Laptop Recommendations?

[marco07]

That's a sad state you're in with this otherwise great machine.

I've never seen or followed a suggestion to 'auto select' the place where Grub goes, that would be me first attempt, get Grub on the partition that is set to boot Windows.
I even don't know UEFI would allow such..

Installer's default location for Grub is set to sda. I understood that with UEFI grub was irrelvant. So, I did'nt bother to change it.

What about installing Kubuntu as you did but with one little change, install grub on a Flash drive.
This should allow you to boot in Windows like usual and in Kubuntu only when the Flash drive is in place.

I may try this later on after I try all aspects of installed kubuntu to see if all is functiong allright.
Thanks!

[Chopstick]

The bottom line, this Thinkpad model (t540p) is not as linux friendly as I read and assumed it to be. So, anyone contemplating of buying one, be careful and google "Linux on Thinkpad t540p" and read many issues encountered by many with no suggested effective solution.

So, this is somewhat unsettling, as I am (finally) also commited to buying a T540p. The important question for me though is, are these problems really related to your dual-boot setup, or are these really kubuntu problems? Because I do not intend to leave Windows on that machine... (maybe getting rid of Windows would solve your problems?)

[Feathers McGraw]

Isn't Steve using a T540p without problems?

[SteveRiley]

I forgot to mention that while setting the clock, after creating the DWORD as instructed, when I went to firmware settings menu, I could not find "Clock" any where in the menu, I Looked under every sub menus no Clock at all.
Now, my local time which was showing the correct time zone and time before, shows 7 hours ahead.
Do I need to go back and delete the created DWORD?

On both my ThinkPads -- a T520 and an X1 -- the third item in the firmware's top menu allows you to set the date and time:



I'd be surprised if yours is significantly different here.

Well, I am pretty much stuck in the same situation as I last posted above (post #53). That is, accessing kubunta from within the Windows. I have researched and read many related and applicable posts in this forum and else where on the internet to no avail.
I have followed some suggestions I found by googling which caused me to bork the access to my Windows OS two times and was compelled to use "Recovery" system to restore the Windows 8.0 OS and yet had to go through upgrading it to 8.1 version each time ( a 2-3 hrs process).

I'd like to encourage you to try the steps as I outlined in my post on dual-booting Windows and Kubuntu. Your sequence will be slightly different. First, start once again with a full system recovery process, so that you have only Windows on the machine.

Then go to Part 2. Installing Windows but obviously you'll be omitting the first step in that part. Don't overlook step 6, which is what you need to do to avoid signing on with a Microsoft account. The remainder of Part 2 is an analysis of how the hard drive partitions were laid out after I installed Windows 8 from a USB. Yours will be slightly different, because you have an OEM recovery partition at the end of the drive. This won't matter here.

Follow Part 3. Necessary Windows configuration procedures exactly as written. Disabling fast startup is a requirement so that the system will always load GRUB when the system is booted. As for the clock shenanigans, I can confirm that the steps will work, because I just double-checked my X1.

When you follow Part 4. Installing Kubuntu, you can choose to use the "auto" partitioning like I did or you can do it manually. Either way, you should end up with the same results I described. Booting the computer launches GRUB, and you'll see the three items in the list I provided. The remainder of Part 4 and all of Part 5 are more analysis of my installation results.

[SteveRiley]

So, this is somewhat unsettling, as I am (finally) also commited to buying a T540p. The important question for me though is, are these problems really related to your dual-boot setup, or are these really kubuntu problems? Because I do not intend to leave Windows on that machine... (maybe getting rid of Windows would solve your problems?)

I would venture to say that it's an installation-specific problem, rather than an overall T520 issue. ThinkPads are quite Linux friendly. That said, dual booting is something of a pain. I would urge anyone to install only one OS (Kubuntu, of course) on the metal and run Windows in a virtual machine.

Isn't Steve using a T540p without problems?

I have a T520, not a T540. My employer recently acquired a couple T540 machines, but somehow they came with a stupidly low resolution LCD. I'll wait and replace my T520 when they get a batch with the super high-rez screens.

[Feathers McGraw]

I have a T520, not a T540. My employer recently acquired a couple T540 machines, but somehow they came with a stupidly low resolution LCD. I'll wait and replace my T520 when they get a batch with the super high-rez screens.

My bad!

The screen on my T440s is probably its best feature, a similar pixel density on a bigger screen would be unreal!

[SteveRiley]

The screen on my T440s is probably its best feature, a similar pixel density on a bigger screen would be unreal!

The panel on the T5x0 series is 15.6 inches. The resolution on my T520 is 1920 x 1080, which was the highest available at the time (September 2011). The highest you can get on the T540 is 2880 x 1620 -- it's amazing. But for some reason, the two T540 machines we received came with super lame 1366 x 768 panels. That's ridiculouse!

