Installing Linux on the IBM ThinkPad T43
Recently I acquired an IBM ThinkPad T43. It’s quite a beauty. The machine came preinstalled with Microsoft Windows XP (Pro) and a few addon applications. Almost all of the space on the disk was taken up for use by WinXP and designated as C: by the OS. There is another smaller, “hidden” area of about 4GB, which is used by IBM to provide rescue and recovery services to the user. It is called the Predesktop Area and is supposed to be OS independent. It contains (amongst other stuff) a dump of all the preinstalled software. If unfortunately, the need should arise, this can be used to revert the machine to the original state as when shipped from the factory. (As a rule, IBM doesn’t ship a copy of WinXP, nor separate rescue disks when you purchase a laptop from them.)
For me, most of the time Linux is my preferred OS. I definitely wanted to install it on the laptop, and at the same time retain the preinstalled WinXP. Basically make the machine multi-boot capable. The next question was, which distribution of Linux to use?
Most of my experience has been with Slackware initially, then Redhat and finally Fedora, although I haven’t really used these on laptops. But now, I wanted to try something different. I was first inclined to take a look at Debian, but some very rudimentary R&D on the web and I ended up trying SUSE instead.
I procured an evaluation copy of a trimmed down, remastered version of SUSE Linux Professional from Novell India, courtesy Prakash Advani, an old friend. We had a fun chat about Linux and he kind of revalidated my choice of the distribution - we’ll ignore the fact that he currently works with Novell ;)
Time for action… I popped in the DVD, rebooted and was presented with SUSE installation screen. To cut a not too long story short, in less than two hours I had a functioning dual boot system. The installation process was smooth, professional and well thought out. It even handled the resizing of the single NTFS partion (occupied by WinXP) to make space for Linux. Painlessly.
My immediate reaction: SUSE rocks!
After I’ve had a chance to use this for a while, I will write more about the ThinkPad T43 as well as my experiences of running SUSE on it.
Warning:
There was one undesired side effect of this exercise though. The ThinkPad has an “Access IBM” button, which when pressed during startup provides the user with a rescue and recovery utility and makes use of the above mentioned Predesktop Area. This no longer worked. (It lets me access the BIOS and change my boot device, but thats all - all the fancy troubleshooting & diagnostic stuff doesn’t come on.)
For the impatient:
If you are going to install Linux on your T4x, and if the above bothers you, keep two points in mind, before the installation:
1. In the BIOS settings, go to Security -> IBM Predeskop and change the value from the default “Normal” to “Secure”.
2. When the time comes, do not install GRUB/LILO in the MBR.
More details later.
I’m going to do some experimenting and will write about those in another post. Feel free to ask any questions you may have or share some of your own suggestions.
[Update (July 11, 2005): Also look at SUSE Linux, WinXP & Access IBM on the ThinkPad T43 for more information]
June 29th, 2005 at 1:38 pm
Hey
Just procured one of these machines myself. T43. First IBM laptop, and it’s beautiful. Also came preinstalled with xp pro. I tried installing gentoo on here and got as far as X. Btw, my boot-time Access IBM save program also got deleted, I only get the BIOS now. I wonder if the rescue partition is bootable. Anyway, the installation seems really unelegant. I’m going to try gnome on here tomorrow and see what that feels like, but I miss a lot of the optimizations and additional programs that came with windows, the better driver, the better power management programs. There are lots of OSS to some of the stuff, but how does SuSe compare? Does it support all the hardware (wireless, touchpad, middle scroll…), and have any stuff for acpi tools (monitor dimming, hdd spin-down…)?
Working in windows now (twm is really ugly), looks great. If only it came pre-installed with linux.
I’d appreciate any insight you can offer. I really don’t want to use windows full time but I’m not sure about this linux/laptop thing.
Thanks. Hope you are enjoying it as much as i am.
June 29th, 2005 at 6:45 pm
Hi Yee Hing,
I think I understand exactly how you feel :)
Unfortunately I haven’t yet played with SUSE and so can’t answer SUSE specific queries right now. I will do so (hopefully soon) and will post my experiences when I get the time.
