X200t was (and is) a nice shape-shifting tablet PC with digitizer pen
support. I originally run Fedora "Design Suite" spin but subsequently
switched to Debian/Trisquel.
I had five of them and shared (gave away) two with my friends. One's
motherboard damaged and was thus unusable, so I have
May I suggest some free (as in freedom) plotting software such as SciDAVis...
Indeed, my lab used to be locked in certain age-old proprietary (and also
closed-source) junk software in order to do certain dirty jobs ("thanks to"
the secret proprietary data file structure and format).
What I
Please note that each model of USB WLAN adapter has different hardware
revisions, which may use completely different chipsets from different
vendors.
And also obviously your USB WLAN adapter is not from Atheros and therefore
cannot be supported by Trisquel.
For more details, see
For light-weight browser, QupZilla is recommended (and also by gnu.org).
For light-weight desktop environment, why do I feel that MATE is even lighter
than Xfce... One fact is that Xubuntu is beginning to use certain MATE
components.
PS, I am running Trisquel on a twelve years old
Not only the Unites States, don't forget the so-called "Free Trade
Agreements". USA can impose draconian laws like DMCA on other countries.
Of course LXDE/LXQt is lighter, but MATE is light enough.
I run Trisquel 8 (default settings) on a twelve years old ThinkPad Z61t and
everything is smooth enough.
My only concern is that libdvdcss might violate DMCA (Domination by Media
Company Act) in the United States...
So be careful to enable it by default.
PureOS was just endorsed recently and the project started nearly 10 years
before.
So just wait FSF's formal endorsement...
That Canonical abandoned Unity is actually a good thing for Unity and its
users. Canonical did even more damage to software freedom than Microsoft.
(RMS almost always criticized Canonical/Ubuntu in his talks.)
There are quite a few Unity forks that worth trying.
I do have some suggestions if you need the graphics performance.
4th or 5th generation Core processors' graphics still require no proprietary
blobs. So search for such a processor with Iris (Pro) graphics. For example,
my gaming notebook uses an i7-4750HQ with Iris Pro 5200, and I Plan to
Any Intel HD Graphics starting Skylake (6th generation intelligent Core
processor) require non-free firmware, so does HD630.
Admittedly, Ubuntu can be "easy to use" or "user friendly" as advertised by
Canonical.
But what did Canonical tell the users? Freedom is less important than
convenience? Or it is wise to give up freedom for the "user experience"?
Indeed, Canonical and Ubuntu has corrupted countless free
Stay away from 6th generation Intel Core (Skylake) platform, whose audio and
graphics both require non-free blobs.
Also stay away from Nvidia's Maxwell architecture (GT(X)7x0) or newer,
because of some nasty firmware (anti-)feature.
Also stay away from Intel's ULV processors starting 4th
I am also interested in another X series Tablet model. The X60t with 64-bit
processor and SXGA+ screen. If there is a 3rd antenna, all the better.
Though the 945 series motherboard only support 3 GiB RAM, I still want a
64-bit processor.
The latest SuperTuxKart does have OpenGL hardware support requirements for
the GPU. For Intel integrated graphics, HD3000 (Sandy Bridge) is the minimal
requirement. When I try to use any older hardware (e.g. Nehalem) to play STK,
the game simply crashes.
I am curious about that your GPU
For Windows users, I would like to suggest Rufus (GPL v3+) for Live USB media
preparation. It rarely fails for most operating system images.
However, in order to boot GNU/Linux on latest computers (full of
anti-features), you will first need to enter the UEFI settings and disable
Secure
If you installed the game from Trisquel 8's official repository, then it is
probably an older version.
I simply downloaded the latest tar.xz package from SourceForge and extracted
it, cd to its subdirectory and run the rungame.sh script.
I recently purchased an Nth-hand 1st-gen ThinkPad Helix (IvyBridge) and
flashed the official firmware with the latest embedded controller (EC), for
there is currently no coreboot support for this model.
Then I wanted to purge the preloaded Losedows after updating the firmware.
Strangely,
Congratulations. I always want to use the latest version rather than older
versions in the official repository, especially for an LTS distribution like
Trisquel. This is why I prefer Debian testing. There are some "non-official"
proprietary firmware hosted on Debian's mirror servers and this
UPDATE: Problem solved. This is because certain unknown defect of the
keyboard base. I purchased another Helix and successfully installed Trisquel
(Legacy BIOS mode) using the good new keyboard base.