[marco07]

Hi Folks:
It seems that I finally got the issue of Grub resolved. Now when I power on the laptop, I get a nice grub2 menu screen with options to select Kubuntu (ubuntu), Windows, and System set-up. I tried each option.They all function well.

Here is what I did:
After making a back-up of Windows 8.1 and feeling more confident (I hated all the hassels of going through Win 8 Recovery and subsequent upgrade to 8.1), I booted into live kubuntu USB and installed the "Boot-Repair" package. Then I started up the application and followed its instructions, at some point during the process I noted a message stating that the laptop booting mode is set to legacy and instructed that it should be set to EFI rather. I quited the live USB and went back to the system set up and set the boot-up mode to UEFI, then back to live USB and repeated the above. This time "Boot-repair" went through its normal process and instructed me to enter some commands using the terminal and finally was completed OK. After quiting the live USB, upon a fresh system power-on, lo and behold. Bingo! There was the grub2 menu on the screen.

In summary, the culprit was that t540p default boot mode is set to "Both", legacy & UEFi, however, the trick is that legacy is picked first unless manually set otherwise. On my initial system set up adjustments required before kubuntu installation, I assumed the choice of legacy or UEFI was automatic, so I never cared to set this manually. And this has been the root of the problem I was experiencing. Oh, what a relief!

@SR
I did the above before seeing your latest posts related to this issue. Thanks anyway!

@Chopstick
You should be OK. Just follow SR installation instructions combined with my experince posted here. From out set pay attention to the required system set-up modifications. Specially, the "Boot Mode" setting as I mentioned above. Hopefuly, yours will work out without any glitches.

[Chopstick]

OK, glad to hear that it worked out eventually, because I just ordered the damn thing!
I'm not sure if this will affect me anyway, but it wont hurt to set the boot mode to UEFI, even if I wipe Windows off the disk.
Btw. one of my colleagues runs Windows in a virtual box on ubuntu and he is very happy with it. (I just never felt a need to use Windows...)

And I did get the one with the 3k screen - I'm really looking forward to that.

Now I still have to get some RAM and SSD drive. RAM, I guess, I can just get whatever fits the specs and is reasonably priced. Does anyone have recommendations for SSD's, though? I'm sort of new to that territory.

To fit the SSD into the optical bay (or, more likely, the original HDD; it seems to make more sense to put the SSD in the main SATA slot), I found this: https://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=555
But there appear to be cheaper options on eBay... does anyone have experience with that?

[marco07]

I do not care much about windows either. Since it was already installed, I felt that I try for dual boot and if it evantually failed, then I will get rid of it either. Windows has no application software at all. Only comes with IE. It email client only gives you access to web mail. there is no Outlook express either. So, it is not much usable if you do not buy applications for it.

As for ram, I already increased it to 16 gigs. I ordered on line (crucials brand from Amazon) with the same specs of the 4 gig stick that came with the laptop. Strange thing is that each slot can hold a stick up to 16 gigs, but the maximum one can have is only 16 gigs, i. e., you can either have two 8 gigs or one 16 gigs. Nothing more

[Chopstick]

Marc, can you give me the specs of your RAM? The info on the Lenovo website is not very detailed and my machien is not here yet. It's probably pretty safe for me to order the same specs you have.

Teunis, you are happy with the cheap caddy you got? What size is the bay? 9.5 or 12.7mm? Our local retailer here only has SilverStone TS08/09 in the aforementioned two sizes, respectively

[Chopstick]

So, I searched around a bit and it appears that up to the T530 the thickness is 12.7mm and as of the T540 it is 9.5mm... which would make sense, since the T540 is supposed to be about 5mm thinner.
I may be ordering this one then: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301192201700
Unfortunately the 9.5mm ones are mostly only availble in white - who on Earth would ever buy a white laptop that almost looks like a Mac...

[marco07]

Marc, can you give me the specs of your RAM? The info on the Lenovo website is not very detailed and my machien is not here yet. It's probably pretty safe for me to order the same specs you have.

Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3/DDR3L 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) CL11

[Chopstick]

Thanks, Marco. DDR3L means the voltage is 1.35V, right?

Teunis, I didn't realize that you can use the bezel (?) piece of the DVD drive; I was under the impession that the bezel it came with was glued on or something - but I think I will just go to a comuter shop and have a look at it myself - then this will become much clearer.
Or I can just paint it myself ;-)

[marco07]

Here is a better specs from my order invoice:
Crucial 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR3/DDR3L 1600 MHz (PC3-12800) CL11 SODIMM 204-Pin 1.35V/1.5V Memory for Mac CT2C8G3S160BM