[sf-lug] ThinkPad Type 2611-410 Model AA-D296F

[Asheesh Laroia]

On Mon, 12 Nov 2007, Alex Kleider wrote:

> Thanks to all who are trying to help.
> Although I acknowledge not giving enough info initially (out of my own
> ignorance) but subsequently I did. It's in the "Subject" for what it's
> worth.

Cool.

> Rick, I found this model described in the site you led me to (thank you
> for that- it never ceases to amaze me how you can pull those out from
> where ever you have them!) and there's not much more there than:
> P266MMX(512kb)
> 32MB RAM ((I've max'ed it out now))
> 3.2GB 12.1 SVGA TFT
> 20x56K(Int) Win98
> 12.1" SVGA TFT
> I assume the 20x56K(Int) refers to the cd drive.

20x is the CD drive and 56K is the modem, probably.

ThinkWiki may have better info (Google for ThinkWiki if you don't already 
know it) than what you pasted, now that we have more details to work from.

> I'm not sure any of this is useful in the current context.

Me neither, but we can learn more about the details of the drive through 
further research if we care to.

> I tried the ide="0x180,0x386"
> and the  ide=nodma   options to no avail.
>
> because it never finishes the init process I never get a prompt to
> allow me to try your suggestion, Asheesh, hdparm -d0 /dev/hdc
> Did you mean to imply that you also believe that the problem is
> probably a bad CD drive?

Yes, that's what I meant.  Even if it's not strictly broken, Linux might 
be allergic to it (though that's pretty rare these days).  Maybe it 
doesn't like CD-Rs or something.

But seriously, here's my advice: Just take the hard drive out, do an 
install of Ubuntu from some other laptop with a working hard drive, and 
put the hard drive back in the older laptop.  Or even use a 2.5" to 3.5" 
hard drive adapter, which cost like five bucks, and do the install in a 
desktop with a known-excellent CD reader.

I'll be back in San Francisco (currently in Tokyo for some odd reason) 
Saturday at 9am if you want a hand doing things that way.  I'd be happy to 
help; I love seeing older hardware run well.

-- Asheesh.

--
If you explain so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody will.