ThinkWiki - User contributions [en]

How to change the BIOS bootsplash screen (under Windows)

2005-08-22T21:54:01Z

132.72.138.1:

This page describes how to replace the standard IBM BIOS Bootsplash (The one with the Thinkpad- and Pentium M-Logo), if you have Microsoft Windows . It's only been tested so far on XP.

== Getting the Files ==
You'll need the bios upgrade file from the IBM website. The best way to do this is connect to [http://www.ibm.com/pc/support IBM support], click "<math>\rightarrow</math>Detect my system" (sorry, IE only), then "Downloads and Drivers", and finally "BIOS Update (Non-Diskette)". Save the .exe file somewhere (the one I had was called 1RUJ31US.EXE).

== Finding the floppy image ==
Run the executable file from the previous step and accept the license agreement. Once you do so, a floppy image is unpacked to a temporary directory somewhere on your hard disk. The easiest way to find it is to run the standard Windows search looking for a file called "1ruj31us.img" (or whatever the EXE was called only with IMG). Note that the following few steps are all performed with the BIOS updater window open and waiting for us to click "Next".

== Mounting the virtual floppy ==
* Download [http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html#download Virtual Floppy Drive] and unzip it somewhere
* Run "vfdwin.exe" (the VFD Control Panel). In the "driver" pane click "Start", then in the "drive0" pane click "change" and assign "Z:", and finally click "Open" and open the IMG file you've found. Now you have a new drive on your computer called Z:

== Adding the custom image ==
Create a 16 color 640x480 BMP (4 Bit/pixel) (for example with Gimp) and save it as logo.bmp on the virtual floppy drive (that is, drive Z:).
You could use this tux image ([http://www.thinkwiki.org/files/LOGO.BMP logo.bmp], [http://www.thinkwiki.org/files/LOGO.MOD logo.mod]) for example. 
Now prepare the image by double-clicking the "logo.bat" command you see on the floppy. You should get a message confirming that the file was converted successfully. Otherwise you can try a simpler design (it has to compress to under 10K).

Now there should be a new <tt>logo.mod</tt> and your <tt>logo.bmp</tt>. If so, you are set.

== Unmounting the virtual floppy ==
Make sure you close all applications and explorer windows pointing to drive Z:, then go back to the VFD Control Panel, go to the driver pane and click "uninstall". You'll be asked to save your changes - check the "overwrite" checkbox since that's what we want to do. You can quit the VFD Control Panel now.

== The exciting part ==
After this worked, go back to the BIOS updater window and click next until it restarts. You should get an IBM tool screen.
Be sure to have your Thinkpad on AC power and say ''Yes'' to the questions the BIOS Upgrade Tool asks. Make sure you get asked if you want to use a custom image. If not, something went wrong along the way.
It will then flash the BIOS, which will take about a minute.

Suddenly the laptop turns itself off with two beeps.
When booting, you'll have your bootsplash picture.

Unfortunately, you won't see it really long, but it's better
than the standard one, so it was worth the action.

Have fun!

[[Category:R50]] [[Category:R50p]] [[Category:R51]] [[Category:R52]] [[Category:T40]] [[Category:T40p]] [[Category:T41]] [[Category:T41p]] [[Category:T42]] [[Category:T42p]] [[Category:T43]] [[Category:T43p]]

How to change the BIOS bootsplash screen

2005-08-22T21:33:22Z

132.72.138.1:

== BIOS-Bootsplash ==

This page describes how to replace the standard IBM BIOS Bootsplash (The one with the Thinkpad- and Pentium M-Logo), without access to Microsoft Windows or a floppy drive.
* '''Note:''' Windows users who want to have a custom splash image when they start up should try [[How to change the BIOS bootsplash screen (under Windows) | this guide]] instead.

=== Getting the Files ===
You'll need the bios upgrade file from the IBM website.

==== Method 1: Using a Non-Diskette-File and cabextract ====

For ThinkPad R50/p, R51 (1829, 1830, 1831, 1836), T40/p, T41/p, T42/p this file is suitable:
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj28us.exe 1ruj28us.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj29us.exe 1ruj29us.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj30us.exe 1ruj30us.exe] Released 2005-05-26 '''NEW!'''
There may be a more recent file on the IBM website.

