them. Game Stop didn't have them. I tried EVERYWHERE and the only places that sold them were Amazon and Ebay. And the prices were ridiculous. A 120 GB hard drive for a laptop (not an Xbox) goes for $50 or less, and the smaller sizes aren't even readily available, the technology has come so far. But the stupid Xbox drive would have gone for $150 if I had been able to find it. That made no sense to me, but what's worse is that if Microsoft can screw anyone who wants to upgrade into paying that (and they can, read on) then WHY aren't the things available everywhere? If I could get people to pay a 300% markup on MY widget, I'd have them in every store in the land!
Being a techie, I know that the hard drive in the Xbox is a completely ordinary laptop-size hard drive. It's enclosed in a plastic case so it doesn't LOOK like it, but inside that case is a hard drive that can be plugged into any computer. Being a computer geek, my first thought was that perhaps it would be possible to disassemble the casing, replace the drive inside, and transfer the data manually. I'd built many computers, I was a senior Computer Science student and reasonably competent programmer....how hard could it be?
VERY hard, apparently. Turns out that the drive in the Xbox is not as ordinary as I had thought. It is a very specific model that has non-standard firmware on it. Firmware is the program code burned into the silicon chips on the drive's controller board--it tells the parts inside the drive how to move to get your data on and off. If you haven't heard talk of hard drive firmware before, it is because it is something that nobody, not even computer people like me, should ever have to deal with. It is typically loaded in at the factory, and only under very unusual circumstances should it need to be changed. Furthermore, there is no need for Microsoft to change it. To load nonstandard firmware seems to me to serve only one purpose--to keep technical people from working around that 300% hardware markup by putting their own drives in!
That's not the end of that idea though. Turns out that there are good tutorials on replacing your drive in exactly this manner, but you need the EXACT same drive model as Microsoft would have used, which is so old you can't find it anymore. Plus you have to replace that dreaded firmware yourself. And if you DO manage to overcome these hurdles, Microsoft can ban you from Xbox Live for having the temerity to do this!
OK then. I was defeated. I'd spent enough time and effort, I figured I'd just cough up the $150 and get it working. After much searching, I found a Game Stop that had a used 120 GB hard drive for $100. Nice. But there was one catch....how would I transfer my data onto the drive? There is a transfer cable and disk you can use, but the used drive I had bought didn't come with it. Back to the Internet I went.
This transfer cable is an item in high demand, apparently. Nobody had one. The cables themselves could be bought on Amazon, but the disks that were also required were nowhere to be found (and burning your own isn't an option because the Xbox won't run burned disks). So I asked around, and after much annoyance (including a trip to a skeevy little shop in Salem that was supposed to have one, but the owner of which's friend had absconded to New Hampshire with) I found that one could order the fabled cable from Microsoft. But not on their website, no. That would be too simple. Instead, you have to call their tech support line--dun dun DUN!
So, this all-day odyssey emcompassing stores, the Internet and the dark corners of Salem, which should have been a 15-minute trip to the Game Stop down the street, culminated in a 45-minute phone call to tech support. 10 minutes to find the number on the website, which Microsoft tries to hide, then 32 minutes fighting with the automated menu system, and once I reached a real person, a mere 3 minutes to order the frigging cable! Now all I have to do is wait a few weeks for them to ship the thing, and I should be able to once more enjoy my Xbox.
THIS is why technology should be open! Microsoft just lost any residue of goodwill they had from me by dragging out what could be a simple process (PS3 anyone?) and making it the most frustrating waste of an afternoon I've had in weeks! Would it have hurt them any to make the drive user-replaceable? No. Or at least make the replacement part readily available! I'm pretty sure it'd be easier to buy drugs than that stupid thing!
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