Thinkpads Forum

Be warned... this post is equal parts rant, request for help, and warning to others. I'm not sure how much other folks on this board might be able to help to get me to a decent laptop... but I've gotta get some of this stuff off of my chest.

Up until this latest purchase, every laptop I had was a Dell Inspiron of some kind. The latest was an Inspiron 8600. I use the laptop to, mainly, dual-boot Windows XP and Debian Linux, but I also boot Ubuntu and BackTrack on it, too.

The reason I got the T61p this time is because my *last* Inspiron had a video card (the nVidia GoFX5500 or something like that) ended up being quite the pain in the butt to use with standby. I was eventually able to get hibernate working (because that cut all power to the video card), but suspend-to-RAM would always come back to a blank screen. I could type commands and see the drive-light flicker (and I could ssh into it and run commands), but nothing would ever get the video to come back other than a reboot. I suffered with this for over a *year* until I was finally able to get the nVidia binary drivers to compile to a module and, miracle of miracles, I was able to just "close the lid" and take my laptop somewhere and expect to be able to resume it. There were also some things about the Inspiron that weren't supported in the latest kernel at the time (like bluetooth or sound), and I just had to suffer with it until the drivers made it into the kernel.

I didn't want to go through that again (where I can't use half of the laptop's features for the first year), so I asked on a lot of forums for a very "linux-friendly" laptop. The answer was the same from just about everybody: Thinkpad. Also, I required a WUXGA screen (1920x1200), which pretty much meant that it was either the T61p or the Dell 1720. Still stinging from my last Dell purchase (and also because I didn't need a 17" screen), I chose the Thinkpad.

Whoops.

Gosh.... where should I start?

Well, I copied the Inspiron drive to the Thinkpad drive and fired it up. I don't recall if the nVidia driver from the Inspiron worked with it or not... but I didn't have any sound or wireless network, so I had to upgrade to the latest Debian kernel (2.6.25) in the hopes that maybe there'd be the sound or wireless drivers in there. And THAT meant that, since the kernel changed, the old nvidia driver wouldn't work, so I had to go back to the "nv" xorg driver... which meant that suspend wouldn't work (and it didn't). So, I tried using the nVidia installer (rev. 168 or something) to compile a new driver against the new kernel, and it failed. Oh, no... not again!

Well, fortunately, within the past couple of days, nVidia has released rev 173 or something... which *does* compile against the Debian kernel. So, I was able to use the "nvidia" driver instead of the "nv", so suspend works. But only because this latest driver came out as soon as it did. It could easily have been another year like last time. I'm afraid to even *attempt* Compiz.

Now, I'll digress for a moment to point out that... the really *frustrating* part about all of this is that, if you Google for "Thinkpad linux", you'll find lots of posts about how Thinkpads are wonderful as a linux laptop. Then, you get one, run into a problem, you Google that particular problem (like "blank screen resume thinkpad") and then you find out that this is a well-established problem that a lot of people know about. It's makes you wonder why nobody's mentioning this stuff when they recommend Thinkpads as linux boxes. Anyway... back to your regularly-scheduled horror story....

So, I get a working Xorg setup, so I can get to a graphical interface. Next problem... no wireless. Turns out that the ath5k driver, apparently, isn't ready for prime-time and it's bailing when it sees the Atheros 5212 in the Thinkpad. "Oh, great... so I just get to do without wireless until, someday, someone fixes the ath5k driver. They could have mentioned that on all of those 'Linux loves Thinkpads' pages". Well, it turns out that all wasn't lost. After several days, I figure out that the madwifi will work, so I download it, compile it, and blacklist ath5k and, praise jesus, I have wireless.

Now... if I can just get sound to work. I run alsaconf, load the drivers, and ALSA claims that everything is fine. The mixer in Gnome will show me volume sliders and everything. "dmesg" doesn't report any errors in loading the audio drivers. Everything *looks* working... I just don't hear anything. I check the laptop for some *physical* mute switch (like the wireless on/off switch) and find none. Eventually, I discover my problem. I didn't have *EVERY VOLUME SLIDER* (movie player, ALSA PCM, ALSA Main, etc) cranked to 100% *and* I wasn't listening in a quiet room or library. So, Lenovo made the speakers really, really quiet. It's so quiet that I basically consider there to be no sound. Every now and then, if it's quiet in the house, I'll hear a faint "bing" sound and I'll remember "Oh yeah, I don't have to get sound working... because it 'is' working... as working as it ever will". Maybe Lenovo was trying to save battery life by not wasting it on sound waves...