You need the cabextract tool to extract files from the exe:
apt-get install cabextract

Do this to get the ibm file and extract the disk image from it:
cd /tmp
wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj30us.exe
cabextract -F *.IMG 1ruj30us.exe
mv 1RUJ30US.IMG floppy.bin

==== Method 2: Using a Diskette-File and dosemu ====
Another option is to use the "Diskette BIOS file". 
For ThinkPad R50/p, R51 (1829, 1830, 1831, 1836), T40/p, T41/p, T42/p this file is suitable:
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj28ud.exe 1ruj28ud.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj29ud.exe 1ruj29ud.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj30ud.exe 1ruj30ud.exe] Released 2005-05-26 '''NEW!'''

The file is an OS/2 executables and don't run with wine, so you need to install dosemu to run it and create the image. 
apt-get install dosemu dosemu-freedos
(for non-debian-users: Get dosemu and freedos somewhere and make it work somehow).

With dosemu, you can run this executable, but this program unfortunately
needs a floppy drive to write to. So use the loopback device, to create a virtual floppy.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/floppy.bin bs=1024 count=1440
losetup /dev/loop0 /tmp/floppy.bin
Put this block device (<tt>/dev/loop0</tt>) into the dosemu configuration as the floppy disk device.
Now you can run the extractor executable, which makes <tt>/tmp/floppy.bin</tt> the desired floppy image.
dosemu 1ruj27ud.exe
losetup -d /dev/loop0

=== Adding the custom image ===
Mount your floppy.bin as a loopback device.
mkdir /tmp/mnt
mount -o loop,umask=000 /tmp/floppy.bin /tmp/mnt
Create a 16 color 640x480 BMP (4 Bit/pixel) (for example with Gimp) and save it to /tmp/mnt/logo.bmp.
You could use this tux image ([http://www.thinkwiki.org/files/LOGO.BMP logo.bmp], [http://www.thinkwiki.org/files/LOGO.MOD logo.mod]) for example. 
Now prepare the image with <tt>prepare.exe</tt> using wine: (This does not work with dosemu!)
wine prepare.exe logo.scr
Now there should be a new <tt>logo.mod</tt> and your <tt>logo.bmp</tt>. If so, you are set, don't forget to unmount your loopback device:
umount /tmp/mnt

=== Fake a floppy ===
Now you need to put the image on a floppy and boot from it. Since recent Thinkpads don't have a
floppy drive, we can use a CD-R (or a CD-RW, actually, for the cheap ones, like me) and burn it with the following command:
mkisofs -b floppy.bin floppy.bin | cdrecord dev=<device> -
(<tt><device></tt> being your cd writer device)

=== The exciting part ===
After this worked, reboot your Thinkpad from the cdrom by pressing F12 while booting
and wait for the IBM tool to start.
Be sure to have your Thinkpad on AC power and say ''Yes'' to the questions the BIOS Upgrade Tool asks.
It will then flash the BIOS, which will take about a minute.

Suddenly the laptop turns itself off with two beeps.
When booting, you'll have your bootsplash picture.

Unfortunately, you won't see it really long, but it's better
than the standard one, so it was worth the action.

Have fun!

[[Category:R50]] [[Category:R50p]] [[Category:R51]] [[Category:R52]] [[Category:T40]] [[Category:T40p]] [[Category:T41]] [[Category:T41p]] [[Category:T42]] [[Category:T42p]] [[Category:T43]] [[Category:T43p]]

How to change the BIOS bootsplash screen

2005-08-22T21:32:27Z

132.72.138.1:

== BIOS-Bootsplash ==

This page describes how to replace the standard IBM BIOS Bootsplash (The one with the Thinkpad- and Pentium M-Logo), without access to Microsoft Windows or a floppy drive. Windows users who want a custom splash image when they start up should try [[How to change the BIOS bootsplash screen (under Windows) | this guide]] instead.

=== Getting the Files ===
You'll need the bios upgrade file from the IBM website.

