Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Thanks again :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Excellent. If you have any questions about Libreboot, you can ask on #libreboot IRC in freenode
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Thanks for your hard work, Leah. Just flashed libreboot on my x60 and everything works flawlessly. Looking forward to your x220 port.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Update on the wifi: I was sent a replacement wifi card, which I installed tonight. Problem solved! The speeds are where they should be now. Update on battery: I was also sent a replacement battery that looks like it will last more than 4 hours in my initial test, as I write this. :) It's working great. Thanks again Leah!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
English Trisquel GNU/Linux users forum -- Libreboot T400 Review! https://trisquel.info/de/forum/libreboot-t400-review-0
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Thank you for your review.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I've also lowered the price of the 2nd extra batteries to 25 EUR (previously it was 98 EUR). So now you can get a few hours of extra freedom too :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I've re-added the 8GiB RAM option on Minifree's T400 product. They too were hard to find, but a lot of people were asking about them - I therefore went to every supplier I could find and bought 8GiB RAM upgrade kits. So now you can get 8GiB of freedom :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Thanks for the shipment!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Just wanted to give an update and a bit of thanks to Leah for always responding energetically to any hiccups I've had. We've remained in touch and she's sending me a replacement battery and wifi card so that my setup is the best it can be. It's been great having a personal touch like this. I've been enjoying the system. You couldn't keep me off it this past weekend! Having this system, the most libre I've ever had, has really reminded me of what empowerment we can have with our digital tools, especially when open and not obfuscated by companies seeking to restrict and take beyond the initial sale. The vibe is totally different. I don't have to feel suspicious about my own computer LOL!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
hi ariella, I replied to the individual, telling them I'd send them another T400. They indeed should have working speakers. I know why their speakers don't work... I'm dealing with it for them. ~Leah
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I can't confirm that that is true because the sound works fine on my Minifree T400 received recently, even after all current updates.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Hi Newgnu, Actually, sound out of the speakers should work perfectly. I've had a word with my employee who set up your laptop and told him: test the speakers before shipping laptops. He was testing everything else, but overlooked the speakers. This won't happen again. If you want working sound: email me telling me your order number, and that your speakers don't work; I will ship you a whole new T400. I will pay for the cost of you returning the T400 that you initially received. ~Leah
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Yup, that's it. My DAC isn't much bigger than the USB wireless dongles I won't need any more once I find a bit of quality time to spend with Mr. Screwdriver. :) It was under $5. You probably have better sources for such things than I do, but they aren't hard to find and Neil Young would be smiling and saying, "Better late than never. Thanks, Leah." Who knows, maybe he's right and our improved sound quality really will make us better and happier people.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Pardon me, but I believe that is normal, a tradeoff for freedom, and nothing to be concerned about. There is non-free firmware that has been disabled. I have a small usb dongle for my librebooted X60 tablets that I use when I want to play music. It is called a digital-to-analog converter and you get better sound that way anyway. I'm having trouble finding the relevant info in the Libreboot docs right now but I'm sure Leah will be around shortly to link you to it. hth
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but my newly received libreboot T400 only has sound working for headphones but not for the built-in speakers. The only thing I've done since I received it is change the locale to french and update everything through the software updater, I haven't tested sound before that unfortunately. The updater asked me something about what to do with the custom config of grub if I remember well but being a gnu beginner and not being sure what to do I just selected the default proposed, keep the custom config I think (instead of using the maintainer config or other options). No idea if this is related to my sound problem or if I chose well either. I've checked that speakers are not muted in system parameters and with the alsamixer terminal command. The sound icon on the bottom right is not muted either. I've tried sudo alsa force-reload as proposed somewhere else but no effect even after reboot. I attached the result of a few suggested terminal commands that I tried to show some information. There is this automute thing enabled that I don't understand in alsamixer but disabling it didn't solve my problem (I did not try rebooting after disabling it though). Thanks in advance !
