• Surprised it was this easy...

    From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to All on Wed Jul 21 07:07:00 2021
    I picked up a Lenovo Thinkpad x131e in mint condition for $40 a couple of months back; I thought I'd use it for playing around with Chrome OS.

    As soon as I plugged it in, I got the "Chrome will no longer be updated" message. Bummer.

    I figured I'd turn it into a Linux box and did some poking around on the
    web. I found a great web page https://mrchromebox.tech with a lot of information about Chromebooks and BIOSes.

    Downloaded the hardware reference manual (Thanks, Lenovo, for keeping up
    with IBM's reputation for docs) and opened the system up. swapped the 2x2GB memory sticks for 2x4 I had laying around after another upgrade, and swapped out the bog-standard 32GB 2.5" SSD for a 480GB SSD.

    Flip a write-protect switch inside, flip it.

    Put the whole thing back together, Lenovo has continued the other IBM habit
    of noting the size of the screw next to the screw hole.

    Put everything back together, booted into developer mode, opened a shell,
    ran a 3 line script and updated the BIOS. Reboot, downloaded Bodhi Linux
    onto a stick, booted to the stick and installed Linux on it.

    Nothing went awry, and the whole process took around 45 minutes.

    The hardware is nothing to write home about - it's a 1.5 ghz celeron with
    Ivy Bridge chipset, but it *was* $40. Decent screen, touchpad and
    trackpoint, and a nice Lenovo "Island" keyboard. 2 USB 3 ports, onboard ethernet, VGA and HDMI, and a SD card slot.


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  • From Ogg@VERT/CAPCITY2 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Jul 24 18:49:00 2021
    Hello poindexter FORTRAN!

    ** On Wednesday 21.07.21 - 07:07, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to All:

    I picked up a Lenovo Thinkpad x131e in mint condition for
    $40 a couple of months back..

    Downloaded the hardware reference manual (Thanks, Lenovo,
    for keeping up with IBM's reputation for docs) and opened
    the system up..

    The maintenance manuals are wonderful. They have come is handy
    for my T40p and T60 laptops.

    Put the whole thing back together, Lenovo has continued
    the other IBM habit of noting the size of the screw next
    to the screw hole.

    OH... THAT's what that means. :/ I needed to open my T60 to
    replace the CPU fan and ended up with one screw LESS than I
    needed.

    ..and swapped out the bog-standard 32GB 2.5" SSD for a
    480GB SSD.

    That is a sweet upgrade. I have imagined doing something
    similar for my T60 and swap out the 235GB HDD for an SDD double
    the size.

    ..and a nice Lenovo "Island" keyboard.

    What an island keyboard? The x131e looks like any other
    laptop.

    2 USB 3 ports, ..

    Ah.. but do they all work? My T40p and T60 saw diminishing
    functionality with the USB ports over the years.


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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@VERT/REALITY to Ogg on Sun Jul 25 07:20:00 2021
    Ogg wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    ..and a nice Lenovo "Island" keyboard.

    What an island keyboard? The x131e looks like any other
    laptop.

    They're also called "chiclet" keyboards - like a MacBook, where the keys are inset into a front bezel, as opposed to old Thinkpads where the keys were
    like a traditional keyboard.


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  • From Ogg@VERT/CAPCITY2 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Jul 25 17:47:00 2021
    Hello poindexter FORTRAN!

    ** On Sunday 25.07.21 - 07:20, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Ogg:

    What['s] an island keyboard? The x131e looks like any
    other laptop.

    They're also called "chiclet" keyboards - like a MacBook,
    where the keys are inset into a front bezel, as opposed to
    old Thinkpads where the keys were like a traditional
    keyboard.

    Ah.. chicklet keys. OK. My most recent Thinkpad T540p has
    those. I hate them. As a result, I don't like using the T540p
    very much at all. The T540p also lacks the extra L and R
    buttons on the trackpad. That makes R-clicking very awkward.
    Instead, the pad kinda tilts to the right - but the mechanics
    of that seems to stick every once in a while and doesn't work.


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  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Ogg on Sun Jul 25 19:36:18 2021
    Re: Surprised it was this easy...
    By: Ogg to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Jul 25 2021 05:47 pm

    Ah.. chicklet keys. OK. My most recent Thinkpad T540p has
    those. I hate them. As a result, I don't like using the T540p
    very much at all. The T540p also lacks the extra L and R
    buttons on the trackpad. That makes R-clicking very awkward.
    Instead, the pad kinda tilts to the right - but the mechanics
    of that seems to stick every once in a while and doesn't work.

    I have a similar Thinkpad, a W540. I agree about the trackpad - I don't like the lack of separate physical buttons. I think Lenovo went back to separate trackpad buttons on newer Thinkpad models.

    Nightfox

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