ThinkWiki - User contributions [en]

Unofficial maximum memory specs

2008-05-05T07:05:21Z

Pgan: /* Non-working memory configurations */

Some ThinkPads are known to support more memory than their specs say. This page gathers information about those models, how much memory they can take and what special requirements that memory must fulfill.

Have a look at the [[Memory]] page for the official memory configs and partnumbers

==Working memory configurations==
The following table gives an overview of tested memory configurations that exceed the specified limits for that ThinkPad type.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration successfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A31p}} 2653-R || 1 GB || 1.09 || 1.05 ||
2 x Kingston 1GB 200-Pin DDR, Model# KTM - TP9828/1G
|-
| ThinkPad {{T30}} 2366-92U || 1 GB || 2.08 || 1.06 ||
* 2 x Kingmax 1GB 200-Pin DDR SO-DIMM DDR333 PC2700, Model# MSAD42D-KI
but see [[problem with T30 not booting with 1 GiB memory module]].
* 2 x Generic Brand 1GB 200-pin DDR SO-DIMM PC2700 (p/n 89898E):
BIOS recognizes 2048MB, but Gentoo sees only 1024MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{T43p}} 2668-WTB || 2 GB || 1.29 || 1.06 ||
* 2 x 1GB Kingston KTM TP3840/1G DDR2 533MHz
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2672-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 x 1GB Kingston KVR400X64SC3A/1G DDR400MHz. Newer documentation also states 2GB, but original one did not.
* Boots with 1 bar.
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2673-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 x 1GB (Team Group Inc. TSDR1024M400 DDR400MHz)
* Boots with 1 x TSDR1024M400
|-
| ThinkPad {{X41}} 2528-5FU || 1.5 GB || 2.09 || 1.02 ||
* 1 x 2GB (Transcend TS2GIB3847 DDR2 667 MHz)
* 1 x 2GB (FRU 73P3846 DDR2 PC2-4200)
BIOS claims 2.5 GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2 GB. Linux and XP recognize 2 GB.
|-
| {{X41_Tablet}} 1866-6HU || 1.5 GB || 2.03 || 1.02 ||
* 1 x 2GB (Transcend JM667QSU-2G DDR2 667 MHz)
BIOS claims 2.5GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2GB. Linux and WindowsXP recognize 2GB.
|-
| ThinkPad {{240}} 2609-40U || 320MByte || IRETWWW76 || n/a ||
* Any PC100 256MB memory in 16-chip configuration
|-
| ThinkPad {{240X}} || 256MByte || unknown || n/a ||
* Some PC100 256MB memory in 16-chip configuration may work. Chipset cannot handle more than 256MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{570}} 2644-3AU || 320MB || 1.16 IMET65WW 11/11/99 || n/a ||
* Kingston KTM-TP390X/256 256MB MODULE FRU 16P6327 - 16 chips, 8 each side
|-
| ThinkPad {{600}} ? || 288MB || ? || ? ||
* 416MB = 256MB '''low density''' PC100 SODIMM + 128MB PC66 SODIMM + 32MB PC66 on-board. It matters which SODIMM you put in which slot. This was first reported working on the [http://zurich.csail.mit.edu/hypermail/thinkpad/2004-04/0797.html Thinkpad Mailing List], and it worked error-free for me.
|-
| ThinkPad {{770}}x 9549|| 448MB || 1.11 IIET42WW 09/10/99 || n/a ||
* 448MB = 256MB PC100 + 128MB PC66 + internal 64MB using IBM 256MB MODULE FRU 33L3070 PC100 CL2 - 16 chips, 8 each side
* 512MB = 2 x 256MB PC100 + 64MB internal booted up as well. 512MB is due to 440LX-Chipset limitations, 64MB are overlapping or unused.
|-
|}

==Non-working memory configurations==
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration unsuccessfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A21m}} || 512MB || ? || ? ||
* 2 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
:+ 1 x 144-pin 256MB PC133 SDRAM SODIMM
|-
|}

==External Sources==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-55644 IBM's official Memory compatibility page]

Unofficial maximum memory specs

2008-05-05T07:04:12Z

Pgan: /* Working memory configurations */ formatting

Some ThinkPads are known to support more memory than their specs say. This page gathers information about those models, how much memory they can take and what special requirements that memory must fulfill.

Have a look at the [[Memory]] page for the official memory configs and partnumbers

==Working memory configurations==
The following table gives an overview of tested memory configurations that exceed the specified limits for that ThinkPad type.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration successfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A31p}} 2653-R || 1 GB || 1.09 || 1.05 ||
2 x Kingston 1GB 200-Pin DDR, Model# KTM - TP9828/1G
|-
| ThinkPad {{T30}} 2366-92U || 1 GB || 2.08 || 1.06 ||
* 2 x Kingmax 1GB 200-Pin DDR SO-DIMM DDR333 PC2700, Model# MSAD42D-KI
but see [[problem with T30 not booting with 1 GiB memory module]].
* 2 x Generic Brand 1GB 200-pin DDR SO-DIMM PC2700 (p/n 89898E):
BIOS recognizes 2048MB, but Gentoo sees only 1024MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{T43p}} 2668-WTB || 2 GB || 1.29 || 1.06 ||
* 2 x 1GB Kingston KTM TP3840/1G DDR2 533MHz
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2672-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 x 1GB Kingston KVR400X64SC3A/1G DDR400MHz. Newer documentation also states 2GB, but original one did not.
* Boots with 1 bar.
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2673-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 x 1GB (Team Group Inc. TSDR1024M400 DDR400MHz)
* Boots with 1 x TSDR1024M400
|-
| ThinkPad {{X41}} 2528-5FU || 1.5 GB || 2.09 || 1.02 ||
* 1 x 2GB (Transcend TS2GIB3847 DDR2 667 MHz)
* 1 x 2GB (FRU 73P3846 DDR2 PC2-4200)
BIOS claims 2.5 GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2 GB. Linux and XP recognize 2 GB.
|-
| {{X41_Tablet}} 1866-6HU || 1.5 GB || 2.03 || 1.02 ||
* 1 x 2GB (Transcend JM667QSU-2G DDR2 667 MHz)
BIOS claims 2.5GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2GB. Linux and WindowsXP recognize 2GB.
|-
| ThinkPad {{240}} 2609-40U || 320MByte || IRETWWW76 || n/a ||
* Any PC100 256MB memory in 16-chip configuration
|-
| ThinkPad {{240X}} || 256MByte || unknown || n/a ||
* Some PC100 256MB memory in 16-chip configuration may work. Chipset cannot handle more than 256MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{570}} 2644-3AU || 320MB || 1.16 IMET65WW 11/11/99 || n/a ||
* Kingston KTM-TP390X/256 256MB MODULE FRU 16P6327 - 16 chips, 8 each side
|-
| ThinkPad {{600}} ? || 288MB || ? || ? ||
* 416MB = 256MB '''low density''' PC100 SODIMM + 128MB PC66 SODIMM + 32MB PC66 on-board. It matters which SODIMM you put in which slot. This was first reported working on the [http://zurich.csail.mit.edu/hypermail/thinkpad/2004-04/0797.html Thinkpad Mailing List], and it worked error-free for me.
|-
| ThinkPad {{770}}x 9549|| 448MB || 1.11 IIET42WW 09/10/99 || n/a ||
* 448MB = 256MB PC100 + 128MB PC66 + internal 64MB using IBM 256MB MODULE FRU 33L3070 PC100 CL2 - 16 chips, 8 each side
* 512MB = 2 x 256MB PC100 + 64MB internal booted up as well. 512MB is due to 440LX-Chipset limitations, 64MB are overlapping or unused.
|-
|}

==Non-working memory configurations==
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration unsuccessfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A21m}} || 512MB || ? || ? ||
* 2 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
:+ 1 x 144-pin 256MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM
|-
|}

==External Sources==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-55644 IBM's official Memory compatibility page]

Unofficial maximum memory specs

2008-05-05T06:58:43Z

Pgan: /* Working memory configurations */

Some ThinkPads are known to support more memory than their specs say. This page gathers information about those models, how much memory they can take and what special requirements that memory must fulfill.

Have a look at the [[Memory]] page for the official memory configs and partnumbers

==Working memory configurations==
The following table gives an overview of tested memory configurations that exceed the specified limits for that ThinkPad type.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration successfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A31p}} 2653-R || 1 GB || 1.09 || 1.05 ||
2 x Kingston 1GB 200-Pin DDR Model # KTM - TP9828/1G
|-
| ThinkPad {{T30}} 2366-92U || 1 GB || 2.08 || 1.06 ||
* 2 x Kingmax 1GB 200-Pin DDR SO-DIMM DDR333 (PC2700) Model # MSAD42D-KI
but see [[problem with T30 not booting with 1 GiB memory module]].
* 2 x Generic Brand 1GB 200-pin DDR SO-DIMM PC2700 (p/n 89898E):
BIOS recognizes 2048MB, but Gentoo sees only 1024MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{T43p}} 2668-WTB || 2 GB || 1.29 || 1.06 ||
* 2 x 1 GB (Kingston KTM TP3840/1G DDR2 533MHz)
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2672-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 x 1 GB (Kingston KVR400X64SC3A/1G DDR400MHz)
* Boots with 1 bar. Newer documentation also states 2 GB, although original one did not.
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2673-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 x 1 GB (Team Group INC. TSDR1024M400 DDR400MHz)
* Boots with 1 x TSDR1024M400
|-
| ThinkPad {{X41}} 2528-5FU || 1.5 GB || 2.09 || 1.02 ||
* 1 x 2 GB (Transcend TS2GIB3847 DDR2 667 MHz)
* 1 x 2 GB (FRU 73P3846 DDR2 PC2-4200)
BIOS claims 2.5 GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2 GB. Linux and XP recognize 2 GB.
|-
| {{X41_Tablet}} 1866-6HU || 1.5 GB || 2.03 || 1.02 ||
* 1 x 2 GB (Transcend JM667QSU-2G DDR2 667 MHz)
BIOS claims 2.5 GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2 GB. Linux and XP recognize 2 GB.
|-
| ThinkPad {{240}} 2609-40U || 320MByte || IRETWWW76 || n/a ||
* Any PC100/256MByte memory in 16 Chip Configuration will do
|-
| ThinkPad {{240X}} || 256MByte || unknown || n/a ||
* Some PC100/256MByte memory in 16 Chip Configuration may work. Chipset cannot handle more than 256MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{570}} 2644-3AU || 320MB || 1.16 IMET65WW 11/11/99 || n/a ||
* Kingston KTM-TP390X/256 256MB MODULE FRU 16P6327 - 16 Chips 8 each side
|-
| ThinkPad {{600}} ? || 288MB || ? || ? ||
* 416MB = 256MB '''low density''' PC-100 SODIMM + 128MB PC-66 SODIMM + 32MB PC-66 onboard It matters which SODIMM you put in which slot. This was first reported working on the [http://zurich.csail.mit.edu/hypermail/thinkpad/2004-04/0797.html Thinkpad Mailing List], and it worked error-free for me when I tested it.
|-
| ThinkPad {{770}}x 9549|| 448MB || 1.11 IIET42WW 09/10/99 || n/a ||
* 448MB = 256MB PC-100 + 128MB PC-66 + internal 64MB using IBM 256MB MODULE FRU 33L3070 PC 100 CL2 - 16 Chips 8 each side.
* 512MB = 2 x 256MB PC-100 + 64MB internal booted up as well. 512MB is due to 440LX-Chipset limitations, 64MB are overlapping or unused.
|-
|}

==Non-working memory configurations==
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration unsuccessfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A21m}} || 512MB || ? || ? ||
* 2 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
:+ 1 x 144-pin 256MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM
|-
|}

==External Sources==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-55644 IBM's official Memory compatibility page]

Unofficial maximum memory specs

2008-05-05T06:57:53Z

Pgan: /* Working memory configurations */ formatted for readability and consistency

Some ThinkPads are known to support more memory than their specs say. This page gathers information about those models, how much memory they can take and what special requirements that memory must fulfill.

Have a look at the [[Memory]] page for the official memory configs and partnumbers

==Working memory configurations==
The following table gives an overview of tested memory configurations that exceed the specified limits for that ThinkPad type.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration successfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A31p}} 2653-R || 1 GB || 1.09 || 1.05 ||
2 x Kingston 1GB 200-Pin DDR Model # KTM - TP9828/1G
|-
| ThinkPad {{T30}} 2366-92U || 1 GB || 2.08 || 1.06 ||
* 2 x Kingmax 1GB 200-Pin DDR SO-DIMM DDR333 (PC2700) Model # MSAD42D-KI
but see [[problem with T30 not booting with 1 GiB memory module]].
* 2 x Generic Brand 1GB 200-pin DDR SO-DIMM PC2700 (p/n 89898E):
BIOS recognizes 2048MB, but Gentoo sees only 1024MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{T43p}} 2668-WTB || 2 GB || 1.29 || 1.06 ||
* 2 x 1 GB (Kingston KTM TP3840/1G DDR2 533MHz)
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2672-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 x 1 GB (Kingston KVR400X64SC3A/1G DDR400MHz)
* Boots with 1 bar. Newer documentation also states 2 GB, although original one did not.
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2673-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 x 1 GB (Team Group INC. TSDR1024M400 DDR400MHz)
* Boots with 1 x TSDR1024M400
|-
| ThinkPad {{X41}} 2528-5FU || 1.5 GB || 2.09 || 1.02 ||
* 1 x 2 GB (Transcend TS2GIB3847 DDR2 667 MHz)
* 1 x 2 GB (FRU 73P3846 DDR2 PC2-4200)
BIOS claims 2.5 GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2 GB. Linux and XP recognize 2 GB.
|-
| {{X41_Tablet}} 1866-6HU || 1.5 GB || 2.03 || 1.02 ||
* 1 x 2 GB (Transcend JM667QSU-2G DDR2 667 MHz)
BIOS claims 2.5 GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2 GB. Linux and XP recognize 2 GB.
|-
| ThinkPad {{240}} 2609-40U || 320MByte || IRETWWW76 || n/a ||
* Any PC100/256MByte memory in 16 Chip Configuration will do
|-
| ThinkPad {{240X}} || 256MByte || unknown || n/a ||
* Some PC100/256MByte memory in 16 Chip Configuration may work. Chipset cannot handle more than 256MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{570}} 2644-3AU || 320MB || 1.16 IMET65WW 11/11/99 || n/a ||
* Kingston KTM-TP390X/256 256MB MODULE FRU 16P6327 - 16 Chips 8 each side
|-
| ThinkPad {{600}} ? || 288MB || ? || ? ||
* 416MB = 256MB '''low density''' PC-100 SODIMM + 128MB PC-66 SODIMM + 32MB PC-66 onboard (Note: it matters which SODIMM you put in which slot. This was first reported working on the [http://zurich.csail.mit.edu/hypermail/thinkpad/2004-04/0797.html Thinkpad Mailing List], and it worked error-free for me when I tested it.
|-
| ThinkPad {{770}}x 9549|| 448MB || 1.11 IIET42WW 09/10/99 || n/a ||
* 448MB = 256MB PC-100 + 128MB PC-66 + internal 64MB using IBM 256MB MODULE FRU 33L3070 PC 100 CL2 - 16 Chips 8 each side.
* 512MB = 2 x 256MB PC-100 + 64MB internal booted up as well. 512MB is due to 440LX-Chipset limitations, 64MB are overlapping or unused.
|-
|}

==Non-working memory configurations==
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration unsuccessfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A21m}} || 512MB || ? || ? ||
* 2 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
:+ 1 x 144-pin 256MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM
|-
|}

==External Sources==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-55644 IBM's official Memory compatibility page]

Unofficial maximum memory specs

2008-05-05T06:50:36Z

Pgan: added non-working memory configs section with my TP A21m

Some ThinkPads are known to support more memory than their specs say. This page gathers information about those models, how much memory they can take and what special requirements that memory must fulfill.