I once booted Mint using UEFI mode and subsequently installed it. But owing
(thanks) to
You "wouldn't mind doing it" by yourself? Excellent. Then stop talking and do
it.
You'll surely encounter "problems that need weird solutions". But don't try
to avoid failure. By avoiding failure you avoid success as well.
Congratulations. Here is another idea. I remember that 15-inch T60 models use
same motherboard as 14-inch models. I wonder whether is it possible to
migrate one 945GM board to the 15-inch T60p. The UXGA (1600*1200) screens are
really cool. And I remember that some R50p models use QXGA
My lab's public workstations are diskless. Users bring their HDD or SSD and
connect them to the eSATA port.
I did purchase one diskless TerranForce barebone and subsequently installed
HDD by myself. Of course, the barebone came with original HDD bracket and
screws.
But the problem is that very few users are willing to even reinstall the
preloaded operating system. They usually don't replace
I use GNU Octave's "video" package to process each frame mathematically...
The best way is to compile from the source code or manually install the
pre-built binary package from the project's site, even if the latest version
of a game is available in the distribution's official repository. By doing
so, you have more flexibility.
I believe they are the same model. Even not, you can still use external
display. Be sure that the graphics adapter is Intel 945GM and not ATI
Mobility Radeon X1x00.
Once you have flashed coreboot/libreboot, the whitelist of WLAN is no more,
so you can replace a much better WLAN adapter
I don't know what is Facebook, Twitter of Google. I'm form China...
If you like X series form factor and also want high resolution screen, I
would like to suggest S1 Yoga (or simply ThinkPad Yoga, Haswell platform).
I do have one S1 Yoga which is based on Haswell ULV CPU. But it doesn't have
Boot Guard, which is a very rare exception.
Specification: i7
Why is it so hard to find coreboot-capable devices? The major obstacle is
Boot Guard, which renders modifying firmware totally impossible. Minor
obstacles might include proprietary secret firmware design.
I am not sure whether all ThinkPad Yogas don't have BG enabled, because I
simply
This is a joke that can be found on gnu.org
There is no ethical issue as long as the package is free (as in freedom).
I went to the marketplace this afternoon. I saw one ThinkPad Yoga for about
$360 USD.
i5 4300U, no BG
8 GiB RAM
250 GB SSD
12.5-in 1080p FHD IPS with digitizer pen support
Both X220 and X230 support up to 16 GiB RAM and are ideal for coreboot. The
main difference is that X230 has native USB 3.0 whereas X220 not.
Starting Haswell (4th generation Core), Intel implemented a treacherous
anti-feature called "Boot Guard". So it's impossible to change the firmware
Lightspark might work. But the best way to deal with Flash apps is to
redirect them to /dev/null
If you really want OMEMO support, then you have to stick to Gajim.
If OMEMO is optional, then you'll have many more options, e.g. Pidgin and
Psi-plus, both with OTR support.
Response to your questions:
1, i7 version of X220 does have a USB 3.0, but not a native one, so there
might be some compatibility issues.
2, As I said, starting Haswell, Intel implemented an anti-feature named "Boot
Guard". I believe that there might be very few models with Boot Guard not
Hackers in my local community have already upgraded X230's screen to up to
2560*1440. Even higher resolutions (e.g. 3840*2160, a.k.a. 4k screen) are
theoretically possible. The cost is the express card slot.
As for touch screens, I have found a way to globally disable the touching but
not
Whether you can flash coreboot depends not only on the motherboard
manufacturer. Don't you know the (in)famous Boot Guard?
Just find a compatible board with appropriate chipsets from coreboot's wiki
and search it on eBay or Taobao.
Forget the official repository, download the latest package from the
project's website, and then follow the instructions to install it.
Even if we manage to reverse-engineer the proprietary games to make them
playable using free software, they are still proprietary, because their
copyright holders don't re-license it under free licenses. And I don't think
Gnash or free emulators, etc. can be solutions to the ultimate
As long as the fonts are vectorized, it doesn't really matter if the scaling
factor is integer or fractional.
If you want hardware guide, search "model hardware maintenance manual". If
you want firmware guide, search the coreboot's wiki.
I haven't flashed coreboot on my Yogas, because
If possible, replace the Intel WLAN adapter with an Atheros one (no firmware
needed). Otherwise purchase one "ath9k-htc" USB model, whose firmware is free
(as in freedom).
