keeping a working access IBM button

[bl0tt0]

hey all,

I'm working at getting Slackware going on a T42p I just recently acquired, and I was wondering if anyone could help me out with keeping the System recovery portion working. I know I read on an installation site that writing the bootloader to the Master Boot Record would bork the access IBM button. I also remember reading that someone somehow managed to tweak the Windows bootloader so that it would see the linux partition and offer it as an option, but I can no longer find it on the net. Can someone please please please give me some info how to get this system set up. I'm chomping at the bit to get into getting Slackware tweaked to my liking, but I have to get over this hump first.

Thank you

[doppelfish]

Let the famous thinkwiki come to the rescue, and learn about BEER and PARTIES (yes, that's correct).

cheers,
-- fish

[bl0tt0]

Thanks for the links. I've looked at those sites before, but wasn't really able to work out what I want to do. I was hoping to keep the access IBM button in working order so that on startup, I could access the rescue and restore partition of the hard drive just by holding the button. I've read that installing lilo to the MBR undoes this capability, but that might be from an old guide to linux installation. I remember reading from the same guide how the person managed to get the windows bootloader to see the linux as bootable and offer it as an option. Am I wrong in believing this is possible or necessary?

[dummkopf]

Did you know there is Linux-Google at your disposal?

http://www.google.com/linux

This came up using the link above:

http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux/gr ... HOWTO.html

[bl0tt0]

Many thanks for the links. I actually had no idea about the google feature. Long story short, I managed to find the site I had previously found after doing a little more heavy googling. Anyone else interested in keeping their access IBM button working at startup should look at:

http://sharadware.com/2005/07/11/suse-l ... nkpad-t43/

[bl0tt0]

OK, looks like I'm still lost on this one. I've set up a slackware installation, put the boot partition at /dev/hda3 and root and swap at /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda6 on logical partitions, as well as set /dev/hda3 with the bootable flag and pointed to it with lilo.conf, run lilo, but I'm still getting a missing operating system error. I know that the lba32 default option was supposed to sort out the issue of putting boot sectors after 1024, and I refuse to believe that IBM is using a BIOS that doesn't have this capability. I've also simply tried putting together a combination root and swap on primary partitions after this, installing lilo to boot from the root, and still nothing.

I've read about putting a copy of the linux boot sector into boot.ini, but that would mean I would have to use windows bootloader in order to boot linux, and I don't like that seemingly unnecessary step in there. can someone give me some help or knowledge on this issue. Is there something in IBM's BIOS that is keeping this from working?

Thanks for any insight

[dummkopf]

Try GAG boot loader.
There may be an issue with HDD geometry, it seems Thinkpad BIOS and Lilo (GRUB) have different ideas how many heads, sectors, etc a disk has.

[nkzealot]

hello bl0tt0,

As I am going to install a linux os on my new x32, I have the same question as you. I think you can post your question here:
http://sharadware.com/2005/06/13/instal ... inkpad-t43
The author has provided one solution for the access ibm function problem, and I hope it can help you. My thinkpad will arrive next month, so I am not able to try it at the moment.

Good Luck!

[bl0tt0]

Sorry to bring up this dead post, but I thought an update was in order. I got my hands on an opensuse DVD and installed that onto my machine using the instructions over at Sharadware, and things actually worked! I still have a working Access IBM button and the GRUB bootloader gives me the option to boot into either XP or Linux. I then installed slackware over SUSE, and set lilo to boot from the boot sector of my /boot partition, and *GASP* that worked too! I'm not sure where the difference came from, but SUSE either did something different in partitioning, or somewhere else, because things are working great now!