Thinkpads Forum

Has anyone ever tried replacing the crappy IBM bios for a better one like a Phoienix or linuxbios or AMD or ???

Ever see a computer where someone flashed the wrong BIOS?
Makes a good doorstop, but not much else.

The BIOS chips aren't even socketed in the Thinkpads, so you can't replace them if you make a mistake.

About the only chance you'd have is if someone with a great deal of BIOS and assembly language knowledge had done some modifications for specifically your machine, but I haven't seen anything like that yet.

Like it or not, I think we're stuck...

hseaver wrote:Has anyone ever tried replacing the crappy IBM bios for a better one like a Phoienix or linuxbios or AMD or ???

I wish, but no linuxbios on laptops so far
linuxbios.org

Actually there is linuxbios on some laptops. In fact it works on the Thinkpad T23. Anybody know what Northbridge and Southbridge chips the 600x uses?

hseaver wrote:Actually there is linuxbios on some laptops. In fact it works on the Thinkpad T23. Anybody know what Northbridge and Southbridge chips the 600x uses?

would you provide some info, links about linuxbios on laptops?
it would be interesting, full bootup in 3-4 sec instead of hibernation...
tnx

dmitrio wrote:<snip>
it would be interesting, full bootup in 3-4 sec instead of hibernation...
tnx

Boot up time has precious little to do with BIOS, and NO Linux system I have run going back to RedHat 6 full boots in 3 seconds.
... JDH

dmitrio wrote:

hseaver wrote:Actually there is linuxbios on some laptops. In fact it works on the Thinkpad T23. Anybody know what Northbridge and Southbridge chips the 600x uses?

would you provide some info, links about linuxbios on laptops?
it would be interesting, full bootup in 3-4 sec instead of hibernation...
tnx

Here was where I saw the TP T23 listed:
http://linuxbios.org/Supported_Motherbo ... inuxBIOSv1

But, elsewhere on the linuxbios website they spoke of the difficulties in porting it to laptops:

http://linuxbios.org/Laptop

Primarilly because most laptops, including IBM's, are not actually made by the company that sells them, and so there are many undocumented aspects. Which is something I never knew before.

jdhurst wrote:Boot up time has precious little to do with BIOS, and NO Linux system I have run going back to RedHat 6 full boots in 3 seconds.
... JDH

Front page http://linuxbios.org/Welcome_to_LinuxBIOS give this timing

Fast boot times (3 seconds from power-on to Linux console)

hseaver wrote: Here was where I saw the TP T23 listed:
http://linuxbios.org/Supported_Motherbo ... inuxBIOSv1

But, elsewhere on the linuxbios website they spoke of the difficulties in porting it to laptops:

http://linuxbios.org/Laptop

Primarilly because most laptops, including IBM's, are not actually made by the company that sells them, and so there are many undocumented aspects. Which is something I never knew before.

seems i overlooked that page, tnx.
i was hoping you have additional information on it.

dmitrio wrote:<snip>
Front page http://linuxbios.org/Welcome_to_LinuxBIOS give this timing

Fast boot times (3 seconds from power-on to Linux console)

Let us know if you make it work. Never, in 40 years, have I seen any computer of any kind of any make of any OS get to full running from a cold start 3 seconds after pushing the ON switch. However, I am prepared to keep an open mind. ... JDH

jdhurst wrote:

dmitrio wrote:<snip>
Front page http://linuxbios.org/Welcome_to_LinuxBIOS give this timing

Let us know if you make it work. Never, in 40 years, have I seen any computer of any kind of any make of any OS get to full running from a cold start 3 seconds after pushing the ON switch. However, I am prepared to keep an open mind. ... JDH

OK. Watch this space ... they have it down to about 10 secs now as you can see in this video and in this one.

Never, in 40 years, have I seen any computer of any kind of any make of any OS get to full running from a cold start 3 seconds after pushing the ON switch.

I have. Atari ST with the OS in an EPROM.

Well, there certainly is hope that a linuxbios might be forthcoming for the 600x --- at least the work is almost done on it's major chipsets, like the 440bX -- 82443BX and 82371AB bridges, etc.

http://linuxbios.org/Supported_Chipsets_and_Devices

jdhurst wrote:Never, in 40 years, have I seen any computer of any kind of any make of any OS get to full running from a cold start 3 seconds after pushing the ON switch. However, I am prepared to keep an open mind. ... JDH

Put one of these http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppl ... I/main.php in your Apple II and watch it boot from a CF card in about two seconds.

If I had to live on an Atari or on an Apple IIe, I would starve. The last Apple IIe I used would barely run let alone start in seconds.

The hype over fast starting machines is much overblown in my opinion. Anyone who lives only to start a computer has too little to do. My computer is up and running fast and smooth by the time my briefcase is open, my coffee is open and I have arranged my desk. Saving 3 minutes from time I have to invest anyway is not "saving" in an real sense.

If we want to continue the discussion, I will phrase it this way: Never in 40 years have I seen a computer worthy of using and worthy to do honest work start from a cold start in 15 seconds or less. I *was* looking for some realism, but perhaps that is not to be. ... JDH

jdhurst wrote: If we want to continue the discussion, I will phrase it this way: Never in 40 years have I seen a computer worthy of using and worthy to do honest work start from a cold start in 15 seconds or less. I *was* looking for some realism, but perhaps that is not to be. ... JDH

Well, i f you look at the list of motherboards on the linuxbios site that are already working with it, you'll find plenty of fully functioning, very useful, modern computers to choose from. But there's a whole lot more too it than just being able to boot quickly. Getting rid of all the funky proprietary bios is the man idea.
And I'd love to have a laptop that would fully boot in five seconds -- it would save oodles of battery time, because it would also mean that I wouldn't hesitate to shut it down a lot more than I do.

additional point to keep in mind
hardware, that is at the begining have proper initialization, and fully functional state at the end of the initialization would be easy to test. And that eliminate process of "double initialization" when BIOS by itself check on the hardware, and then OS on top go through initialization.

and second,
in some cases you even don't need to load OS to do certain tasks.
such as playback DVD (i believe, some laptops have this ability)
and that can be fully customized - think about security ...

Never in 40 years have I seen a computer worthy of using and worthy to do honest work start from a cold start in 15 seconds or less.

Depends on how you define "worthy of using" and "honest work". I used an Atari ST from 1987-1991 for technical translation work that brought in more income than I had previously earned as an applications research chemist in industry, and it was quite an improvement over the typewriter I had previously used. It was also quite an improvement over the IBM systems available at the time, which I also looked at but rejected because of the inflated prices and the poor display. I only switched to a PC in 1991, after I had seen and become convinced of the advantages of WordPerfect 5.1 DOS.

I agree that the startup time is not really the "killer feature" of a computer, but that wasn't the claim up to now.

I *was* looking for some realism, but perhaps that is not to be. ...

"Realism" is a flexible thing and depends on how you define it. Everyone has his own ideas about that.