I really know how to enable non-Atheros WLAN adapters (require non-free
firmware) on GNU/Linux distributions with
Once I had an Acer notebook. I had to first setup a supervisor password
before I could change other security settings including Secure (Restricted)
Boot.
For more information, see the "Secure Boot vs. Restricted Boot" campaign at
FSF:
Please note that "open source" means nothing. Non-free software can be "open
source" too. See RMS's article "Why open source misses the point".
If you want to play certain games, NVIDIA graphics card are by far the best.
This is because AMD (ATI) never developed free/libre driver/firmware
If you always need latest software, then Trisquel (as a fixed-releasing
distrobution) is not very suitable. Switching to Debian testing/unstable may
be better. Avoid using the non-official images with non-free firmware or
adding contrib or non-free repositories and you'll have a free/libre
Until Maxwell GM1xx, NVIDIA was good. Even the best blob-free Intel
integrated graphics, Iris Pro, are not good enough for gaming. Therefore I
recommend GTX750Ti (GM107) to gamers.
Linux-libre project's webpage has better explanation about firmware and
blobs.
To choose a GPU for gaming, go to the following wikipedia pages:
GeForce 700 series
GeForce 800M series
GeForce 900 series
Stay away from GM2xx or any newer architecture such as Pascal (GPxxx). Just
use nouveau
Obviously the card you purchased is NOT Lenovo's original FRU part and
therefore not authorized by Lenovo's BIOS.
Here is what you need: A half-height AR2425 with this FRU: 43Y6511. Just
search "43Y6511" on eBay and you should find some.
Note: This card supports the following ThinkPad
Trisquel follows the fixed (LTS) release model. But this doesn't mean that
you have to use whatever is in the official repository. You can download and
install the latest version of LibreOffice manually.
To install LibreOffice manually, just download the tarball, extract it,
change the
There IS an Atheros WLAN card usable on T400 (authorized by Lenovo).
It is, however, a low-end AR2425 model.
I can search for its FRU ID for you so you can purchase one if needed.
For GNU/Linux, you need to install exfat-fuse (and optionally exfat-utils).
For Windows, you need at least Vista (already obsolete).
For OS X, I know nothing.
To install exFAT support, try this command in terminal:
sudo apt install exfat-fuse exfat-utils
For drives less than 2 TiB, you can choose either GPT or MBR. For drives
greater than 2 TiB, you have to use GPT. Forget the rotten Apple's partition
table.
Before running dd, always run "sudo lsblk" to see which device file
corresponds to the USB storage.
If you have difficulties in using command line interface, try some GUI
programs that respect your freedom. e.g. Etcher, which is recommended by FSF.
Of course T420. Better CPU and GPU, up to 16 GiB RAM, up to 3 disk drives,
larger battery...
Now I'm trying to liberate T440p and T540p with Intel's integrated graphics,
the last generation of ThinkPad Classic without Boot Guard.
"Always works" is a false generalization.
Some legacy iso images have no partition table. If you burn it to a CD/DVD,
it works perfectly. If you write it to a USB key using dd, it won't boot,
because there is no partition table on the USB key. If you run # lsblk,
you'll see /dev/sdx as a
Since Trisquel is based on Ubuntu, the workarounds found on "askubuntu"
should work.
It seems that whether MATE is lighter than Xfce depends on the window
manager.
According to my experience, the minimalist MATE in Debian is very
lightweight. It also gives the best battery life. But if Compiz window
manager is used (as in Ubuntu MATE or Fedora MATE spin), the entire
You have much better options.
Most ThinkPad X series tablets and certain S series yoga models support
free/libre firmware (coreboot).
Available models include X41t, X60t, X61t, X200t, X201t, X220t, X230t, X1
Helix (1st gen. with IvyBridge CPU) and S1 Yoga (1st gen. with Haswell CPU).
All
Once I heard that certain Realtek WLAN adapters do work on free/libre
distributions like Trisquel. Does this mean that such models have been
"reverse engineered" (i.e. free firmware available)?
I use KDE on a free/libre Debian system (without any non-free firmware). It
never recommends non-free software. What is your distribution? Maybe you can
manually check the repository setting file(s).
Once I had one Acer ultrabook with mSATA and SATA drives. The "legacy" mode
boot list didn't contain the mSATA option, so if I wished to boot from the
mSATA SSD, I had to use UEFI mode (the ESP can be on either SSD or HDD).