Have a look at the [[Memory]] page for the official memory configs and partnumbers

==Working memory configurations==
The following table gives an overview of tested memory configurations that exceed the specified limits for that ThinkPad type.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration successfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A31p}} 2653-R || 1 GB || 1.09 || 1.05 ||
* Kingston 1GB 200-Pin DDR Model # KTM - TP9828/1G
* Kingston 1GB 200-Pin DDR Model # KTM - TP9828/1G
|-
| ThinkPad {{T30}} 2366-92U || 1 GB || 2.08 || 1.06 ||
* Kingmax 1GB 200-Pin DDR SO-DIMM DDR333 (PC2700) Model # MSAD42D-KI
* Kingmax 1GB 200-Pin DDR SO-DIMM DDR333 (PC2700) Model # MSAD42D-KI
but see [[problem with T30 not booting with 1 GiB memory module]].
* Tested with 2x1GB 200-pin DDR SO-DIMM PC2700 Generic Brand (p/n 89898E)
BIOS recognizes 2048MB, but Gentoo sees only 1024MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{T43p}} 2668-WTB || 2 GB || 1.29 || 1.06 ||
* 2 GB with 2 x 1 GB (Kingston KTM TP3840/1G DDR2 533MHz)
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2672-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 GB with 2 x 1 GB (Kingston KVR400X64SC3A/1G DDR400MHz)
* It boots with 1 bar.
newer documentation also states 2 GB, even original one did not
|-
| ThinkPad {{X31}} 2673-C2G || 1 GB || 3.02 || 1.08 ||
* 2 GB with 2 x 1 GB (Team Group INC. TSDR1024M400 DDR400MHz)
* It boots with 1 bar (1xTSDR1024M400) too.
|-
| ThinkPad {{X41}} 2528-5FU || 1.5 GB || 2.09 || 1.02 ||
* 2 GB with 1 x 2 GB (Transcend TS2GIB3847 DDR2 667 MHz)
* 2 GB with 1 x 2 GB (FRU 73P3846 DDR2 PC2-4200)
BIOS claims 2.5 GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2 GB. Linux and XP recognize 2 GB.
|-
| {{X41_Tablet}} 1866-6HU || 1.5 GB || 2.03 || 1.02 ||
* 2 GB with 1 x 2 GB (Transcend JM667QSU-2G DDR2 667 MHz)
BIOS claims 2.5 GB. Diagnostic POST tests only 2 GB. Linux and XP recognize 2 GB.
|-
| ThinkPad {{240}} 2609-40U || 320MByte || IRETWWW76 || n/a ||
* Any PC100/256MByte memory in 16 Chip Configuration will do
|-
| ThinkPad {{240X}} || 256MByte || unknown || n/a ||
* Some PC100/256MByte memory in 16 Chip Configuration may work. Chipset can not handle more than 256MB
|-
| ThinkPad {{570}} 2644-3AU || 320MB || 1.16 IMET65WW 11/11/99 || n/a ||
* Kingston KTM-TP390X/256 256MB MODULE FRU 16P6327 - 16 Chips 8 each side
|-
| ThinkPad {{600}} ? || 288MB || ? || ? ||
* 416 mb = 256 mb '''low density''' PC-100 SODIMM + 128 mb PC-66 SODIMM + 32 mb PC-66 onboard (Note: that which SODIMM you put in which slot matters. This was first reported working on the [http://zurich.csail.mit.edu/hypermail/thinkpad/2004-04/0797.html Thinkpad Mailing List], and it worked error-free for me when I tested it.
|-
| ThinkPad {{770}}x 9549|| 448MB || 1.11 IIET42WW 09/10/99 || n/a ||
* 448MB = 256MB PC-100 + 128MB PC-66 + internal 64MB using IBM 256MB MODULE FRU 33L3070 PC 100 CL2 - 16 Chips 8 each side.
* 512MB = 2x256MB PC-100 + 64MB internal booted up as well. 512MB is due to 440LX-Chipset limitations, 64MB are overlapping or unused.
|-
|}

==Non-working memory configurations==
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
! ThinkPad !! max. Specs !! BIOS !! Embedded Controller !! Memory configuration unsuccessfully tested
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| ThinkPad {{A21m}} || 512MB || ? || ? ||
* 2 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
* 1 x Microx 144-pin 512MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM 32x16 8C
:+ 1 x 144-pin 256MB PC-133 SDRAM SODIMM
|-
|}

==External Sources==
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-55644 IBM's official Memory compatibility page]

Maintenance

2007-04-16T18:33:34Z

Pgan: /* Reviving batteries */

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |
Here you can find general hints about keeping your ThinkPad in good shape. Look at your [[:Category:Models|models category page]] for IBMs official maintenance guide for that model.
|}
==Battery treatment==
{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 style="vertical-align:top;"
|+Battery life expanding guide
|- style="background:#efefef;white-space:nowrap;"
! style="background:#ffdead;" | Battery Type !! NiCd !! NiMH !! Lithium ion
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
! style="background:#ffdead;" | General
|
*always do complete discharge/charge cycles
*avoid exposing the battery (or notebook) to excessive heat
|
*always do complete discharge/charge cycles
*avoid exposing the battery (or notebook) to excessive heat
|
*avoid deep discharges except when resetting fuel gague or reconditioning a battery; partial dis-/recharges are better for the battery lifetime (note: fuel gauge will slowly get inaccurate over time)
*remove battery when on AC (due to heat)
*avoid exposing the battery (or notebook) to excessive heat
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
! style="background:#ffdead;" | Charging
|
*discharge before charging
|
*discharge before charging
|
*avoid charging if battery is nearly full, unless you will need its full capacity soon; keep it on the 30%-85% charged range
*keep notebook off while charging due to heat
*fully discharge, then fully charge battery when needed to recalibrate fuel gauge; newer battery pack models require this less often, old ones might need it as often as every 30 cycles
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
! style="background:#ffdead;" | Storage
|
*almost discharged
*cool and dry
|
*almost discharged
*cool and dry
|
*never fully charged or discharged, ideally at about 40%
*cool and dry, but '''do not freeze''' them. 10-15C is recommended
|}

===Battery health===
Batteries, especially of the modern Li-Ion type, wear out quicker when they hold a large charge or are subject to higher temperatures (see above).

If you use your laptop at a desk, reduce battery wear by maintaining an appropriate charge level. When possible, remove Li-ion batteries while operating from AC as the notebook gets hot enough inside for that to damage the battery in the long run, even if charging is stopped.

On recent ThinkPads, charging thresholds can be configured in the bundled software. Under Linux, this is supported on recent models by the [[tp_smapi]] driver (and even without <tt>tp_smapi</tt>, if you have a dual-boot setup, you can set the thresholds under Windows and they will be remembered as long as you don't power off your machine with AC disconnected; suspend to RAM is OK). Have a look at [[How to use UltraBay batteries]].

If you have spare Li-ion battery packs, store them at 40% charge in a cool place (15C being a recommended temperature, do not let the batteries freeze). If storing inside a refrigerator, beware of humidity, and be careful with cold spots that can easily freeze the battery if anything goes wrong.

===The problem with 600 series batteries===
ThinkPad 600 power management causes batteries to die before they should. Read more about this on the [[Problem with ThinkPad 600 batteries|associated problem page]].

===Reviving batteries===
Some people experience sudden drops in their batteries capacity. A way to get these batteries back to full capacity is to run the "Battery Rundown" function of IBMs "PC Doctor for DOS". The program is downloadable from IBMs support site as three floppy disk images. Make sure you get the specific version of program made for your thinkpad model. For those who do not have a floppy, David Smith prepared a [http://www.mypchelp.com/~dsmith/ibmutil/ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso bootable CD image] (dead link, copy avaiable here [http://server6.org/~marker/software/ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso]) from the T22 floppy images. For newer ThinkPads there is an official [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-56222 bootable CD image].

===See also===
* [[Battery safety]]

===External sources===
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=PFAN-3QNQJN IBM Support - Extending battery life]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=ibm&lndocid=MIGR-51038 IBM Support - Battery troubleshooting]
* [http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/thinkpad/batterylife/ IBM Benchmark]
* [http://batteryuniversity.com Battery University]
* [http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm BatteryUniversitys info about prolonging lithium ion batteries]
* [http://www.buchmann.ca/Chap10-page6.asp prolonging lithium ion batteries in Buchmanns Battery FAQ]

==Cleaning the Display==
If you discover markings that look like they originate from the TrackPoint or keyboard, or for information on how to avoid these, look at [[Problem with key and trackpoint markings on the display|this page]].

===External Sources===
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-4A2P54 Lenovo Support - LCD care and cleaning instructions]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=ibm&lndocid=MIGR-52190 IBM Support - System cleaning instructions]

==Cleaning the Interior==
{{WARN|The following instructions are not appropriate for all ThinkPad models. Please consult the hardware maintenance guide or on-line disassembly instructions for your model.}}
Most ThinkPad models (particularly the A-series and the T-series) tend to accumulate a lot of interior dust which they draw from their ventilation fan. A good dusting every few months is advised. The procedure is as follows.

===ThinkPad T4x series===
See IBM's keyboard removal [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-46515 instructions] and [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-50227 movie].

===ThinkPad T6x series===
See IBM's keyboard removal
[http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-62800 instructions] and
[http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-63912 movie].

===Other models (which?)===
#Unplug the computer.
#Remove the battery.
#Turn the ThinkPad over and find two to three screws with upraised double-arrows pointing to them.
#Unscrew these screws and set them aside.
#Press the silver area underneath where the battery used to be. The front of the keyboard will pop up.
#Turn the ThinkPad right side up and gently remove the keyboard, pulling it toward you.
#There is one connector between the ThinkPad and the keyboard. Disconnect it, and set the keyboard aside.
#If there is a small black plastic separator under the keyboard, remove it and set it aside.
#The fan should be visible in the upper left. That entire area will likely be dusty. With a can of compressed air (and ''only'' with a can of compressed air), dust that area and the surrounding area.
#Replace the small black plastic separator, then reconnect the keyboard.
#Slide the keyboard back into place, then press down on the Fn and right-arrow keys until it pops into place.
#Replace the keyboard screws and battery.

==Dealing with spilling accidents==
#Don't panic.
#Don't flip or tilt the computer to prevent the liquid from spreading all over the inside of the case.
#Shut down the OS and turn off the power:
##Unplug the computer.
##Remove the battery.
#Tilt the computer so that everything that leaked into the case can flow out the same way.
#Allow the computer to dry before switching it on again.
#For minor accidents this might already be sufficient. For major flooding you should either bring the computer to a dealer who knows how to open and clean it from inside. Or you can read the Hardware Maintenance Manual, open, clean, and dry the computer yourself.

See also [http://www.moneysense.ca/spending/technology/columnist.jsp?content=986628 Act quickly, carefully if you spill on laptops] on MoneySense.ca (link broken as of 2006-09-18, the article is still available via [http://web.archive.org/web/20050221034011/http://www.moneysense.ca/spending/technology/columnist.jsp?content=986628 web.archive.org]).

==Harddisk Backup / Upgrade==
*[[How to copy a Linux installation]]
*[[Harddrive Upgrade|How to upgrade your Thinkpad hard drive]]
*[[How to copy a Windows installation]]
===External Sources===
*[http://gamma.nic.fi/~point/win2copy.htm Guide on copying Windows 2000/XP to another partition]

==Recovering BIOS passwords==
Password recovery procedure for IBM ThinkPads
using R24RF08 and IBMpass

'''1. Introduction.'''

The IBM ThinkPad uses a small eeprom ([[AT24RF08|ATMEL 24RF08]]) to store different OEM
issues like serial number, UUID, etc. The supervisor password (SVP) is also stored in this eeprom.
The 24RF08 is not an ordinary eeprom: it features read protection, which the BIOS uses to lock down
access to the eeprom contents. Also, the password is written in a special scan code, which needs to
be translated to ASCII to be of any use.

To recover the password, one can use two different programs: R24RF08 (eeprom reader) and IBMpass
(password revealer) available at [http://www.allservice.ro http://www.allservice.ro]. Diagrams are included in the reader kit.

Models for which R24RF08 and IBMpass are enough to recover the password: 240, 240X, 390E, 390X, 570, 570E,
600e, 600X, 770Z, A20m, A21e, A21m, a22m, A30, A30p, A31, A31p, G40, G41, R30, R31, R32, R40, R50, R51,
Transnote, T20, T21, T22, T23, T30, T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p, X20, X21, X22, X23, X24, X30, X31, X40, X41.

ThinkPads featuring TPCA technology (i.e. a [[Tpm|TPM trusted platform module chip]]), especially T4x, X3x, X4x need the W24RF08 eeprom writer program to complete the password recovery procedure, if the passphrase function is enabled in BIOS setup.

Other models such as the 380XD or 600 use 24C01 or 93C46 eeproms, which can be read without special tools.
The method is the same like for the models based on 24RF08, only the software to dump the eeprom is different.

Newer T43/T43p, R52, R60, T60/p, X60 and Z60 ThinkPads can be unlocked using PC8394 programming tools that consist in RPC8394 and WPC8394 (reader and writer for TPM chips). The software is available as well on [http://www.allservice.ro http://www.allservice.ro]. IBMpass 2.0 works for any TP model without exceptions.

'''2. Locating the ATMEL 24RF08 eeprom. Soldering.'''

No need to unsolder the 24RF08 eeprom, just solder 3 wires to SDA, SCL and GND pins of the
eeprom. There are two eeprom layouts (see interface schematics described bellow), corresponding to 8 pin or 14 pin eeproms. Locate the eeprom first according to your model (E.g. T20-23 and T30 have the eeprom underneath TP, and can be accessed by removing the RAM modules cover, no need to dismantle the laptop.) and solder the wires using a soldering iron with a fine tip. Also, you can use 0.15 -0.20 mm enamel coated wires or similar small diameter insulated wires. These wires will be connected later to the interface.
Tip: You can use clips to connect the wires or you can solder on the PCB traces leading to the
eeprom pins. Once again, be careful and double, triple check the soldering if necessary till you are positively sure you have done the right job. In case of applying too much solder, use flux-impregnated copper-braid "desoldering wick" - this works exceptionally well.

'''3. Choose and build the interface.'''

Since version 2.0, R24RF08 and W24RF08 (eeprom writer) are compatible with a wide range of eeprom programmers. By default, both programs set the COM port signals to use direct logic level to access I2C bus. We provide here 2 schematics that are relevant for direct logic signals and for inverse logic signals (simple-i2cprog.pdf and driven-i2cprog.pdf). Also, depending of the interface you build, you can invert the logics for SDA-In, SDA-Out, and SCL COM port signals by some command line parameters described later in this document.
a) The file simple-i2cprog.pdf contains the schematic diagram of a simple interface (known as SIPROG)based on 2 zeners and 2 resistors. This is a classic, easy to build circuit and works with soldered or unsoldered eeproms. The purpose of the 2 zeners is to convert RS232 levels (+/- 5V) to TTL levels, needed by the eeprom. It uses direct logic signals to I2C eeprom and is powered by the COM port. However, this interface works with in-system eeproms but is dependant on COM port current and eeprom bus impedance. R24RF08 works natively with this circuit, no need to change the lines signals with command line parameters. This circuit works pretty well with almost all ThinkPads series.
b) The second interface is described in driven-i2cprog.pdf. The circuit uses MAX 232 as a RS232 to TTL driver and its main purpose is to work with soldered eeproms. The advantage of MAX232 is the TTL outputs that are more reliable and more powerful when work with soldered, in-system eeproms (dependency free from the COM port current). Due of the internal inverters of MAX232 the interface responds to an inverse signal logic level. R24RF08 needs /x, /d, /i switches to be specified in the command line.

What these switches mean:
/x - invert serial clock, also known as SCL;
/d - invert serial data output, also known as SDA-Out;
/i - invert serial data input, also known as SDA-In.
All those can be used in any combination to meet any interface specification.

Note that the "standard" serial port programmer probably won't work with a USB-Serial adapter, but requires the full nominal voltage of a hardware serial port. [Example: the A22p's serial port works fine here.]

'''4. Dump the EEPROM:'''

Prepare your technician PC by connecting the interface to the COM1 port (donâ€™t connect the wires to eeprom yet). Turn on the ThinkPad and press F1 to enter BIOS Setup. When you are prompted for the password and thereâ€™s no other activity like HDD access or so, connect the wires (GND first!, SDA, SCL) to the corresponding wires from the interface (attached before to COM1) and execute R24RF08:

-for SI-PROG interface (as described in 3.a above):
r24rf08.exe <filename.ext>. where filename.ext is the file where eeprom content will be stored.
Example: r24rf08 mytp.bin

-for MAX232 driven I2C interface (as described in 3.b above):
r24rf08.exe <filename.ext> /x /d /i. where /x /d /i are command line parameters (switches) for this kind of interface.
Example: r24rf08 mytp2.bin /x /d /i

Use exactly the instructed switches to avoid possible damages to your eeprom data!
The file should be created in the same folder. Finally, disconnect the wires (GND last!) and turn off the ThinkPad by pressing on/off switch.

Dump the EEPROM data at least twice, and do a bytewise compare with `cmp`. Both files should be identical, and 1024 bytes long. Otherwise, you probably have a serial port problem.

Note: the r24rf08.exe program automatically sets the serial port parameters. It also works fine with Wine under Linux - provided that a symlink (com1) exists in the .wine/dos_devices directory, and points to the /dev/ttySX for the actual serial port.

'''5. Reveal the password.'''

Now, you have the .bin file but you need to dump in scan code to retrieve the password. IBMpass 2.0 Lite is a free tool that will do the job. Just open the eeprom dump youâ€™ve created before and search for 0x330, 0x340 lines. The password is located on 0x338 (and 0x340 depending on model) in scan code. For 24C01 eeproms the password is located at 0x38, 0x40. If the password won't work for the very first time then your eeprom may use newer IBM scancodes. In this case switch to alternate scan codes to find it. For those who want quick answers the recommended version is IBMpass 1.1. Usage for IBMpass 1.1 (command line only):

ibmpass mytp.bin â€“ use â€œ/aâ€ switch to see in alternate scan code if needed:
ibmpass mytp.bin /a

For some old models like 570 or 770Z you need to execute the eeprom patcher first. This will reset the read protection on the password offset. To do that just execute patcher.exe before the reading operation, without rebooting the laptop:

-for SI-PROG:
patcher.exe , then immediately
r24rf08.exe <filename.ext>

-for Driven-I2C (Max232) you must insert the switches:
patcher.exe /x /d /i, then immediately
r24rf08.exe <filename.ext> /x /d /i

W24RF08, the writer version, has included the complete APP reset operation you donâ€™t need to use patcher.

Moreover, there are a new encrypting algos used with some new security chips (AT97SC3201, AT97SC3203) that are very secured. The password is not in scancode and in some cases not even in the eeprom. To unlock the machine, the dump should suffer some changes and the eeprom must be reprogrammed using W24RF08. This operation works for all IBM TCG/TCPA secured laptops w/o exceptions.

Remember, use 3 wires from the interface and 3 wires from eeprom! Connect them after your
ThinkPad is powered and disconnect them right after you read the content, before you switch off the laptop.

'''6. Password format'''

The thinkpad power-on/supervisor passwords are a maximum of 7 characters, and are NOT case-sensitive. The allowed characters are restricted to A-Z, 0-9, semicolon, _, - (and perhaps a few others).

===External Sources===
* [http://www.allservice.ro R24RF08/W24RF08, PC8394 programming tools & IBMpass author's webpage.]
* [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=ibm&lndocid=MIGR-59377 IBM Support - Lost or forgotten password]
* [http://www.allservice.ro/forum/viewforum.php?f=12 Full Service of all ThinkPad models including free password recovery]
* [http://sodoityourself.com/hacking-ibm-thinkpad-bios-password/ A tutorial on how to do this]

How to make use of Dynamic Frequency Scaling

2007-03-25T21:15:50Z

Pgan: /* Using Frequency Scaling Governors */ copy-edit

==General==
Linux supports dynamic frequency scaling for systems with the following processors:
*[[Intel Mobile Pentium III]]
*[[Intel Mobile Pentium III-M]]
*[[Intel Mobile Pentium 4]]
*[[Intel Mobile Pentium 4-M]]
*[[Intel Pentium M (Banias)]]
*[[Intel Pentium M (Dothan)]]
*[[Intel Core Solo (Yonah)]]
*[[Intel Core Duo (Yonah)]]
*[[Intel Core 2 Duo]]
*Mobile Athlon
*AMD64
*Opteron

==Configuring the Kernel==
===2.4 Kernels===
There were various frequency scaling implementations in the 2.4 series of kernels. They all were preliminary and a standard was rised with the introduction of the sysfs filesystem in 2.6 kernels. It is recommended to use a 2.6 kernel, if possible.

