Thinkpads Forum

Linux Mint 5.1., attempting to trial ('liveCD') before installing. Maybe. And the odds are growing against it.

T42 - Mint comes up after a mere 4 minutes, which I assume is an artefact of running from the CDROM, but the wireless won't connect. Hand-typing the 16-character chain of alphanumerics in 128 bit WEP, which is what my wireless dingus says I have, results in no-connect.

Then tried it on my Intellistation (desktop) - after initial splash, and 4 minutes, I get something like a DOS prompt that is apparently the result of something called 'busybox' with a prompt that reads, 'initramfs.'

In random searches, I found that Mint will offer alternate boot options if I hit any key during the initial splash (and why not say this on the initial splash?) - tried 'compatiblity mode' and saw thousands of lines of stuff go by with a disconcerting number of things that looked like drivers might be wrong and no way that I can see to scroll backward to see what they are.

In an attempt to get answers in Linuxmint forums, I got a suggestion to follow a Mintwiki entry that tells me to hit F6, erase something, and enter 'one or more' incantations (noapics, nolapic, acpi=off....). The entry doesn't say what to do after entering the incantation(s).

Frankly, if I wanted to erase things and type stuff in, I'd go back to DOS.

I fear that I'm facing lots of variables that I just don't have time to track down and create combinatorial matrices of things to try. The Intellistation has only SCSI hard drives, but an IDE CDROM; nVidia Quadro FX400 graphics; and other things that show up as problematic in random linux searches (USB 2.0 PCI card, for example)

Is there an easier Linux than Mint, one that handles more combinations of hardware? (By 'easy,' I mean, starts up and runs, including wireless.)

Everyone would like an easy universally compatible OS for their computer but that simply does not exist.
In windows you have to install drivers for everything, in Linux they try to include as many drivers as possible but PC's consist of an infinite number of combinations of various equipment. Some equipment manufacturers refuse to disclose the specs on their devices so the Linux community cannot effectively created the needed drivers.
What it boils down to is that you have to try the live cd's of different Linux Distributions until you find one that works well with your particular hardware blend.
Since Mint is derived from Ubuntu you already know that is not working for you.
I would suggest trying OpenSuse, Fedora and Mandriva live cd's and see how they work for you.
There is a list of the most popular Linux distros and reviews at Distrowatch.

You are pretty close on the T42... I would stick to that instead of dealing with the headache-prone desktop. The Intel wireless is known to work so you shouldn't encounter "type stuff" issues there, it is probably just a checkbox or something. Open vs shared modes for WEP maybe?

As for the desktop, it seems like the cd-rom drive was not recognized for some reason. There are lots of other Live CDs (Knoppix, etc) that hopefully might recognize it, check out Distrowatch as mentioned above. There are also Linuxes that install to USB key, although they tend to not be as featureful.

Oh, also... you might want to save the wep key in a text file so you don't have to type it all the time.

aaa wrote:As for the desktop, it seems like the cd-rom drive was not recognized for some reason. ...
Oh, also... you might want to save the wep key in a text file so you don't have to type it all the time.

Could be - I just kept the CD in the burner, a Memorex that seems to not have a known relationship to linux - the machine has a second unit, a generic reader... think it's LG... that IBM used, so I'll just try that when I get a moment.

As for the WEP, not until too late did I think about making a flat file. I have a program in Windows that brings it up for cut-and-paste, so I didn't put enough forethought into this detail.

Until February, I won't have time to d/l, burn and try various distros, so if the generic CD won't make the Mint disc happen on the desktop, that's it for experiments for a while. The desktop is my main machine.

I can't comment on the desktop aspect, but am VERY surprised at Mint giving you issues on a T42, and I'm speaking from experience...every wireless card I ever tested (apart from IBM/Atheros a/b/g II which I don't believe you have) has worked out of the box...on a couple of different routers, and encryption types...

Also, I've never had to alter anything during boot-up process...just filled in the blanks with preferences...

Mint will, however, react to what it "sees" as a lack of RAM...how much do you have in that T42?

ajkula66 wrote:[surprised at T42]

Also, I've never had to alter anything during boot-up process...just filled in the blanks with preferences...

Mint will, however, react to what it "sees" as a lack of RAM...how much do you have in that T42?

Blanks? What blanks? (Perhaps during installation? Right now, I've only tried running off the bootable CD-ROM).

All I have figured out to try on the T42 is to click on the wireless icon and fill in the WEP string in the first available text entry box. There are 3 boxes, and I don't know enough to tell if the first one is the right one. Also, I don't remember (but of course did not look for) a checkbox for open vs. shared... according to my router docs, it's open. So, most likely operator error or fat-fingered, bad WEP entry.

RAM: My T42 has 1 GB (2 x 512) and both slots are apparently working (at least according to Msoft Word's 'System' report, the Windows Computer Properties screen and the Task Manager Performance pane, plus a couple of graphics programs that keep tabs on available memory. I didn't actually count the bytes myself )

The computer was a complete eBay $300 luck-out, purchased before I knew of this forum or the deals in the marketplace here - built 12/05 and the last dates anything was used or any new file created prior to my purchase were in 2/06... so, it had been bought, used a couple of months,and shelved. Physically, it's perfect except for tiny scratches on the bottom indicating it was used in a dock. Wireless is the vanilla AB card.

Hmm, wait -- since everything works 100% in Windows, I have opted NOT to update anything [other than XP w/SP3] via the Lenovo update utility. Thus, BIOS and all drivers will be at the latest, 2/06.... Multiple experiences have left me wary of updating when something is working...

EDIT: Update - the T42 is now working, by going to manual wireless setup and entering the same information (ssid, WEP) as entered in the automated setup... where the same information wouldn't connect. Mysterious, but now it's working.

ORIGINAL POST: Meantime, I got the desktop working by following the Mintwiki by rote. That is, in the initial splash screen, I hit F6, hit TAB, erased "quiet splash" and after a couple of non-working entry of single incantations, I just put in all of them: noapic nolapic acpi=off pci=noacpi irqpoll all_generic_ide pci=nomsi.

HOWEVER - I couldn't find a way to discover what hardware has been causing the boot problem. I don't see anything like the Windows Hardware Manager and its yellow exclamation marks, though there must be one.

I did poke through the log files but since I seem to have turned off whatever is causing the problem, there's no 'failed' entry or 'wrong driver' entry in the logs.

I did see identification of and apparently successsful activity around my hardware anomalies (e.g., the SCSI drivers, a USB 2.0 PCI card, Msoft optical mouse, USB sound card/dongle, dual CPUs, etc.). Sound doesn't work -- the test button results in a full-volume screech and no sound in the Firefox browser included on the CD-ROM.

BIOS in this machine is the latest one, updated by previous owner, and I have updated the Intel Ethernet drivers.