Thinkpads Forum

Hi All,

I am planning to upgrade my T430 RAM to 16 GB and install CentOS 6.3. I have installed Ubuntu 12.04 before, but had to switch back to Windows due to battery life and heat.

I need to get very comfortable with Redhat Linux as it will be required in my work in coming weeks so preparing in advance will help.

Major concerns are -

1) Battery Usage
and
2) Laptop heat.

3) Will using a Non Windows OS nullify the Warranty? If it does, I probably will need to go the VMWare way, but I have been bitten by the blue screen at times when it really shouldn't have happened.

With Windows Prof 7 that came loaded with the T430, even with a laptop cooling pad, it howers at 38-45 Celcius.

I can go the VMWare way, but really need to get installed this one on the actual laptop. Besides, I need to get rid of Windows Prof 7.


When I tried Ubuntu 12.04, the temperature seemed to show around the same degrees, but overall, the laptop felt much more hot. And this thinkpad I intend to use for a real long time.

Is anyone currently using CentOS 6.3 on a T430? Whats the experience? How do you manage the battery usage and heat?

Please do share your experiences.

Please consider this sincere request and share your experiences.

hey ,
just wondering what made you come to the conclusion ubuntu is the cause of the heat ?
i use it on vaio and t61 and heat seems to be the same for xp and ubuntu ..
i tried using centos ( infact played with about 20 distros ) and line linux mint ( ubuntu underneath )
thanx

Hi Farro,

Because after I installed Ubuntu the temperature seemed to be high. After I re installed windows, the temperature seemed to return to normal.

Priority is getting CentOS 6.3. Thats the main info I am looking at.

Hello there! I'm new here, I just wanted to chime in here to let you know about how RedHat (CentOS) works on a T430.

I've got a 2349-DS5 T430, and I'm currently running RHEL 6.4 x64 on it and battery life seems good enough, 3:45 hours on the (4 cell?) 45N1004/45N1005 part. Also heat is no better or worse than running Windows so you should be good to go with it.

However, I'd advise against using RedHat 6 on a laptop machine, it's just too outdated (however you can install newer software on it by enabling the EPEL repos), unless of course you need it for specific purposes. I'm more of a Debian fan myself, I'm just forced to use RHEL as corporate policy at work...

Hope this helps!

Ok So I tried initally to install CentOS 6.3 64Bit and I had major screen display issues. I ended up installing FC18 instead.

Since FC18 (Fedora Core 18), I cannot do the following...
- I cannot use the Cisco VPN client

I miss using CentOS mainly because I am compelled to use Windows in VBOX in order to use work tools such as :
- VPN
- CLI
- Pidgeon

I will be downloading CentOS 6.4 and trying the LiveCD for it to see if it works fine.

Hi All,

Thank you for taking time to reply to my query.

I was stuck with some office work so couldn't check it here.


Thanks once again.

Ok i have installed centos 6.4 64bit on it it currently carries 8gb of ram:-) it works fine! power lasts for 4hrs roughly and when the lid is closed it last the whole weekend - over 48hrs

Just know that wireless did not work out of the box, and had to download the rpm file for the right driver. Typing on a tablet now, not in front of my pc. Tomorrow i will post the. rpm file used for the wireless driver.

why not run vmware or virtualbox on your windows 7 and virtualize centos?

Running Xubuntu 13.10 on my T430 with no issues. Battery and heat is similar on Win7 Pro. I use VMware Player to run my Windows VM whenever I need Windows software. The Windows multi boot, is just a precaution and is hardly used.

Note that Xubuntu needs additional utilities to be installed in order to maximize battery life, laptop functions. (TLP, laptop tools etc.)

I noticed in your signature that you've got the T410 keyboard in the T430 - are you just dealing with the key mapping issues? Folks here were looking for a BIOS update for key mapping, etc but I hadn't heard that there was one yet. Thanks.

Key remap was done on Linux, not on BIOS.

I only re-mapped a few keys. Delete, home, page-up and down. Not really a major complication. Even without a key remap, the T410 keyboard is 100% usable. Every major function works, including the Thinkpad function keys, though you have to follow the combinations on the T430 keyboard.

Actually I hate myself for only doing this when my T430 keyboard broke (and Lenovo said popped out keys is not covered by warranty), I should have done this on day one. All the buzz about the new keyboard being ok are all friggin lies.