[TriLUG] Which laptop to buy

Tue Dec 20 15:17:05 EST 2005

I have a 30GB drive I think.  I left the last 6GB of the drive empty,
unpartitioned.  I made a 24GB partition for WinXP and installed that,
did all the updates and hundreds of reboots, then shutdown completely.
 I then booted from an Ubuntu 5.10 CD and did that install.  Grub
handles the boot menu.  So once Ubuntu was completely updated, I
shutdown.  Now I have 2 OS's on the box.  I powered up, I get the grub
boot menu, I choose WinXP, boot, login, and do whatever it is you
booted to WinXP to do.  Then when it is time to hibernate, choose
Start > Shutdown > "h" (h for hibernate).  When you choose Start >
Shutdown on a XP installation that is not a member of a domain, you
get the 3 pretty colors, green, yellow and red??  Hold "Alt" I
believe, and you should see one of these switch it's function to
hibernate.  I just learned hitting "h" worked for shortcut purposes. 
Once WinXP is in hibernation, you can turn the power back on, and the
grub boot menu comes up once again.  The option you need for Ubuntu
(if you do Ubuntu as your linux distro) should be the default option
if grub times out.  Ubuntu 5.04 did not hibernate (and even standby
was a pita) but it appears Ubuntu 5.10 does hibernate properly, though
I've only used this feature once so far.  You can hibernate each OS
independently and power on, use the boot menu and resume whichever OS
you want.

Tip:  Most people say if you are going to dual boot with any Microsoft
Windows based system to install it first at the beginning of the drive
and complete that before installing linux on the empty space you left
behind.

Note:  If you still have the default WinXP install on your Thinkpad,
make sure you burn the System CDs before you re-partition your
drive... and of course backup all your data!  :)

hope that helps,
David McD

On 12/20/05, Corey <ohkeepah at gmail.com> wrote:
> David, I have the same setup as you and am interested in how you hibernate
> xp and then switch between O.S's
>
> On 12/18/05, David McDowell <turnpike420 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > You can get a T42 with 1400x1050 no prob.  I love mine (I have the
> > 1024x768 model though) and there is no built in firewire, but I have
> > an Adaptec pcmcia iEEE-1394 card... 3 port firewire 400 and it works
> > perfectly with WinXP, CentOS 4.x and Ubuntu 5.x.  Nice fast laptop,
> > solid hardware.  Can't be bought without an XP license on it though.
> > They signed a deal with the devil.  :)  Make sure that you burn the
> > system CDs BEFORE you reformat and repartition the drive, b/c that's
> > the only chance you get.  Support will not send you a set if you don't
> > burn the CDs for yourself.  Trust me, I know... :)  It's $45 for the
> > set, or you can spend half a day online like I did and finally finding
> > their XP based tool for downloading ALL the M$ drivers and software
> > which came on the box, except one, the soft DVD player.  I fixed that
> > problem by using VLC.  http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
> >
> > I have WinXP and Ubuntu 5.10 dual boot, I can hibernate the XP, boot
> > into U 5.10 (I think it even hibernates successfully now) and then use
> > grub to quickly un-hibernate whichever OS I want to use.
> >
> > The Adaptec firewire card I have is model AFW-1430:
> >
> > http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/proddetail.html?sess=no&prodkey=AFW-1430&language=English+US&cat=Products
> >
> > good luck.
> > David McD
> >
> >
> > On 12/16/05, kevin at flanagannc.net <kevin at flanagannc.net> wrote:
> > > I have a Thinkpad T42 at work, it's really nice, doesn't do the screen
> > res
> > > that you wanted, just 1024x768 on the screen, but the external port runs
> > > nicely at 1600x1200.  It's not the fastest, or the sexiest, but it's a
> > > great system.
> > >
> > >
> > > I just saw a co-worker bought a compaq AMD Turion based system, he's
> > > really happy with it, but I didn't get a good look.  He did say that it
> > > was only $850, that's something that the Thinkpad can't claim.
> > >
> > > Kevin
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > Which laptop to buy, that is the question.  The requirements are built
> > > > in Ethernet (gigabit would be nice), IEEE-1394 (FireWire) and a large
> > > > (as in pixels) screen (1400x1050 minimum).  I must be able to boot
> > both
> > > > Linux and some other well known OS.
> > > >
> > > > I do not care who makes the CPU as long as it is x86, sorry no Macs
> > for
> > > > this one.  I have had less then happy experiences with Dell, and would
> > > > like to stay away from them.  I also find Dell's Linux support to be
> > > > about worthless.  I have bought my last Sony anything because of their
> > > > DRM shananagains.  I have been happy with my IBM a20p Thinkpad and
> > > > before the my Digital HiNote II, but both are just a bit under
> > powered.
> > > >
> > > > Any suggestions on what to buy and where would help.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks
> > > > Charles Fischer
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