Windows XP and Linux Dual boot problems

[pmiller056]

Hi

I have a Thinkpad T23 with 1GB of ram. The original hard disk has been replaced with a 120GB disk.

I am having problems setting up a Windows XP / Ubuntu 12.04 dual boot system. I can install Windows XP only on the 120GB hard disk and it operates correctly (as one would expect). I can install Ubuntu 12.04 on a separate 40GB hard disk and it installs and operates correctly. I can change operating systems by swapping hard disks, however this is only a short term solution because the connectors and other parts will not survive this physical activity for long.

I have tried to set up a dual boot system on the 120GB disk with Windows XP installed first then Ubuntu later (as you are supposed to do). Windows XP has 80GB to play with and Ubuntu 40GB. This is where it all starts to go wrong.......

Windows XP operates correctly. Ubuntu has big problems with the screen. The top half of the screen is OK, the bottom half is a jaggy blurry mess. The mouse pointer leaves a trail behind it that never goes away, so it appears that there are video driver issues. I can get to a command prompt and operate Ubuntu from the command prompt, but anything graphical is a mess. The stand alone install of Ubuntu on a separate disk does not have this video problem. The Ubuntu 12.04 alternative installation disk which also has the recovery tools does not appear to have anything obvious to fix display issues.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

Peter

[rccharles]

I have a T20. Ubuntu 12.4 was freezing up.

I installed Fedora 18. I have not had problem with it.

Robert

[Thinkpaddict]

Windows XP operates correctly. Ubuntu has big problems with the screen. The top half of the screen is OK, the bottom half is a jaggy blurry mess. The mouse pointer leaves a trail behind it that never goes away, so it appears that there are video driver issues. I can get to a command prompt and operate Ubuntu from the command prompt, but anything graphical is a mess. The stand alone install of Ubuntu on a separate disk does not have this video problem. The Ubuntu 12.04 alternative installation disk which also has the recovery tools does not appear to have anything obvious to fix display issues.

This is quite perplexing (the fact that you have no problem if only Ubuntu is installed, but you do if you have a dual boot setup).

How many times have you tried to reproduce either of these scenarios? I would immediately discard any driver issues which are a product of having the dual boot setup. When Ubuntu boots up, the Windows partition would be completely irrelevant regarding drivers.

Have you checked to see of Ubuntu 12.04 has good support for the T23? The T23 has an ancient SuperSavage GPU which might not be natively supported by Ubuntu out of the box (it might be using some sort of compatibility driver?).

My first step would be to check if anybody else is running 12.04 in the same hardware successfully.

By the way, I am running 12.04 in a X61 with some issues (the HD gets too hot).
EDIT: No HD temperature issues. The IBM ACPI HDD thermal zone information is not accurate at all, instead the data provided by the drive's SMART interface shows normal temperatures.

And, the T23 is one of my favorite Thinkpads of all time! My first (second actually, after I returned a new X31 which had some BSOD issues) Thinkpad was an IBM refurbished T23 with the 1.13Ghz CPU which I bought around February of 2005.

[hansolo669]

Have you checked to see of Ubuntu 12.04 has good support for the T23? The T23 has an ancient SuperSavage GPU which might not be natively supported by Ubuntu out of the box (it might be using some sort of compatibility driver?).

It should be supported, but it sounds like the driver may not be initialized properly. In addition what release of Ubuntu are you trying? I would imagine Unity or Gnome to be far too heavy for the poor T23, so it would be a good idea to check out Xubuntu or Lubuntu as they both offer much lighter desktop environments. If you want to try something very light crunchbang would be something to consider, it runs great on my 390x.