===2.6 Kernels===
You need to enable the cpu frequency scaling for your kernel (usually your distros kernel will have this enabled):
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_CPU_FREQ|<*>|||||}}

You need to enable governors, if not already done in your distros default kernel:
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE|<*>|||||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE|<*>|||||}}
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE|<*>|||||}}

Since 2.6.10 there is the ondemand governor that does cpu frequency scaling in kernel and can be used as an alternative to powernowd etc.
It can be enabled with:
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND|<*>|||||}}

Since 2.6.12 there is the conservative governor that works similar to the ondemand governor.
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE|<*>|||||}}

ondemand and conservative differ in the way they scale up and down. The ondemand governor switches to the highest frequency immediately when there is load, while the conservative governor increases frequency step by step. Likewise they behave the other way round for stepping down frequency when the CPU is idle.

If you own a Dothan processor, you need to enable Enhanced SpeedStep functionalities.
:{{kernelconf|CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO|<*>|||||}}

==Using the Sys Interface==
The files in {{path|/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/}} provide information and a means of controlling the frequency scaling subsystem.
Seed values are given in Khz. You need to be root to access the /sys filesystem.

Your max speed is at {{path|/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq}}.
:{{cmdroot|cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq}}
:{{cmdresult|700000}}
Your min speed is at {{path|/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq}}.
:{{cmdroot|cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq}}
:{{cmdresult|500000}}
If you are using the userspace governor, you can write to {{path|/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_setspeed}} to change the current speed.
:{{cmdroot|echo 700000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_setspeed}}
:{{cmdroot|cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "cpu MHz"}}
:{{cmdresult|cpu MHz : 697.252}}
:{{cmdroot|echo 900000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_setspeed}}
:{{cmdroot|cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "cpu MHz"}}
:{{cmdresult|cpu MHz : 976.152}}

==Using Frequency Scaling Governors==
You can compile the scaling governors into your kernel or compile it as module. You'll find the governors with 'make menuconfig' here:
:{{kernelconf||||CPU Frequency scaling|Power management options (ACPI, APM)|||}}

After booting the new kernel you can get a list of available governors with (as root):
:{{cmdroot|cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors}}
:{{cmdresult|conservative ondemand powersave userspace performance}}

Note: If the governors are compiled as modules, load them first:
:{{cmdroot|modprobe cpufreq_performance cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_conservative cpufreq_powersave cpufreq_userspace}}

A Short Overview over the available governors:
:; ondemand
:: A dynamic cpufreq policy governor; it changes frequency based on the processor load. It may not work on older laptops without Enhanced SpeedStep due to [http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2005/05/msg00542.html latency reasons].
:; conservative
:: New since 2.6.12. Similar to ''ondemand'' but has a much slower 'slew rate', remaining at high frequency for many seconds after recent processor demand. Good for battery powered environments and AMD64. Again, this governor may not work on older ThinkPads like the T21.
:; powersave
:: Sets the Frequency to the lowest available, to save power. Your battery would choose this one ;)
:; userspace
:: Allows you to set the frequency manually, unlike the others. Some [[#Using Frequency Scaling Daemons|frequency scaling daemons]] require this governor to operate correctly. This is typically the recommended option with older processors like A30p's pIIIm-1200.
:; performance
:: Sets your Frequency always to the highest available.

Now we set our governor:
What is our current governor?
:{{cmdroot|cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor}}
:{{cmdresult|userspace}}
Set new governor and watch if it has changed
:{{cmdroot|echo conservative > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor}}
:{{cmdroot|cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor}}
:{{cmdresult|conservative}}

Congrats! Your governor is active.

You may set the governor in your rc.local, to make it used on every boot.

==Using Frequency Scaling Daemons==
Frequency Scaling Daemons adapt the frequency policy to different situations. A typical configuration would be to use the ondemand governor running off batteries and performance otherwise, or combining powersave with conservative on laptops with heat problems. More sophisticated setups adapt to battery level, CPU temperature or even running programs. Some daemons are able to control other power management features like hard disks or graphic cards.

{{NOTE|Daemons are optional. If you don't plan to change policies depending on the situation, you don't need one and you can stick to the <tt>ondemand</tt> or <tt>conservative</tt> frequency scaling governors, available in kernels after 2.6.10 or 2.6.12 respectively. See [[#Using Frequency Scaling Governors|above]]. They require less configuration and have generally been experienced to flawlessly adapt to the situations at hand.}}

Some daemons use the kernel governors (see above), others implement the functionality on their own. In the latter case you have to enable the userspace governor. If it is built as module, load it as <tt>cpufreq-userspace</tt>.

There are plenty of userspace frequency scaling daemons available:

*[[How to configure cpudynd | cpudynd]]
*[[How to configure cpufreqd | cpufreqd]]
*[[How to use cpufrequtils | cpufrequtils]]
*[[How to configure powernowd | powernowd]]
*[[How to configure powersaved | powersaved]]
*[[How to configure speedfreqd | speedfreqd]]

==Debian notes==
Instead of compiling your own kernel, you can use the {{Debian}} "stock" kernel. In Unstable/SID the 2.6.12 kernel image with an {{path|/etc/modules}} file that includes:

battery
ac
thermal
processor
acpi-cpufreq
cpufreq-userspace

With the powernowd package and you should be setup.

{{Debian}} has no {{path|rc.local}}, so read [http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-customizing.en.html#s-custombootscripts this] and [http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-customizing.en.html#s-booting this].

A better alternative for Debian than modifying bootscripts, is to install the [http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?searchon=names&version=all&exact=1&keywords=sysfsutils sysfsutils package]. Then edit {{path|/etc/sysfs.conf}} (as root), where you can setup values to sysfs entries that you want to be modified automatically on boot.

==Troubleshooting==
*If you have a Coppermine-piix-smi based ThinkPads like from the A2x, X2x and T2x series you need to enable the <tt>speedstep-smi</tt> driver in the kernel and load it if it's built as module. You might want to look at [[How to get SpeedStep working on Coppermine-piix4-smi based ThinkPads | this page]].

*If you have a p4-class celeron based ThinkPad like the R40e you might want to look at [[How to get SpeedStep working on P4-class-Celeron based ThinkPads | this page]]

*You may need to set your BIOS to "maximum performance" if you are using Linux to set the CPU speed. This is necessary to prevent odd behaviour (cpufreq 'freezing' at certain frequencies) with the T4x series.

==Finetuning voltages and available frequencies==
See [[Pentium M undervolting and underclocking]].

==A note about CPU throttling==

Throttling the CPU through ACPI "T" states is generally useless for power consumption reduction nowadays. It is an artifact of the past, when there was no clock frequency scaling and ACPI "C" states were mostly not implemented or didn't exist.

Throttling does not decrease clock frequency at all, and it can even increase power consumption in a modern CPU capable of ACPI "C" states, as it can interfere with the CPU reaching the higher C states (such as C2).

On a T43, setting a CPU to a ACPI Throttle state different than T0 (no throttling) can cause it to draw more than 100mW extra power, as it will reach C2 less often.

[[Category:600X]] [[Category:A20m]] [[Category:A20p]] [[Category:A21e]] [[Category:A21m]] [[Category:A21p]] [[Category:A22e]] [[Category:A22m]] [[Category:A22p]] [[Category:A30]] [[Category:A30p]] [[Category:A31]] [[Category:A31p]] [[Category:i1200]] [[Category:i1300]] [[Category:i1620]] [[Category:G40]] [[Category:G41]] [[Category:R30]] [[Category:R31]] [[Category:R32]] [[Category:R40]] [[Category:R40e]] [[Category:R50]] [[Category:R50e]] [[Category:R50p]] [[Category:R51]] [[Category:R52]] [[Category:R60]] [[Category:R60e]] [[Category:T20]] [[Category:T21]] [[Category:T22]] [[Category:T23]] [[Category:T30]] [[Category:T40]] [[Category:T40p]] [[Category:T41]] [[Category:T41p]] [[Category:T42]] [[Category:T42p]] [[Category:T43]] [[Category:T43p]] [[Category:T60]] [[Category:X20]] [[Category:X21]] [[Category:X22]] [[Category:X23]] [[Category:X24]] [[Category:X30]] [[Category:X31]] [[Category:X32]] [[Category:X40]] [[Category:X41]] [[Category:X41 Tablet]] [[Category:X60]] [[Category:X60s]] [[Category:Z60m]] [[Category:Z60t]] [[Category:Z61t]] [[Category:TransNote]]

CPU upgrade

2007-03-23T19:23:46Z

Pgan: /* Upgrading your Pentium II to a Pentium III */ copy-edit

== Upgrading your Pentium II to a Pentium III ==

Thinkpads dating from around 1999-2000 have MMC2 CPU daughter boards, and so can be upgraded.

The [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/product.do?template=%2Fproductselection%2Flandingpages%2FbrowseByProductLandingPage.vm&sitestyle=lenovo&brandind=10&validate=true hardware maintenance manual] explains in details how to proceed. The catch is that the BIOS cannot activate the L2 cache of a Pentium III. This is solved by using a [http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/~challet/module/module.html kernel module].

The good news is that the memory bus speed goes from 66MHz to 100MHz.

The catch is that the BIOS produces errors of type 127 when booting (press ESC, then F1). This is solved by modifying one byte in the BIOS, using the integrated BIOS editor ([http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4046 this post]).

Be careful when choosing the speed of the new MMC2 daughter board, since there may be problems with voltages/speedstep. 500MHz is a safe choice. Processors with SpeedStep seem to work too but stay at their lowest speed unless one uses physically modifies the daughter board (see the post above).

CPU upgrade

2007-03-23T19:19:22Z

Pgan: /* Upgrading your Pentium II to a Pentium III */

== Upgrading your Pentium II to a Pentium III ==

Thinkpads dating from around 1999-2000 have MMC2 CPU daughter boards, hence, can be upgraded.

The [http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/product.do?template=%2Fproductselection%2Flandingpages%2FbrowseByProductLandingPage.vm&sitestyle=lenovo&brandind=10&validate=true hardware maintenance manual] explains in details how to proceed. The only catch is that the BIOS cannot activate the L2 cache of a Pentium III, which is solved by using a [http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/~challet/module/module.html kernel module].

The good news is that the memory bus speed goes from 66MHz to 100MHz.

The other bad news is that the bios produces errors of type 127 when booting (press ESC, then F1). Fortunately, modifying one byte in the bios with the integrated bios editor cures definitely the problem (see [http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4046 this post])

Be carefull when choosing the speed of the new MMC2 daughter board, since there might be some problems with voltages/speedstep. 500MHz is a safe choice. Processors with SpeedStep seem to work as well although they stay at their lowest speed unless one uses modifies physically the daughter board (see the post above).

Problem with high pitch noises

2007-03-20T22:36:04Z

Pgan: /* Affected Models */ added to "moving windows"

Information on strange high pitch, low volume noises emitted by ThinkPads.

==Problem description==
Even though ThinkPads are known as very silent notebooks, they tend to emit different, mostly high pitch noises in certain circumstances. The noises are of low volume and hence not realized by everyone or at least tolerated by most people. However, there are those with "bat like ears" that hear them and might be annoyed by that.

==Affected Models==
Noises have been experienced in the following situations:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
! style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#DDDDDD;" | situation
! style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#DDDDDD;" | noise description
! style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#DDDDDD;" | affected models
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Plugged into AC / running at high CPU frequency
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
soft crackling, buzzing noise
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T41}}
**2379-DJU
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
ThinkPad suspended to RAM
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
constant high pitch noise
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T42p}}
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
ThinkPad connected to power and switched off, with battery fully charged
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
constant high pitch noise
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T41p}}
**2373-GHG
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
moving windows or just the mouse in xorg
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
strange noise like a rapid series of very short high pitch noises adding to a constant kind of whistling (only as long as the movement goes)
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{A21m}}
**2628
*{{T41p}}
**2373-GHG
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Thinkpad connected to power or working on battery, also when suspended to RAM
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High pitch noise also when HD is powered down.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T23}}
**2647-DG4
*{{X24}}
**2662-MWG
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Thinkpad connected to power battery charged less than 60%
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High pitch noise till battery is charged more than 60%.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T41p}}
**2373-GEG
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Constantly, if AC connected
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High pitched, low volume constant noise.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T40}}
**2373-88U
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
When the CPU freq jumps up to 1Ghz or above, or when the laptop is in suspend mode
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Constant high pitched
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{R50}}
**1829-6DM
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
(May come from harddisk.)
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
continuous, intermittent, low volume, high pitched
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{600X}}
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
ACPI puts the processor into the C3 or C4 power saving states (i.e., the system is idle).
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High-pitched crackling noise.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{X41}}
*{{T43}}
**2686-DGU
*{{T43p}}
*{{T60}}
**2007-72U
*{{T21}}
*{{T20}}
**2648-46U
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Cpufreqd (or powernowd etc.) slows down the processor, for exemple at the end of an heavy task.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High-pitched crackling noise.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T42}}
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
When on battery
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Noise level varies from inaudible to clearly audible, screeching sound, or sometimes beeping (when wifi is on).
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{A21m}}
**2628
*{{R51}}
**EHG-1829
*{{R52}}
**1858-A11
**1846-B5G
*{{R60}}
**9461-DXG
**9462-77G
**9456-HTG
**9461-DXG
*{{R60e}}
**0657-A9G
**0657-3LG
*{{T43}}
**2686-DGU
**1871-4AG
*{{T60}}
**2007-72U
**1951-24G
**1951-24G
**2007-49G
**2007-FUG
*{{T60p}}
**2007-FBG
*{{x60}}
*{{x31}}
**2673-CBU
*{{Z61m}}
**9450-3HG
**9452-128
**9452-W5Q
*{{Z61t}}
**9440-2QU

|-
| CPU is used much AND laptop is on AC power AND the TFT panel is enabled.
| Screetching high pitch noise, like a million crickets
|
* {{X41}}

|-
| Network is pluged in and networkload is ~100%.
| low volume highfreq. pitch noise from left speaker or cpu.
|
*{{Z60m}}, {{Z60t}}
*{{T40}}
*{{T43}}
**2687-DDU
|}

==Affected Operating Systems==
All, though Linux appears especially susceptible.

==Possible sources==

* '''CPU activity:''' On some models the noise is triggered by certain CPU power states or activity patterns (as proven [http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~tromer/acoustic here]).
* '''Graphics processor:''' In some models from the T2x era, e.g. the {{T23}}, the problem was related to the graphics circuitry and occured especially or only while making use of DirectDraw functions. IBM was able to fix it through a BIOS upgrade.
* '''Hard disk:''' On some ThinkPads the processor and hard disk are adjacent and produce similar noise. For example, in the {{X41}} the sound generated by the hard disk is likely to be loudest at the vent.
* '''Gigabit Ethernet processor:''' In some models (e.g., {{T43}}) high ethernet activity causes a high pitch noise.

* '''Screen brightness:''' on an {{X31}}, a hissing sound is started whenever screen brightness is not full.

==Status==

The problem is highly specific to operating system, model and even individual machines. There is no universal solution, but on most machines one of the following will reduce or eliminate the noise (possibly at some cost in power consumption).

==Solutions for CPU-triggered noise==

===Limit ACPI CPU power states===

There are eight ACPI CPU power states, called C1 through C8 (but the ThinkPad BIOS often remaps them and uses only C1 to C4). Often only the extreme power saving modes C4 or C3 produce the noise, so the noise can be stopped by instructing the Linux ACPI code to use only lower modes.

To forbid the ACPI driver from using C4 (this fixed the problem with on some ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T43p}} and {{T41}}):
* If the ACPI processor component is compiled as built-in (<tt>CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y</tt>):
**Pass the {{bootparm|max_cstate|3}} kernel argument.
* If the ACPI processor component is loaded as a module (<tt>CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=m</tt> and <tt>processor</tt> shows in the output of {{cmdroot|lsmod}}), do either of:
** Pass the {{bootparm|processor.max_cstate|3}} kernel argument (this does not work in Ubuntu 5.10 with default kernel).
** Add <code>options processor max_cstate=3</code> to {{path|/etc/modprobe.conf}} (or {{path|/etc/modprobe.conf.local}}, or {{path|/etc/modprobe.d/...}}, depending on your system) (this does not work in Ubuntu 5.10 with default kernel).
** {{cmdroot|echo 3 > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate}} (this can be changed in runtime for experimentation). (If may need to be set again upon resume from suspend, e.g., in the wakeup script.)
** (On Ubuntu 5.10, the default kernel uses <code>processor</code> as a module. Unfortunately, the script loading it, {{path|/etc/init.d/acpid}}, ignores the <code>options processor max_cstate=3</code> setting in {{path|/etc/modprobe.d/<my file>}}. As a solution for this specific problem, add the line <code>echo 2 > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate</code> directly to {{path|/etc/init.d/acpid}}, at the end of the function <code>load_modules()</code>, immediately after the line <code>echo "$PRINTK" > /proc/sys/kernel/printk</code>.)
** On Gentoo: Configure your Thinkpad as described in the [http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/power-management-guide.xml Power Management Guide]. Then as root create the files {{path|/etc/init.d/limit-sleep-states}} and {{path|/etc/conf.d/limit-sleep-states}} as below. After that just issue the command {{cmdroot|rc-update add limit-sleep-states default}} to limit the sleep states only when running on AC power, or {{cmdroot|rc-update add limit-sleep-states default battery}} to always limit the sleep states.
cat <<EOF > /etc/init.d/limit-sleep-states
#!/sbin/runscript

depend() {
need acpid
}

start() {
ebegin "Limiting CPU sleep state to C${LIMIT_CSTATE}"
echo $LIMIT_CSTATE > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate
eend $?
}

stop() {
ebegin "Removing CPU sleep state limit"
echo $REMOVE_CSTATE > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate
eend $?
}
EOF

cat <<EOF > /etc/conf.d/limit-sleep-states
# limit CPU sleep state to the following value (adjust accordingly)
LIMIT_CSTATE=3
# some value which is higher than all available sleep states
REMOVE_CSTATE=8
EOF

To also forbid the C3 state, replace "<tt>3</tt>" with "<tt>2</tt>" above (this fixed the problem on some ThinkPad {{X40}}, {{X41}}, {{X60}}, {{T60}}, {{Z61t}} and {{R52}}, as well as on {{T20}} where C4 is not supported at all).

