I just recently bought a refurbished Thinkpad T41 laptop off the IBM website and intended to configure it for* XP/Ubuntu dual boot. The laptop worked fine and ran stable with anything related to Windows (XP and I also tried Vista), but had frequent random freezes with anything related to Linux (the Ubuntu install CD and a Helix live CD).

I did eventually get Ubuntu installed with the install CD but it still keeps freezing up at random moments; it does not seem to freeze up at anything specific.

I let memtest run all night to check for faulty memory (no errors), and ran through all the IBM PC Doctor hardware tests (under XP) to see if there were hardware errors with anything (again, no errors).

I've had a great experience in the past with some older Thinkpads under similar setups (dual boot Windows/Linux) so this is kind of puzzling. I don't think there's any faulty hardware involved because of the hardware tests run, and the fact that everything works fine under Windows (unless there's some weird problem that slips under the radar on these diagnostic programs)..

So I'm wondering if there's some BIOS settings that need to be tweaked to make things work more smoothly under Linux. On older BIOSs there used to be a setting for non-Windows OSs, but this Thinkpad BIOS didn't have such an option (that I could find anyway).

Anyone have a suggestion? I've got 7 days to return for a refund if I can't resolve it, so there's still another few days to troubleshoot the problem.

Paul
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techlists@comcast.net wrote:
> I just recently bought a refurbished Thinkpad T41 laptop off the IBM
> website and intended to configure it for XP/Ubuntu dual boot. The
> laptop worked fine and ran stable with anything related to Windows (XP
> and I also tried Vista), but had frequent random freezes with anything
> related to Linux (the Ubuntu install CD and a Helix live CD).
>
> I did eventually get Ubuntu installed with the install CD but it still
> keeps freezing up at random moments; it does not seem to freeze up at
> anything specific.
>
> I let memtest run all night to check for faulty memory (no errors), and
> ran through all the IBM PC Doctor hardware tests (under XP) to see if
> there were hardware errors with anything (again, no errors).
>
> I've had a great experience in the past with some older Thinkpads under
> similar setups (dual boot Windows/Linux) so this is kind of puzzling. I
> don't think there's any faulty hardware involved because of the hardware
> tests run, and the fact that everything works fine under Windows (unless
> there's some weird problem that slips under the radar on these
> diagnostic programs)..
>
> So I'm wondering if there's some BIOS settings that need to be tweaked
> to make things work more smoothly under Linux. On older BIOSs there used
> to be a setting for non-Windows OSs, but this Thinkpad BIOS didn't have
> such an option (that I could find anyway).
>
> Anyone have a suggestion? I've got 7 days to return for a refund if I
> can't resolve it, so there's still another few days to troubleshoot the
> problem.
>
> Paul
>

20090131 1557 GMT-5

Paul i have a R50e and had the same trouble at first. It was the cd I
burned. It worked fine on other machines but not that laptop. I finally
just went to the alt install cd and it worked.

Wade

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But I did eventually get Ubuntu installed; it's running off the hard disk and it's still randomly, and frequently, freezing.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Wade Smart" <wadesmart@gmail.com>
To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 4:58:22 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: BIOS settings for Thinkpads using Ubuntu

techlists@comcast.net wrote:
> I just recently bought a refurbished Thinkpad T41 laptop off the IBM
> website and intended to configure it for *XP/Ubuntu dual boot. The
> laptop worked fine and ran stable with anything related to Windows (XP
> and I also tried Vista), but had frequent random freezes with anything
> related to Linux (the Ubuntu install CD and a Helix live CD).
>
> I did eventually get Ubuntu installed with the install CD but it still
> keeps freezing up at random moments; it does not seem to freeze up at
> anything specific.
>
> I let memtest run all night to check for faulty memory (no errors), and
> ran through all the IBM PC Doctor hardware tests (under XP) to see if
> there were hardware errors with anything (again, no errors).
>
> I've had a great experience in the past with some older Thinkpads under
> similar setups (dual boot Windows/Linux) so this is kind of puzzling. I
> don't think there's any faulty hardware involved because of the hardware
> tests run, and the fact that everything works fine under Windows (unless
> there's some weird problem that slips under the radar on these
> diagnostic programs)..
>
> So I'm wondering if there's some BIOS settings that need to be tweaked
> to make things work more smoothly under Linux. On older BIOSs there used
> to be a setting for non-Windows OSs, but this Thinkpad BIOS didn't have
> such an option (that I could find anyway).
>
> Anyone have a suggestion? I've got 7 days to return for a refund if I
> can't resolve it, so there's still another few days to troubleshoot the
> problem.
>
> Paul
>

20090131 1557 GMT-5

Paul i have a R50e and had the same trouble at first. It was the cd I
burned. It worked fine on other machines but not that laptop. I finally
just went to the alt install cd and it worked.

