Date: 19 Apr 2001 15:33:00 -0400 From: Mark Evenson <evenson@panix.com> To: freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Thinkpad X20 2662-34U lockup problem Message-ID: <a0ae5c65xv.fsf@panix6.panix.com>
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I have run into the dreaded "Thinkpad BIOS thinks it wants to sleep on the
FreeBSD partition" problem. I have searched the freebsd-mobile archives,
and read the information on the BSDToday forum at:
http://www.bsdtoday.com/2000/November/News342.html
unfortunately the link to the IBM support desription at
http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-4QHLS4.html
now seems to be gone.
--
My tale of woe:
I had thought that the newer BIOS updates solved this problem, as I had
updated the Embedded Controller Program to 1.27 and the BIOS to 'izet92ww'.
After using System Commander 2000 to resize the Windows 98 partition, I had
moved it to the end of the disk and was able to sucessfully install FreeBSD
4.2 on the first 8 GB of the drive but as the third FDISK partition. The
FreeBSD installation somehow prevented SC2000 from working, so I installed
the FreeBSD boot0 on the MBR. Now FreeBSD would boot, but Windows 98
wouldn't (I think SC2000 replaces the first sector of Windows 98 with its
own bootblock, but I am not so sure). Since I would like to have a copy of
Windows 98 around to test Java compatibilty, I eventually tried to revive
the Windows 98 partition. This failed until IBM could ship me a "Repair
CD" (they apparently don't ship with a complete Windows 98 repair image
anymore). While waiting for this CD to arrive and having messed up the
FreeBSD partition in the attempt to revive the Windows 98 partition, I
decided to reformat the disk to re-install FreeBSD. After installing
FreeBSD and going into the reboot, the machine now completely locks at the
BIOS startup screen, neither allowing me to enter BIOS setup (via F1) nor to
specify an alternate boot device (via F12). Interestingly, removing the
hard drive still does not let the machine boot to floppy and/or CDROM.
--
Questions for those who might have answers:
1) Have I now somehow voided my warranty with IBM, or can I ship it back
to demand that they reinstall Windows 98 from scratch? Or should I
play dumb when I go to return it?
2) So the most recent IBM BIOS for the X20 still locks up on detecting
partition A5. Is there an older version of the BIOS that does not have
this problem? Or to get FreeBSD running do I have to switch to a
different partition ID? Are there patches somewhere to deal with this?
3) Can I add my name somewhere to register my dissatisfaction with IBM for
this sad state of affairs with respect to FreeBSD?
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