So far, I’ve done some more playing around with the installation procedures and refreshed some fundamentals in the process… :) I will put up the details in a post soon, but for now I want to share one thing with you specifically: please create a set of rescue and recovery disks. You can do this within WinXP from:
Start -> All Programs -> Access IBM -> Create Recovery Disks
It’ll take 6 CDs. Trust me, its worth it. Wanted to let you know this before you decide to do any “destructive” experimenting on your T43 ;)
And oh, the rescue partition is not bootable. It may appear to be, but the boot process will end up with an error message.
June 29th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
Thanks. Yup, made those CD’s already. Costs $45 to get them from IBM.
Good luck.
July 21st, 2005 at 5:54 pm
I also lost the AccessIBM reboot manager.
Crazy though - I’ve been having a bad time getting dual boot between WinXP and Fedora Core 4.
Any body out there have experience here?
-t
July 21st, 2005 at 7:01 pm
please,who can tell me how to install the network on this compute…..
July 23rd, 2005 at 10:00 pm
Travis, if you’ve installed GRUB in the MBR I’d expect the Access IBM button to stop working. However, dual-boot per se, should have worked cleanly. Have a look at my follow up article: SUSE Linux, WinXP & Access IBM on the ThinkPad T43 to see if any of the tips in it are useful. Otherwise, you could post some details here (are you installing on a single disk, multiple disks, what’s the current status, etc.) and maybe me or another visitor may be able to help.
(If you want the Access IBM functionality restored, I’m afraid you’ll have to use your system rescue and recovery CDs and get the system back to a state prior to the Linux install.)
July 25th, 2005 at 7:04 pm
Hi guys,
I’m have procured and rolled out countless Thinkpads since the 600 series, and recently procured 3 T43 and will definately roll out the T43 on a greater scale.
Anyway, I really disklike having dualboot since at one point or another something will definately screw up my computer. It seems as though the saying “what can go wrong, will go wrong” really is true. So my experience dictates the use of several harddrives. And it really is painless. I usually get Hitachi’s 2.5′’ drives, they work like a charm. Fast, reliable and silent. A point to remember is, that a new harddrive does not usually come with the protective cover like the Thinkpad harddrive has. But a few years ago I ordered 5 of them from my IBM reseller and now I just switch them over to a new drive when I need to.
Linux… my precious… I’m not a complete linux geek, yet. Its probably just a matter of time though. IBM has sold several thinpads during the past two years or so with linux preinstalled. So it is actually possible to make a linux installation that will support the thinkpad’s features entirely or as close as can be done.
I’ve found this page for you. Maybe it’ll help. It indicates which distros have been tested and found compliant with the T43:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-48NT8D.html
I actually only have one issue with IBM. They’re support unit tell me, that they will only support thinkpads with the original software on them. IE if you bought with danish windows xp on it, they will only help me with that. I called them a few weeks ago to hear if they could supply me with english recovery cd’s, because I prefer to have an english installation rather than faulty localized versions. But since I wanted the laptop to come with danish keyboard layout I was forced the damned danish XP…. Apparently its Microsofts orders to IBM that they’re not allowed to ship recovery cd’s…. Doesn’t that sound like b.s.? The Windows (R) license under the thinkpad is, as far as I know, not language dependant. Ergo the license requirements should be fulfilled with any language installed as long as you only have one installation of it. Am I wrong? Not that it matters. IBM won’t budge on this.
If anyone has an ideas though, I’d appreciate your feedback tremendously.
Cheers.
Kim
July 27th, 2005 at 11:40 pm
Hi,
just got my T42. Guys, what i usually do, before the actual Installation of Linux is finished switch to another console and save the orginal MBR to the disk. Once the dual boot is ready and grub boots into linux, use dd to create a file from new MBR. Copy this file to Windows and update your boot.ini to use this to boot into Linux. Now you can test if ntldr boots your linux. If this works well you can restore the original bootsector and then my guess is the Access IBM should work again and you have dualboot but of course executed by Windows bootmanager.
Cheers
*Andreas
July 31st, 2005 at 2:03 am
Just a quick comment, but you guys *do* know IBM sells some thinkpads ‘CTO’ (customized to order) in which you can order just the thinkpad sans HD (and windows), etc, right?
check out https://www-03.ibm.com/lenovo/shop/personalpages/public/public/products/dsp_product_list.cfm?&establish_cookie=true
August 3rd, 2005 at 7:33 pm
Hi guys!
