From owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Sep 25 17:43:10 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9918316A4CE for ; Sat, 25 Sep 2004 17:43:09 +0000 (GMT) Received: from kestrel.alerce.com (kestrel.alerce.com [209.182.219.40]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 46F8243D31 for ; Sat, 25 Sep 2004 17:43:09 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from hartzell@kestrel.alerce.com) Received: from satchel.alerce.com (w092.z064001164.sjc-ca.dsl.cnc.net [64.1.164.92]) (authenticated bits=128) by kestrel.alerce.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i8PHh4UQ035792 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Sat, 25 Sep 2004 10:43:06 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from hartzell@kestrel.alerce.com) Received: from satchel.alerce.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by satchel.alerce.com (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id i8PHhNZ9058813 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Sat, 25 Sep 2004 10:43:23 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from hartzell@satchel.alerce.com) Received: (from hartzell@localhost) by satchel.alerce.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id i8PHhMgD058810; Sat, 25 Sep 2004 10:43:22 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from hartzell) From: George Hartzell MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <16725.44602.612991.895661@satchel.alerce.com> Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 10:43:22 -0700 To: mailings@analogon.com In-Reply-To: <1161.62.225.227.149.1096105586.squirrel@62.225.227.149> References: <1161.62.225.227.149.1096105586.squirrel@62.225.227.149> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.4 (patch 15) "Security Through Obscurity" XEmacs Lucid X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV version 'clamd / ClamAV version 0.65', clamav-milter version '0.60p' cc: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Thinkpad Hidden Partition & MBR X-BeenThere: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: hartzell@kestrel.alerce.com List-Id: Mobile computing with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 17:43:10 -0000 Thomas Beer writes: > Dear All, > > I consider buying an T41 or T42. [...] > Any experiences installing FBSD on > a recent T4x with a hidden partition? I just bought a T42p, with Windows XP, it spends most of it's time running FreeBSD5.3BETA3. The restore partition isn't hidden any more, it's a normal partition of type "Compaq diagnostics". I spent a lot of time trying different setups in the [apparently vain] hope of getting s4bios suspend to work. I'd done enough research to learn that the bios will support suspend-to-disk, but apparently not if you're using an ACPI aware OS [e.g. FreeBSD booted w/ ACPI]. If I boot w/out ACPI, the bios will suspend to disk for me, w/ ACPI gives no joy. Some notes: - for the bios-managed suspend-to-disk to work, you need to give the bios a place to put it's data. With some constraints, it seems that it can either be a suspend-to-disk-file in a FAT partition, or a suspend-to-disk-partition. There's an app on the IBM web site that will build the suspend-to-disk-file for you (it also claims to build a suspend-to-disk-partition, but other IBM pages warn that it doesn't work and that seems to be true). Or, you can use a linux-y app, lphdisk, to format a suspend-to-disk-partition once you've created it with the right sysid. I used a bootable linux rescue disk (BG Rescue, I think) to create the partition. - the tools in the rescue partition seem be dedicated to recreating the disk *exactly* as it shipped. That means that if you rearrange the partition table, e.g. shrinking the windows partition, they'll blow it all away. - as soon as you get your laptop, I'd call IBM support and request a set of recovery CD's. There's an option in the recovery partition to burn your own, but I wanted real CD's. - when you turn your laptop on, the first thing that it does is convert the windows partition from some-flavor-of-FAT to NTFS. If want to use a suspend-to-disk-file, that means that you have to burn another parition (slice) for a FAT filesystem. I googled up a dirty trick where I did a total reinstall (post-whoops) then instead of booting and letting it do the conversion, I booted from a linux rescue CD, renamed the conversion utility, then let it boot normally. It took a lot longer to configure itself, but I ended up with a FAT windows partition. Since I've given up on the S4bios suspend, I may not leave it this way, but it seems to work.... - I used to be (from experience w/ my Sony Vaio) a stickler for keeping the vendor's original code in the MBR, and installing any fancier boot stuff at the beginning of the active partition (which seemed to be the only way to get suspend to disk to behave right on the sony). I use GRUB as my multiboot loader, but I couldn't get it to behave if I installed it at the beginning of my FreeBSD slice. Since the machine was still in flux, I installed it into the MBR [where it worked happily], non-acpi suspend-to-disk still worked and acpi suspend-to-disk was still non-existent. - I ended up buying a copy of Acronis' Disk Director, since my slightly-out-of-date-but-claimed-xp-support copy of ParitionMagic 7 messed up when trying to resize the NTFS XP partition. - My only niggles with the machine at this point are: o I wish that suspend-to-disk worked under ACPI. o When it resumes from S3 suspend, it takes the mouse 15-20 seconds to regain consciousness. o I wish the little status led/light for the mini-pci wireless card worked (rumor has it that it will someday). o I'd happily trade the parallel port for a firewire port. o I wish there was a FreeBSD driver for the Conextant softmodem. o Even though it has a pair of pc-card slots, I can't quite cram my double-height Xircom modem/enet card into them. o I wish the vmware3 port worked w/ ACPI enabled (I'm still trying to figure out if there's hope or not...). Here's the fdisk output for my current configuration: ******* Working on device /dev/ad0 ******* parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are: cylinders=155061 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl) Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1 parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are: cylinders=155061 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl) Media sector size is 512 Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1 Information from DOS bootblock is: The data for partition 1 is: sysid 12 (0x0c),(DOS or Windows 95 with 32 bit FAT (LBA)) start 63, size 25174737 (12292 Meg), flag 0 beg: cyl 0/ head 1/ sector 1; end: cyl 1023/ head 14/ sector 63 The data for partition 2 is: sysid 18 (0x12),(Compaq diagnostics) start 147147840, size 9147600 (4466 Meg), flag 0 beg: cyl 1023/ head 255/ sector 63; end: cyl 1023/ head 239/ sector 63 The data for partition 3 is: sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD) start 25174800, size 41928705 (20473 Meg), flag 80 (active) beg: cyl 1023/ head 255/ sector 63; end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63 The data for partition 4 is: g.