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
UPS collected earlier today, so your laptop has now shipped. Check the tracking number that I gave you. It should arrive some time next week.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
My laptop is shipping today :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I had a Surface RT and rather liked it. It was nice to use with Windows 8. After about 3 years I gave it to my nephew who uses it for homework, drawing etc.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Crazy glued everything back together. Crack sealed, accident resolved lol.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Microsoft even used something similar for a while on their awful Surface RT tablets. That has been dropped as well.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I had to install xinput first, but it works like in Mint. Touchpad adjusted. :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
After I installed all software updates (first time since receiving the laptop), the right-edge scroll touch zone is working too. Awesome!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Yes, on average we ship batteries that are about 50Wh, often more. 3+ hours is what you should expect from the new battery. I'll email you as soon as I've shipped it.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I'm testing some batteries for you now. I'll make sure to ship you a good one. Due to high order volume we go by best estimation and probability of reliability; we don't usually ship bad batteries. Your replacement battery will be sent out via UPS, like the original laptop. Though, you probably won't have to pay customs since it's a low-value shipment (by currency value).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I use a T400 myself and don't really notice any issues (and I'm a heavy user of the keyboard). Trisquel 7, by default, disables the "tap" feature that would let you tap the touchpad to perform a click. So it's less likely that you would have that issue with accidentally moving the cursor.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
A shame that Apple's MagSafe Connector didn't catch on as an industry standard. Even Apple has abandoned it.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
How's the trackpad? Every GNU/Linux distro (fully free or otherwise) that I've tried makes the trackpad frustratingly sensitive. Whereas with Windows, MacOS, or ChromeOS you could use the computer normally, on GNU/Linux it's common for accidental or incidental contact with the trackpad, especially while typing, to cause the cursor to lurch away from where it had been.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Yes, that's definitely not right. I'll ship another wifi chip along with your battery, with instructions for how to install it. (if you break anything when installing it, I'll fix it for free. It's easier this way than sending it back through customs)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Also, I click my way to standbye, via Launcher--Power Off--Suspend, it won't wake back up no matter what I try. Keys, mouse, open close lid, pressing power button, nothing. I have to hold the power button down for several seconds to force shut down and reboot.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I'm also noticing that closing the lid of the T400 doesn't put it into standby, but powers it off completely. In System Settings I have it set to "suspend" but it's powering off. (This was before I damaged it LOL.) Any ideas?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I am such a clumsy idiot. My foot caught the power cord this morning and pulled the laptop off my coffee table. It hit the floor on the edge of the screen and now the frame around the display has a crack in the top right. Sigh. Need to buy some plastics glue to repair it.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
That's the spec of the chips yeah. I seem to only be getting 2 Mbps according to http://speedof.me/ . The USB dongle is giving 30 Mbps.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
You should be getting speeds of about 20-30 Mbps or more, depending on your network, ISP etc 400Kbps definitely doesn't sound right
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I've played with my router all that I know how to: changing to either B, G or N only modes, mixed modes, channel width frequency set to 20mhz instead of auto, tried different channels and the results are all the same with the internal wifi. Throughout those I gave the TP USB dongle speed tests as well, and it's holding steady at much higher speeds. So I can rule out the router as the culprit. I've tried booting the T400 with a live disk of Mint 18 in case it had different drivers, but it loads the same wifi driver. I'm next going to see if I can learn about configuration settings. Maybe there's something I can tweak. I've noticed others across the web lamenting about slowness for that particular chipset in different laptops, and for some a kernel update solved it, but those updates were for 2.6 updates, and this T400 with Trisquel 7 has 3.x versions. Maybe it's just the nature of the thing, but can you do wifi speed tests on other T400s in stock to see if they behave the same way? I'm curious to see if they can beat 400 kilobytes/s download speeds.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
That's great, thanks!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