I installed Gentoo on my T43 and it works great… i tested SUSE 9.3 Pro which was delivered with my Laptop, but it didn’t work properly (some problems concerning the graphics) and i was used to working with Gentoo already. It wasn’t as easy to install as i thought it would be though (the kernel didn’t boot at first due to some missing harddisc drivers and making X accept my ATI X300 was a problem, too), but now i couldn’t be happier with my system! So if you are still in doubt about Suse or Linux in general, give Gentoo a chance ! *g*
Wishing you all the best,
Chris
August 4th, 2005 at 5:11 pm
Andreas: What you have suggested is indeed one way to dual boot. It is an option that I considered, but I preferred letting GRUB take control right away (as opposed to via ntldr).
Chris: Did you have SUSE pre-installed or did you have to do it yourself? For me SUSE more or less worked out of the box, although there are a couple of issues I have with wifi and the inbuilt modem (on the T43). Guess at some point in time I’ll get around to documenting them and hopefully solving them too… Right now I’ve got real work to take care of ;)
August 19th, 2005 at 1:59 am
Does anybody know how to manually restore the original MBR? I have a 2nd HDD adapter in my T43p and tried to install SUSE 9.3 in this 2nd HDD. To install, I booted from a USB CD-ROM and the installation finished OK. However, to my surprise, the installation had replaced the MBR in my 1st HDD (my XP) and now I cannot boot Windows without having the 2nd HDD present. I have read it is possible to restore the original MBR from YAST, but unfortunately my SUSE is not working well, so I cannot do it from the graphical environment. If somebody could tell me where the backup file is, I guest I could probably just use dd to write it back. Next, I would retry the installation removing my XP HD from the machine and leaving the intended Linux HDD as 1st physical drive. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
August 24th, 2005 at 7:23 pm
Hi, Is there a way to copy the bootsect.lnx into the main C: ntfs drive. The only closest thing i got to copying the bootsect.lnx file is to the fat32 recovery partition. Which I’m trying desperately to access from Windows.
Hellp
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:59 pm
Yee Hing, I phoned IBM and they shipped the disks out for free.
Under the warranty that is. ;)
September 7th, 2005 at 8:14 pm
Hi,
Thank you for all the great advice!
I’m currently preparing to install Gentoo on my T43 and it was great to find all your info before making the mistake :-)
To Kim:
I bought the T43 (with danish keyboard) from laptops.dk and I had no problem getting an english XP. It might make a difference if you order the laptop with it from the start as opposed to trying to get it later.
September 9th, 2005 at 8:32 am
Does anyone know how to configure file-sharing between windows and linux?
so that I can read and write files from each other?
thanks,
October 7th, 2005 at 3:01 am
Anyone here have tried connecting an external LCD monitor so to have a dual display (Xinerama) effect? How did you setup xorg.conf?
Thanks
October 10th, 2005 at 2:47 pm
Hi,
I have an IBM T43 and have succesfully managed to dual boot with Suse Linux. Trouble is that i want to install Red Hat. I have NOT been able to install RH as the local hard disk is not recognised. Any help/support is greatly appreciated.
November 19th, 2005 at 8:29 am
Andrea’s post in July regarding his T42 was bang on.. My new T43P purchased last weekend has already tested dual boot scenarios with Debian and RedHat for a performance comparison, and lastly with Centos4.1. Which smoked all of the other builds for the Linux-custom-kernel-purists out there.. If you want to keep the IBM access functionality under a dual boot scenario, use the Windows boot loader.. I
December 7th, 2005 at 3:06 pm
Kim Says:
>>>
A point to remember is, that a new harddrive does not usually come with the protective cover like the Thinkpad harddrive has. But a few years ago I ordered 5 of them from my IBM reseller and now I just switch them over to a new drive when I need to.
December 7th, 2005 at 7:14 pm
Kim,
I haven’t been able to locate any of those covers.
Can you give the IBM part number,
or, if not IBM, the manufacturer and part number?
Thanks .. Arturo
December 10th, 2005 at 9:42 am
I’m still trying to figure out how to get commercial DVD support for my T43. The hdparm doesn’t work, but I would think that it would still play commercial dvd’s slowly- with libdvdcss installed. This doesn’t seem to work though. Although I think it gets the keys it doesn’t play the dvd’s. i’ve tried two. I got the intro on one dvd (probably not encrypted) to play just now, but it pops up the encryption meessage after that. I’m lost as to what the problem is.