So, about battery life. Once I had X up and running, and I had a little battery applet, I could see how much battery life I was going to get. I was a little worried because the battery was a lot lighter than my Inspiron 8600's battery. So, I unplugged the AC adaptor and waited a few minutes and then check the battery applet. It says "1 hour, 30 minutes remaining". No... seriously. Thinking that it was just the laptop "learning" the charge curve of the battery or something, I decide to just let it sit.... doing nothing..... (no DVD usage, no surfing the net... just sitting there). An hour later, it says "28 minutes remaining". This has *got* to be a joke. I can be actually *doing* something on my Inspiron and I get about 2.5 hours. This Thinkpad gets maybe 1.5 when trying not to attract attention to itself. Great... just fantastic.

So during all of this time, I'm also taking time to try to get Windows XP to boot. I know that transplanting the image from the Inspiron is going to give me the BSOD because the drive controller is different. So, I boot the XP CD, load the SATA drivers from floppy, and do a repair install. From then on, when I try to boot the Windows XP partition with GRUB, it just hangs. If I use the Windows XP MBR (by using FIXMBR from the Setup CD), then I get something like "Error loading Operating System". Super.

So, back to Linux with me, then. So, the Linux half seems to be pretty much working after much toil. The binary nVidia drivers seem to let me close the lid and then resume. My cat with fantastic hearing can enjoy the sound. And I've just resigned myself to the fact that you just have to leave it plugged in all the time and the battery is only there so you don't have to hibernate to take your work from the living room to the bedroom.

EXCEPT... for one... more problem. Yes... the random hangs. You know... the ones where the thing completely freezes except for the CapsLock led, which flashes on and off forever. Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing. Momentarily hitting the power button does nothing. You have to hold the power button for about 4 seconds to force the laptop off. Then it takes about 2 or 3 boots with 10-minute fsck's to finally boot back to a desktop... at which time I have no idea how much time I'll get until the next hang.

Would have been nice to know about this before dropping 1.5k on this thing. I'm just crestfallen. I really was excited to have this thing in the mail to my doorstep... and then I got it and it's just been one life-sapping disappointment after another. It's been everything I was trying to avoid by not getting another Inspiron.

Not all is bad news, though. The lid *is* snug. My old laptop's lid was a little wobbly. The T61p's stays right were I put it. So, not all of the $1,500 was wasted. I can amuse myself with repositioning the snug lid while the drive is fsck'ing after a hang.

Also, the fingerprint scanner is fun. I can use the tf-tools in Linux to make sure that my fingerprint hasn't changed overnight (and that my office-mate hasn't cloned my finger). I'd play with it more, but that requires that I have Linux booted up and I'd rather use those valuable moments for, you know... doing work when I can.

Now, I don't expect you guys to be able to fix the random hangs because... god knows what the heck could be causing them. But... I gotta know... how do you deal with the battery life? Does everybody just get the second media-bay battery or something?

Welcome to the forums.

That was a really long post, and I'll start by asking this: how long have you beeing using Linux?

I have worked with plenty of desktops and laptops, and I find that thinkpads are amongst the best when it comes to linux - I admit that you have to tweak a bit, but everything DOES work if you follow procedures and protocol and do things right.

You cannot just ghost/clone your old inspiron drive into a thinkpad and just expect it to work, that is asking too much even for windows XP. I hope that you made a set of recovery discs before wiping your drive (if not, buy one in the forum marketplace or from Lenovo, trust me they are worthy investment).

Plenty of people (including me) dual boot linux on many thinkpad models and I strongly suggest that you browse around the linux area (or read the thinkwiki) of the forum to learn how to properly set up multiple boot on your thinkpad. You are not doing it right and you cannot expect an artificially intelligent OS that does everything magically for you.

