Introduction and Disclaimer

Introduction

The R40 was and still is a pretty decent piece of hardware.  However, in the same way that a boater is subject to "two-foot itis", it's hard to stay satisfied with any machine for long.  (That's what keeps Microsoft/Intel/AMD et al in the black, I suppose).  I wanted something faster, lighter, and with a little more RAM and HD, and a DVD burner.  What I should have done is upgrade the R40 with more RAM and a DVD burner (which I did do later).  Instead I ordered a ThinkPad T43 from Lenovo (formerly IBM).  This collection of pages describes installing and running Windows XP, Linux (RedHat Fedora Core 4 and later) and Solaris (Solaris 10 and Open Solaris) on the new T43.

Like the R40, the T43 has a  hidden area of the drive contains the full XP install/recovery image and a set of utilities.  Also like the R40, no recovery CDs are shipped with the unit.  Unlike the R40, IBM will not ship free recovery CDs on request.  Instead, the user can make a set of recovery CDs or DVDs by using the installed recovery utility.  You should do so immediately on receiving the new machine.  Installing System Commander 8 did something nasty to the recovery parition that made it unbootable (presumably by diddling the parition table) when I installed it as my boot manager.  Fortunately, I had already made my recovery DVDs.

 

Disclaimer

This will become painfully obvious as you read further, but I must point out that I am no expert on this stuff (have I said this before?).  This my best shot, but a lot of it is pretty rough.

Do not take any of this as guaranteed fact.  I hope the little bit of information I provide here will prove helpful, but I take absolutely no responsibility for any misfortune which may befall you or your laptop.  Please do your own homework before making any irreversible modifications to your computer.

Feedback

I welcome comments, additions, and corrections (please!).  You can reach me at williamDOTwaddingtonATbeezmoDOTcom

Here are rare photos of the author at work.