December 11th, 2005 at 2:33 am
Arturo,
If you download the 39t2393.PDF document from the IBM web site it’ll give you all of the part numbers you could possibly imagine for the TP 43. I’m using a t23 with dual drives using the ULTRA bay. I have the internal drive running Fedora Core 4, which is absolutely great, and the ultrabay boots XPPro when I’m forced to for work. I looking at the T43 with the same plan in mind. Using the ultrabay and BIOS boot control means that I can switch between absolutely clean systems rather then rely on dual booting from the same disks. I prefer this way after a whole load of bad experiences a number of years ago when I developed using OS2 WinNT and Win98 (Don’t go there, it’s painful!)
Anyone know if the ultrabay on the t43 is the same as the t23? - would save me buying a new caddy!
Jonathan
(to get the ntfs drive - mount -t ntfs /dev/hdc1 /{mountpoint}
but you need the ntfs entry in filesystems and kernel module for fedora
google ‘mount ntfs’ and you’ll find loads of entries
December 24th, 2005 at 10:06 am
I just got my T43 yesterday. Great computer but I can’t get a dual boot set up yet. The first attempt to shrink the NTFS parition with Knoppix/qtparted wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t allow me to shrink the partition more than 1GB. Then I tried using Ubuntu Breezy to automatically resize during install. The Ubuntu installation failed and made the computer unbootable into any OS. So I used my newly burned recovery CDs to recreate the factory settings, and tried again.
The second time, I tried to defragment the drive but now it won’t defragment completely. There is always a small block of files at the end of the drive (green) and a small block in the middle. Windows won’t move them so I can’t resize the partition. I’m going to try downloading some other defragmenting tools (Diskeeper trial?).
Anyone have any ideas why I can’t resize the partition? Before the first attempt I defragmented completely and there were no visible files beyond the beginning of the disk. I’ve never had a problem installing Linux before. The Ubuntu live CD and Knoppix run fine on the machine.
January 11th, 2006 at 9:52 am
I use the IBM thinkpad T43 Model 2687D8U and want to install Linux.
However, I got the problem when I use the Disk Drud program to partition my harddrive for Linux (/Boot,Swap and Root partition) as following:
1. I created my partitions on my hard drive as:
1). C: 15GB Primary
2). D: 15GB Logical
3). E: 15GB Logical
(D and E are on Extended partition)
4). Unallocated Primary
5). IBM_Service Primary
So, I have three Primary Partitions and one Extended Partition. When I use the Disk Drud program to create partition for Linux as described, I can only create one partition for linux ( for example, I create boot partition for Linux first followed by the SWAP partition or vice versa). It tell me that ” can not allocate the requested partition”. So I can not create three partitions for Linux and can not install it.
2. I change my partitions to
1). C: 15GB Primary
2). D: 30GB Logical
3). Unallocated Primary
4). IBM_Service Primary
With this configuration, I can create three partitions for Linux(Boot,SWAP,and Root) on the unallocated primary partition. Why?
Could you give me the solution to fix this problem? I want my hard drive to have 1 primary partition for Windows, 1 primary partition for Linux, 1 primary for IBM_Service and 1 extended partition with 2 logical partitions for D and E. How could I do to create this configuration?
P.S. I use partition magic to create the partition for my hard drive.
February 14th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
I have the T43 Thinkpad, its been fine since i got it at Christmas but today it will not start. It does nothing. No lights flashing, no noise!
I’ve unplugged the power, and tryied with the power.
Nothing happens!
Help!!
February 21st, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Mine is a IBM thinkpad R52
I too have come across the same problem …..IBM Access doesn’t work
I didn’t even create any recovery disks….but I think my Presdesktop area has still not been erased. If only I can somehow access that area to recall IBM recovery..
I have installed Suse 9.3…..the worst part is that I get a black screen the moment XWindow starts.
Does anybody have any ideas…..
April 7th, 2006 at 1:09 am
I also have come across the same problem … IBM Access doesn’t work
I didn’t even create any recovery disks … but I ensure that my Presdesktop area has still not been erased. If only I can somehow
access that area to recall IBM recovery..
I have install winXP professionall…
Any help/support is greatly appreciated.
(oh,sorry,I’m learning English by the way.)
June 15th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
i need the main cd for a t43..i lost the cd recovery..could someone help me out and let me know how much will it cost to get one, please?