At the time of writing (20 June 2017, 2.40AM): we have 5 laptops packed, 7 laptops configured (but not packed), and another 10 flashed. I'm working over the next few hours and my employee gets here at 6AM - if you haven't received shipment notification yet, you will soon. We are indeed busy. I'll email you as soon as yours ships :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Thanks :) I'll get your order shipped as quickly as possible.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I was working on improvements to Libreboot's hosting infrastructure during the weekend, but my employee is working overtime at the moment so I should be able to ship out your battery soon. I looked up my records, and I think I know who you are; I've added a note to my outgoing shipments list, telling me to ship you a battery ASAP.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Thank you so much for doing this. Just ordered mine yesterday! Great to see these freedom loving machines getting some exposure.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Aw, that's very thoughtful. Let's not act on the wifi just yet. I want to try a few more things. As for the battery, there is a more urgent need for that and I appreciate the help. :)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Hi ariella, Email me your order number and I'll ship you another battery. Regarding the wifi, I'm unsure; use your USB dongle for the time being, but if you'd like I can also send you a new wifi chip to install - with full installation instructions (installing it will not void your warranty). ~Leah
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Minifree T400 Review! If pressed for time, scroll down to SUMMARY for bullet points. I've received the basic config model of Minifree's T400 laptop today and wanted to share some experience on the ordering, receipt, out of box, initial setup, and performance testing. First some info on me so you know who had these experiences. :) I've used GNU/Linux off and on for work or home since about 2000. I'm no pro, but I know my way around and can install/config most things. My main build at home is a built-myself-for-the-first-time tower running an i5 quad core with Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon, and dual booting into Windows 10 to play Overwatch and ESO. I also have a 3 year old Lenovo G505s, one of those $400 intro models with an AMD A8 APU. It's literally falling apart lol. Entry level things are so plastic and creaky. It runs Mint 18.1 like a champ too, although better with XFCE. I'm new to Libreboot/Free software, having been one of the dullards who used to confuse OSS for FS. Not anymore. Having woken up and everything to liberty, security, privacy and wanting to get out from under corporation's feet, getting a free software machine was a great idea! I used Trisquel 7 in a VM for a while to make sure I could hit the ground running, and then ordered from Minifree. ===Ordering=== The web store is easy to use. It's easy to choose a spec and get an order placed. ===Payment=== Minifree prefers bank transfers/wires, and mine only took 24h. On the downside, my bank charged a $30 transfer fee. Apparently there were other services I could have used like Transferwise that would have been cheaper. ===Shipping=== Shipping time was within the policy document despite a big surge of new orders. Well done! Whenever I had questions about this, responses were quick and candid. ===Receipt=== The laptop arrived very quickly. It was delivered over the weekend in like 3 days. I'm amazed. I have an order from the UK for a game that is on its second week and hasn't arrived yet. Minifree sure knows how to pick the best options! Sadly, I got hit with a customs charge of $62 CAD. I don't know why given it's a used machine, but it might be because it came packaged with a document labeled "commercial invoice" and the box description was listed as "laptop". I have no idea how these things work. This T400 is from what, 2009? Would I have escaped the charge if it was listed, "used 2009 laptop" ? Dunno. ===Packaging and contents=== Perfect! Solid box, lots of big bubbles, new power cable. Spiffy. Status of laptop upon receipt You know, I didn't do enough homework. I thought the T400s were maybe 3-5 years old, but they're about 8 years old, and the machine showed it. It's not bad though, just scuffs and scratches. The cleanliness could have been better. There was dust and crumbs in all grooves around the touchpad and buttons. There were several short light to white coloured hairs on or sticking out of the keyboard (maybe a house pet?) and the surface of everything had a yellowish-brown film according to what came off onto the Lysol cloth I wiped the surfaces of the computer with. I got it all cleaned up in 3 minutes with a quick vacuming, some nails-in-grooves digging, and wiping, but shouldn't that have happened before shipping? ===T400 build quality=== Fantastic. What a great design. They keyboard is much better than the later models I've used for work. The 4:3 screen shows the age of the technology in that you can sometimes catch the dottedness of the refresh rate but it doesn't bother me at all. Screen is bright and colours are great. No tint issues. ===Performance=== -Basics The CPU (dual core), HD (160gb 5400 rpm) and RAM (4gb) are perfectly fine for Trisquel. Everything is zippy. Boots really fast, apps are responsive, etc. I'm pleased. -Wifi The wifi card is troubled. I'm lucky to get 400 kbyte/s download speeds on my home wifi network. I don't know what's wrong with it. I plugged in my ThinkPenguin TPE-N150USB wifi usb dongle (https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-usb-adapter-gnu-linux-tpe-n150usb) as something to compare to, and that little device gets 4 mbyte/s easy on the same wifi connection. I turned off the wifi connection for each wlan device in turn and did wget tests. I did them a dozen times each just to make sure I wasn't happening upon load balancer antics, and nope, the laptop's wifi solution remains slow, and the USB dongle remained fast. The internal wifi has the specs listed on the Minifree store page according to command line hardware lists, so it's the right config. It doesn't make sense to me. I lack the knowhow to really troubleshoot it beyond bandwidth tests. At any rate, I'll leave the ThinkPenguin dongle in and use that until I figure it out. -Battery Do these ship with the original batteries of 2009? I can barely get an hour out of mine.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Did you receive the package yet?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
