Post #145,987
3/12/04 11:00:08 PM
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When one gets a new PC with WinXP preloaded...
one doesn't have much choice. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #145,988
3/12/04 11:15:13 PM
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If you want to load another OS..
..and be NTFS free, it is possible to offload the existing setup and reload it to FAT32 en masse. Windows will not even burp to find itself booting from FAT32 after going to sleep on NTFS.
Yes Peter, technically FAT32 sucks, but you can write it from other OSes. Dealing with NTFS is like having cracker crumbs in the bed.
-drl
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Post #145,990
3/12/04 11:28:23 PM
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I just want to resize an NTFS partition...
so that I can attempt a Xandros install. I want a easy to use Linux installation that I can play with occasionally when I have a few minutes of free time. ReadOnly NTFS support from Linux is fine for my needs at present. Worst case I'll write a CDROM if I need to transfer data between the OSes. If Xandros does what I need, then I'll get another 60 GB laptop drive and make a dedicated disk for it.
NTFS is bad (e.g. it fragments like a high-energy particle experiment at CERN), but FAT is evil. Windows is fragile enough without having to run on FAT or FAT32. IMHO, of course.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #145,992
3/12/04 11:36:40 PM
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LRPD!
"Fragments like a high-energy particle experiment at CERN"
I've never had even one problem with FAT32 on 98, 2k or XP. Really by this point, the FS choice is not a showstopper.
FAT32 does have the real advantage of being fast. Since Windows has no security anyway, I don't see any advantage to using NTFS on a home workstation.
The problem you're going to have is - you're going to get to like Linux and will be in it more and more, particularly if you like to program. Eventually you're going to get sick of NTFS I predict.
-drl
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Post #145,996
3/13/04 12:29:12 AM
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Re: I just want to resize an NTFS partition...
Doesn't the Xandros Desktop Deluxe version have NTFS tools built-in?
Also, look at BootIT-NG. [link|http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html|http://www.terabyteu...com/bootitng.html]
I've used it many times both shrinking and expanding NTFS partitions without a single hiccup.
Always defrag first :)
-----
Steve
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Post #146,030
3/13/04 5:09:09 PM
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Posting from Xandros v2 on T41 ThinkPad
Steve writes:
Doesn't the Xandros Desktop Deluxe version have NTFS tools built-in?
Yes, but on my attempt to install Xandros on another PC with a single NTFS partition, I got an error,
"Error Code 8004 - Free Space not contiguous" or something similar.
I then got a copy of "PerfectDisk v6" from [link|http://www.raxco.com/|http://www.raxco.com/] to defrag the disk (as Norton SpeedDisk didn't defragment the free space). It's a very nice defragger (it gets faster each time it's used, etc.), but it didn't give a single block of free space either (apparently due to the way NTFS is designed it can't). I gave up on using Xandros's NTFS tools for the install before trying it after the PD defrag. Perhaps it would have worked if I had been more persistent.
Also, look at [link|http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html|BootIT-NG].
I've used it many times both shrinking and expanding NTFS partitions without a single hiccup.
Always defrag first :)
Thanks for the reminder. I've also been happy with BootIt-NG - I've mentioned it here too. I tried using it briefly from a boot floppy, but was flummoxed by the choices; "Install BootIt-NG" and "Cancel". It wasn't clear what I should have done, so I gave up until today. (Hitting Cancel gets you the Maintenance menu where you can do the partition work.)
So I used the latest BootIt-NG from an ISO image, booted the T41 from it, shrunk the 55 GB NTFS partition to a 40 GB partition, leaving about 10 GB for Xandros. (The rest of the disk is taken by a hidden IBM recovery partition-like area that isn't easy to manipulate. Since I got the recovery CDs from IBM I may just wipe that space (somehow) if things get tight.) The Xandros install went fine.
Initial Impressions:
0) It is running the 2.4.22-x1 kernel (I guess x1 is Xandros's customization), and KDE 3.1.4.
1) The install is very well done. I didn't have to change any IRQ settings or mess with the BIOS to get it installed this far. (I might have to later to get the wireless stuff working.)
2) The screen is running at 1024x768x16 bits and looks pretty good. It'll apparently do 1280x1024x24 bits according to the Preferences. The hardware will do 1450x1024 IIRC.
3) I got a couple of warnings that the battery was running down even though it is nearly full. I assume it's a power management issue like deSitter's talked about.
4) The trackpad and eraser-head mouse both work fine.
5) Xandros doesn't support the 802.11a/b/g wireless networking hardware on this T41 (some sort of Philips thing if I remember correctly). I'll have to look around for the proper driver or get a PCMCIA/PCCard wireless card for it.
6) So far, it looks usable out of the box and I'm happy.
I haven't installed the other CD of applications yet, nor tried running Win---s apps yet. I'm interested in seeing how easy it is to make a gradual transition from Win---s.
I have no idea whether I would have had as much success using NTFSResize. This combination works well.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #146,033
3/13/04 6:06:27 PM
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Warnings
1) IMMEDIATELY recompile the kernel to support the Thinkpad PM driver
2) Turn off acpi control of the ATI driver! This may be fixed by now but I would not take chances. In an A31 the ATI driver went into a funky screen-glowing mode and fried the graphics chip.
3) You can get 1400x1050 res - the hardware antialiasing in the Thinkpad graphics is OK but 1400 is spectacular! You may have to manually set the DPI in the X server to 120.
-drl
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Post #146,034
3/13/04 6:27:31 PM
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Thanks.
I appreciate all your help with this over the last few weeks.
I've updated things using the Xandros Network but don't see anything about a Thinkpad specific power management driver. All Power Management functions (which seem to be limited to ACPI) are disabled or not enabled.
I'll carefully look around before trying to enable any power management functions and fancy video stuff. Since I won't have wireless networking working for a while, it'll be running off the wall power when I'm using Xandros.
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #146,053
3/13/04 8:12:32 PM
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Re: Thanks.
Well you have to be more agressive - turn on the power management and reboot it. It really works well once it's going other than the stupid ATI driver issue (again this may be fixed by now - no longer have one to futz with).
Processor Type and Features -> IBM ThinkPad Feauture Support
Of course turn off the others.
You should also turn off APM support in the kernel and enable ACPI and all the features as modules.
Note, I never use suspend to disk mode but in general I turn off the disk and PCMCIA and so on in idle mode, and even let screen blanking work (but NO SCREENSAVERS). The throttling mode on the mobile P4 works. In general everything worked great with semi-aggressive power management, and the battery meter was very accurate. This was one aspect of Linux on ThinkPad that was very nice. I had a sort of PITA with regard to USB latency on a 2.4.18 kernel but that has been fixed.
One thing I did was compile the Sun 12x22 console font directly into the VESA framebuffer device (don't use an ATI specific one even if it's there - the VESA performance is acceptable for the times you are in rl 3, and the larger font is great on the hi-res text screen (8x16 looks ridiculous). So you would enable frame buffer support and hard-enable the VESA framebuffer device. Of course disable text-stretch in the BIOS. The machine will boot to a 80x25 text console with a miniscule 8x16 font, get started and then blossom into this enormous full-screen terminal with the 12x22 font - this is just beautiful to see on boot.
In my distribution the groff configuration auto-formats the man pages for the higher text resolution - so these look beautiful on a console. You can also setfont to the small font and have like a 160x98 console and a text browser like w3m is actually usable. You can then reload the original font.
-drl
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