Note that these options affect power consumption when the CPU is idle. For example, here is the [[How to measure power consumption|measured power consumption]] on a ThinkPad {{T43}}:
* {{bootparm|processor.max_cstate|4}}: 15160mW (default, noisy)
* {{bootparm|processor.max_cstate|3}}: 15770mW (660mW higher, silent)
* {{bootparm|processor.max_cstate|2}}: 16100mW (2940mW higher, silent)

One can control how often Linux tries to enter the C3 state by using the {{bootparm|processor.bm_history|<bitmask>}} parameter on kernels with a scheduler frequency below 800Hz (and if you have noise problems, you really should not be running the kernel at 1000Hz...). Setting {{bootparm|processor.bm_history|0xFFFFFFFF}} will cause C3 to be entered less often. This will waste more power as the CPU won't do C3 or C4 as often, but at least it doesn't forbid C3 and C4 permanently, unlike {{bootparm|max_cstate|2}}.

See the [http://thinkwiki.org/wiki?title=Talk:Problem_with_high_pitch_noises discussion page] for further information and success reports.

*Jakob Schou Pedersen: Editing the file {{path|/etc/init.d/acpid}} as described above (the last solution) worked on my T43 :-)

===Turn off CPU power saving in the BIOS===

Go into the BIOS and turn off the power saving processor feature that puts it into idle mode. (This worked on a ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T21}}, {{X60s}} and {{Z61m}}). However, this also affects power consumption when the CPU is idle, it's similar to disabling the C4/C3 ACPI CPU power state. For example, on a Z61m 9450-3HG, a full charged battery with power management enabled in the BIOS provides the notebook with power for about 3.5h, if disabled, the battery-lifetime is only about 2h.

===Disable ACPI CPU power states===

Completely disable CPU ACPI power states. Discussion:

*From Martin Steigerwald: I made the observation that I get at least less high pitch noises on my {{T23}} when I do not use the two ACPI modules "processor" and "thermal" (depends on the first one). I have no clue, why. Anyone with similar experiences?
:Omar Yasin: I've got a {{R52}} and when I load the same ACPIO modules the high pitch noises are not as loud but I can still hear them.
*Kaspar Schleiser: On my {{T23}} the noise is less loud when setting max_cstate to 2, but to completely silence it, I have to set it to "1". Is that the same as removing the "processor"-module? "cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state" does not show increased power drain.
*Niko Ehrenfeuchter: I'm experiencing the same here on my {{X24}}. Removing the "processor" module also stops the pitch noise, which does ONLY occur when setting the CPU to maximum speed (using cpufreq). On low speed it's completely silent, even having loaded the processor module.

*Rolf Adelsberger: I can confirm this: the high pitch noise is only remarkable (at least with my ears ;-) ) if the processor speed is set to maximum frequency.

*Stefan Baums: My {{X41}} produced a high-pitched crackle from the processor vent on the left. Changing HZ did nothing, and the 'processor' module could not easily be removed from the system (Ubuntu 5.04). What solved the problem for me was adding {{bootparm|idle|halt}} to the boot command line. Unfortunately, this solution only lasts until the first hibernation or suspend - when the computer ({{X41}}) resumes, the high-pitched crackle is back.

* The {{bootparm|idle|halt}} solution combined with setting <code>#define HZ 100</code> in the kernel fixes the problem on a {{T43}}.

* jhatch: {{bootparm|idle|halt}} plus <code>#define HZ 100</code> also worked on my {{T43}}. It still reverts back to noisy after a suspend/resume though. This needs to be fixed...

===Change the timer interrupt frequency===

Change the "HZ" kernel constants to alter the frequency of timer interrupts. Discussion:

{{NOTE|The timer interrupt frequency (HZ) in current Linux kernels is directly tied to the kernel task scheduler. Lower frequencies provide larger time-slices and thus also higher latencies (which may kill latency-sensitive applications like audio processing). 100Hz ended up as the recommended "server" setting (because it increases disk/CPU throughput in a latency-insensitive environment). Higher frequencies are better for latency-sensitive applications, and improve desktop responsivity at the cost of less processor throughput. 1000Hz ended up as the recommended "desktop" setting.}}

*Andreas Karnahl: i've read in several forums it has something to do with the "idle"-state (or "C3") of the processor. There is a frequency called "timer interrupt" (or so mething like that). Since kernel 2.6x it is set to 1000 Hz by default (compared to 100 Hz in Kernel 2.4x). The exact reason i don't know, but it is safe to change this frequency to 100 Hz in kernel 2.6x (by the way, windows up to XP uses 100 Hz by default). Just do the following: 
: In {{path|[path to kernel-sources]/include/asm-i386/param.h}} find the line
:: <code>#define HZ 1000</code>
: and change the value of HZ to 100:
:: <code>#define HZ 100</code>
:Then recompile the kernel. After i changed it on my ThinkPad {{A30}} (under SuSE 9.2 and 9.3) and recompiling the kernel the high pitch noise is gone away.

* Omar Yasin: Worked on my {{R52}}, thanks.

* [[User:Thinker|Thinker]]: In modern kernels this constant is in the kernel configuration {{kernelconf|CONFIG_HZ|Processor type and features||Timer Frequency|||||}}.

===Prevent idling===

Indirectly avoid power saving states by making sure the CPU is rarely idle:

* Paul RIVIER: Here is a really simple workaround. C3 / C4 states are mainly called when the cpu freq is higher than required, for example if your cpufreqd is lazy to slow down the frequency but quick to raise it. That is why I use powernowd with the builtin "passive" mode, which is lazy for raising frequency, but quick to go back to the lowest. Now I don't hear them as often as before, as I avoid C3/C4 states at high frequency.

* The problem also occurs on my {{X41}} with 2.6.11. Setting up [[How to make use of Dynamic Frequency Scaling|frequency scaling]] with the <code>ondemand</code> governor makes things a lot better, as the processor does not stay with the maximum frequency when in idle mode. It can be still heard sometimes, though.

* On a {{T43}} the noise was gone after dropping cpufreqd and switching to the ondemand governor - maybe because of the high sampling rate? (used the default: 10ms)

===Change the processor voltage===

Reducing the processor voltage (when possible) may decrease or eliminate the noise. On one ThinkPad {{T43}}, [[Pentium M undervolting and underclocking|undervolting the Pentium M processor]] eliminated the high-pitched noise. Compared to the other solutions this has the benefit of lower power consumption, both due to the undervolting itself and because there is no need to forbid high APCI CPU power saving modes.

==Solutions for screen brightness related sounds==

===Disable BIOS brightness control===

The sound starts when on batteries as the BIOS automatically reduces screen brightness. To disable this, simply switch Config>Display>Brightness from
Normal to High. See also [[User:Piccobello/Hissing sound on battery|here]].

==Other solutions==

===Disable UltraBay===
*Naheed Vora: My {{T41}} (2373-268) started to give high pitch noise ocassionally, when I upgraded to 2.6.11 kernel. I tried to unload lot of modules but finally figured out that disabling bay stops the noise. If you have [[ibm-acpi]], do (need a cleaner solution): {{cmduser|echo eject >/proc/acpi/ibm/bay}} .

===Disable IrDA===
*Mike Perry: I was able to cure an intermittent high-pitched whine on both my {{X24}} and {{X40}} by disabling the Infrared port.

===Disable the Linuxant Modem Driver===
*Joern Heissler: I made another experience. I played around with linuxant conexant [[Modem Devices|modem]] drivers. After loading them I got some noise on my {{T42p}}.

===Media Player paused===
*Eilif Muller: On my {{R52}} the high-pitched noises go away if I load XMMS, play something then pause it.
*Jacob: On my {{T43}} DGU it goes away if I open mplayerc.exe and press play then pause it. This is the high-pitched noise that only shows up when I'm on battery.

''I'd guess that the above tip works as when xmms or similar is running, it is uncompressing compressed audio/video, which is a processor intensive action. Keeping this paused means that the app won't 'let go' of the processor, forcing it to stay up and running, which stops it entering the higher powersave modes.''

===nice yes===

Run the command:
{{cmduser|nice yes > /dev/null}}.

This is a good way to test whether the processor is causing the interference, since it forces the CPU to stay at full power. Of course, this will make your system get warm, and probably turn on the fan, as well as eating power.

===Upgrade BIOS===
On a ThinkPad {{X60s}}, [[BIOS_Upgrade|upgrading the BIOS]] to version 1.06 eliminated the high pitch noise when running on battery.

===Disable USB===
On one {{T43}} and one {{X60}}, (partially) disabling USB using {{cmdroot|rmmod uhci_hcd}} significantly reduced the noise.

This is likely a CPU-induced noise case, as disabling USB UHCI will reduce a lot the amount of busmaster activity while the computer is idle, and thus has a direct effect on the need for ACPI C-state transitions from C3/C4 to C2 or lower states in a {{T43}} or {{X60}}.

Problem with high pitch noises

2007-03-20T22:34:23Z

Pgan: /* Affected Models */

Information on strange high pitch, low volume noises emitted by ThinkPads.

==Problem description==
Even though ThinkPads are known as very silent notebooks, they tend to emit different, mostly high pitch noises in certain circumstances. The noises are of low volume and hence not realized by everyone or at least tolerated by most people. However, there are those with "bat like ears" that hear them and might be annoyed by that.

==Affected Models==
Noises have been experienced in the following situations:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
! style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#DDDDDD;" | situation
! style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#DDDDDD;" | noise description
! style="vertical-align:top;background-color:#DDDDDD;" | affected models
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Plugged into AC / running at high CPU frequency
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
soft crackling, buzzing noise
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T41}}
**2379-DJU
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
ThinkPad suspended to RAM
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
constant high pitch noise
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T42p}}
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
ThinkPad connected to power and switched off, with battery fully charged
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
constant high pitch noise
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T41p}}
**2373-GHG
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
moving windows or just the mouse in xorg
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
strange noise like a rapid series of very short high pitch noises adding to a constant kind of whistling (only as long as the movement goes)
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T41p}}
**2373-GHG
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Thinkpad connected to power or working on battery, also when suspended to RAM
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High pitch noise also when HD is powered down.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T23}}
**2647-DG4
*{{X24}}
**2662-MWG
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Thinkpad connected to power battery charged less than 60%
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High pitch noise till battery is charged more than 60%.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T41p}}
**2373-GEG
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Constantly, if AC connected
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High pitched, low volume constant noise.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T40}}
**2373-88U
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
When the CPU freq jumps up to 1Ghz or above, or when the laptop is in suspend mode
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Constant high pitched
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{R50}}
**1829-6DM
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
(May come from harddisk.)
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
continuous, intermittent, low volume, high pitched
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{600X}}
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
ACPI puts the processor into the C3 or C4 power saving states (i.e., the system is idle).
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High-pitched crackling noise.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{X41}}
*{{T43}}
**2686-DGU
*{{T43p}}
*{{T60}}
**2007-72U
*{{T21}}
*{{T20}}
**2648-46U
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Cpufreqd (or powernowd etc.) slows down the processor, for exemple at the end of an heavy task.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
High-pitched crackling noise.
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{T42}}
|-
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
When on battery
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
Noise level varies from inaudible to clearly audible, screeching sound, or sometimes beeping (when wifi is on).
| style="vertical-align:top;" |
*{{A21m}}
**2628
*{{R51}}
**EHG-1829
*{{R52}}
**1858-A11
**1846-B5G
*{{R60}}
**9461-DXG
**9462-77G
**9456-HTG
**9461-DXG
*{{R60e}}
**0657-A9G
**0657-3LG
*{{T43}}
**2686-DGU
**1871-4AG
*{{T60}}
**2007-72U
**1951-24G
**1951-24G
**2007-49G
**2007-FUG
*{{T60p}}
**2007-FBG
*{{x60}}
*{{x31}}
**2673-CBU
*{{Z61m}}
**9450-3HG
**9452-128
**9452-W5Q
*{{Z61t}}
**9440-2QU

|-
| CPU is used much AND laptop is on AC power AND the TFT panel is enabled.
| Screetching high pitch noise, like a million crickets
|
* {{X41}}

|-
| Network is pluged in and networkload is ~100%.
| low volume highfreq. pitch noise from left speaker or cpu.
|
*{{Z60m}}, {{Z60t}}
*{{T40}}
*{{T43}}
**2687-DDU
|}

==Affected Operating Systems==
All, though Linux appears especially susceptible.

==Possible sources==

* '''CPU activity:''' On some models the noise is triggered by certain CPU power states or activity patterns (as proven [http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~tromer/acoustic here]).
* '''Graphics processor:''' In some models from the T2x era, e.g. the {{T23}}, the problem was related to the graphics circuitry and occured especially or only while making use of DirectDraw functions. IBM was able to fix it through a BIOS upgrade.
* '''Hard disk:''' On some ThinkPads the processor and hard disk are adjacent and produce similar noise. For example, in the {{X41}} the sound generated by the hard disk is likely to be loudest at the vent.
* '''Gigabit Ethernet processor:''' In some models (e.g., {{T43}}) high ethernet activity causes a high pitch noise.

* '''Screen brightness:''' on an {{X31}}, a hissing sound is started whenever screen brightness is not full.

==Status==

The problem is highly specific to operating system, model and even individual machines. There is no universal solution, but on most machines one of the following will reduce or eliminate the noise (possibly at some cost in power consumption).

==Solutions for CPU-triggered noise==

===Limit ACPI CPU power states===

There are eight ACPI CPU power states, called C1 through C8 (but the ThinkPad BIOS often remaps them and uses only C1 to C4). Often only the extreme power saving modes C4 or C3 produce the noise, so the noise can be stopped by instructing the Linux ACPI code to use only lower modes.

To forbid the ACPI driver from using C4 (this fixed the problem with on some ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T43p}} and {{T41}}):
* If the ACPI processor component is compiled as built-in (<tt>CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y</tt>):
**Pass the {{bootparm|max_cstate|3}} kernel argument.
* If the ACPI processor component is loaded as a module (<tt>CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=m</tt> and <tt>processor</tt> shows in the output of {{cmdroot|lsmod}}), do either of:
** Pass the {{bootparm|processor.max_cstate|3}} kernel argument (this does not work in Ubuntu 5.10 with default kernel).
** Add <code>options processor max_cstate=3</code> to {{path|/etc/modprobe.conf}} (or {{path|/etc/modprobe.conf.local}}, or {{path|/etc/modprobe.d/...}}, depending on your system) (this does not work in Ubuntu 5.10 with default kernel).
** {{cmdroot|echo 3 > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate}} (this can be changed in runtime for experimentation). (If may need to be set again upon resume from suspend, e.g., in the wakeup script.)
** (On Ubuntu 5.10, the default kernel uses <code>processor</code> as a module. Unfortunately, the script loading it, {{path|/etc/init.d/acpid}}, ignores the <code>options processor max_cstate=3</code> setting in {{path|/etc/modprobe.d/<my file>}}. As a solution for this specific problem, add the line <code>echo 2 > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate</code> directly to {{path|/etc/init.d/acpid}}, at the end of the function <code>load_modules()</code>, immediately after the line <code>echo "$PRINTK" > /proc/sys/kernel/printk</code>.)
** On Gentoo: Configure your Thinkpad as described in the [http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/power-management-guide.xml Power Management Guide]. Then as root create the files {{path|/etc/init.d/limit-sleep-states}} and {{path|/etc/conf.d/limit-sleep-states}} as below. After that just issue the command {{cmdroot|rc-update add limit-sleep-states default}} to limit the sleep states only when running on AC power, or {{cmdroot|rc-update add limit-sleep-states default battery}} to always limit the sleep states.
cat <<EOF > /etc/init.d/limit-sleep-states
#!/sbin/runscript

depend() {
need acpid
}

start() {
ebegin "Limiting CPU sleep state to C${LIMIT_CSTATE}"
echo $LIMIT_CSTATE > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate
eend $?
}

stop() {
ebegin "Removing CPU sleep state limit"
echo $REMOVE_CSTATE > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate
eend $?
}
EOF

cat <<EOF > /etc/conf.d/limit-sleep-states
# limit CPU sleep state to the following value (adjust accordingly)
LIMIT_CSTATE=3
# some value which is higher than all available sleep states
REMOVE_CSTATE=8
EOF

To also forbid the C3 state, replace "<tt>3</tt>" with "<tt>2</tt>" above (this fixed the problem on some ThinkPad {{X40}}, {{X41}}, {{X60}}, {{T60}}, {{Z61t}} and {{R52}}, as well as on {{T20}} where C4 is not supported at all).

Note that these options affect power consumption when the CPU is idle. For example, here is the [[How to measure power consumption|measured power consumption]] on a ThinkPad {{T43}}:
* {{bootparm|processor.max_cstate|4}}: 15160mW (default, noisy)
* {{bootparm|processor.max_cstate|3}}: 15770mW (660mW higher, silent)
* {{bootparm|processor.max_cstate|2}}: 16100mW (2940mW higher, silent)

One can control how often Linux tries to enter the C3 state by using the {{bootparm|processor.bm_history|<bitmask>}} parameter on kernels with a scheduler frequency below 800Hz (and if you have noise problems, you really should not be running the kernel at 1000Hz...). Setting {{bootparm|processor.bm_history|0xFFFFFFFF}} will cause C3 to be entered less often. This will waste more power as the CPU won't do C3 or C4 as often, but at least it doesn't forbid C3 and C4 permanently, unlike {{bootparm|max_cstate|2}}.

