Re: Linux on a T520

[Michael Butash]

Thing that companies like HP don't get - I *am* the enterprise and data 
center market.  If I had these problems on a $300 frys special, I'd just 
rack it up to experience.  This laptop has a retail price of $4200 
dollars as an "enterprise class elitebook" (acquired via ebay at less 
than a quarter of that :)), so I damn well expect the features to work, 
or that customer complaints would sway them to fix it.  But no.


My current employer is an HP shop, which problems like this that "they 
can't even get a damn laptop right" makes me want to start deprecating 
them in favor of whatever.  Cisco UCS is starting to make inroads in our 
shop due to HP having stupid server problems (firmware, much like my 
laptop), and I for one am glad, ready with a hammer and nail for HP's 
coffin if nothing more than spite.


Sadly, I loved WebOS, at least in functionality - I switches to Sprint 
specifically to get a Pre on launch after Verizon refused to let me 
legally provision it on their network (I modified the radio firmware 
already to work).  After a combination of Sprint's crappy service and 
time-after-time frustrating bugs in WebOS, I moved on begrudgingly to 
Android back on Verizon and never looked back.  I was looking forward to 
Palm eventually getting it right and trying Pre/WebOS again, but once HP 
bought them, I knew it was done.  Seems now I was right.


HP simply needs to die already - never again for personal, or where I 
have say in my Enterprise.


-mb


On 09/03/2011 09:09 AM, Eric Shubert wrote:

On 08/26/2011 07:11 AM, Michael Butash wrote:

HP still takes the approach "no one uses linux so screw it". They're
fat and happy collecting microsoft taxes - never again will I buy from
them.


Which has led them to getting out of the consumer market. HP will be
focusing on enterprise and datacenter type customers. Should be no
surprise.


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Re: Linux on a T520

[Eric Shubert]

On 08/26/2011 07:11 AM, Michael Butash wrote:

   HP still takes the approach "no one uses linux so screw it".  They're
fat and happy collecting microsoft taxes - never again will I buy from
them.


Which has led them to getting out of the consumer market. HP will be 
focusing on enterprise and datacenter type customers. Should be no surprise.


--
-Eric 'shubes'

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Re: Linux on a T520

[Josh Coffman]

I have the T510 running Ubuntu 11.10 beautifully. No hardware problems and
wifi just works too. It was purchased as a win developer's machine so no
special consideration for linux was given.


On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 10:48 AM, Dennis Kibbe  wrote:

> On Fri, 2011-08-26 at 10:18 -0700, KevinO wrote:
> > On 08/26/2011 10:16 AM, KevinO wrote:
> > > I went ahead and bought it directly from Lenovo, configured as above
> except with
> > > Win 7 Pro pre-installed, for $1300. I got a little over $100 extra off
> because of
> > > the educational discount.
> > >
> > Oops, I left out one of the discounts. I actually got it for $1174.
> > :-D
>
> Looks like a nice catch Kevin!
>
> One of your other post suggested you might be thinking of swapping out
> the wifi card. Be aware that the ThinkPad BIOS blacklists some cards
> preventing you from using them. As an alternative check rokland.com for
> a USB wifi stick that works with most Linux distros. Handy to have
> around.
>
> Dennis
>
> --
> Adjunct Faculty
> Linux Operating System and System Administration
> Business and Information Systems
> Mesa Community College, Mesa, Arizona
>
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Re: Linux on a T520

[Dennis Kibbe]

On Fri, 2011-08-26 at 10:18 -0700, KevinO wrote:
> On 08/26/2011 10:16 AM, KevinO wrote:
> > I went ahead and bought it directly from Lenovo, configured as above except 
> > with
> > Win 7 Pro pre-installed, for $1300. I got a little over $100 extra off 
> > because of
> > the educational discount.
> > 
> Oops, I left out one of the discounts. I actually got it for $1174.
> :-D

Looks like a nice catch Kevin!

One of your other post suggested you might be thinking of swapping out
the wifi card. Be aware that the ThinkPad BIOS blacklists some cards
preventing you from using them. As an alternative check rokland.com for
a USB wifi stick that works with most Linux distros. Handy to have
around.