I believe what you described was something similar: restrictions by
Sorry. I already deleted Gnome after testing the snap plugin (and
subsequently re-installed MATE). Would you mind testing it using a virtual
machine by yourself? (Note: without its contrib or non-free repo, Debian can
be considered free/libre.)
Again, I agree that we need a graphical
I searched for "libbiblesync" at packages.debian.org
It is only available in stable (stretch) and unstable (sid) branches.
Obviously it is (being) deprecated.
The package "gnome-software-plugin-snap" is in the "main" repository of
Debian.
It is just not installed by default. I wonder what would happen if I install
it manually.
If it does recommend any non-free software, I would like to report this as a
freedom issue to Debian.
I am currently using Debian testing (buster) with Gnome (3.28) DE. The snap
package plugin is absent, and Gnome Software doesn't recommend non-free
software. However, it does provide a long list of installable free software.
The command
dpkg -l | grep snap
gives nothing.
It seems that
Just before I tried to install "gnome-software-plugin-snap", I carefully
checked my "/etc/apt/sources.list" file again to make sure that both
"contrib" and "non-free" repositories were disabled.
After installing the Snap package plugin, I restarted the system and then
browsed each
Snap is a bug, not a feature. So is Ubuntu (or Canonical)...
And I was extremely disappointed when I upgraded my (manually liberated) Mint
18.3 to 19. The updater program automatically re-installed many non-free
software, firmware and even codecs without my consent. It also re-enabled the
I use almost exclusively hibernation (vs. suspending or shutting down). I can
pause the computing process and then dump the memory to internal disk (when I
have to leave my current location). When I arrive at my new location, I can
resume my mobile workstation and commence the computing.
I still manage several workstations in my lab. I plan to replace the
originally installed Mint with Trisquel 8.
The standard Trisquel installer with MATE should be good. Though I don't
actually need a DE, some students may have difficulties with the terminal.
Thank you very much for the clarification. It seems that the (non-free)
firmware is not absolutely necessary for those cards.
Next, I may want to find a Realtek card and see whether it works with Debian
testing with deblobbed Linux 4.16.x kernel.
I installed a copy of Debian testing with Gnome 3.28 in a virtual machine.
Both contrib and non-free repositories are disabled.
Even with gnome-software-plugin-snap installed, Gnome Software in Debian
doesn't recommend any non-free software, as previously reported. So in a
correctly
"Open Source" is a misconception. So is "FOSS" or "FLOSS". Why not just say
"free/libre software"?
M$ can only buy influence over Linux (since it became a platinum member of
Linux Foundation), but never GNU.
Confusing "Linux" with "GNU/Linux" is a grave mistake. And those "Open
Source"
Trisquel is 100% free/libre and Fedora is 99% free. Fedora doesn't reject
non-free blobs so it could "support" more hardware, mostly notably those
awkwardly designed non-Atheros WLAN adapters.
I remember that FSFLA (who presents Linux-libre kernel) has deblobed versions
of Fedora and
There is a workaround: remove the optical drive and purchase a 2nd HDD
adapter, and subsequently install the HDD with Trisquel in said adapter. T420
accepts optical drives/2nd HDD adapters with thickness up to 12.7 mm, so
every SATA-based HDD adapter fits in its optical drive bay (Ultrabay
For the 4-series chipset based systems including X200, T400 and W500 series,
you have to use 2R*8 4-GiB (SO)DIMMs (those with 16 chips, not 8). For
frequency, the chipset supports DDR3-1066 (PC8500), but higher frequencies
(PC10600 or PC12800) are also accepted. For voltage, the chipset
There is no back-lid keyboard for T400 series. However, you can try to DIY
one.
I think the first ThinkPad with a back-lid keyboard is the X1 (not Carbon).
Later X230, T430 and W530 series introduced optional back-lid keyboard. They
support both Think Light (the last generation having
RMS warned us more than 20 years ago. See "Right to Read".
Try to clean or replace the SO-DIMM module(s). T420/s accepts almost every
DDR3/L SO-DIMM.
The "white list" seems to be a loadable module of the original UEFI firmware.
Since T420/s doesn't have Boot Guard, you can simply remove the white list
module and then install ath9k. This should work on every UEFI-based ThinkPad
without Boot Guard.
For UEFI-based ThinkPads, the white list restriction is a loadable UEFI
module. Since T420 doesn't have Boot Guard, it's very possible to remove the
white list restriction.