See the [http://thinkwiki.org/wiki?title=Talk:Problem_with_high_pitch_noises discussion page] for further information and success reports.

*Jakob Schou Pedersen: Editing the file {{path|/etc/init.d/acpid}} as described above (the last solution) worked on my T43 :-)

===Turn off CPU power saving in the BIOS===

Go into the BIOS and turn off the power saving processor feature that puts it into idle mode. (This worked on a ThinkPad {{T43}}, {{T21}}, {{X60s}} and {{Z61m}}). However, this also affects power consumption when the CPU is idle, it's similar to disabling the C4/C3 ACPI CPU power state. For example, on a Z61m 9450-3HG, a full charged battery with power management enabled in the BIOS provides the notebook with power for about 3.5h, if disabled, the battery-lifetime is only about 2h.

===Disable ACPI CPU power states===

Completely disable CPU ACPI power states. Discussion:

*From Martin Steigerwald: I made the observation that I get at least less high pitch noises on my {{T23}} when I do not use the two ACPI modules "processor" and "thermal" (depends on the first one). I have no clue, why. Anyone with similar experiences?
:Omar Yasin: I've got a {{R52}} and when I load the same ACPIO modules the high pitch noises are not as loud but I can still hear them.
*Kaspar Schleiser: On my {{T23}} the noise is less loud when setting max_cstate to 2, but to completely silence it, I have to set it to "1". Is that the same as removing the "processor"-module? "cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state" does not show increased power drain.
*Niko Ehrenfeuchter: I'm experiencing the same here on my {{X24}}. Removing the "processor" module also stops the pitch noise, which does ONLY occur when setting the CPU to maximum speed (using cpufreq). On low speed it's completely silent, even having loaded the processor module.

*Rolf Adelsberger: I can confirm this: the high pitch noise is only remarkable (at least with my ears ;-) ) if the processor speed is set to maximum frequency.

*Stefan Baums: My {{X41}} produced a high-pitched crackle from the processor vent on the left. Changing HZ did nothing, and the 'processor' module could not easily be removed from the system (Ubuntu 5.04). What solved the problem for me was adding {{bootparm|idle|halt}} to the boot command line. Unfortunately, this solution only lasts until the first hibernation or suspend - when the computer ({{X41}}) resumes, the high-pitched crackle is back.

* The {{bootparm|idle|halt}} solution combined with setting <code>#define HZ 100</code> in the kernel fixes the problem on a {{T43}}.

* jhatch: {{bootparm|idle|halt}} plus <code>#define HZ 100</code> also worked on my {{T43}}. It still reverts back to noisy after a suspend/resume though. This needs to be fixed...

===Change the timer interrupt frequency===

Change the "HZ" kernel constants to alter the frequency of timer interrupts. Discussion:

{{NOTE|The timer interrupt frequency (HZ) in current Linux kernels is directly tied to the kernel task scheduler. Lower frequencies provide larger time-slices and thus also higher latencies (which may kill latency-sensitive applications like audio processing). 100Hz ended up as the recommended "server" setting (because it increases disk/CPU throughput in a latency-insensitive environment). Higher frequencies are better for latency-sensitive applications, and improve desktop responsivity at the cost of less processor throughput. 1000Hz ended up as the recommended "desktop" setting.}}

*Andreas Karnahl: i've read in several forums it has something to do with the "idle"-state (or "C3") of the processor. There is a frequency called "timer interrupt" (or so mething like that). Since kernel 2.6x it is set to 1000 Hz by default (compared to 100 Hz in Kernel 2.4x). The exact reason i don't know, but it is safe to change this frequency to 100 Hz in kernel 2.6x (by the way, windows up to XP uses 100 Hz by default). Just do the following: 
: In {{path|[path to kernel-sources]/include/asm-i386/param.h}} find the line
:: <code>#define HZ 1000</code>
: and change the value of HZ to 100:
:: <code>#define HZ 100</code>
:Then recompile the kernel. After i changed it on my ThinkPad {{A30}} (under SuSE 9.2 and 9.3) and recompiling the kernel the high pitch noise is gone away.

* Omar Yasin: Worked on my {{R52}}, thanks.

* [[User:Thinker|Thinker]]: In modern kernels this constant is in the kernel configuration {{kernelconf|CONFIG_HZ|Processor type and features||Timer Frequency|||||}}.

===Prevent idling===

Indirectly avoid power saving states by making sure the CPU is rarely idle:

* Paul RIVIER: Here is a really simple workaround. C3 / C4 states are mainly called when the cpu freq is higher than required, for example if your cpufreqd is lazy to slow down the frequency but quick to raise it. That is why I use powernowd with the builtin "passive" mode, which is lazy for raising frequency, but quick to go back to the lowest. Now I don't hear them as often as before, as I avoid C3/C4 states at high frequency.

* The problem also occurs on my {{X41}} with 2.6.11. Setting up [[How to make use of Dynamic Frequency Scaling|frequency scaling]] with the <code>ondemand</code> governor makes things a lot better, as the processor does not stay with the maximum frequency when in idle mode. It can be still heard sometimes, though.

* On a {{T43}} the noise was gone after dropping cpufreqd and switching to the ondemand governor - maybe because of the high sampling rate? (used the default: 10ms)

===Change the processor voltage===

Reducing the processor voltage (when possible) may decrease or eliminate the noise. On one ThinkPad {{T43}}, [[Pentium M undervolting and underclocking|undervolting the Pentium M processor]] eliminated the high-pitched noise. Compared to the other solutions this has the benefit of lower power consumption, both due to the undervolting itself and because there is no need to forbid high APCI CPU power saving modes.

==Solutions for screen brightness related sounds==

===Disable BIOS brightness control===

The sound starts when on batteries as the BIOS automatically reduces screen brightness. To disable this, simply switch Config>Display>Brightness from
Normal to High. See also [[User:Piccobello/Hissing sound on battery|here]].

==Other solutions==

===Disable UltraBay===
*Naheed Vora: My {{T41}} (2373-268) started to give high pitch noise ocassionally, when I upgraded to 2.6.11 kernel. I tried to unload lot of modules but finally figured out that disabling bay stops the noise. If you have [[ibm-acpi]], do (need a cleaner solution): {{cmduser|echo eject >/proc/acpi/ibm/bay}} .

===Disable IrDA===
*Mike Perry: I was able to cure an intermittent high-pitched whine on both my {{X24}} and {{X40}} by disabling the Infrared port.

===Disable the Linuxant Modem Driver===
*Joern Heissler: I made another experience. I played around with linuxant conexant [[Modem Devices|modem]] drivers. After loading them I got some noise on my {{T42p}}.

===Media Player paused===
*Eilif Muller: On my {{R52}} the high-pitched noises go away if I load XMMS, play something then pause it.
*Jacob: On my {{T43}} DGU it goes away if I open mplayerc.exe and press play then pause it. This is the high-pitched noise that only shows up when I'm on battery.

''I'd guess that the above tip works as when xmms or similar is running, it is uncompressing compressed audio/video, which is a processor intensive action. Keeping this paused means that the app won't 'let go' of the processor, forcing it to stay up and running, which stops it entering the higher powersave modes.''

===nice yes===

Run the command:
{{cmduser|nice yes > /dev/null}}.

This is a good way to test whether the processor is causing the interference, since it forces the CPU to stay at full power. Of course, this will make your system get warm, and probably turn on the fan, as well as eating power.

===Upgrade BIOS===
On a ThinkPad {{X60s}}, [[BIOS_Upgrade|upgrading the BIOS]] to version 1.06 eliminated the high pitch noise when running on battery.

===Disable USB===
On one {{T43}} and one {{X60}}, (partially) disabling USB using {{cmdroot|rmmod uhci_hcd}} significantly reduced the noise.

This is likely a CPU-induced noise case, as disabling USB UHCI will reduce a lot the amount of busmaster activity while the computer is idle, and thus has a direct effect on the need for ACPI C-state transitions from C3/C4 to C2 or lower states in a {{T43}} or {{X60}}.

How to save memory

2007-03-20T20:56:45Z

Pgan: /* Window Manager */

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |This page is meant as a collection of information on how to save memory to make Linux work reasonable on older system with limited amount of RAM.

Most distributions nowadays don't take much care about it anymore, so there are a lot of things you can do to save memory. To get a smoothly working linux environment on a low memory machine you will need to conciously choose a lot of aspects of your system, most importantly the graphical environment, desktop environment and applications. This page provides detailed information about these various optimization possibilities.
|}

==Alternative graphical environments==
{{Todo|...}}

==Streamlining the desktop environment==
The common Desktop environments GNOME and KDE are, in their modern state, focused more on features, integration, and beauty rather than on resource saving. Understandable, but running Linux on an older ThinkPad with limited RAM requires conscious and sensitive resource usage more than anything else. The good thing about Linux is that a lot of things stay adjustable and customizable. So lets see what we can do about desktops.

One of the most important things is to decide for one graphical widget library and stick with that when you are choosing your desktop environment and applications. Having several toolkits in use means more libraries being loaded and hence more memory being used by those. Possibilities are:
* [http://www.fltk.org/ FLTK]
* [http://www.fox-toolkit.org/ FOX toolkit]
* [http://www.gnustep.org GNUstep toolkit]
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK] <tt>(not recommended, use GTK 2 if possible)</tt>
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK 2]
* [http://www.lesstif.org/ Lesstif] / [http://www.openmotif.org/ OpenMotif]
* [http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.html QT]
* [http://www.windowmaker.org/development-wings.html WINGs] <tt>(kind of a lightweight GNUstep toolkit, provided by the WindowMaker developers)</tt>
* [http://www.x.org/ X Toolkit]

Of those, at current state, there are enough applications for the X Toolkit, GTK, GTK 2 and QT to provide you with a solution for every task you should want.

===GNOME===
It's like with humans, the worst feature is in most cases also the best one. For GNOME it is probably the many little parts it consists of. Makes it hard to install, but enables one to customize the installation. So, the first thing you should do to streamline GNOME is not to launch it. Sound stupid? Well, lets have a look.

GNOME is basically a set of libraries built around the GTK+ libs and extending its functionality. Add some nice little applications, a session manager, a panel, beautiful icons, and some other stuff and you have GNOME as you know it. Reversing those additions is what you can do to use GNOME applications on a machine that this desktop environment would normally take your nerves on.

The GNOME panel, the session manager, the desktop manager and the window manager are all parts of GNOME that eat a lot of memory for something that others can do in a maybe little less beautiful but much more resource saving way.
So first off configure your login manager not to launch gnome-session at login. If you are using GDM this is quite straight forward, you just need to add a different session script, launching your favorite window manager. See the list below and pick one, lets say i.e. WindowMaker. WindowMaker uses a desktop menu, a dock and a notification area to provide you with an organized way of launching applications and iconfying running ones. So we don't need a panel anymore. Also, think if you really need icons on your desktop. If you do, think about using something like ROX filer instead of nautilus for that. In any case, tell nautilus not to manage the desktop by default by unchecking the according setting within gconf-editor. To keep GNOME applications happy we would need to have gconf and gnome-settings-manager running at every session start. One way to do this is to either include them in your new session script. They both need to be running to make GNOME applications realize their settings properly.

===KDE===
{{Todo|...}}

===Alternative Desktop Environments===
First of all, it is important to notice that GNOME and KDE are not the only Desktop Environments around.
Other complete (featuring most of: window management, session management, desktop management, file management and panel) desktop environments are:
* [http://xfce.org/ XFCE] <tt>uses GTK 2</tt>
* [http://rox.sourceforge.net ROX Desktop]
* [http://ede.sourceforge.net Equinox Desktop Environment] <tt>uses eFLTK, a modified version of FLTK</tt>
* [http://www.nongnu.org/antiright/ AntiRight Desktop Environment] <tt>uses LessTif / OpenMotif</tt>
* [http://foxdesktop.sourceforge.net/ FOX Desktop Environment] <tt>uses FOX Toolkit</tt>
* [http://www.gnustep.org/ GNUstep] <tt>provides it's own toolkit</tt>

But also, some Window Managers exceed the task of managing windows towards providing a functional workbench. See below for a list.

===Building your own Desktop===

====Window Manager====
If you want to build your own customized desktop, a good start is choosing the window manager of your liking. A list of window managers is at [http://xwinman.org].

Here's a list of some of them:
*including basic Desktop Environment functionality
**the [[Wikipedia:NextStep|NextStep]] alike ones
***[http://www.windowmaker.org/ WindowMaker] <tt>(probably the most widespread NextStep like WM)</tt>
***[http://www.afterstep.org/ AfterStep] <tt>(another one of those)</tt>
**the Blackbox-like ones
***[http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/ BlackBox]
***[http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/ FluxBox] <tt>(tabbed windows, lighweight)</tt>
**others
***[http://www.icewm.org/ IceWM] <tt>(lightweight, widespread)</tt>
***[http://enlightenment.sourceforge.net/ Enlightenment] <tt>(lots of features and eye candy)</tt>
***[http://www.pekwm.org PekWM] <tt>(kind of a one man show, but feature rich and extremely customizable)</tt>
*pure WindowManagers
**[http://golem.sourceforge.net/ Golem]
**[http://home.earthlink.net/~lab1701/larswm/ LarsWM] <tt>(unique tiling Window Manager)</tt>
**[http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/ ratpoison] <tt>(modeled after gnu screen)</tt>
**[http://fvwm.org/ fvwm] <tt>(small but powerful)</tt>
**[http://www.jfc.org.uk/software/lwm.html lwm] <tt>(very small, and fast)</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wm2/ wm2] <tt>really small Window Manager</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wmx/ wmx] <tt>slightly more featureful version of wm2</tt>

====Taskbar/Panel====
Another thing that especially users coming to Linux from the Windows world would probably like is a Panel or Taskbar.

Here's a collection of independant low resource panels:
*[http://www.chatjunkies.org/fspanel/ F***ing Small Panel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://freshmeat.net/projects/hpanel/ HPanel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/ fbpanel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2)</tt>
*[http://jodrell.net/projects/perlpanel Perl Panel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, gnomevfs, perl)</tt>
*[http://www.gkrellm.net/ GKrellM] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, flexible plugin based skinable vertical panel)</tt>

====Desktop Pinboard====
Then, the next thing you might be looking for is how to get icons onto your desktop. Usually this is done by the file manager who displays the content of a special directory as icons on the desktop. See the File Manager section to follow this approach.

However, you might decide for a really lightwight file manager which doesn't offer this feature. In that case all hope is not lost, for there are also special programs specialized in desktop icon management. Such are:
* [http://idesk.sourceforge.net/ iDesk] <tt>(recent versions need imlib2 only)</tt>

====File Manager====
File Managers are the fourth really important compontent of a desktop environment. There are plenty out their ranging from resource hugs to really lightweight and slim ones.

File Managers come with three distinct general user interface approaches: the two pane gui, the spacial and the browser gui. The browser gui is the one the Windows Explorer starting from Windows 2000 uses as well as earlier versions of Nautilus. The spacial view is the one known from Windows 95 and more recent versions of Nautilus. The two pane view is know to many from Norten Commander, Directory Opus or your favorite FTP client.

The following list provides an overview.
*FLTK
** [http://www.oksid.ch/flfm/ Fast Light File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
* FOX toolkit
** [http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/ X File Explorer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK
** [http://www.kaisersite.de/dfm/ Desktop File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui, incl. desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://www.uwyn.com/projects/fm/ FM] <tt>(spacial, MAC OS 9 like gui)</tt>
** [http://radekc.regnet.cz/ Seksi Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK 2
** [http://rox.sourceforge.net/ ROX Filer] <tt>(highly productive spacial gui, incl. panel and desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://blog.perldude.de/projects/filer/ Filer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui, requires Perl)</tt>
** [http://xffm.sourceforge.net/ XFFM] <tt>(browser and spacial gui, requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://logicaldesktop.sourceforge.net/ Logical Desktop] <tt>(browser gui, actually a very special approach)</tt>
** [http://tuxcmd.sourceforge.net/ Tux Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://www.nongnu.org/gcmd/index.html Gnome Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://emelfm2.net/emelFM2/ emelFM2] <tt>(two pane gui with full customizable menu and toolbar, the best for power users)</tt>
** [http://thunar.xfce.org/index.xhtml Thunar] <tt>(requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/ PCMan File Manager] <tt>(An extremly fast and lightweight file manager which features tabbed browsing and user-friendly interface. Requires GTK+ version 2.8.x)</tt>
* OpenMotif
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xplore/xplore.php Xplore] <tt>(browser gui with productive 4 pane concept)</tt>
* QT 2
** [http://www.hi-net.cz/blaza/bfcommander/en/index.html BF-Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*Qt3
** [http://www.beesoft.org/download_bsc.html Beesoft Commander] <tt> (fast & easy two panel file manager, like Norton Commander)</tt>
* Tcl/Tk
** [http://users.tkk.fi/~mkivinie/X-Files/ X-Files] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*X Toolkit
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xfm/ X File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
** [http://www.boomerangsworld.de/worker/ Worker] <tt>(two pane gui, highly productive and configurable)</tt>
** [http://xnc.dubna.su/ X Northern Captain] <tt>(interesting flexible two pane gui)</tt>
*3D Filemanagers
** [http://www.determinate.net/webdata/seg/tdfsb.html TDFSB] <tt>(3D gui, the most impressing 3D file browser so far)</tt>
** [http://www.forchheimer.se/bfm/ Brutal File Manager] <tt>(3D gui more for fun than productivity)</tt>
** [http://turma.sourceforge.net/software/3dfile/ 3DFile] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>
** [http://orbis.sourceforge.net/ Orbis] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>

==Choosing applications==
===Web Browser===
This is highly dependent on the way you use your browser, it's often worth it to try out all and just track general
memory usage. Remember that <tt>top</tt> and <tt>ps</tt> don't report correct memory usage, track totals only.