==== Method 1: Using a Non-Diskette-File and cabextract ====

For ThinkPad R50/p, R51 (1829, 1830, 1831, 1836), T40/p, T41/p, T42/p this file is suitable:
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj28us.exe 1ruj28us.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj29us.exe 1ruj29us.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj30us.exe 1ruj30us.exe] Released 2005-05-26 '''NEW!'''
There may be a more recent file on the IBM website.

You need the cabextract tool to extract files from the exe:
apt-get install cabextract

Do this to get the ibm file and extract the disk image from it:
cd /tmp
wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj30us.exe
cabextract -F *.IMG 1ruj30us.exe
mv 1RUJ30US.IMG floppy.bin

==== Method 2: Using a Diskette-File and dosemu ====
Another option is to use the "Diskette BIOS file". 
For ThinkPad R50/p, R51 (1829, 1830, 1831, 1836), T40/p, T41/p, T42/p this file is suitable:
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj28ud.exe 1ruj28ud.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj29ud.exe 1ruj29ud.exe]
* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/1ruj30ud.exe 1ruj30ud.exe] Released 2005-05-26 '''NEW!'''

The file is an OS/2 executables and don't run with wine, so you need to install dosemu to run it and create the image. 
apt-get install dosemu dosemu-freedos
(for non-debian-users: Get dosemu and freedos somewhere and make it work somehow).

With dosemu, you can run this executable, but this program unfortunately
needs a floppy drive to write to. So use the loopback device, to create a virtual floppy.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/floppy.bin bs=1024 count=1440
losetup /dev/loop0 /tmp/floppy.bin
Put this block device (<tt>/dev/loop0</tt>) into the dosemu configuration as the floppy disk device.
Now you can run the extractor executable, which makes <tt>/tmp/floppy.bin</tt> the desired floppy image.
dosemu 1ruj27ud.exe
losetup -d /dev/loop0

=== Adding the custom image ===
Mount your floppy.bin as a loopback device.
mkdir /tmp/mnt
mount -o loop,umask=000 /tmp/floppy.bin /tmp/mnt
Create a 16 color 640x480 BMP (4 Bit/pixel) (for example with Gimp) and save it to /tmp/mnt/logo.bmp.
You could use this tux image ([http://www.thinkwiki.org/files/LOGO.BMP logo.bmp], [http://www.thinkwiki.org/files/LOGO.MOD logo.mod]) for example. 
Now prepare the image with <tt>prepare.exe</tt> using wine: (This does not work with dosemu!)
wine prepare.exe logo.scr
Now there should be a new <tt>logo.mod</tt> and your <tt>logo.bmp</tt>. If so, you are set, don't forget to unmount your loopback device:
umount /tmp/mnt

=== Fake a floppy ===
Now you need to put the image on a floppy and boot from it. Since recent Thinkpads don't have a
floppy drive, we can use a CD-R (or a CD-RW, actually, for the cheap ones, like me) and burn it with the following command:
mkisofs -b floppy.bin floppy.bin | cdrecord dev=<device> -
(<tt><device></tt> being your cd writer device)

=== The exciting part ===
After this worked, reboot your Thinkpad from the cdrom by pressing F12 while booting
and wait for the IBM tool to start.
Be sure to have your Thinkpad on AC power and say ''Yes'' to the questions the BIOS Upgrade Tool asks.
It will then flash the BIOS, which will take about a minute.

Suddenly the laptop turns itself off with two beeps.
When booting, you'll have your bootsplash picture.

Unfortunately, you won't see it really long, but it's better
than the standard one, so it was worth the action.

Have fun!

[[Category:R50]] [[Category:R50p]] [[Category:R51]] [[Category:R52]] [[Category:T40]] [[Category:T40p]] [[Category:T41]] [[Category:T41p]] [[Category:T42]] [[Category:T42p]] [[Category:T43]] [[Category:T43p]]

Ordering Recovery CDs

2004-11-01T08:03:35Z

132.72.138.1: /* Country overview */

Information on getting Recovery CDs from IBM.

The information on this page is unofficial. It is gathered from personal experiences. It is here to raise your chances of success when you give it a try yourself.

