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-(post
- :title "Liberating a Thinkpad X220"
- :date (make-date* 2013 09 22)
- :tags '("thinkpad" "free software" "wsu")
- :summary "I bought a used Thinkpad X220 and made it more free
-software friendly."
-
- (p [I had been looking for a suitable replacement to my old, slow
-Compaq laptop that I purchased during my freshman year of college when
-I had very little money. What I liked about my old laptop was that it
-played well with free software. I had no trouble getting all of my
-hardware to work out-of-the-box with fully free GNU/Linux
-distributions such as Trisquel, and I wanted any future laptops of
-mine to play nicely, too.])
-
- (p [I have heard much praise for Thinkpads over the years. Solid
-build quality, utilitarian design, and cheap to buy used. However,
-upon further reading, I realized that most newer Thinkpads require
-nonfree software in order to the drive the Intel wireless chip.
-Furthermore, there was DRM present in the BIOS that would prevent the
-installation of PCIe wireless chips that weren't in the whitelist.])
-
- (p [This really bummed me out, but I bought a Thinkpad anyway. I
-found a great deal on a used X220 on ebay for $400. In order to
-liberate it, I had to make a small deal with the devil: Use the
-pre-installed Windows 7 to flash a hacked BIOS that removes the
-whitelist. I could only find the needed BIOS as a Windows executable,
-so I didn't have much choice. This process left me hoping that
-coreboot gains wider adoption.])
-
- (p [Once I had verified that I didn't brick my Thinkpad, I installed
-the new wireless card. I purchased a Wireless N, half-height, mini
-PCIe card from
-,(anchor [Thinkpenguin]
- "https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-half-height-mini-pcie-card").
-It uses an Atheros chipset and is free software compatible. I met
-Chris, the owner of Thinkpenguin, at this year's Northeast GNU/Linux
-Fest at Harvard. He is doing some great work and I wanted to support
-his business. It was nice to buy from someone who could assure me
-that the hardware I purchased is fully supported on a libre GNU/Linux
-distribution.])
-
- (p [Now that my Thinkpad was free (sans BIOS, of course), it was time
-for the final touch. I replaced the hard drive with a 128GB SSD and
-installed Debian testing. It takes roughly 9 seconds to get from GRUB
-to the GDM login screen. It feels very nice to have a device that
-boots so quickly.])
-
- (p [Now that everything had been installed and configured, I was able
-to start hacking and get a feel for things. The keyboard is the
-nicest I've ever used on a laptop. The
-,(anchor [TrackPoint] "http://xkcd.com/243/")
-is quite a nice way to move around once you get used to it. The
-ThinkLight is pretty neat when you're in a dark area. The battery
-life is extremely impressive. I don't know exactly how long it lasts
-yet but I never have to charge it while I am using it. I was lucky if
-I got 2 hours of battery life out of my old laptop, which caused me to
-be constantly tethered to an AC adapter. The screen is matte, which
-is awesome because it's very difficult to use a laptop outdoors when
-the screen is glossy. 1366x768 is not an ideal resolution (16:9 be
-damned), but I can live with it on a 12.5\" screen. Last but not
-least, I honestly like the aesthetics. A lot of people are enamored
-with the brushed aluminum designs by that fruit company, but I love
-the flat black, functional design of the Thinkpad.])
-
- (p [I hope to really break this thing in over the weekend at the
-,(anchor [GNU 30th Anniversary] "https://www.gnu.org/gnu30/")
-hackathon. :\)]))