The easy way is to download an official UEFI firmware image. Then edit it and
remove the white list module.
An external programmer is required. Basically, you'll need to compile a
coreboot firmware image, then disassemble your notebook and flash the
firmware image externally.
Your "MU10N" optical drive produced by LG is a combo drive, not a DVD burner.
To burn DVDs (be it DVD+R or DVD-R or their re-writable variants), you need a
DVD-RW drive. A combo drive can only read DVDs, because it's a combination of
CD-RW and DVD-ROM.
Most Dell computers don't have white-list restrictions for WLAN adapters. So
just purchase one Atheros WLAN card and replace the original Intel one with
it. Non-free firmware is not needed for Atheros WLAN cards.
Just uninstall some old kernel image(s). First try this command:
# apt autoremove
If those cannot be automatically deleted, you can try Synaptic package
manager. You can also try to search something like "ubuntu delete old kernel"
or "debian delete old kernel" on the web.
Typically, I use
I do have separate /boot and /home partitions. On UEFI-based systems, I have
both /boot and /boot/efi (ESP) partitions.
Your Intel 3945 card is a full-height, Mini-PCIe card, so just pick up a
Mini-PCIe Atheros card. Full-height or half-height doesn't matter, because
you can optionally buy one half-height to full-height Mini-PCIe converter,
too.
For the Atheros card model, you can go to wikidevi.com to
Regarding "the rest of the disk for /home", I don't see so many drawbacks.
Most "average users" are highly unlikely to re-partition their HDD/SSD. They
tend to accept and keep whatever they are provided.
Beware the hardware revision number. See wikidevi.com for details.
Conversations no longer supports OTR encryption. So if you want to use OTR,
you'll need to choose Xabber, PixArt, or Conversations Legacy.
If possible, replace the built-in Broadcom card with an Atheros ath5k/9k (but
not Qualcomm Atheros ath10k), then you no longer need to load non-free
firmware.
If not possible (probably because of "white-list" restrictions of the
firmware), then purchase one ath9k_htc USB WLAN adapter. It
Here's my partitioning schemes:
MBR partition table, BIOS/Legacy boot firmware:
/, /boot, /home, swap
GPT partition table, BIOS/Legacy boot firmeare:
bios boot, /, /boot, /home, swap
GPT partition table, UEFI boot firmware:
/boot/efi, /, /boot, /home, swap
So 4 or 5 partitions are more than
I would prefer Intel's MLC SSDs because they are extremely durable. See
ark.intel.com for product details.
X200 doesn't support SATA 6 Gbps, so an old Intel MLC is perfect fit (not
very fast but very durable). I recommend the Intel Pro 1500 series 180 GB
model.
I did simple searches on packages.debian.org and packages.ubuntu.com. There
was no up-to-date meta package named "gnome-desktop" in Debian. However, I
did find a meta package named "ubuntu-gnome-desktop" in its "universe"
repository. Try to install it and you should have Gnome 3. Once
Thanks for clarification. Yet I'm still not sure whether is it possible to
(directly) install (meta) packages from Debian on an Ubuntu-based
distribution.
The gnome meta package from Debian should be "vanilla" (original).
First, I'd like to install and run xinput to see whether the input device(s)
is(are) detected. If yes, follow said link to modify the configuration file.
You can also optionally enable or disable input device(s) using xinput.
I routinely use Debian (without non-free firmware or non-free
If your T60's CPU is a 32-bit one (e.g. T1x00 or T2x00), you can replace it
with a 64-bit one (T5600 or T7200 is recommended).
There is also a 32-bit NetInstall image for 32-bit platforms. In the download
page, click the "More" link (just below the Sugar TOAST option) to reveal the
T450 has Boot Guard. It's impossible to replace the UEFI firmware. And this
renders it also impossible to remove the white list restrictions for WLAN
cards. Stay away from it.
T450 "can" be corebooted and have ME cleaned only if you have access to
Lenovo's private key to sign the firmware image. With Boot Guard, as soon as
the system detects that the firmware image is not signed with the
manufacturer's private key, it is immediately forcibly powered off.
In the X200/X201 HMM part list section, there is only one WLAN card from
Atheros, namely FRU number 43Y6511. It's a very-low-end AR2425 half-height
card. Unfortunately, this card is only usable on X200/s series. You can see
the supported machine model list in the mail column of the table.
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