Dennis

-- 
Adjunct Faculty
Linux Operating System and System Administration
Business and Information Systems
Mesa Community College, Mesa, Arizona

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Re: Linux on a T520

[KevinO]

On 08/26/2011 10:16 AM, KevinO wrote:
> I went ahead and bought it directly from Lenovo, configured as above except 
> with
> Win 7 Pro pre-installed, for $1300. I got a little over $100 extra off 
> because of
> the educational discount.
> 
Oops, I left out one of the discounts. I actually got it for $1174.
:-D
-- 
KevinO
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Re: Linux on a T520

[KevinO]

On 08/26/2011 09:07 AM, Dennis Kibbe wrote:
> On Thu, 2011-08-25 at 18:53 -0700, KevinO wrote:
>> Anybody running Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad T520?
>>
>> I'm thinking of ordering one while they're on sale and then turning it into a
>> dual-boot machine. (pre-installed with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit)
>>
>> What I'm mostly wondering about is hardware compatibility and whether a
>> bleeding-edge distribution like Fedora or the latest Ubuntu would be 
>> required to
>> get all of the hardware to work. (I'd prefer something a little more stable 
>> like
>> CentOS, for example)
>>
>> All comments are very appreciated.
>>
>> TIA
> 
> If you can get your hands on one try running the CentOS LiveCD or create
> a liveUSB. 
I wish I could get my hands on one to test this, but it is unlikely to happen
with my schedule before the sale ends.

> The issues you are likely to run into are the Wifi card,
> ThinkPad APCI and the Ethernet port. Most likely only the wifi will
> require some extra work. 
I read online that it's a good idea to get the Intel WiFi, rather than the
default offering.

Make sure you try suspend and hibernation to be
> sure CentOS can return from those states.
> 
Actually, I'll willing to live without those, if necessary.

> CentOS uses an older kernel than, say, Fedora, so you might find Fedora
> handles things better then CentOS. It does on my X100e.
> 
Noted, Thanks.

> Try posting on the CentOS forum or IRC channel to see if anyone is
> running CentOS on that model. Also I notice that Emperor Linux sells
> that model so you might look on their site for more information.

I studied the T520 on the Emperor Linux site yesterday, and that helped me to
narrow down my choices. I also saw that Emperor wants $2210 for their T520,
configured with a Quad-core i7 (i7-2630QM), 8GB, DVD multi-burner, 15.6 inch
1600x900 display, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 4200M, webcam, 500GB 7200rpm HD, BlueTooth
and Intel WiFi.

I went ahead and bought it directly from Lenovo, configured as above except with
Win 7 Pro pre-installed, for $1300. I got a little over $100 extra off because 
of
the educational discount.

Thanks!
-- 
KevinO
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Re: Linux on a T520

[Dennis Kibbe]

On Thu, 2011-08-25 at 18:53 -0700, KevinO wrote:
> Anybody running Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad T520?
> 
> I'm thinking of ordering one while they're on sale and then turning it into a
> dual-boot machine. (pre-installed with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit)
> 
> What I'm mostly wondering about is hardware compatibility and whether a
> bleeding-edge distribution like Fedora or the latest Ubuntu would be required 
> to
> get all of the hardware to work. (I'd prefer something a little more stable 
> like
> CentOS, for example)
> 
> All comments are very appreciated.
> 
> TIA

If you can get your hands on one try running the CentOS LiveCD or create
a liveUSB. The issues you are likely to run into are the Wifi card,
ThinkPad APCI and the Ethernet port. Most likely only the wifi will
require some extra work. Make sure you try suspend and hibernation to be
sure CentOS can return from those states.

CentOS uses an older kernel than, say, Fedora, so you might find Fedora
handles things better then CentOS. It does on my X100e.

Try posting on the CentOS forum or IRC channel to see if anyone is
running CentOS on that model. Also I notice that Emperor Linux sells
that model so you might look on their site for more information.

Dennis Kibbe
-- 
Adjunct Faculty
Linux Operating System and System Administration
Business and Information Systems
Mesa Community College, Mesa, Arizona

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Re: Linux on a T520

[Stephen]

Also an idea is to look at system76.com as they build Linux laptops
specifically im willing to be they have the support for hardware clean
and ready and they have some nice machines for the price.
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Re: Linux on a T520

[AZ RUNE]

There is always the StratPro13 from ZaReason for thinkpad action like laptop

Brian

http://zareason.com/shop/Strata-Pro-13.html

On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 7:11 AM, Michael Butash  wrote:

> Check out thinkwiki:  
> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/**ThinkWiki
>
> Dell is usually about the best for linux compatibility, but ibm's tend to
> be good, at least before lenovo borg'd them
>
> Problem is typically with laptops quirky bios/acpi functions that don't
> allow it to sleep, hibernate, or shutdown right.  Just google around seeing
> if anyone else has issues, otherwise game on.
>
> I bought a new hp elitebook recently as I needed some beefy proc and ram
> for vm's (can do 16g w/4 dimm slots), but it's horrible bios and firmwares
> do not allow sleeping or anything right, even shutdown half the time.  HP
> still takes the approach "no one uses linux so screw it".  They're fat and
> happy collecting microsoft taxes - never again will I buy from them.
>
> -mb
>
>
> On 08/26/2011 01:48 AM, KevinO wrote:
>
>> On 08/25/2011 08:42 PM, Joe zagar wrote:
>>
>>> I have a 520 64 bit, Intel i7, Windows 7 pro, running Ubuntu under
>>> Virtual Box
>>> and everything works fine.
>>>
>>>  Thank you for the data point.
>>
>>  --**-
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-- 
Brian Fields
arizona.r...@gmail.com
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Re: Linux on a T520

[Michael Butash]

Check out thinkwiki:  http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki

Dell is usually about the best for linux compatibility, but ibm's tend 
to be good, at least before lenovo borg'd them


Problem is typically with laptops quirky bios/acpi functions that don't 
allow it to sleep, hibernate, or shutdown right.  Just google around 
seeing if anyone else has issues, otherwise game on.


I bought a new hp elitebook recently as I needed some beefy proc and ram 
for vm's (can do 16g w/4 dimm slots), but it's horrible bios and 
firmwares do not allow sleeping or anything right, even shutdown half 
the time.  HP still takes the approach "no one uses linux so screw it". 
 They're fat and happy collecting microsoft taxes - never again will I 
buy from them.


-mb


On 08/26/2011 01:48 AM, KevinO wrote:

On 08/25/2011 08:42 PM, Joe zagar wrote:

I have a 520 64 bit, Intel i7, Windows 7 pro, running Ubuntu under Virtual Box
and everything works fine.


Thank you for the data point.


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Re: Linux on a T520

[KevinO]

On 08/25/2011 08:42 PM, Joe zagar wrote:
> I have a 520 64 bit, Intel i7, Windows 7 pro, running Ubuntu under Virtual Box
> and everything works fine.
> 
Thank you for the data point.

-- 
KevinO
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Re: Linux on a T520

[Joe zagar]

On 8/25/2011 6:53 PM, KevinO wrote:

Anybody running Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad T520?

I'm thinking of ordering one while they're on sale and then turning it into a
dual-boot machine. (pre-installed with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit)

What I'm mostly wondering about is hardware compatibility and whether a
bleeding-edge distribution like Fedora or the latest Ubuntu would be required to
get all of the hardware to work. (I'd prefer something a little more stable like
CentOS, for example)

All comments are very appreciated.

TIA
I have a 520 64 bit, Intel i7, Windows 7 pro, running Ubuntu under 
Virtual Box and everything works fine.


--
Joe

Unexpected experiences make for the best stories

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Re: Linux on a T520

[Stephen]

I have had very good luck with ubuntu on just about all laptop hardware I
have used.
On Aug 25, 2011 7:12 PM, "KevinO"  wrote:
> Anybody running Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad T520?
>
> I'm thinking of ordering one while they're on sale and then turning it
into a
> dual-boot machine. (pre-installed with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit)
>
> What I'm mostly wondering about is hardware compatibility and whether a
> bleeding-edge distribution like Fedora or the latest Ubuntu would be
required to
> get all of the hardware to work. (I'd prefer something a little more
stable like
> CentOS, for example)
>
> All comments are very appreciated.
>
> TIA
> --
> KevinO
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Re: Linux on a T520

[mike enriquez]

Kevin,
I have a 64bit windows 7 laptop running vmware. I installed RedHat 
Server 6.1 on it and it seems ok.

My vmware is 64bit but I installed 32 bit Red Hat on it.
Good Luck.
Mike Enriquez



On 08/25/2011 06:53 PM, KevinO wrote:

Anybody running Linux on a Lenovo Thinkpad T520?

I'm thinking of ordering one while they're on sale and then turning it into a
dual-boot machine. (pre-installed with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit)

What I'm mostly wondering about is hardware compatibility and whether a
bleeding-edge distribution like Fedora or the latest Ubuntu would be required to
get all of the hardware to work. (I'd prefer something a little more stable like
CentOS, for example)

All comments are very appreciated.

TIA


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