There are tons of people more knowledgeable than me who can help you around, I'll just let them come here and help you sort things out.

FWIW, I have helped many fellow student install ubuntu/debian etch on T60/T60p/T61/T61p models and almost all running very smooth (including compiz/wireless/bluetooth - everything). All I did was follow instructions found on the forum and thinkwiki.

If you have certainly decided that this is going to be your last thinkpad, I hope you find a better brand/model that works for you better than the T61p.

I would never ghost a laptop image from one completely different laptop to another. That is just asking for trouble!

gator wrote:That was a really long post, and I'll start by asking this: how long have you been using Linux?

Let's see... I know I was running one of the first 300 web servers back in 1993, and that was on Linux... so at least 15 years now. Mostly manage servers with it (I'm in charge of about 4 or 5 right now)... which is nice because, if some hardware doesn't work (like a network card or drive controller), then you can swap in some different piece.

gator wrote:You cannot just ghost/clone your old inspiron drive into a thinkpad and just expect it to work, that is asking too much even for windows XP. I hope that you made a set of recovery discs before wiping your drive (if not, buy one in the forum marketplace or from Lenovo, trust me they are worthy investment).

I did make a complete Ghost image of the drive as it was shipped to me in the (what I thought was the remote) chance that I decided to turn around and sell it and wanted to restore it to it's original "Vista with preloaded junk" state.

Regarding asking too much of XP, a few years ago, I discovered that, although you can't just move a drive from one PC to a dissimilar PC (like you could with Win98 or Win95), you *can* boot the Windows XP Setup CD and do a "Repair" install which will reinstall all of the Windows components *including* setting up all of the boot-time drivers for the drive-controller on the new machine. It also leaves all of your installed apps and settings intact. It really makes moving to a new machine a piece of cake.... except in this case.

gator wrote:You are not doing it right and you cannot expect an artificially intelligent OS that does everything magically for you.

Well, in all fairness, I use the Repair install trick to migrate faculty members' hard drives to new machines every couple of weeks. I've probably done it a hundred times, and I've used it to migrate this *particular* laptop image to my last two laptops. Granted, I did have to do the Repair install of Windows XP each time, but that's expected. Also, I had to tweak /etc/modules and xorg.conf in Linux for the particular hardware, but that, too is to be expected. What I did *not* expect was that trying to resume from standby would result in a blank screen unless you use nVidia's binary drivers. In my book, not being able to use a stock kernel and modules pretty much rules a laptop out of the "linux-friendly" category.

cwestwater wrote:I would never ghost a laptop image from one completely different laptop to another. That is just asking for trouble!

So... what, do you just reinstall everything that was on your old laptop from the CD's and configure each one the way you had it on the first laptop? How many vacation days do you take off from work to do that?

Next time, ghost the drive to the destination drive, then boot the Windows XP CD (assuming you're doing it with XP). Tell it you don't want the recovery console, then hit the F8, then, when it offers to do a "Repair" install, tell it to go ahead and repair. It will copy the Windows files over, it will reboot a few times... all the while *appearing* to be doing a regular Windows install. However, when it's all done, you've got your original desktop, settings, apps, documents, etc. It works like a charm 99% of the time.... and it beats the living heck out of re-installing 50 apps.

- Joe

It's amusing to me that you've been using Linux 15 years? and you're major complaints are about working drivers for new devices that are arriving late to the game. You sure about that 15 years part? I've been using it for almost as long and I can remember there was a time when many drivers were not available or limited. In recent years Linux has gotten much better, but many drivers still do not exist. My point is that if total driver compatibility is your goal, then Linux is the wrong OS for you. Most models of Thinkpads were designed to run Vista or XP. There are a couple of models designed to run SLED, maybe one of those would have been a better choice for you. Any other Linux/Thinkpad driver compatibility is up to the developers to create and the end users to report bugs on...same 'very long' process as always. How is that the fault of Thinkpad or Lenovo?. You chose the wrong device period. Do your homework next time.

As a side note I had OpenSUSE 10.3 running wonderfully on my T61/P, no driver issues.