great :) Feel free to post here your review once it arrives.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Ordered on June 1. and bank transfer completed on June 8. :-)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
We sometimes have AZERTY keyboard in stock too.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
:)
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
transferwise charges like 5 USD i think, and their exchange rates are pretty accurate so you don't lose much there either. transferwise is mentioned on the automated invoices that minifree.org sends out when you place an order. it's a way to do international wire transfers cheaply
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
We usually ship UK keyboards by default, but where possible we do update the keyboard layout. We usually have QWERTZ keyboards, which we regularly install on laptops ordered by German customers. We also regularly have scandinavian keyboards, for swedish/norwegian customers
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
The T400 is a great product. I baught one from a German vendor with no operating system and installed Libreboot and Trisquel on it. Is the T400 avialable with different keyboard layouts, Vikings has German (QWERTZ) and three different QWERTY layouts.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Thanks :) I'm currently working on porting the ThinkPad X220 to Libreboot, and I'm using the T400 on Minifree to fund the work. Every purchase helps! Hopefully these new low prices will also make the laptops affordable for people living in poor countries (e.g. south america, parts of africa, asia, etc).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Good to know! Thanks. I'm ok. I just don't enjoy banks and their fees as a rule. :) Very much looking forward to the shipping notification! Excited!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Just want to express once again a great satisfaction and gratitude at the work of Leah (and others who work with her) on providing free hardware/software for people on a tight budget. Great work, please keep things going like this.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I've also lowered the price of the stickers a bit: https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-stickers/ and we sell extra batteries: https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-t400-battery/ and trisquel USB drives :) https://minifree.org/product/usb-gnulinux-install-media/
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
I'm sorry that that happened with your bank. Most banks are fine though. You could use a service like TransferWise (in fact, Minifree's newer invoices recommend this, instead of your bank).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Very glad to hear that.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
and openarena runs well on it, too
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
The graphics chipset actually performs pretty well. We also optimized it in Libreboot; LenovoBIOS allocates 32MiB of Video RAM only. The chipset itself supports 256MiB VRAM allocation, but factory BIOS doesn't do it. Libreboot does :) In the recent Libreboot releases, based on Intel datasheets, we made 256MiB VRAM the default. This should improve the performance a lot, and things like video decoding/encoding work very well now. Certain games which use a lot of Video RAM should also perform better in the latest Libreboot releases. I play games sometimes and most games run well on my T400. I also regularly stream 1080p videos and they play smoothly without any lag.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Must get one indeed! Send me bitcoins!! (just joking). Hopefully one will soon be in my possession ^^
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Great news. Only what stops me from but it. Really ancient graphic adapter, so as I see there isn't option for better one?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Leah, this is incredible news. My newly librebooted X60 will do me for now but I will spread the word. Supertramp, go get one or we're going to have to take up a collection and embarrass the living excrement out of you! They're niiice. Fast and modern enough, but still a lot easier to work on than my T420 was.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Awesome news!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
\o/
[Trisquel-users] Libreboot T400 on Minifree reduces in price once again
Hi everyone, Recently, I made this post about a heavy price cut on Minifree's Libreboot T400 product: https://trisquel.info/en/forum/libreboot-t400-returns-minifree-trisquel-preinstalled-permanently-reduced-price Good news! I've decided to cut it even further. Base price for T400 with 4GiB RAM, 160GiB HDD is now 198 EUR (was 248 EUR in initial price cut) 1TB HDD upgrade now costs 50 EUR (was 100 EUR) 480GB SSD upgrade for 200 EUR replaced with 240GB SSD upgrade for 100 EUR (at 00:36 June 4th 2017 as I write this post, I still have some 480GB SSDs left so the next 10 or so customers ordering 240GB will actually get 480GB if they're lucky; everyone after that will get 240GB) Product is here: https://minifree.org/product/libreboot-t400/ This comes with 100% free/libre BIOS replacement (Libreboot) and Trisquel preinstalled, and is endorsed by FSF's Respects Your Freedom certification. Spread the word! Hopefully these laptops should be affordable for everyone now, and more people can therefore use Libreboot! ~Leah
