Slackware Linux on the IBM Thinkpad 560X |
| All rights reserved. 1. InstallationThe best way to install Slackware Linux 10 is to use the root/boot floppies combined with the rest of Slackware on a USB flash drive.Here is the procedure:
My own Linux partition of about 3.5 gigs. I also created a Linux Swap partition of 500 megs. I did a nearly full install in a 3.5 gig partition (0.5 gigs for swap) leaving out Gnome, KDE, Emacs, and TeX, and I had 2.3 gigs free afterwards. 2. Drivers2.1. VideoThe 560X has a Neomagic Corporation NM2160 MagicGraph 128X.2.1.1. X WindowsX seems to find the NM2160 and recognize it -- it's not clear however that there's any acceleration.2.1.2. FramebufferThe framebuffer driver neofb.c does not seem to work with the NM2160. However the standard VESA driver works with it just fine and is pretty fast.The 560X is the original system that I created FBUI for, which is my in-kernel GUI. It uses the VESA mode.
To set the VESA mode in LILO to get the framebuffer console,
set the video mode in lilo.conf as
2.2. SoundThe sound chip is the CS4237b. To use it, run alsaconf, which will search for a card and not find one. When it asks you to perform an ISA search, say yes. The cs4236 driver works. There's no need to search all DMAs. Alsaconf will configure the card for use, at which point mpg123 will work.2.3. APM
The 560X is too old to support ACPI. 2.4. Hard driveI upgraded my 560X with a 40 gig Fujitsu drive. Linux handles it just fine and can see the entire thing. DOS can only see the first 6 gigs or so. You should upgrade the BIOS to the final version in order to see the 6 gigs. Win98 can see all 40 gigs, but often bombs when trying to write beyond the 6 gig threshold.2.5. USBFlash works like a charm. Haven't tried printing.2.6. Printing via lp0Catting a file to lp0 is the method I have always used for printing. It requires of course connecting the parallel cable.3. Performance3.1. Video3.1.1. X WindowsX is reasonably fast in and of itself. However it has the potential to use a lot of RAM, and for that reason you should upgrade to the full 96MB of RAM.Even upgraded to the maximum RAM and fast hard drive, big bloated browsers like Firefox or Mozilla are still slow. The best choice for web browsing is Konqueror. OpenOffice and GIMP are not super speedy but are perfectly usable. 3.1.2. FramebufferMy FBUI in-kernel GUI is very fast in VESA mode.One thing that's odd about the video on this system is that VESA memory reads take much longer than writes, so scrolling in not superfast. 3.1.3. MoviesSmall movies play well using Xine. The computer is too old to play Divx-encoded films.3.2. Hard drivePerformance of my 40GB Fujitsu hard drive is:From hdparm -T: /dev/hda: Timing buffer-cache reads: 160 MB in 2.02 seconds = 79.22 MB/sec hdparm -t: /dev/hda: Timing buffered disk reads: 46 MB in 3.00 seconds = 15.33 MB/sec It's always good to put these in your /etc/rc.d/rc.0 : /usr/sbin/hdparm -f /dev/hda [flush the hard drive cache] /usr/sbin/hdparm -S 1 /dev/hda [get it to spin down ASAP] 3.3. ProcessorRunning the BYTE drystone 2 without register variables, which is at http://www.anime.net/~goemon/benchmarks.html, I get:TEST BASELINE RESULT INDEX Dhrystone 2 without register variables 22366.3 303330.6 13.6 Arithmetic Test (type = double) 2541.7 40989.2 16.1 Arithmetic Test (type = float) 40977.8 lps (10 secs, 6 samples) Arithmetic Test (type = long) 36037.0 lps (10 secs, 6 samples) Recursion Test--Tower of Hanoi 6228.4 lps (10 secs, 6 samples) 4. ManualYou've been searching for the hardware maintenance manual, and here it is: 560xhmm.pdfIf that link is dead, search google for 560Xhmm.pdf. 5. Thinkpad-specific links
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