====Firefox====
Firefox is graphical web browser. One can install features like AdBlock and FlashClicktoplay which will decrease memory and
processor usage by hiding Flash and Java -adverts.

====Opera====
Opera is graphical web browser. You can easily enable/disable plug-ins and java (press F12) and decrease memory usage.
Opera uses QT as toolkit, so you may shave off some Mbytes off memory usage by using dynamically linked version if you use KDE.

====Konqueror====
Konqueror is graphical web browser. It's integrated with KDE and has several advanced features (esp. ca. KDE 3.5).
You may save some megabytes by using it instead of other browsers when using KDE.
It's not necessarily heavy even when used without running KDE.

====Dillo====
Dillo is minimalistic and very small graphical web browser.

====Elinks/Lynx====
elinks/lynx are both text mode web browsers. <tt>elinks</tt> handles tables and formatting much nicer than <tt>lynx</tt>.
Both go very easy on memory footprint.

{{Todo|...}}

==Disabling unneeded system deamons==
Another thing you can do to improve performance is to get rid of unneaded system daemons launched from your init scripts. Disable them by using the according configuration interface of your distro or by deleting links in the according runlevel directories (usually in <code>/etc/rc.d/</code>).

Daemons you usually don't need:
* httpd <tt>(Apache web server)</tt>
* mysqld <tt>(MySQL database server)</tt>
* smbd <tt>(SMB windows filesharing server)</tt>
* pppd <tt>(PPP server for connections through modems and serial lines)</tt>

==Adjusting filesystems==
You can also try to optimize memory usage by making sure that you have as little as possible of your filesystem residing in RAM. To do this make sure that the following mount points are set to reside on your harddisk in {{path|/etc/fstab}}.
* /dev (not possible if you use udev)
* /tmp

Also make sure that you mount filesystems with extensive usage with noatime parameter (mount -o remount,ro /...), which disabled access time writes every time you access some file. Note that many incremental backups needs atime to work, such backups will then behave like full backup everytime. This depends on backup systems.

==Other tips==
===Disk space===
When using Debian/Ubuntu/other derivative, use <tt>aptitude</tt> as package manager, and use it as soon as possible. Use it and only it to install and remove packages.

One of its most useful features is that it tracks packages you install and marks packages installed via dependency as such, so when you remove a package that is no longer used, or package updates and doesn't use a library anymore, that dependency will get uninstalled.

You can mark packages installed as automatically installed by hitting 'M' (uppercase m), it will be marked for deinstallation if it's not longer required.

You could also install <tt>localepurge</tt> wich will remove all unneeded locales and localized manpages for packages you install.

===System clock===
<tt>ntpd</tt> can occupy around 4MB of memory, which is a substantial proportion of many older systems' total. [http://chrony.sunsite.dk/ <tt>chrony</tt>] is a pair of programs that replace the standard <tt>ntp</tt> and require much less memory.

How to save memory

2007-03-20T20:55:38Z

Pgan: /* Alternative Desktop Environments */

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |This page is meant as a collection of information on how to save memory to make Linux work reasonable on older system with limited amount of RAM.

Most distributions nowadays don't take much care about it anymore, so there are a lot of things you can do to save memory. To get a smoothly working linux environment on a low memory machine you will need to conciously choose a lot of aspects of your system, most importantly the graphical environment, desktop environment and applications. This page provides detailed information about these various optimization possibilities.
|}

==Alternative graphical environments==
{{Todo|...}}

==Streamlining the desktop environment==
The common Desktop environments GNOME and KDE are, in their modern state, focused more on features, integration, and beauty rather than on resource saving. Understandable, but running Linux on an older ThinkPad with limited RAM requires conscious and sensitive resource usage more than anything else. The good thing about Linux is that a lot of things stay adjustable and customizable. So lets see what we can do about desktops.

One of the most important things is to decide for one graphical widget library and stick with that when you are choosing your desktop environment and applications. Having several toolkits in use means more libraries being loaded and hence more memory being used by those. Possibilities are:
* [http://www.fltk.org/ FLTK]
* [http://www.fox-toolkit.org/ FOX toolkit]
* [http://www.gnustep.org GNUstep toolkit]
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK] <tt>(not recommended, use GTK 2 if possible)</tt>
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK 2]
* [http://www.lesstif.org/ Lesstif] / [http://www.openmotif.org/ OpenMotif]
* [http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.html QT]
* [http://www.windowmaker.org/development-wings.html WINGs] <tt>(kind of a lightweight GNUstep toolkit, provided by the WindowMaker developers)</tt>
* [http://www.x.org/ X Toolkit]

Of those, at current state, there are enough applications for the X Toolkit, GTK, GTK 2 and QT to provide you with a solution for every task you should want.

===GNOME===
It's like with humans, the worst feature is in most cases also the best one. For GNOME it is probably the many little parts it consists of. Makes it hard to install, but enables one to customize the installation. So, the first thing you should do to streamline GNOME is not to launch it. Sound stupid? Well, lets have a look.

GNOME is basically a set of libraries built around the GTK+ libs and extending its functionality. Add some nice little applications, a session manager, a panel, beautiful icons, and some other stuff and you have GNOME as you know it. Reversing those additions is what you can do to use GNOME applications on a machine that this desktop environment would normally take your nerves on.

The GNOME panel, the session manager, the desktop manager and the window manager are all parts of GNOME that eat a lot of memory for something that others can do in a maybe little less beautiful but much more resource saving way.
So first off configure your login manager not to launch gnome-session at login. If you are using GDM this is quite straight forward, you just need to add a different session script, launching your favorite window manager. See the list below and pick one, lets say i.e. WindowMaker. WindowMaker uses a desktop menu, a dock and a notification area to provide you with an organized way of launching applications and iconfying running ones. So we don't need a panel anymore. Also, think if you really need icons on your desktop. If you do, think about using something like ROX filer instead of nautilus for that. In any case, tell nautilus not to manage the desktop by default by unchecking the according setting within gconf-editor. To keep GNOME applications happy we would need to have gconf and gnome-settings-manager running at every session start. One way to do this is to either include them in your new session script. They both need to be running to make GNOME applications realize their settings properly.

===KDE===
{{Todo|...}}

===Alternative Desktop Environments===
First of all, it is important to notice that GNOME and KDE are not the only Desktop Environments around.
Other complete (featuring most of: window management, session management, desktop management, file management and panel) desktop environments are:
* [http://xfce.org/ XFCE] <tt>uses GTK 2</tt>
* [http://rox.sourceforge.net ROX Desktop]
* [http://ede.sourceforge.net Equinox Desktop Environment] <tt>uses eFLTK, a modified version of FLTK</tt>
* [http://www.nongnu.org/antiright/ AntiRight Desktop Environment] <tt>uses LessTif / OpenMotif</tt>
* [http://foxdesktop.sourceforge.net/ FOX Desktop Environment] <tt>uses FOX Toolkit</tt>
* [http://www.gnustep.org/ GNUstep] <tt>provides it's own toolkit</tt>

But also, some Window Managers exceed the task of managing windows towards providing a functional workbench. See below for a list.

===Building your own Desktop===

====Window Manager====
If you want to build your own customized desktop, a good start is choosing the window manager of your liking.

Here's a list of some of them:
*including basic Desktop Environment functionality
**the [[Wikipedia:NextStep|NextStep]] alike ones
***[http://www.windowmaker.org/ WindowMaker] <tt>(probably the most widespread NextStep like WM)</tt>
***[http://www.afterstep.org/ AfterStep] <tt>(another one of those)</tt>
**the Blackbox-like ones
***[http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/ BlackBox]
***[http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/ FluxBox] <tt>(tabbed windows, lighweight)</tt>
**others
***[http://www.icewm.org/ IceWM] <tt>(lightweight, widespread)</tt>
***[http://enlightenment.sourceforge.net/ Enlightenment] <tt>(lots of features and eye candy)</tt>
***[http://www.pekwm.org PekWM] <tt>(kind of a one man show, but feature rich and extremely customizable)</tt>
*pure WindowManagers
**[http://golem.sourceforge.net/ Golem]
**[http://home.earthlink.net/~lab1701/larswm/ LarsWM] <tt>(unique tiling Window Manager)</tt>
**[http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/ ratpoison] <tt>(modeled after gnu screen)</tt>
**[http://fvwm.org/ fvwm] <tt>(small but powerful)</tt>
**[http://www.jfc.org.uk/software/lwm.html lwm] <tt>(very small, and fast)</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wm2/ wm2] <tt>really small Window Manager</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wmx/ wmx] <tt>slightly more featureful version of wm2</tt>

====Taskbar/Panel====
Another thing that especially users coming to Linux from the Windows world would probably like is a Panel or Taskbar.

Here's a collection of independant low resource panels:
*[http://www.chatjunkies.org/fspanel/ F***ing Small Panel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://freshmeat.net/projects/hpanel/ HPanel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/ fbpanel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2)</tt>
*[http://jodrell.net/projects/perlpanel Perl Panel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, gnomevfs, perl)</tt>
*[http://www.gkrellm.net/ GKrellM] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, flexible plugin based skinable vertical panel)</tt>

====Desktop Pinboard====
Then, the next thing you might be looking for is how to get icons onto your desktop. Usually this is done by the file manager who displays the content of a special directory as icons on the desktop. See the File Manager section to follow this approach.

However, you might decide for a really lightwight file manager which doesn't offer this feature. In that case all hope is not lost, for there are also special programs specialized in desktop icon management. Such are:
* [http://idesk.sourceforge.net/ iDesk] <tt>(recent versions need imlib2 only)</tt>

====File Manager====
File Managers are the fourth really important compontent of a desktop environment. There are plenty out their ranging from resource hugs to really lightweight and slim ones.

File Managers come with three distinct general user interface approaches: the two pane gui, the spacial and the browser gui. The browser gui is the one the Windows Explorer starting from Windows 2000 uses as well as earlier versions of Nautilus. The spacial view is the one known from Windows 95 and more recent versions of Nautilus. The two pane view is know to many from Norten Commander, Directory Opus or your favorite FTP client.

The following list provides an overview.
*FLTK
** [http://www.oksid.ch/flfm/ Fast Light File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
* FOX toolkit
** [http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/ X File Explorer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK
** [http://www.kaisersite.de/dfm/ Desktop File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui, incl. desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://www.uwyn.com/projects/fm/ FM] <tt>(spacial, MAC OS 9 like gui)</tt>
** [http://radekc.regnet.cz/ Seksi Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK 2
** [http://rox.sourceforge.net/ ROX Filer] <tt>(highly productive spacial gui, incl. panel and desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://blog.perldude.de/projects/filer/ Filer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui, requires Perl)</tt>
** [http://xffm.sourceforge.net/ XFFM] <tt>(browser and spacial gui, requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://logicaldesktop.sourceforge.net/ Logical Desktop] <tt>(browser gui, actually a very special approach)</tt>
** [http://tuxcmd.sourceforge.net/ Tux Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://www.nongnu.org/gcmd/index.html Gnome Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://emelfm2.net/emelFM2/ emelFM2] <tt>(two pane gui with full customizable menu and toolbar, the best for power users)</tt>
** [http://thunar.xfce.org/index.xhtml Thunar] <tt>(requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/ PCMan File Manager] <tt>(An extremly fast and lightweight file manager which features tabbed browsing and user-friendly interface. Requires GTK+ version 2.8.x)</tt>
* OpenMotif
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xplore/xplore.php Xplore] <tt>(browser gui with productive 4 pane concept)</tt>
* QT 2
** [http://www.hi-net.cz/blaza/bfcommander/en/index.html BF-Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*Qt3
** [http://www.beesoft.org/download_bsc.html Beesoft Commander] <tt> (fast & easy two panel file manager, like Norton Commander)</tt>
* Tcl/Tk
** [http://users.tkk.fi/~mkivinie/X-Files/ X-Files] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*X Toolkit
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xfm/ X File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
** [http://www.boomerangsworld.de/worker/ Worker] <tt>(two pane gui, highly productive and configurable)</tt>
** [http://xnc.dubna.su/ X Northern Captain] <tt>(interesting flexible two pane gui)</tt>
*3D Filemanagers
** [http://www.determinate.net/webdata/seg/tdfsb.html TDFSB] <tt>(3D gui, the most impressing 3D file browser so far)</tt>
** [http://www.forchheimer.se/bfm/ Brutal File Manager] <tt>(3D gui more for fun than productivity)</tt>
** [http://turma.sourceforge.net/software/3dfile/ 3DFile] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>
** [http://orbis.sourceforge.net/ Orbis] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>

==Choosing applications==
===Web Browser===
This is highly dependent on the way you use your browser, it's often worth it to try out all and just track general
memory usage. Remember that <tt>top</tt> and <tt>ps</tt> don't report correct memory usage, track totals only.

====Firefox====
Firefox is graphical web browser. One can install features like AdBlock and FlashClicktoplay which will decrease memory and
processor usage by hiding Flash and Java -adverts.

====Opera====
Opera is graphical web browser. You can easily enable/disable plug-ins and java (press F12) and decrease memory usage.
Opera uses QT as toolkit, so you may shave off some Mbytes off memory usage by using dynamically linked version if you use KDE.

====Konqueror====
Konqueror is graphical web browser. It's integrated with KDE and has several advanced features (esp. ca. KDE 3.5).
You may save some megabytes by using it instead of other browsers when using KDE.
It's not necessarily heavy even when used without running KDE.

====Dillo====
Dillo is minimalistic and very small graphical web browser.

====Elinks/Lynx====
elinks/lynx are both text mode web browsers. <tt>elinks</tt> handles tables and formatting much nicer than <tt>lynx</tt>.
Both go very easy on memory footprint.

{{Todo|...}}

==Disabling unneeded system deamons==
Another thing you can do to improve performance is to get rid of unneaded system daemons launched from your init scripts. Disable them by using the according configuration interface of your distro or by deleting links in the according runlevel directories (usually in <code>/etc/rc.d/</code>).

Daemons you usually don't need:
* httpd <tt>(Apache web server)</tt>
* mysqld <tt>(MySQL database server)</tt>
* smbd <tt>(SMB windows filesharing server)</tt>
* pppd <tt>(PPP server for connections through modems and serial lines)</tt>

==Adjusting filesystems==
You can also try to optimize memory usage by making sure that you have as little as possible of your filesystem residing in RAM. To do this make sure that the following mount points are set to reside on your harddisk in {{path|/etc/fstab}}.
* /dev (not possible if you use udev)
* /tmp

Also make sure that you mount filesystems with extensive usage with noatime parameter (mount -o remount,ro /...), which disabled access time writes every time you access some file. Note that many incremental backups needs atime to work, such backups will then behave like full backup everytime. This depends on backup systems.

==Other tips==
===Disk space===
When using Debian/Ubuntu/other derivative, use <tt>aptitude</tt> as package manager, and use it as soon as possible. Use it and only it to install and remove packages.

One of its most useful features is that it tracks packages you install and marks packages installed via dependency as such, so when you remove a package that is no longer used, or package updates and doesn't use a library anymore, that dependency will get uninstalled.

You can mark packages installed as automatically installed by hitting 'M' (uppercase m), it will be marked for deinstallation if it's not longer required.

You could also install <tt>localepurge</tt> wich will remove all unneeded locales and localized manpages for packages you install.

===System clock===
<tt>ntpd</tt> can occupy around 4MB of memory, which is a substantial proportion of many older systems' total. [http://chrony.sunsite.dk/ <tt>chrony</tt>] is a pair of programs that replace the standard <tt>ntp</tt> and require much less memory.

How to save memory

2007-03-20T20:54:46Z

Pgan: /* Alternative graphical environments */ corrected my incorrect edits

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |This page is meant as a collection of information on how to save memory to make Linux work reasonable on older system with limited amount of RAM.

Most distributions nowadays don't take much care about it anymore, so there are a lot of things you can do to save memory. To get a smoothly working linux environment on a low memory machine you will need to conciously choose a lot of aspects of your system, most importantly the graphical environment, desktop environment and applications. This page provides detailed information about these various optimization possibilities.
|}

==Alternative graphical environments==
{{Todo|...}}

==Streamlining the desktop environment==
The common Desktop environments GNOME and KDE are, in their modern state, focused more on features, integration, and beauty rather than on resource saving. Understandable, but running Linux on an older ThinkPad with limited RAM requires conscious and sensitive resource usage more than anything else. The good thing about Linux is that a lot of things stay adjustable and customizable. So lets see what we can do about desktops.

One of the most important things is to decide for one graphical widget library and stick with that when you are choosing your desktop environment and applications. Having several toolkits in use means more libraries being loaded and hence more memory being used by those. Possibilities are:
* [http://www.fltk.org/ FLTK]
* [http://www.fox-toolkit.org/ FOX toolkit]
* [http://www.gnustep.org GNUstep toolkit]
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK] <tt>(not recommended, use GTK 2 if possible)</tt>
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK 2]
* [http://www.lesstif.org/ Lesstif] / [http://www.openmotif.org/ OpenMotif]
* [http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.html QT]
* [http://www.windowmaker.org/development-wings.html WINGs] <tt>(kind of a lightweight GNUstep toolkit, provided by the WindowMaker developers)</tt>
* [http://www.x.org/ X Toolkit]

Of those, at current state, there are enough applications for the X Toolkit, GTK, GTK 2 and QT to provide you with a solution for every task you should want.

===GNOME===
It's like with humans, the worst feature is in most cases also the best one. For GNOME it is probably the many little parts it consists of. Makes it hard to install, but enables one to customize the installation. So, the first thing you should do to streamline GNOME is not to launch it. Sound stupid? Well, lets have a look.

GNOME is basically a set of libraries built around the GTK+ libs and extending its functionality. Add some nice little applications, a session manager, a panel, beautiful icons, and some other stuff and you have GNOME as you know it. Reversing those additions is what you can do to use GNOME applications on a machine that this desktop environment would normally take your nerves on.

