Steer me right: brand new T61p

[devildog2067]

So, my advisor called me in today to tell me that she was going to buy me a new T61p to replace my T40, AND a copy of OS X Leopard.

I am under orders to get OS X working with the hardware and get the bugs out, so that when she buys herself a new computer this summer.

Here's what I ordered:

http://cern.ch/devildog/untitled.JPG

Rather than paying Lenovo $270 to upgrade the RAM to 4 gigs, I ordered 2 x 2gb DDR2 667 sticks from newegg and will install them myself when it arrives. I also ordered another hard drive to go into the HD adapter.

I've already sent my computer support an email asking if it'll be possible to change to the Atheros card rather than the Intel one, we'll see if he can change the order.

Anyway, in a week or two when my computer arrives, and I have my shiny new Leopard install disk in hand--what do I do? I've read many of the tutorials but almost all deal with installing a downloaded ISO.

Should I install OSX on one hard drive and leave winXp on the other? If I can get away with that--is it possible to simply remove the HD that the thinkpad ships with, put in the blank one from newegg, install OSX on that, and have the option of dual-boot to windows when the 2nd HDD is in? Or should I just partition the HD that ships with the computer?

Thanks for any input, I have a couple weeks to put a strategy together...

MOD EDIT: Overlimit picture, no warning in the subject line, converted to link.

[minhi]

So, my advisor called me in today to tell me

Thanks for any input, I have a couple weeks to put a strategy together...

MOD EDIT: Overlimit picture, no warning in the subject line, converted to link.

I hope you like a challenge, you must have a friendly super-visor if she's encouraging you to be so liberal with the EULA intepretation. That said, the Leopard disc will not work straight out of the box, at a minimum you will need to use the BrazilMAC procedure and the post-install patches to get it to install.

However those might not work either, in which case you will need to get a copy of the a massage image like Kalyway iAtkos, ToH etc and install with that.

Even after all that you should know that a lot of things don't work. I have a T60, x1400 video card, atheros wireless (just replaced it) and energy saver does not work (so no sleep, no power management). I have the 1680x1050 screen and i can't get it to work with this videocard, so i have it running at stretched 1400x1050 or side-boxed.

I have my drive partitioned and triple booting vista, gutsy and leopard. I would personally partition because i think swapping drives in and out can be a pain. I've also heard of issues running leopard off the drive-bay. If you can get it to install leopard will run off a USB drive, so you can maybe experiment with that first.

If it's not too late i would look at the configuration that you're getting and match it as close as possible to the Macbook Pro. You want to stick with intel graphics if possible, atheros wireless etc. If you end up with an un-supported part you're pretty much SOL, for example i believe the X3100 graphics card was not supported for a long time. The intel wireless 3945abg is not supported so you'd be screwed there too. Your picture shows the nvidia 570 video card--which i don't think is in any apple system so that might catch you out as well.

[jackyyuen]

Hi Minhi,

can you tell me if my setting for T61 is right ?? is that possible to install Leopard ??


My Setting
T8300
15 WUXGA
X3100
4GBRAM
80GB HD

[minhi]

sorry, i don't have a T61, so i don't know for sure.

[devildog2067]

MOD EDIT: Overlimit picture, no warning in the subject line, converted to link.

Sorry MODs, I thought I'd shrunk it down enough.

I hope you like a challenge, you must have a friendly super-visor if she's encouraging you to be so liberal with the EULA intepretation. That said, the Leopard disc will not work straight out of the box, at a minimum you will need to use the BrazilMAC procedure and the post-install patches to get it to install.

This involves copying an .ISO to a hard disk, patching it, then reburning a DVD, right? I've googled the crap out of brazilmac and mostly just find torrents, very little actual instruction.

However those might not work either, in which case you will need to get a copy of the a massage image like Kalyway iAtkos, ToH etc and install with that.

That I can find, although I don't know how my roommate is going to feel about me needing to burn disk after disk on his DVD burner... maybe it's time to invest in my own .

Even after all that you should know that a lot of things don't work. I have a T60, x1400 video card, atheros wireless (just replaced it) and energy saver does not work (so no sleep, no power management). I have the 1680x1050 screen and i can't get it to work with this videocard, so i have it running at stretched 1400x1050 or side-boxed.

