Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I have a 600x 2645 EYG Pentium III system with a Toshiba XM-1902B CD-Rom running W98 on a 12G HDD. The TP does not have a floppy. The Bios on the machine is ITET55WW - up to date I believe.

Getting sick of everything Microsoft I would like to install Linux on the TP. Initially as a dual boot with a view, once I know Linux better, to removing W98 altogther and moving all my other machines to Linux. I am a novice to Linux but I do use Perl scripts, MySQL, Firefox and PHP extensively so I'm not a complete OSS baby.

The machine is useful to me but not 'critical' which means that I am willing to experiment with it and to take some risks. On the other hand there is something about the feel and touch of the TP that, as far as I am concerned, puts it in a class of its own in terms of computer equipment so I'd rather not trash it if I can possibly help it.

I have downloaded both PuppyLinux and Ubuntu isos and burnt them (using the Roxio burn iso process) onto new Memorex CD-Rs. First time I tried to boot off them both disks hung at or near the start of the boot process. Other, newer machines will happily boot off the disks.

Now the drive will not read these CD-Rs or any other CD-Rs or CD-RWs. Prior to this process it was happily reading disks.

W98 system properties reports the CD-Rom to be working properly and using the MS Driver dated 5/11/1998. I have tried to locate more up-to-date drivers on the Toshiba website but without luck.

The boot order on the TP is set in the BIOS to CD-Rom - HDD1 and I have enabled F12 at start-up to allow me to select the CD-R for boot-up. Quick-boot is disabled in the BIOS.

When trying to read a CR-R the drive is active (orange light on) and the machine is making a repetative noise as if it is trying to read the disk but failing.

I have tried to boot off a CD-R with the IBM/Lenovo CD-ROM drive firmware update utility from http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62296 but the machine has failed to boot off that disk either.

I'd appreciate any suggestions for getting the CD-Rom back in operation. For example is it likely to be a hardware failure that can be remedied by buying a recon CD-Rom off eBay (they're not very expensive) or could it be a software failure or some switch setting?

Failing getting the CD-Rom up and running, can anybody point me to any resource for dual-boot installing a mainstream Linux package onto a Thinkpad?

By the way is there any way to make this machine boot off the USB so that I can use an external floppy or USB stick to install Linux?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Emmett

I'd try a couple of things.

First, do I correctly guess that the Thinkpad will still boot off a "factory" bootable cd, like W2K or W98 OEM?

If so, I'd try burning an ISO, if possible with a different burner (a friend?) and I'd certainly slow down the speed to no more than 24X

Some CDROM drives are fussy on RW cd's. My old 380xd did not like them.

It sounds like your CD ROM is acting up...If you can get another I'd try that first...You can get another CD Rom off of Ebay for less then $20,if you're interested..

As for Linux on a 600 I've tried many distros on my 600's the last few months..Xandros definately does NOT load off of a CD on any 600 series machine..

I did get Ubuntu to load..I also got SUSE 10 to load..

I also got Fedora to load but it of the 3 it 'saw' the least as far as my hardware went...None saw my wireless cards,Fedora didn't see my card,nor my Lan card,nor the sound...

Of the 3 SUSE was the best at loading a recognizing the hardware(except for my wireless card),BUT is became unstable,especially after I did the recommended upgrades..

I read that people do get Linux to work on their 600's,but it's not easy..At least for me it wasn't..I gave up,loaded Xandros on my T23 and it works fine..

So in conclusion I have nothing,except try getting another CD,or as the other poster said try burning your CD's at a slower speed.....Sorry!!

Bill, Roadrunner,

Thanks for the advice. The current CD-Rom isn't reading anything so I guess that I'll have to get another drive on eBay at least as a first step.

It's a shame about the Linux and the difficulties you had with WiFi. I use WiFi a lot - basically all the time - so a non-WiFi'd Linux isn't much good for me.

A question. WiFi cards aren't very expensive so is it possible to get a card that is known to work well with a particular distro of Linux rather than trying to get a legacy card working with Linux? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Emmett

emmett wrote:Bill, Roadrunner,

Thanks for the advice. The current CD-Rom isn't reading anything so I guess that I'll have to get another drive on eBay at least as a first step.

It's a shame about the Linux and the difficulties you had with WiFi. I use WiFi a lot - basically all the time - so a non-WiFi'd Linux isn't much good for me.

A question. WiFi cards aren't very expensive so is it possible to get a card that is known to work well with a particular distro of Linux rather than trying to get a legacy card working with Linux? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Emmett

No there are cards out there that work with Linux,I don't have a link at my figertips but I've read many posts about Wifi cards that work with Linux right 'out of the box'... I use mostly Netgear Cards with my laptops and I've read people,with alittle tweaking, get them to work.. But I never had much luck,quite honestly I didn't try too hard. Once I got Xandros to work on my T23 'right out of the box' I stopped trying to get Linux to work on my 600's..

Good Luck

Bill,

Thanks. I have some NetGear cards so I'll mess around with those.

Emmett

Guys,

I got a reconditioned CD-R off eBay and installed it. I was astonished by how easy it was to swap the two CD-Rs. No screwdrivers, nothing.

The machine is now reading all CD-Rs and it has worked with a PuppyLinux 2.01 Live CD like a dream - wifi included!

Couldn't take Ubuntu, I think because of the memory requirements.

Thanks for the help.

Regards

Emmett