Laptop Recommendations?

[Chopstick]

Yes I'm totally satisfied with the caddy, it's a 12.7 mm one.
Several sites have info what is needed and I believe the T540 is still the same fit.
The UK Amazon site offers them for £8.90.

I never bothered to transplant the cover of the DVD tray.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5176[/ATTACH]

So, Teunis, with the caddy you have, how do you secure the HDD inside the caddy? Some advertise that you screw it in, but others don't seem to even have holes for screws... and how important would that be anyway? (If it is squeezed in with some rubber nobs, it is probably safer in terms of suppressing vibriation than if it is screwed in, unless there is a vibraitonal resonance with something in the HDD, which is unlikely, I think.)

[Chopstick]

So I know what to do about the UEFI setting now ;-) Thanks!

Regarding the caddy, I had a look at it at my local retailer here, and indeed the way it works is that the original DVD clips to the front. However, the things they are selling look really flimsy, so that I will be ordering one that looks a bit more sturdy.
(Teunis, yours doesn't look nearly as flimsy as the one they were trying to sell me.)

[MoonRise]

I totally forgot about this firmware setting! Yes, I know that ThinkPads allow you to choose UEFI, legacy, or both. If you choose both, you can select which order the system try -- UEFI then legacy, or legacy then UEFI. I've forgotten by now which is the default.

Got bit by this one too though it never would go to UEFI like it should have and so kept failing boot. Was about to reformat and start over when the installer showed the existing partitions that stated weren't there. Hunted for about an hour when it hit me about this setting and just set it to UEFI only and BINGO!, solved! Horrible setting.

[SteveRiley]

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.

I totally forgot about this firmware setting! Yes, I know that ThinkPads allow you to choose UEFI, legacy, or both. If you choose both, you can select which order the system try -- UEFI then legacy, or legacy then UEFI. I've forgotten by now which is the default.

Anyway, glad you got it working!

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.

I run my T520 and X1 in UEFI only boot mode. No legacy emulation junk for me

[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

[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]

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]

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...

[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

[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]

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]

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.

[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!

[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]

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.