The absolute dealbreakers for me will be resolution and wireless. If I can't get those two things working I'll switch back to a Linux/XP system.

I have my drive partitioned and triple booting vista, gutsy and leopard. I would personally partition because i think swapping drives in and out can be a pain. I've also heard of issues running leopard off the drive-bay. If you can get it to install leopard will run off a USB drive, so you can maybe experiment with that first.

I was actually going to run Leopard in the main bay, and XP in the drive bay.

If it's not too late i would look at the configuration that you're getting and match it as close as possible to the Macbook Pro. You want to stick with intel graphics if possible, atheros wireless etc. If you end up with an un-supported part you're pretty much SOL, for example i believe the X3100 graphics card was not supported for a long time. The intel wireless 3945abg is not supported so you'd be screwed there too. Your picture shows the nvidia 570 video card--which i don't think is in any apple system so that might catch you out as well.

That was the only graphics card available, ah well.

Like I said, this is just an experiment, but it's something I'd really like to get done. OSX seems much better suited to my needs than Linux--I spend all my time now either rebooting to the other OS, or I'll stay in Windows and use puTTy which isn't always convenient, plus it makes actually looking at my output a real hassle.

Thanks for your input.

[minhi]

MOD EDIT: Overlimit picture, no warning in the subject line, converted to link.

Sorry MODs, I thought I'd shrunk it down enough.

I hope you like a challenge, you must have a friendly super-visor if she's encouraging you to be so liberal with the EULA intepretation. That said, the Leopard disc will not work straight out of the box, at a minimum you will need to use the BrazilMAC procedure and the post-install patches to get it to install.

This involves copying an .ISO to a hard disk, patching it, then reburning a DVD, right? I've googled the crap out of brazilmac and mostly just find torrents, very little actual instruction.

However those might not work either, in which case you will need to get a copy of the a massage image like Kalyway iAtkos, ToH etc and install with that.

That I can find, although I don't know how my roommate is going to feel about me needing to burn disk after disk on his DVD burner... maybe it's time to invest in my own .

Even after all that you should know that a lot of things don't work. I have a T60, x1400 video card, atheros wireless (just replaced it) and energy saver does not work (so no sleep, no power management). I have the 1680x1050 screen and i can't get it to work with this videocard, so i have it running at stretched 1400x1050 or side-boxed.

The absolute dealbreakers for me will be resolution and wireless. If I can't get those two things working I'll switch back to a Linux/XP system.

If it's not too late i would look at the configuration that you're getting and match it as close as possible to the Macbook Pro. You want to stick with intel graphics if possible, atheros wireless etc. If you end up with an un-supported part you're pretty much SOL, for example i believe the X3100 graphics card was not supported for a long time. The intel wireless 3945abg is not supported so you'd be screwed there too. Your picture shows the nvidia 570 video card--which i don't think is in any apple system so that might catch you out as well.

That was the only graphics card available, ah well.

Like I said, this is just an experiment, but it's something I'd really like to get done. OSX seems much better suited to my needs than Linux--I spend all my time now either rebooting to the other OS, or I'll stay in Windows and use puTTy which isn't always convenient, plus it makes actually looking at my output a real hassle.

Thanks for your input.

Steve,

While i have 3 systems installed, i actually use Gutsy the most. With Cross-Over Office (or VMWare if you like, or Xen) i'm able to run Windows apps (mainly IE for web stuff) side-by-side and everything works.

For the BrazilMAC instructions go to

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showforum=136

and find the BrazilMAC specific thread on how to make it. One gotcha is that you really should do it on a Tiger-OSX system. If you're trying to be a good citizen, i would just buy it, then find a massaged copy like Kalyway.

Honestly, even though my config is 90% functional, i'm not sure i'd use it permanently. I have a powermac at home, use solaris at work, and linux on my laptop. Linux has gotten so much better in the last few years that i don't think it's that far off from OSX.

I did it as an experiment to see how much worked, from your config printout the two big problems areas will be the wireless card (if you don't get the atheros card you'll need to get one) and the graphics card/screen resolution.