Maybe this isn't going to be of much help, but Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy" worked pretty much in a plug'n'play fashion on my T61P 14.1" .... And Ubuntu LTS 8.04 "Hardy" works even better. Maybe I'm just not hardcore enough..

jemenake wrote:It works like a charm 99% of the time

There are the keywords 99% of the time.

A little bit of advice, separate from Thinkpad advice: If you walking into a forum dedicated to a product, shouting that it sucks...you aren't going to get a warm welcome. It probably would have been in your best interest to say something along the lines of "Hey, I heard that this product does XYZ, but I have having quite a few problems doing such...any suggestions?". As my mom used to say: you can attract more flies with honey than vinegar.

As for Linux on Thinkpads...they really are Linux friendly, but not Linux perfect... as with anything Linux it does need tweaking. I installed several versions of Red Hat on an old 600E and knew that I would have to tweak it to get the sound working right. I haven't tried loading Linux on a nonThinkpad, but I have heard lots of horror stories with Dell, Toshiba and Acer. I am certainly not trying to attack your Linux knowledge, because I am sure you are far more skilled at it than I am...

Now, onto two of your specific issues:
1. Sound - have you tried adjusting the sound using the volume buttons on the keyboard?

2. Battery - I am not sure why you are only getting 1.5hrs on your battery, unless you have all of your settings jacked up to max. I get almost 3 hours on my T61 while using it.

jemenake wrote:Be warned... this post is equal parts rant, request for help, and warning to others. I'm not sure how much other folks on this board might be able to help to get me to a decent laptop... but I've gotta get some of this stuff off of my chest.

Welcome to the forum!

Now that you have that off your chest, can you sum up what your problems are in 25 words or less and leave out the drama? It looks like a wall-of-text to me, and I'm not going to read through all that to pick out the relevant points.

Also, don't slap at the people trying to help you. We don't do that around here, and some of us have been in the game a lot longer than your 15 years. Please read the Rules of the Road linked in my sig.

To the rest of you, while I've not had the occasion to need to move an image from a Dell to a TP, I've certainly been able to move one from one TP to another using the repair install. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it! I'm not sure even I would try moving a dual-boot installation, though.

Moving this thread over to the Linux conference since that appears to be where most of the problem lies.

Dude, seriously, come on. ThinkPads ARE great laptops IF you order them FOR Linux. The machine in my sig is 100% working with Linux, except for my AR5418. ThinkPads are so awesome for Linux because you CAN get them with completely open hardware. So your machine has an nVidia GPU and mine has an Intel IGP. Intel maintains open hardware specifications, so I bet you can't guess which chipset you might have wanted to get. And if you want eye-candy, you don't need an nVidia for Compiz (Fusion?) to work. My GMA 950 handles it just fine, and DRI2 (soon to be released) is going to drastically improve it.

As for your hard-freezes, I'd look at unloading the nVidia modules and seeing if the system still hangs.

EDIT: On the topic of power consumption, what CPU frequency scaling modules do you have loaded. Also, what type and version of the Linux kernel are you running?

I believe you had to enable LAPTOP_MODE too. Look it up on google.

Jemenake: Given that the T61 is available with Linux and is pretty much the same as the T61p, except for the graphics chip, I'm not sure why you're having these problems. I know how long it takes to image a computer from scratch but, given the problems you're having, I'd resort to that at this point. Have you considered trying to get a Linux recovery CD set from Lenovo?

jemenake,

I'm sorry to hear about your problems, it must be very frustrating given your 15 years experience. I also believe nonny underestimated you, 15 years of linux experience is not the same as being in the game for 15 years.

