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+title: Liberating a Thinkpad X220
+date: 2013-09-22 21:00
+tags: thinkpad, free software, wsu
+summary: I bought a used Thinkpad X220
+---
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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
+[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.
+
+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.
+
+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 [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.
+
+I hope to really break this thing in over the weekend at the
+[GNU 30th Anniversary](https://www.gnu.org/gnu30/) hackathon.