The GNOME panel, the session manager, the desktop manager and the window manager are all parts of GNOME that eat a lot of memory for something that others can do in a maybe little less beautiful but much more resource saving way.
So first off configure your login manager not to launch gnome-session at login. If you are using GDM this is quite straight forward, you just need to add a different session script, launching your favorite window manager. See the list below and pick one, lets say i.e. WindowMaker. WindowMaker uses a desktop menu, a dock and a notification area to provide you with an organized way of launching applications and iconfying running ones. So we don't need a panel anymore. Also, think if you really need icons on your desktop. If you do, think about using something like ROX filer instead of nautilus for that. In any case, tell nautilus not to manage the desktop by default by unchecking the according setting within gconf-editor. To keep GNOME applications happy we would need to have gconf and gnome-settings-manager running at every session start. One way to do this is to either include them in your new session script. They both need to be running to make GNOME applications realize their settings properly.

===KDE===
{{Todo|...}}

===Alternative Desktop Environments===
First of all, it is important to notice that GNOME and KDE are not the only Desktop Environments around.
Other complete (featuring most of: window management, session management, desktop management, file management and panel) desktop environments are:
*[http://xfce.org/ XFCE] <tt>uses GTK 2</tt>
*[http://ede.sourceforge.net Equinox Desktop Environment] <tt>uses eFLTK, a modified version of FLTK</tt>
*[http://www.nongnu.org/antiright/ AntiRight Desktop Environment] <tt>uses LessTif / OpenMotif</tt>
*[http://foxdesktop.sourceforge.net/ FOX Desktop Environment] <tt>uses FOX Toolkit</tt>
*[http://www.gnustep.org/ GNUstep] <tt>provides it's own toolkit</tt>

But also, some Window Managers exceed the task of managing windows towards providing a functional workbench. See below for a list.

===Building your own Desktop===

====Window Manager====
If you want to build your own customized desktop, a good start is choosing the window manager of your liking.

Here's a list of some of them:
*including basic Desktop Environment functionality
**the [[Wikipedia:NextStep|NextStep]] alike ones
***[http://www.windowmaker.org/ WindowMaker] <tt>(probably the most widespread NextStep like WM)</tt>
***[http://www.afterstep.org/ AfterStep] <tt>(another one of those)</tt>
**the Blackbox-like ones
***[http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/ BlackBox]
***[http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/ FluxBox] <tt>(tabbed windows, lighweight)</tt>
**others
***[http://www.icewm.org/ IceWM] <tt>(lightweight, widespread)</tt>
***[http://enlightenment.sourceforge.net/ Enlightenment] <tt>(lots of features and eye candy)</tt>
***[http://www.pekwm.org PekWM] <tt>(kind of a one man show, but feature rich and extremely customizable)</tt>
*pure WindowManagers
**[http://golem.sourceforge.net/ Golem]
**[http://home.earthlink.net/~lab1701/larswm/ LarsWM] <tt>(unique tiling Window Manager)</tt>
**[http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/ ratpoison] <tt>(modeled after gnu screen)</tt>
**[http://fvwm.org/ fvwm] <tt>(small but powerful)</tt>
**[http://www.jfc.org.uk/software/lwm.html lwm] <tt>(very small, and fast)</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wm2/ wm2] <tt>really small Window Manager</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wmx/ wmx] <tt>slightly more featureful version of wm2</tt>

====Taskbar/Panel====
Another thing that especially users coming to Linux from the Windows world would probably like is a Panel or Taskbar.

Here's a collection of independant low resource panels:
*[http://www.chatjunkies.org/fspanel/ F***ing Small Panel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://freshmeat.net/projects/hpanel/ HPanel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/ fbpanel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2)</tt>
*[http://jodrell.net/projects/perlpanel Perl Panel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, gnomevfs, perl)</tt>
*[http://www.gkrellm.net/ GKrellM] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, flexible plugin based skinable vertical panel)</tt>

====Desktop Pinboard====
Then, the next thing you might be looking for is how to get icons onto your desktop. Usually this is done by the file manager who displays the content of a special directory as icons on the desktop. See the File Manager section to follow this approach.

However, you might decide for a really lightwight file manager which doesn't offer this feature. In that case all hope is not lost, for there are also special programs specialized in desktop icon management. Such are:
* [http://idesk.sourceforge.net/ iDesk] <tt>(recent versions need imlib2 only)</tt>

====File Manager====
File Managers are the fourth really important compontent of a desktop environment. There are plenty out their ranging from resource hugs to really lightweight and slim ones.

File Managers come with three distinct general user interface approaches: the two pane gui, the spacial and the browser gui. The browser gui is the one the Windows Explorer starting from Windows 2000 uses as well as earlier versions of Nautilus. The spacial view is the one known from Windows 95 and more recent versions of Nautilus. The two pane view is know to many from Norten Commander, Directory Opus or your favorite FTP client.

The following list provides an overview.
*FLTK
** [http://www.oksid.ch/flfm/ Fast Light File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
* FOX toolkit
** [http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/ X File Explorer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK
** [http://www.kaisersite.de/dfm/ Desktop File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui, incl. desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://www.uwyn.com/projects/fm/ FM] <tt>(spacial, MAC OS 9 like gui)</tt>
** [http://radekc.regnet.cz/ Seksi Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK 2
** [http://rox.sourceforge.net/ ROX Filer] <tt>(highly productive spacial gui, incl. panel and desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://blog.perldude.de/projects/filer/ Filer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui, requires Perl)</tt>
** [http://xffm.sourceforge.net/ XFFM] <tt>(browser and spacial gui, requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://logicaldesktop.sourceforge.net/ Logical Desktop] <tt>(browser gui, actually a very special approach)</tt>
** [http://tuxcmd.sourceforge.net/ Tux Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://www.nongnu.org/gcmd/index.html Gnome Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://emelfm2.net/emelFM2/ emelFM2] <tt>(two pane gui with full customizable menu and toolbar, the best for power users)</tt>
** [http://thunar.xfce.org/index.xhtml Thunar] <tt>(requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/ PCMan File Manager] <tt>(An extremly fast and lightweight file manager which features tabbed browsing and user-friendly interface. Requires GTK+ version 2.8.x)</tt>
* OpenMotif
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xplore/xplore.php Xplore] <tt>(browser gui with productive 4 pane concept)</tt>
* QT 2
** [http://www.hi-net.cz/blaza/bfcommander/en/index.html BF-Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*Qt3
** [http://www.beesoft.org/download_bsc.html Beesoft Commander] <tt> (fast & easy two panel file manager, like Norton Commander)</tt>
* Tcl/Tk
** [http://users.tkk.fi/~mkivinie/X-Files/ X-Files] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*X Toolkit
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xfm/ X File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
** [http://www.boomerangsworld.de/worker/ Worker] <tt>(two pane gui, highly productive and configurable)</tt>
** [http://xnc.dubna.su/ X Northern Captain] <tt>(interesting flexible two pane gui)</tt>
*3D Filemanagers
** [http://www.determinate.net/webdata/seg/tdfsb.html TDFSB] <tt>(3D gui, the most impressing 3D file browser so far)</tt>
** [http://www.forchheimer.se/bfm/ Brutal File Manager] <tt>(3D gui more for fun than productivity)</tt>
** [http://turma.sourceforge.net/software/3dfile/ 3DFile] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>
** [http://orbis.sourceforge.net/ Orbis] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>

==Choosing applications==
===Web Browser===
This is highly dependent on the way you use your browser, it's often worth it to try out all and just track general
memory usage. Remember that <tt>top</tt> and <tt>ps</tt> don't report correct memory usage, track totals only.

====Firefox====
Firefox is graphical web browser. One can install features like AdBlock and FlashClicktoplay which will decrease memory and
processor usage by hiding Flash and Java -adverts.

====Opera====
Opera is graphical web browser. You can easily enable/disable plug-ins and java (press F12) and decrease memory usage.
Opera uses QT as toolkit, so you may shave off some Mbytes off memory usage by using dynamically linked version if you use KDE.

====Konqueror====
Konqueror is graphical web browser. It's integrated with KDE and has several advanced features (esp. ca. KDE 3.5).
You may save some megabytes by using it instead of other browsers when using KDE.
It's not necessarily heavy even when used without running KDE.

====Dillo====
Dillo is minimalistic and very small graphical web browser.

====Elinks/Lynx====
elinks/lynx are both text mode web browsers. <tt>elinks</tt> handles tables and formatting much nicer than <tt>lynx</tt>.
Both go very easy on memory footprint.

{{Todo|...}}

==Disabling unneeded system deamons==
Another thing you can do to improve performance is to get rid of unneaded system daemons launched from your init scripts. Disable them by using the according configuration interface of your distro or by deleting links in the according runlevel directories (usually in <code>/etc/rc.d/</code>).

Daemons you usually don't need:
* httpd <tt>(Apache web server)</tt>
* mysqld <tt>(MySQL database server)</tt>
* smbd <tt>(SMB windows filesharing server)</tt>
* pppd <tt>(PPP server for connections through modems and serial lines)</tt>

==Adjusting filesystems==
You can also try to optimize memory usage by making sure that you have as little as possible of your filesystem residing in RAM. To do this make sure that the following mount points are set to reside on your harddisk in {{path|/etc/fstab}}.
* /dev (not possible if you use udev)
* /tmp

Also make sure that you mount filesystems with extensive usage with noatime parameter (mount -o remount,ro /...), which disabled access time writes every time you access some file. Note that many incremental backups needs atime to work, such backups will then behave like full backup everytime. This depends on backup systems.

==Other tips==
===Disk space===
When using Debian/Ubuntu/other derivative, use <tt>aptitude</tt> as package manager, and use it as soon as possible. Use it and only it to install and remove packages.

One of its most useful features is that it tracks packages you install and marks packages installed via dependency as such, so when you remove a package that is no longer used, or package updates and doesn't use a library anymore, that dependency will get uninstalled.

You can mark packages installed as automatically installed by hitting 'M' (uppercase m), it will be marked for deinstallation if it's not longer required.

You could also install <tt>localepurge</tt> wich will remove all unneeded locales and localized manpages for packages you install.

===System clock===
<tt>ntpd</tt> can occupy around 4MB of memory, which is a substantial proportion of many older systems' total. [http://chrony.sunsite.dk/ <tt>chrony</tt>] is a pair of programs that replace the standard <tt>ntp</tt> and require much less memory.

How to save memory

2007-03-20T20:53:34Z

Pgan: /* Alternative graphical environments */ added Equinox

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |This page is meant as a collection of information on how to save memory to make Linux work reasonable on older system with limited amount of RAM.

Most distributions nowadays don't take much care about it anymore, so there are a lot of things you can do to save memory. To get a smoothly working linux environment on a low memory machine you will need to conciously choose a lot of aspects of your system, most importantly the graphical environment, desktop environment and applications. This page provides detailed information about these various optimization possibilities.
|}

==Alternative graphical environments==
* [http://xfce.org XFCE]
* [http://rox.sourceforge.net ROX Desktop]
* [http://ede.sourceforge.net Equinox Desktop Environment]

==Streamlining the desktop environment==
The common Desktop environments GNOME and KDE are, in their modern state, focused more on features, integration, and beauty rather than on resource saving. Understandable, but running Linux on an older ThinkPad with limited RAM requires conscious and sensitive resource usage more than anything else. The good thing about Linux is that a lot of things stay adjustable and customizable. So lets see what we can do about desktops.

One of the most important things is to decide for one graphical widget library and stick with that when you are choosing your desktop environment and applications. Having several toolkits in use means more libraries being loaded and hence more memory being used by those. Possibilities are:
* [http://www.fltk.org/ FLTK]
* [http://www.fox-toolkit.org/ FOX toolkit]
* [http://www.gnustep.org GNUstep toolkit]
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK] <tt>(not recommended, use GTK 2 if possible)</tt>
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK 2]
* [http://www.lesstif.org/ Lesstif] / [http://www.openmotif.org/ OpenMotif]
* [http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.html QT]
* [http://www.windowmaker.org/development-wings.html WINGs] <tt>(kind of a lightweight GNUstep toolkit, provided by the WindowMaker developers)</tt>
* [http://www.x.org/ X Toolkit]

Of those, at current state, there are enough applications for the X Toolkit, GTK, GTK 2 and QT to provide you with a solution for every task you should want.

===GNOME===
It's like with humans, the worst feature is in most cases also the best one. For GNOME it is probably the many little parts it consists of. Makes it hard to install, but enables one to customize the installation. So, the first thing you should do to streamline GNOME is not to launch it. Sound stupid? Well, lets have a look.

GNOME is basically a set of libraries built around the GTK+ libs and extending its functionality. Add some nice little applications, a session manager, a panel, beautiful icons, and some other stuff and you have GNOME as you know it. Reversing those additions is what you can do to use GNOME applications on a machine that this desktop environment would normally take your nerves on.

The GNOME panel, the session manager, the desktop manager and the window manager are all parts of GNOME that eat a lot of memory for something that others can do in a maybe little less beautiful but much more resource saving way.
So first off configure your login manager not to launch gnome-session at login. If you are using GDM this is quite straight forward, you just need to add a different session script, launching your favorite window manager. See the list below and pick one, lets say i.e. WindowMaker. WindowMaker uses a desktop menu, a dock and a notification area to provide you with an organized way of launching applications and iconfying running ones. So we don't need a panel anymore. Also, think if you really need icons on your desktop. If you do, think about using something like ROX filer instead of nautilus for that. In any case, tell nautilus not to manage the desktop by default by unchecking the according setting within gconf-editor. To keep GNOME applications happy we would need to have gconf and gnome-settings-manager running at every session start. One way to do this is to either include them in your new session script. They both need to be running to make GNOME applications realize their settings properly.

===KDE===
{{Todo|...}}

===Alternative Desktop Environments===
First of all, it is important to notice that GNOME and KDE are not the only Desktop Environments around.
Other complete (featuring most of: window management, session management, desktop management, file management and panel) desktop environments are:
*[http://xfce.org/ XFCE] <tt>uses GTK 2</tt>
*[http://ede.sourceforge.net Equinox Desktop Environment] <tt>uses eFLTK, a modified version of FLTK</tt>
*[http://www.nongnu.org/antiright/ AntiRight Desktop Environment] <tt>uses LessTif / OpenMotif</tt>
*[http://foxdesktop.sourceforge.net/ FOX Desktop Environment] <tt>uses FOX Toolkit</tt>
*[http://www.gnustep.org/ GNUstep] <tt>provides it's own toolkit</tt>

But also, some Window Managers exceed the task of managing windows towards providing a functional workbench. See below for a list.

===Building your own Desktop===

====Window Manager====
If you want to build your own customized desktop, a good start is choosing the window manager of your liking.

Here's a list of some of them:
*including basic Desktop Environment functionality
**the [[Wikipedia:NextStep|NextStep]] alike ones
***[http://www.windowmaker.org/ WindowMaker] <tt>(probably the most widespread NextStep like WM)</tt>
***[http://www.afterstep.org/ AfterStep] <tt>(another one of those)</tt>
**the Blackbox-like ones
***[http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/ BlackBox]
***[http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/ FluxBox] <tt>(tabbed windows, lighweight)</tt>
**others
***[http://www.icewm.org/ IceWM] <tt>(lightweight, widespread)</tt>
***[http://enlightenment.sourceforge.net/ Enlightenment] <tt>(lots of features and eye candy)</tt>
***[http://www.pekwm.org PekWM] <tt>(kind of a one man show, but feature rich and extremely customizable)</tt>
*pure WindowManagers
**[http://golem.sourceforge.net/ Golem]
**[http://home.earthlink.net/~lab1701/larswm/ LarsWM] <tt>(unique tiling Window Manager)</tt>
**[http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/ ratpoison] <tt>(modeled after gnu screen)</tt>
**[http://fvwm.org/ fvwm] <tt>(small but powerful)</tt>
**[http://www.jfc.org.uk/software/lwm.html lwm] <tt>(very small, and fast)</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wm2/ wm2] <tt>really small Window Manager</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wmx/ wmx] <tt>slightly more featureful version of wm2</tt>

====Taskbar/Panel====
Another thing that especially users coming to Linux from the Windows world would probably like is a Panel or Taskbar.

Here's a collection of independant low resource panels:
*[http://www.chatjunkies.org/fspanel/ F***ing Small Panel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://freshmeat.net/projects/hpanel/ HPanel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/ fbpanel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2)</tt>
*[http://jodrell.net/projects/perlpanel Perl Panel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, gnomevfs, perl)</tt>
*[http://www.gkrellm.net/ GKrellM] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, flexible plugin based skinable vertical panel)</tt>

====Desktop Pinboard====
Then, the next thing you might be looking for is how to get icons onto your desktop. Usually this is done by the file manager who displays the content of a special directory as icons on the desktop. See the File Manager section to follow this approach.

However, you might decide for a really lightwight file manager which doesn't offer this feature. In that case all hope is not lost, for there are also special programs specialized in desktop icon management. Such are:
* [http://idesk.sourceforge.net/ iDesk] <tt>(recent versions need imlib2 only)</tt>

====File Manager====
File Managers are the fourth really important compontent of a desktop environment. There are plenty out their ranging from resource hugs to really lightweight and slim ones.

File Managers come with three distinct general user interface approaches: the two pane gui, the spacial and the browser gui. The browser gui is the one the Windows Explorer starting from Windows 2000 uses as well as earlier versions of Nautilus. The spacial view is the one known from Windows 95 and more recent versions of Nautilus. The two pane view is know to many from Norten Commander, Directory Opus or your favorite FTP client.

