Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 09:06:33 -0400 From: Nathan Vidican <webmaster@wmptl.com> To: cj@wellton-associates.com Cc: questions@freebsd.org, support@ibm.com Subject: Re: FreeBSD on a A20m Message-ID: <3B24C259.7040106@wmptl.com> References: <BGEJKEJPHFAHIBMCAINCMEHACFAA.cj@wellton-associates.com>
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CJ Cadwell wrote: > Nathan Vidican, > Hi - I apologize about the email but I'm desperate to know if you came to > any resolution with this issue > (http://www.geocrawler.com/archives/3/163/2000/9/0/4413959/) > > I just hosed two of my laptops today. They're completely dead. Were you > able to ever get anything running or did you switch laptops. Thank you so > much and sorry again for bothering you. ~cj > > > -------------------------- > CJ Cadwell > 312 925 9975 > cj@wellton-associates.com > > Wellton Associates > 1 West Superior > Suite 4206 > Chicago, IL 60610 NP... I still like ranting on about this... IBM has posted a bios patch for the A20P, but not the A20M, aparently we're not good enough. ANyhow, there is a way to fix it. Unplug the hardrive, but leave it in the docking bay, (undo to screw on the bottom, and slide the drive out about 1 inch or so). Insert the FreeBSD boot disk, (from the instalation), and turn on the machine. Press F12 to select that it will boot off of the floppy. Once the system starts to boot off of the floppy, push the hardrive back in, (as-in hotplugging it). I know IBM doesn't like to tell you to do that... but trust me, it does work. Select 'skip kernel configuration and continue with installation', insert the mfsroot disk, wait for it to load. Once the system has booted, it should have picked up the hardrive; in the FreeBSD kernel anyhow. From the FreeBSD installation program, goto Configure > fdisk, remove the FreeBSD partition(s), set the dos (or other) partition to active, and press 'w', this will force the FreeBSD partiton editor to write the changes to the disk. Leave the mbr untouched, exit and reboot. You should be able to re-install whatever crappy O/S IBM is forcing you to use this week. As for me, no I never did get FreeBSD to run on mine; I'll also never again purchase or reccomend anyone else purchase any IBM product. Their support has been absolutely horrible, there customer care even worse. You don't even want to get me started on their 3-5 day business repairs... (mine were 62days, then 48days for the two times I had to send the thing in)! The only reason I ever bought this thing in the firstplace was because the school mandated that the machine had to be this IBM A20M, with this configuration. I hate it; it sucks, and so does IBM. I have since then taken mine, my companies, my other employer's business over to Dell. We recently purchased a PIII 800mhz system with 256megs RAM, 8x DVD, CDR/RW, VI/VO (onboard ATI), a larger screen than IBM offered, a better warranty/service plan than IBM offered, all at a much better price than IBM offered too. Thus far, (about three weeks or so now), and not a single glitch or problem whatsoever with the machine. Dell's support is great too; not only do they actually answer our calls (as opposed to the two hour + wait with IBM) but they actually have the answers we need to. My best suggestion to you, would be to get rid of the IBM garbage (if you purchased them recently... maybe you could still get your money back), and go look into some Dell machines. I've also been told Sony, and Toshiba are very good; I can vouch for Toshiba as we've got some older Toshiba laptops around, but I've never personally dealt with Sony; perhaps that's a question for the list. If you still insist on keeping your A20Ms, I beleieve someone out there had been able to get them to run FreeBSD; but I really do not know as I gave up on IBM a long time ago. I'm just really thankful that we never ended up going with the Netfiniti servers here, especially so after the crappy service I've received from IBM on these laptops. -- Nathan Vidican webmaster@wmptl.com Windsor Match Plate & Tool Ltd. http://home.wmptl.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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