My T42p arrived.

[Celestar]

Hi all,

my 2373-P3G arrived two days ago, coupled with an additional 6-cell battery (for "light" configuration) and an Ultrabay battery (for "longhauls"), and I must say this thing really really rocks

First thing I did was to remove the "designed for Windows XP sticker" and attached it to the nearest trashcan, then I proceeded by installing a SuSE 9.3 from scratch. Currently I left the IBM partition on the disk (as I'm not sure what is on there can anyone shed some light?) but claimed the rest of the disk for the linux partitions. both suspend to disk worked out-of-the-box and suspend to RAM required one little change. Battery rundown times range from about 2 hours (6 cell, high usage) to almost 8 hours (9 cell + Ultrabay, mostly typework). I hope to squeeze a bit more out of it once I have undervolted the CPU, any maybe underclocked the GPU. (does anyone know any toole for it?).

All in all a little summary:
Pro:
-High performance
-Decent graphics performance
-Excellent display (got a pixel-check beforehand)
-Low weight
-Very good linux support (I miss 3D acceleration AND suspend-to-ram, but ATi is too dumb to release a decent driver)
-Excellent keyboard
-Long battery time
-Very quiet operation

Cons:
-No firewire
-Too few USB ports (they could really have dropped the Parallel port instead)
-No installation media.

Celestar

[GomJabbar]

First thing I did was to remove the "designed for Windows XP sticker" and attached it to the nearest trashcan, then I proceeded by installing a SuSE 9.3 from scratch. Currently I left the IBM partition on the disk (as I'm not sure what is on there can anyone shed some light?) but claimed the rest of the disk for the linux partitions.

The IBM service partition contains a copy of the Windows XP operating system, along with all the IBM drivers, applets, and included software. With it you can repair a Windows installation, or return your system to the factory install state. If you don't plan to ever use Windows, I see no reason for not reformatting and using it for SuSE 9.3, MP3's, or whatever.

There is one consideration however. If you ever plan to sell or pass along your laptop, the new owner could very possibly want the original factory installed software. If you did not make the Recovery CD's before you installed SuSE 9.3, then the only way to restore the original factory software is with the IBM service partition.

[mgenin]

You installed linux eh? Any compatibility Issues? ie: no wireless drivers (what card do you have). I tried installing Linux on my old Dell D600 notebook, no luck with the wirless (piece of crap laptop, went thru 3 motherboards, 2 screens, 2 hard drives) love the thinkpads tho

[Celestar]

Well, I have made a backup of the partition in question, so I'll remove it.

About the compatibility issues:
Non-operational is the fingerprint reader (there is a library to use it, but I feel not like trying it at the moment, as I fail to see the reason to use it). Also the "backlight off" switch doesn't work (I think you can misuse it for something else)

Untested: IR port, Bluetooth (will keep you updated)

Problem: With the stock driver (Xorg) you don't get 3D acceleration or TV out, with the Ati driver you get all that but no Suspend to RAM (Suspend to disk is rumored to work, but I haven't tried it yet either). However, you can always suspend if you kill X first (which somehow defeats the purpose).

the NICs work nicely (I'm currently on WLAN), Gig Eithernet gives me 30-50MB/sec throughput which comes in handy. The "Access IBM" button doesn't really open those tool, but start a terminal for me

I still have lockups when inserting/removing the DVD-drive while the system is running. Unfortunately, PATA doesn't seem to allow hotswapping by specs, even though some people are rumored to have it running.

The only thing I had to do manually is to add "acpi_sleep=s3_bios" in the kernel load line of my grub, every else worked out of the box.

I might be using some Windows, for an occasional gaming session (CIV III mostly, maybe some 3D) but I don't need all that stuff installed.

Celestar

[Navck]

Cons:
-No firewire
-Too few USB ports (they could really have dropped the Parallel port instead)
-No installation media.

Celestar

We don't need 12 USB ports like the XPS Gen 2. With their USB Aquarim, USB Lava lamp, USB dog, USB shaver, USB coffee maker, USB food maker, USB card reader 12 in one, USB card reader 2, USB harddrives, USB ummm everything else
Or firewire, thats left to PCMCIA card

[pphilipko]

Cons:
-No firewire
-Too few USB ports (they could really have dropped the Parallel port instead)
-No installation media.

Celestar

We don't need 12 USB ports like the XPS Gen 2. With their USB Aquarim, USB Lava lamp, USB dog, USB shaver, USB coffee maker, USB food maker, USB card reader 12 in one, USB card reader 2, USB harddrives, USB ummm everything else
Or firewire, thats left to PCMCIA card

You forgot the USB Christmas tree!

[Celestar]

Ok maybe 12 ports would be a little over the top, but 2 is a tad on the low side. somewhere in between with like 4 ports wouldn't have hurt

I think it is time to hit the hay and play with Bluetooth tomorrow.

Celestar

[Navck]

Thats why they sell USB hubs and PCMCIA cards.
PS - 6 firewire, want a laptop like that with a "19 inch widescreen" and "dual 7800GTX's SLI'd, with 120GB 7200 RPM Harddrive" annnd ofcourse a battery life of 25 minutes
Dells planning to make the "XPS Gen 3"
Its one step away from laptop, and one step closer to "semi portable"

[ehsu]

Ok maybe 12 ports would be a little over the top, but 2 is a tad on the low side. somewhere in between with like 4 ports wouldn't have hurt

I think it is time to hit the hay and play with Bluetooth tomorrow.

Celestar

You may also consider a mini-dock, it provides 4 extra USB ports on top of the original 2 USBs on your thinkpad. You can connect to external monitor/speakers/mouse/keyboard and hot-dock/undock your thinkpad. A very nice product.

[Celestar]

ehsu:

Yeah, I'm just trying to decide between the MiniDock II and and the Docking Station II, what's the main difference between those two? Only the ultrabay 2000?.

Update:
both Bluetooth and Irda worked out of the box.

Next endeavour is to reduce the power consumption. I can get the device down to about 12.5W if I don't use WLan. Can any of the windows users tell me what they get about?

Thanks,
Celestar

[Celestar]

Did some testing in windows, with CPU clocked to 600MHz@700mV, I have a power consumption of slightly above 9W (Wifi off), so I still have work remaining in linux.

Celestar