From: John H. Kim (jokim_at_jarthur.Claremont.EDU)
Date: Thu Dec 30 1993 - 12:09:49 EST
Hey Sean, forward this to the group and the new guy too.
> Forwarded message:
> From moore_at_cs.utk.edu Wed Dec 29 22:59:39 1993
>
> I've been struggling for several weeks to get my thinkpad up and
> running some flavor of UNIX. So far I've tried linux, freebsd,
> and netbsd, with no success. What I'm finding is that this machine
> is very incompatible with other [34]86 boxes, so the various
> UNIX-like operating systems won't talk to it.
>
> + the (2.88 mb) floppy controller is different. linux can't read
> from its floppy disk in order to install the rest of the system.
When I was installing a couple of optical floppy drives (21 MB) the
manuals mentioned something about the standard PC floppy controller
only capable of handing media up to 2MB, and for the 2.88MB and 21MB
floppies to work, you needed a specially designed floppy controller
or a SCSI controller. It may just be a matter of the Unixes you've
tried not supporting the 2.88 drive rather than IBM deliberately
making their floppy incompatible. The one Unix I tried (SCO UNIX)
booted off and recognized the floppy just fine.
> + the hard disk drive geometry is not in the eeprom, so systems
> that look there for the geometry will fail.
Someone mentioned many of the IBM desktop systems do this too.
Since this is the case, most software out there seem to have patches
to overcome this.
> + I have a Dock 1. I've tried plugging in an AT hard/floppy controller
> with a 1.44 Mb floppy attached (to get around the floppy drive problem).
> No matter what jumper settings, (either the primary or secondary
> controller addresses) the system will not boot with this installed.
Have you tried physically removing the 2.88 MB floppy when you try this?
> + I've also tried plugging in an external keyboard to the Dock 1's
> keyboard jack. That didn't work either...it's just ignored.
> (Naturally I don't have the "keyboard/mouse connector option"...so
> I can't connect it to the thinkpad's mouse jack.)
Try connecting it to the TP's PS/2/Mouse jack just to see if it works.
> + Either Linux doesn't recognize the scsi controller in the Dock 1,
> or it doesn't recognize the CDROM drive. What kind of SCSI controller
> is this? Is it compatible with anybody else?
Give IBM's 800 support line a call (800-772-2227). You paid lots of
money for the machine and the support. Use it.
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