It also seems that source of most of your problems is clearly the [censored] thinkpad. As far as I know when you install linux on dell laptops it automatically creates ext3 partitions rather than ext2, which prevents it from fscking for 10 minutes in case of hard reboot. Not possible to do on thinkpad. Random freezes also would never happen because the linux drivers for devices on other laptops are provided by manufacture and are very different from what we Thinkpad users are stack with. It is a known fact that Linux is very energy efficient and thus the battery life on other laptops of similar specs is very good, however the thinklight commonly found in thinkpads is consuming significant amount of energy even when switched off.
Some of your problems, however, can be tricky to fix. Experienced linux users on thinkpad are aware of every volume slider and low speaker volume problem. There is a workaround, however, the trick is to crank every microphone slider as well as every volume slider up to 100% (I even hacked my linux to say 200%) which results in rich multimedia experience.
I'm also sad to hear that playing with fingerprint scanner in linux requires you to boot linux. I'm sure that playing with finger on windows leaves you with plenty of time to do real work.
Having said that, I bought my t61p when it was released and everything seemed to work in linux from day 1 even though I wasn't running a linux server in '93. I was very surprised and gave lenovo support a call and explained my issue. The technician was very friendly and understanding and told me that my t61p is "Dell Spec" , which is a special edition it seems. Maybe you should have gotten one of those?

runixd wrote:It is a known fact that Linux is very energy efficient and thus the battery life on other laptops of similar specs is very good, however the thinklight commonly found in thinkpads is consuming significant amount of energy even when switched off.

Can I put that in my signature?

runixd wrote:I also believe nonny underestimated you, 15 years of linux experience is not the same as being in the game for 15 years.

I'm not underestimating or dismissing his 15 years of experience at all. Just pointing out that not everyone here got their first computer last week, and responding with an attitude to questions from people who are trying to help isn't likely to reap good results.

For the record, I have 34 years of professional hardware and software experience ranging from writing code for systems processing millions of dollars of transactions daily to crawling around under desks pulling wire to building and maintaining servers to training end users, and there are others in the forum with more years than that. Some of us here are really old geeks with wide and deep backgrounds! ;-)

jemenake wrote:Now, I'll digress for a moment to point out that... the really *frustrating* part about all of this is that, if you Google for "Thinkpad linux", you'll find lots of posts about how Thinkpads are wonderful as a linux laptop. Then, you get one, run into a problem, you Google that particular problem (like "blank screen resume thinkpad") and then you find out that this is a well-established problem that a lot of people know about.

I suggest you practice your "googling" a little bit more. If you can't even find links to make sleep work, you are doing something wrong. There is even a full "Wiki" site dedicated to Thinkpads. Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble with your T61, mine is fully functional and works very well. If you have questions, feel free to post up a thread with specifics. I am sure we can get you up and running in no time.

I'll respond to multiple replies here...

Harryc wrote:It's amusing to me that you've been using Linux 15 years? and you're major complaints are about working drivers for new devices that are arriving late to the game.

Be amused if you want. True, back in Linux's early days, driver support was really lacking. Nowadays, however, any slightly-common chip that's been out for about a year will usually have a driver in the main kernel.

In light of that, if you're a laptop maker, and you want your laptop to work well with Linux, then you'd want to select components that aren't *brand* new unless there is a compelling reason. For example, when deciding between two different bluetooth chips (a new one and one a year old), you wouldn't want to use the new one unless it had dramatically better power savings, or better ACPI control, or something like that. Otherwise, you'd want to stick with tried-n-true stuff that's all already supported in the kernel.

So, to respond to your comment more specifically: Yes, I know that hardware support was very sparse in the kernel 15 years ago. This isn't 15 years ago... this is today. Today, the kernel supports almost everything. Even then, it's reasonable to anticipate some driver problems except in cases like this where the hardware is touted as "linux friendly".

Harryc wrote:How is that the fault of Thinkpad or Lenovo?. You chose the wrong device period. Do your homework next time.

I didn't say that it was Lenovo's fault. Also, I feel that I did do my homework. I used Google to search for linux compatibility with the Thinkpad. Like I said in the original post, those links lead to people claiming that the TP and Linux get along fine. It's not until you experience the actual problems and search for those when you find the pages where there are many people who are frustrated with getting Linux going on their Thinkpads. I don't think it's reasonable to expect someone to anticipate every possible way that the laptop could have problems and google for it (ie, "Hmmm... what if it didn't resume correctly from standby?", "What if it crashed randomly?").

tfflivemb2 wrote: A little bit of advice, separate from Thinkpad advice: If you walking into a forum dedicated to a product, shouting that it sucks...you aren't going to get a warm welcome.