Wade

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On 01/31/2009 01:53 PM, techlists@comcast.net wrote:
> I just recently bought a refurbished Thinkpad T41 laptop off the IBM
> website and intended to configure it for XP/Ubuntu dual boot. The
> laptop worked fine and ran stable with anything related to Windows
> (XP and I also tried Vista), but had frequent random freezes with
> anything related to Linux (the Ubuntu install CD and a Helix live
> CD).
>
> I did eventually get Ubuntu installed with the install CD but it
> still keeps freezing up at random moments; it does not seem to freeze
> up at anything specific.
>
> I let memtest run all night to check for faulty memory (no errors),
> and ran through all the IBM PC Doctor hardware tests (under XP) to
> see if there were hardware errors with anything (again, no errors).
>
> I've had a great experience in the past with some older Thinkpads
> under similar setups (dual boot Windows/Linux) so this is kind of
> puzzling. I don't think there's any faulty hardware involved because
> of the hardware tests run, and the fact that everything works fine
> under Windows (unless there's some weird problem that slips under the
> radar on these diagnostic programs)..
>
> So I'm wondering if there's some BIOS settings that need to be
> tweaked to make things work more smoothly under Linux. On older BIOSs
> there used to be a setting for non-Windows OSs, but this Thinkpad
> BIOS didn't have such an option (that I could find anyway).
>
> Anyone have a suggestion? I've got 7 days to return for a refund if I
> can't resolve it, so there's still another few days to troubleshoot
> the problem.

You might check on
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Ubuntu_on_a_ThinkPad_T41
and
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T41

I'd also recommend 8.04 (alternate CD) to see if the issue is with the
Intrepid kernel(s).

Plus do a search on launchpad for T41:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu



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techlists@comcast.net wrote:
> But I did eventually get Ubuntu installed; it's running off the hard
> disk and it's still randomly, and frequently, freezing.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wade Smart" <wadesmart@gmail.com>
> To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions"
> <ubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com>
> Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 4:58:22 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: BIOS settings for Thinkpads using Ubuntu
>
> techlists@comcast.net wrote:
> > I just recently bought a refurbished Thinkpad T41 laptop off the IBM
> > website and intended to configure it for XP/Ubuntu dual boot. The
> > laptop worked fine and ran stable with anything related to Windows (XP
> > and I also tried Vista), but had frequent random freezes with anything
> > related to Linux (the Ubuntu install CD and a Helix live CD).
> >
> > I did eventually get Ubuntu installed with the install CD but it still
> > keeps freezing up at random moments; it does not seem to freeze up at
> > anything specific.
> >
> > I let memtest run all night to check for faulty memory (no errors), and
> > ran through all the IBM PC Doctor hardware tests (under XP) to see if
> > there were hardware errors with anything (again, no errors).
> >
> > I've had a great experience in the past with some older Thinkpads under
> > similar setups (dual boot Windows/Linux) so this is kind of puzzling. I
> > don't think there's any faulty hardware involved because of the hardware
> > tests run, and the fact that everything works fine under Windows (unless
> > there's some weird problem that slips under the radar on these
> > diagnostic programs)..
> >
> > So I'm wondering if there's some BIOS settings that need to be tweaked
> > to make things work more smoothly under Linux. On older BIOSs there used
> > to be a setting for non-Windows OSs, but this Thinkpad BIOS didn't have
> > such an option (that I could find anyway).
> >
> > Anyone have a suggestion? I've got 7 days to return for a refund if I
> > can't resolve it, so there's still another few days to troubleshoot the
> > problem.
> >
> > Paul
> >
>
> 20090131 1557 GMT-5
>
> Paul i have a R50e and had the same trouble at first. It was the cd I
> burned. It worked fine on other machines but not that laptop. I finally
> just went to the alt install cd and it worked.
>
> Wade
>
Do you have compiz enabled?

Try disabling it under appearance - visual effects.

If it doesn't freeze after disabling compiz, re-enable it and install
ccsm and check the general tab for 2 settings:

Unredirect Fullscreen Windows
Force Independent output painting

Make sure they're unchecked.

These 2 settings were hanging my T61 all the time...


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