==About Recovery CDs==
Recovery CDs enable you to reproduce the original software state on your ThinkPad. Modern ThinkPads have a [[The PreDesktop Area | PreDesktop area]], which's purpose is to make Recovery CDs obsolete. There are, however, reasons why you might still want to have them, and for the time being they are available on request.

Recovery CDs are localized, meaning that there are specific versions for each language. The language you will get depends on the language of the OS that was shipped with your ThinkPad. There's usually no way to get CDs in a different language from IBM.

==How to get them==
The normal procedure is to contact the IBM service and ask for them. This can be done by eMail or phone.

If you actually get them or not, seems to be more a personal decision of the service person dealing with you than following fixed rules. Also it seems to depend on your country (see below).

They will usually expect you to tell them a good reason for your request (see below).
As with every service request, you'll also have to provide your model and serial number to verify the warranty state. You can be almost certain not to get the CDs after your warranty has expired. The model number is also used to determine which CDs you will get.

Also, orders done during the first month after purchase have proven to be the most successful.

==Good reasons to tell==
*You replaced your hard drive.
*You installed Linux or some other OS and accidentally removed/destroyed [[The PreDesktop Area | the PreDesktop area]].

==What happens then==
Once it's decided that you get the CDs, they usually get shipped very fast. Times from 16h to 3 days have been reported, 3 days being the time to expect. The shipping can even happen without prior confirmation of your request, so don't be worried if you hear nothing within this time.

==Country overview==
Please put an entry for your country into this table if it's missing and you made a try to get the Recovery CDs.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
| CDs recieved in || CDs were denied in
|-
| Germany, Italy, Finland ,USA ||Israel but received after calling IBM Europe
|}

[[Category:R40]] [[Category:R50]] [[Category:R50p]] [[Category:R51]] [[Category:R51p]] [[Category:T40]] [[Category:T40p]] [[Category:T41]] [[Category:T41p]] [[Category:T42]] [[Category:T42p]] [[Category:X40]]

Ordering Recovery CDs

2004-11-01T08:01:10Z

132.72.138.1: /* Country overview */

Information on getting Recovery CDs from IBM.

The information on this page is unofficial. It is gathered from personal experiences. It is here to raise your chances of success when you give it a try yourself.

==About Recovery CDs==
Recovery CDs enable you to reproduce the original software state on your ThinkPad. Modern ThinkPads have a [[The PreDesktop Area | PreDesktop area]], which's purpose is to make Recovery CDs obsolete. There are, however, reasons why you might still want to have them, and for the time being they are available on request.

Recovery CDs are localized, meaning that there are specific versions for each language. The language you will get depends on the language of the OS that was shipped with your ThinkPad. There's usually no way to get CDs in a different language from IBM.

==How to get them==
The normal procedure is to contact the IBM service and ask for them. This can be done by eMail or phone.

If you actually get them or not, seems to be more a personal decision of the service person dealing with you than following fixed rules. Also it seems to depend on your country (see below).

They will usually expect you to tell them a good reason for your request (see below).
As with every service request, you'll also have to provide your model and serial number to verify the warranty state. You can be almost certain not to get the CDs after your warranty has expired. The model number is also used to determine which CDs you will get.

Also, orders done during the first month after purchase have proven to be the most successful.

==Good reasons to tell==
*You replaced your hard drive.
*You installed Linux or some other OS and accidentally removed/destroyed [[The PreDesktop Area | the PreDesktop area]].

==What happens then==
Once it's decided that you get the CDs, they usually get shipped very fast. Times from 16h to 3 days have been reported, 3 days being the time to expect. The shipping can even happen without prior confirmation of your request, so don't be worried if you hear nothing within this time.

==Country overview==
Please put an entry for your country into this table if it's missing and you made a try to get the Recovery CDs.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
| CDs recieved in USA no problem|| CDs were denied in Israel but received after callin IBM Europe
|-
| Germany, Italy, Finland ||
|}

[[Category:R40]] [[Category:R50]] [[Category:R50p]] [[Category:R51]] [[Category:R51p]] [[Category:T40]] [[Category:T40p]] [[Category:T41]] [[Category:T41p]] [[Category:T42]] [[Category:T42p]] [[Category:X40]]