Well, we can go back and check my original post together, because I'm fairly certain that: A) I didn't "SHOUT" and B) I didn't say that the Thinkpad sucks. I detailed the problems I was having to overcome and the battery life I was getting. If your brain saw those symptoms and equated that with "sucks"... well... what does that say?

What I also said is that the Thinkpad appears to be no more suited to Linux than any other laptop because it has presented me with just about the same frustrations as I was hoping to avoid by asking forums for a linux-friendly laptop and then going with their advice. And I said that that's frustrating.

wswartzendruber wrote: On the topic of power consumption, what CPU frequency scaling modules do you have loaded. Also, what type and version of the
Linux kernel are you running?

/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor is set to "powersave" for both cpu's. Kernel image is the stock Debian 2.6.25-2-686.

runixd wrote: As far as I know when you install linux on dell laptops it automatically creates ext3 partitions rather than ext2, which prevents it from fscking for 10 minutes in case of hard reboot. Not possible to do on thinkpad.

I have got to know what you are smoking?
No linux installer automatically detects "Dell" and defaults to a different filesystem. When I installed Linux on my T60 and R61 it defaulted to ext3. The default is determined by the distro setup. And it auto fscks after a predetermined number of boots with no 10 minute delay (it's the "ubuntu based" thing).

jemenake wrote: I didn't say that it was Lenovo's fault. Also, I feel that I did do my homework. I used Google to search for linux compatibility with the Thinkpad.

Then my question is: Why did you buy a Vista preloaded machine to put Linux on when there are Linux preloaded machines out there pre-configured with properly supported hardware?
If you buy one of the Linux machines you can be sure there are linux drivers available for all the hardware. With the Vista machine you take the chance of getting hardware with poor driver support. There is a reason for the Linux preload machines. You might not like the distro but that is easy to change. You might pay a bit more but isn't compatibility worth it?

carbon_unit wrote:

runixd wrote: As far as I know when you install linux on dell laptops it automatically creates ext3 partitions rather than ext2, which prevents it from fscking for 10 minutes in case of hard reboot. Not possible to do on thinkpad.

I have got to know what you are smoking?
No linux installer automatically detects "Dell" and defaults to a different filesystem. When I installed Linux on my T60 and R61 it defaulted to ext3. The default is determined by the distro setup. And it auto fscks after a predetermined number of boots with no 10 minute delay (it's the "ubuntu based" thing).

That... and also I don't think that ext3 saves you time on fsck's. All ext3 does is add journaling so that you don't lose as many changes if your machine crashes before everything gets written to the disk, but the fsck for filesystem consistency still takes just as long (and I am already using ext3 on the drive, by the way).

carbon_unit wrote: Then my question is: Why did you buy a Vista preloaded machine to put Linux on when there are Linux preloaded machines out there pre-configured with properly supported hardware?

Because the laptop, as I had it configured on the ordering website, only offered Vista Home or Vista Pro. Believe me, I'd prefer that Microsoft not get any more of my money, so I'd have selected a Linux pre-install if it were there.

carbon_unit wrote: If you buy one of the Linux machines you can be sure there are linux drivers available for all the hardware.

While I agree that this increases the likelihood of getting linux-compatible parts, it's not a guarantee. The manufacturer is perfectly able to compile a custom kernel with their own driver patches, and then you've, technically, got a "linux laptop", but you don't dare upgrade the kernel or load a different distro. Granted, I don't know if any manufacturers do this, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

But this is all kind of moot because the Lenovo ordering site didn't give me the option.

I have a T61 with Ubuntu Hardy. Everything works. Even suspend. What doesn't work is hibernate. I don't blame it on Thinkpad but rather on the Nvidia driver. I think a Thiknpad x41 and it has Intel integrate video and everything works - suspension, hibernation.. I like it. You should try Ubuntu Hardy..

nonny wrote:*
*
**much snippage, here**
*
*
Some of us here are really old geeks . . . . .

HUH..!! who you calling an old geek..?

uhmm, ok..

now lets get this cal poly guy fixed up so he'll be happy with his thinkpad..

jemenake wrote:But this is all kind of moot because the Lenovo ordering site didn't give me the option.

