[Trisquel-users] Trisquel 8 post install. ??? and new to free-software ???

[ocoors]

 This is my very first post, here. I recently installed Trisquel 8.0 on a  
drive, to be used in my Thinkpad R61. Every time I boot the system I have to  
do it twice. The first attempt just gives a blank, yet backlit, screen. I  
have to hold down the power button to shut it down, then the second time it  
boots fine. Is there a fix for this behaviour?
 I know that my R61 is full of hardware/software backdoors and that it's not  
one of the Thinkpads that can be Librebooted. I absolutely want to get the  
Librebooted T400 that one forum member sells, but for now I'm stuck with  
using what I have. Also. this is my first taste of a free-software OS. I've  
been using Linux exclusively since the summer of 2011 and I should know a lot  
by now, but unfortunately I don't know all that much. Nevertheless, this is  
my first ever attempt to ask for help concerning Linux, or more appropriately  
GNU/Linux, in this instance.
 I just recently, 1 week ago, bought myself an iPhone SE. From all of the  
free-software topic reading that I've done over the past few days, I now see  
the error in this purchase. Unfortunately I'm now stuck with this  
spyPhone/eyePhone for the next 2-years, so I'll use it and let them collect  
their data. I'm thinking that it's probably not a good idea to plug the  
iPhone into a free-software computer, either for charging or extracting the  
video and image files, correct? Since I have many caddys and drives, I can  
use a non-free OS for the iPhone. Opensuse gives me a DCIM folder, just like  
most cameras create, so I'll probably continue using that for the iPhone, but  
I'm just curios what kind of bad things could potentially happen if I hooked  
the iPhone up with a free-software OS being utilized.
 I came across some info recently on Wikileaks that descibed in great detail  
about how the CIA has built tools to imbed itself in linux systems though USB  
devices and any device that the USB drive is inserted into also becomes  
compromised. Are there efforts in the free-software-community that are taking  
measures to thwort the CIA's efforts, here?
 And my final question is, which Atheros wifi card should I buy for this R61,  
to use Trisquels or any other FSF approved, or Debian-free, OS with?