[ltp] question about T30 compatibility

[Robert S. Thau]

Seth Kulick writes:
 > I have an opportunity to get either a Thinkpad T23 or a T30, in an
 > already-determined configuration due to a sales deal between IBM
 > and the university where I work.  I want to set it up as a
 > dual-boot with Linux/Windows (Redhat 7.3 and XP Pro), but the
 > return policy is basically nonexistent if I want to return it due
 > to problems with Linux compatibility, so I want to be sure it'll
 > work okay before getting it.

My T30 basically works with RedHat 7.3.  The only problem I've had is
some weird interaction between the PCMCIA support and the sound
drivers, which is a bit of an annoyance as I'm using a PCMCIA modem in
lieu of the internal one, which is unsupported.  (cardmgr sometimes
doesn't notice the insertion or ejection of a card until I restart the
KDE sound server, artsd --- this smells like drivers dealing badly
with an interrupt conflict, but I haven't bothered to track it down
further).  FWIW, I've got the lower-resolution screen (XGA), and no CD
burner or wireless.

Aside from that, the only other annoyance has been the common thinkpad
behavior that it demands that all pcmcia cards will be ejected before
it will go into sleep mode (I haven't tried hibernate).

One other thing to be careful of during the install, which I think
someone else has already mentioned, is that you're at risk of losing
the IBM "disk to disk recovery" option if you overwrite the MBR in the
install; I've instead got the IBM standard loader loading the WinXP
bootstrap, and have that loading grub on the linux partition.  

(The again, has anyone tried the recovery CDs?  I can certainly think
of better things to do with the idle disk space that that recovery
partition is now taking up...)

rst

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