Yep, you would have gotten better results by asking around here before you purchased. Too late now.
Now, there are a few different options in a T61P so why don't you list out the hardware so we can try to help you.

First of all, I agree with the others here that cloning a drive from one computer to a completely different computer is generally a bad idea. You might get lucky and not have too much trouble, but if it is not working even after a repair install you should just cut your losses and start fresh. Your rant seems to imply your frustration with the time involved to get this to work. I suggest you stop wasting your time on a bad strategy.

What you are trying to do is somewhat like using a sysprep image from one computer on a completely different computer. Unsupported Sysprep scenarios

Secondly, it appears you chose to buy a ThinkPad without really considering the specific hardware in the machine. If ease of installation of Linux was the primary consideration, you should have bought one of the Linux configured machines. Preloaded Linux models

Thirdly it appears to me that you are ranting against the ThinkPad community or perhaps the Linux community for giving you bad purchasing advice. I don't see where you asked any advice at this forum before making your purchase. If you were browsing this forum as a guest before making your purchase, I wonder if were really reading the appropriate threads for the ThinkPad and Linux versions in question.

Lastly, I don't know if the following will solve your sound issue or not, but it might be worth a look.
http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?p=485038#485038

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Lenovo has a tool System Migration Assistant for capturing settings and data files from a current PC so that they may be applied onto a new machine. I am not sure if this will run on a non-Lenovo (ThinkPad) computer or not. You could try it and see if it will run on the Dell. I have not personally tried out this software, but it seems like an option.

Okay, let's get this going. We should probably have his lspci output first.

wswartzendruber wrote:Okay, let's get this going. We should probably have his lspci output first.

Okay, well I've managed to get my Ubuntu partition going (2 OS's up.... still working on Backtrack and WinXP). At least now I can A-B test them to see if I get the random crashes, wussy-sound, and hibernate/sleep problems in both. Regarding battery life, Ubuntu also says that I'll get 1.5 hours from the battery.

In case anybody wants to check theirs for comparison, the output of /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state is:
present: yes
capacity state: ok
charging state: discharging
present rate: 25718 mW
remaining capacity: 56160 mWh
present voltage: 12497 mV

I'm curious to see what discharge rates and capacities others' units report (and, yes, I do realize that 56160mWh divided by a drain rate of 25718mW comes to more than 1.5 hours. I'm just telling you what the Gnome battery monitor applet is telling me).

lspci reports:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566MM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HBM (ICH8M-E) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Quadro FX 570M (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5212 802.11abg NIC (rev 01)
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
15:00.2 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 21)
15:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 11)
15:00.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 11)
15:00.5 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 11)

And, finally, the configuration as described by the Lenovo website:
1 6459CT CONFIGURED SYSTEM
43Y3427 SBB INTEL CORE2DUO PROC.T8300
42V8012 VBB MS WIN VISTA HOME BASIC
42V8568 SBB MS WINVISTA HM BS32 US ENG
42V8288 ** SBB 15.4 WUXGA TFT
42X5976 SBB NVID QUA FX570M-256MB OPGL
41W2064 VBB 2GB PC2-5300 667MHZ 1DIMM
42V8195 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH
42V8297 SBB UN(TRCKP TOUCHPAD)FINGERRE
42X5218 SBB 160GB HDD,7200RPM
42V8172 SBB DVD REC.8XMAXDUAL LAY UB-S
42X0805 VBB PC CARDSLOT EX CARDSLOT
41W1685 SBB 11ABGWIFI WL LAN USEULAANZ
62P6054 VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PAN
41W1508 SBB 6 CELL LI-ION BATTERY
39T6442 SBB COUNTRY PACK NORTH AMERICA
42X1524 SBB LP-US ENGLISH

For future reference I found a list of linux certified Lenovo laptops here.

carbon_unit wrote:For future reference I found a list of linux certified Lenovo laptops here.

Great find carbon_unit! I hadn't seen that webpage before.

carbon_unit wrote:For future reference I found a list of linux certified Lenovo laptops here.

Brilliant! Thanks carbon_unit!

Cheers!