The following list provides an overview.
*FLTK
** [http://www.oksid.ch/flfm/ Fast Light File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
* FOX toolkit
** [http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/ X File Explorer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK
** [http://www.kaisersite.de/dfm/ Desktop File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui, incl. desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://www.uwyn.com/projects/fm/ FM] <tt>(spacial, MAC OS 9 like gui)</tt>
** [http://radekc.regnet.cz/ Seksi Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK 2
** [http://rox.sourceforge.net/ ROX Filer] <tt>(highly productive spacial gui, incl. panel and desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://blog.perldude.de/projects/filer/ Filer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui, requires Perl)</tt>
** [http://xffm.sourceforge.net/ XFFM] <tt>(browser and spacial gui, requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://logicaldesktop.sourceforge.net/ Logical Desktop] <tt>(browser gui, actually a very special approach)</tt>
** [http://tuxcmd.sourceforge.net/ Tux Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://www.nongnu.org/gcmd/index.html Gnome Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://emelfm2.net/emelFM2/ emelFM2] <tt>(two pane gui with full customizable menu and toolbar, the best for power users)</tt>
** [http://thunar.xfce.org/index.xhtml Thunar] <tt>(requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/ PCMan File Manager] <tt>(An extremly fast and lightweight file manager which features tabbed browsing and user-friendly interface. Requires GTK+ version 2.8.x)</tt>
* OpenMotif
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xplore/xplore.php Xplore] <tt>(browser gui with productive 4 pane concept)</tt>
* QT 2
** [http://www.hi-net.cz/blaza/bfcommander/en/index.html BF-Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*Qt3
** [http://www.beesoft.org/download_bsc.html Beesoft Commander] <tt> (fast & easy two panel file manager, like Norton Commander)</tt>
* Tcl/Tk
** [http://users.tkk.fi/~mkivinie/X-Files/ X-Files] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*X Toolkit
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xfm/ X File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
** [http://www.boomerangsworld.de/worker/ Worker] <tt>(two pane gui, highly productive and configurable)</tt>
** [http://xnc.dubna.su/ X Northern Captain] <tt>(interesting flexible two pane gui)</tt>
*3D Filemanagers
** [http://www.determinate.net/webdata/seg/tdfsb.html TDFSB] <tt>(3D gui, the most impressing 3D file browser so far)</tt>
** [http://www.forchheimer.se/bfm/ Brutal File Manager] <tt>(3D gui more for fun than productivity)</tt>
** [http://turma.sourceforge.net/software/3dfile/ 3DFile] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>
** [http://orbis.sourceforge.net/ Orbis] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>

==Choosing applications==
===Web Browser===
This is highly dependent on the way you use your browser, it's often worth it to try out all and just track general
memory usage. Remember that <tt>top</tt> and <tt>ps</tt> don't report correct memory usage, track totals only.

====Firefox====
Firefox is graphical web browser. One can install features like AdBlock and FlashClicktoplay which will decrease memory and
processor usage by hiding Flash and Java -adverts.

====Opera====
Opera is graphical web browser. You can easily enable/disable plug-ins and java (press F12) and decrease memory usage.
Opera uses QT as toolkit, so you may shave off some Mbytes off memory usage by using dynamically linked version if you use KDE.

====Konqueror====
Konqueror is graphical web browser. It's integrated with KDE and has several advanced features (esp. ca. KDE 3.5).
You may save some megabytes by using it instead of other browsers when using KDE.
It's not necessarily heavy even when used without running KDE.

====Dillo====
Dillo is minimalistic and very small graphical web browser.

====Elinks/Lynx====
elinks/lynx are both text mode web browsers. <tt>elinks</tt> handles tables and formatting much nicer than <tt>lynx</tt>.
Both go very easy on memory footprint.

{{Todo|...}}

==Disabling unneeded system deamons==
Another thing you can do to improve performance is to get rid of unneaded system daemons launched from your init scripts. Disable them by using the according configuration interface of your distro or by deleting links in the according runlevel directories (usually in <code>/etc/rc.d/</code>).

Daemons you usually don't need:
* httpd <tt>(Apache web server)</tt>
* mysqld <tt>(MySQL database server)</tt>
* smbd <tt>(SMB windows filesharing server)</tt>
* pppd <tt>(PPP server for connections through modems and serial lines)</tt>

==Adjusting filesystems==
You can also try to optimize memory usage by making sure that you have as little as possible of your filesystem residing in RAM. To do this make sure that the following mount points are set to reside on your harddisk in {{path|/etc/fstab}}.
* /dev (not possible if you use udev)
* /tmp

Also make sure that you mount filesystems with extensive usage with noatime parameter (mount -o remount,ro /...), which disabled access time writes every time you access some file. Note that many incremental backups needs atime to work, such backups will then behave like full backup everytime. This depends on backup systems.

==Other tips==
===Disk space===
When using Debian/Ubuntu/other derivative, use <tt>aptitude</tt> as package manager, and use it as soon as possible. Use it and only it to install and remove packages.

One of its most useful features is that it tracks packages you install and marks packages installed via dependency as such, so when you remove a package that is no longer used, or package updates and doesn't use a library anymore, that dependency will get uninstalled.

You can mark packages installed as automatically installed by hitting 'M' (uppercase m), it will be marked for deinstallation if it's not longer required.

You could also install <tt>localepurge</tt> wich will remove all unneeded locales and localized manpages for packages you install.

===System clock===
<tt>ntpd</tt> can occupy around 4MB of memory, which is a substantial proportion of many older systems' total. [http://chrony.sunsite.dk/ <tt>chrony</tt>] is a pair of programs that replace the standard <tt>ntp</tt> and require much less memory.

How to save memory

2007-03-20T20:21:02Z

Pgan: /* Alternative graphical environments */ added xfce and rox

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __TOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |This page is meant as a collection of information on how to save memory to make Linux work reasonable on older system with limited amount of RAM.

Most distributions nowadays don't take much care about it anymore, so there are a lot of things you can do to save memory. To get a smoothly working linux environment on a low memory machine you will need to conciously choose a lot of aspects of your system, most importantly the graphical environment, desktop environment and applications. This page provides detailed information about these various optimization possibilities.
|}

==Alternative graphical environments==
* [http://xfce.org XFCE]
* [http://rox.sourceforge.net ROX desktop]

==Streamlining the desktop environment==
The common Desktop environments GNOME and KDE are, in their modern state, focused more on features, integration, and beauty rather than on resource saving. Understandable, but running Linux on an older ThinkPad with limited RAM requires conscious and sensitive resource usage more than anything else. The good thing about Linux is that a lot of things stay adjustable and customizable. So lets see what we can do about desktops.

One of the most important things is to decide for one graphical widget library and stick with that when you are choosing your desktop environment and applications. Having several toolkits in use means more libraries being loaded and hence more memory being used by those. Possibilities are:
* [http://www.fltk.org/ FLTK]
* [http://www.fox-toolkit.org/ FOX toolkit]
* [http://www.gnustep.org GNUstep toolkit]
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK] <tt>(not recommended, use GTK 2 if possible)</tt>
* [http://www.gtk.org/ GTK 2]
* [http://www.lesstif.org/ Lesstif] / [http://www.openmotif.org/ OpenMotif]
* [http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.html QT]
* [http://www.windowmaker.org/development-wings.html WINGs] <tt>(kind of a lightweight GNUstep toolkit, provided by the WindowMaker developers)</tt>
* [http://www.x.org/ X Toolkit]

Of those, at current state, there are enough applications for the X Toolkit, GTK, GTK 2 and QT to provide you with a solution for every task you should want.

===GNOME===
It's like with humans, the worst feature is in most cases also the best one. For GNOME it is probably the many little parts it consists of. Makes it hard to install, but enables one to customize the installation. So, the first thing you should do to streamline GNOME is not to launch it. Sound stupid? Well, lets have a look.

GNOME is basically a set of libraries built around the GTK+ libs and extending its functionality. Add some nice little applications, a session manager, a panel, beautiful icons, and some other stuff and you have GNOME as you know it. Reversing those additions is what you can do to use GNOME applications on a machine that this desktop environment would normally take your nerves on.

The GNOME panel, the session manager, the desktop manager and the window manager are all parts of GNOME that eat a lot of memory for something that others can do in a maybe little less beautiful but much more resource saving way.
So first off configure your login manager not to launch gnome-session at login. If you are using GDM this is quite straight forward, you just need to add a different session script, launching your favorite window manager. See the list below and pick one, lets say i.e. WindowMaker. WindowMaker uses a desktop menu, a dock and a notification area to provide you with an organized way of launching applications and iconfying running ones. So we don't need a panel anymore. Also, think if you really need icons on your desktop. If you do, think about using something like ROX filer instead of nautilus for that. In any case, tell nautilus not to manage the desktop by default by unchecking the according setting within gconf-editor. To keep GNOME applications happy we would need to have gconf and gnome-settings-manager running at every session start. One way to do this is to either include them in your new session script. They both need to be running to make GNOME applications realize their settings properly.

===KDE===
{{Todo|...}}

===Alternative Desktop Environments===
First of all, it is important to notice that GNOME and KDE are not the only Desktop Environments around.
Other complete (featuring most of: window management, session management, desktop management, file management and panel) desktop environments are:
*[http://xfce.org/ XFCE] <tt>uses GTK 2</tt>
*[http://ede.sourceforge.net Equinox Desktop Environment] <tt>uses eFLTK, a modified version of FLTK</tt>
*[http://www.nongnu.org/antiright/ AntiRight Desktop Environment] <tt>uses LessTif / OpenMotif</tt>
*[http://foxdesktop.sourceforge.net/ FOX Desktop Environment] <tt>uses FOX Toolkit</tt>
*[http://www.gnustep.org/ GNUstep] <tt>provides it's own toolkit</tt>

But also, some Window Managers exceed the task of managing windows towards providing a functional workbench. See below for a list.

===Building your own Desktop===

====Window Manager====
If you want to build your own customized desktop, a good start is choosing the window manager of your liking.

Here's a list of some of them:
*including basic Desktop Environment functionality
**the [[Wikipedia:NextStep|NextStep]] alike ones
***[http://www.windowmaker.org/ WindowMaker] <tt>(probably the most widespread NextStep like WM)</tt>
***[http://www.afterstep.org/ AfterStep] <tt>(another one of those)</tt>
**the Blackbox-like ones
***[http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/ BlackBox]
***[http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/ FluxBox] <tt>(tabbed windows, lighweight)</tt>
**others
***[http://www.icewm.org/ IceWM] <tt>(lightweight, widespread)</tt>
***[http://enlightenment.sourceforge.net/ Enlightenment] <tt>(lots of features and eye candy)</tt>
***[http://www.pekwm.org PekWM] <tt>(kind of a one man show, but feature rich and extremely customizable)</tt>
*pure WindowManagers
**[http://golem.sourceforge.net/ Golem]
**[http://home.earthlink.net/~lab1701/larswm/ LarsWM] <tt>(unique tiling Window Manager)</tt>
**[http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/ ratpoison] <tt>(modeled after gnu screen)</tt>
**[http://fvwm.org/ fvwm] <tt>(small but powerful)</tt>
**[http://www.jfc.org.uk/software/lwm.html lwm] <tt>(very small, and fast)</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wm2/ wm2] <tt>really small Window Manager</tt>
**[http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/wmx/ wmx] <tt>slightly more featureful version of wm2</tt>

====Taskbar/Panel====
Another thing that especially users coming to Linux from the Windows world would probably like is a Panel or Taskbar.

Here's a collection of independant low resource panels:
*[http://www.chatjunkies.org/fspanel/ F***ing Small Panel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://freshmeat.net/projects/hpanel/ HPanel] <tt>(doesn't use any toolkit)</tt>
*[http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/ fbpanel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2)</tt>
*[http://jodrell.net/projects/perlpanel Perl Panel] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, gnomevfs, perl)</tt>
*[http://www.gkrellm.net/ GKrellM] <tt>(depends on GTK 2, flexible plugin based skinable vertical panel)</tt>

====Desktop Pinboard====
Then, the next thing you might be looking for is how to get icons onto your desktop. Usually this is done by the file manager who displays the content of a special directory as icons on the desktop. See the File Manager section to follow this approach.

However, you might decide for a really lightwight file manager which doesn't offer this feature. In that case all hope is not lost, for there are also special programs specialized in desktop icon management. Such are:
* [http://idesk.sourceforge.net/ iDesk] <tt>(recent versions need imlib2 only)</tt>

====File Manager====
File Managers are the fourth really important compontent of a desktop environment. There are plenty out their ranging from resource hugs to really lightweight and slim ones.

File Managers come with three distinct general user interface approaches: the two pane gui, the spacial and the browser gui. The browser gui is the one the Windows Explorer starting from Windows 2000 uses as well as earlier versions of Nautilus. The spacial view is the one known from Windows 95 and more recent versions of Nautilus. The two pane view is know to many from Norten Commander, Directory Opus or your favorite FTP client.

The following list provides an overview.
*FLTK
** [http://www.oksid.ch/flfm/ Fast Light File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
* FOX toolkit
** [http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/ X File Explorer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK
** [http://www.kaisersite.de/dfm/ Desktop File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui, incl. desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://www.uwyn.com/projects/fm/ FM] <tt>(spacial, MAC OS 9 like gui)</tt>
** [http://radekc.regnet.cz/ Seksi Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*GTK 2
** [http://rox.sourceforge.net/ ROX Filer] <tt>(highly productive spacial gui, incl. panel and desktop icon management)</tt>
** [http://blog.perldude.de/projects/filer/ Filer] <tt>(browser and two pane gui, requires Perl)</tt>
** [http://xffm.sourceforge.net/ XFFM] <tt>(browser and spacial gui, requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://logicaldesktop.sourceforge.net/ Logical Desktop] <tt>(browser gui, actually a very special approach)</tt>
** [http://tuxcmd.sourceforge.net/ Tux Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://www.nongnu.org/gcmd/index.html Gnome Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
** [http://emelfm2.net/emelFM2/ emelFM2] <tt>(two pane gui with full customizable menu and toolbar, the best for power users)</tt>
** [http://thunar.xfce.org/index.xhtml Thunar] <tt>(requires some XFCE libs)</tt>
** [http://pcmanfm.sourceforge.net/ PCMan File Manager] <tt>(An extremly fast and lightweight file manager which features tabbed browsing and user-friendly interface. Requires GTK+ version 2.8.x)</tt>
* OpenMotif
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xplore/xplore.php Xplore] <tt>(browser gui with productive 4 pane concept)</tt>
* QT 2
** [http://www.hi-net.cz/blaza/bfcommander/en/index.html BF-Commander] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*Qt3
** [http://www.beesoft.org/download_bsc.html Beesoft Commander] <tt> (fast & easy two panel file manager, like Norton Commander)</tt>
* Tcl/Tk
** [http://users.tkk.fi/~mkivinie/X-Files/ X-Files] <tt>(two pane gui)</tt>
*X Toolkit
** [http://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-mainz.de/~ag/xfm/ X File Manager] <tt>(spacial gui)</tt>
** [http://www.boomerangsworld.de/worker/ Worker] <tt>(two pane gui, highly productive and configurable)</tt>
** [http://xnc.dubna.su/ X Northern Captain] <tt>(interesting flexible two pane gui)</tt>
*3D Filemanagers
** [http://www.determinate.net/webdata/seg/tdfsb.html TDFSB] <tt>(3D gui, the most impressing 3D file browser so far)</tt>
** [http://www.forchheimer.se/bfm/ Brutal File Manager] <tt>(3D gui more for fun than productivity)</tt>
** [http://turma.sourceforge.net/software/3dfile/ 3DFile] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>
** [http://orbis.sourceforge.net/ Orbis] <tt>(3D gui)</tt>

==Choosing applications==
===Web Browser===
This is highly dependent on the way you use your browser, it's often worth it to try out all and just track general
memory usage. Remember that <tt>top</tt> and <tt>ps</tt> don't report correct memory usage, track totals only.

====Firefox====
Firefox is graphical web browser. One can install features like AdBlock and FlashClicktoplay which will decrease memory and
processor usage by hiding Flash and Java -adverts.

====Opera====
Opera is graphical web browser. You can easily enable/disable plug-ins and java (press F12) and decrease memory usage.
Opera uses QT as toolkit, so you may shave off some Mbytes off memory usage by using dynamically linked version if you use KDE.

====Konqueror====
Konqueror is graphical web browser. It's integrated with KDE and has several advanced features (esp. ca. KDE 3.5).
You may save some megabytes by using it instead of other browsers when using KDE.
It's not necessarily heavy even when used without running KDE.

====Dillo====
Dillo is minimalistic and very small graphical web browser.

====Elinks/Lynx====
elinks/lynx are both text mode web browsers. <tt>elinks</tt> handles tables and formatting much nicer than <tt>lynx</tt>.
Both go very easy on memory footprint.

{{Todo|...}}

==Disabling unneeded system deamons==
Another thing you can do to improve performance is to get rid of unneaded system daemons launched from your init scripts. Disable them by using the according configuration interface of your distro or by deleting links in the according runlevel directories (usually in <code>/etc/rc.d/</code>).

Daemons you usually don't need:
* httpd <tt>(Apache web server)</tt>
* mysqld <tt>(MySQL database server)</tt>
* smbd <tt>(SMB windows filesharing server)</tt>
* pppd <tt>(PPP server for connections through modems and serial lines)</tt>

==Adjusting filesystems==
You can also try to optimize memory usage by making sure that you have as little as possible of your filesystem residing in RAM. To do this make sure that the following mount points are set to reside on your harddisk in {{path|/etc/fstab}}.
* /dev (not possible if you use udev)
* /tmp

Also make sure that you mount filesystems with extensive usage with noatime parameter (mount -o remount,ro /...), which disabled access time writes every time you access some file. Note that many incremental backups needs atime to work, such backups will then behave like full backup everytime. This depends on backup systems.

==Other tips==
===Disk space===
When using Debian/Ubuntu/other derivative, use <tt>aptitude</tt> as package manager, and use it as soon as possible. Use it and only it to install and remove packages.

One of its most useful features is that it tracks packages you install and marks packages installed via dependency as such, so when you remove a package that is no longer used, or package updates and doesn't use a library anymore, that dependency will get uninstalled.

You can mark packages installed as automatically installed by hitting 'M' (uppercase m), it will be marked for deinstallation if it's not longer required.

You could also install <tt>localepurge</tt> wich will remove all unneeded locales and localized manpages for packages you install.

===System clock===
<tt>ntpd</tt> can occupy around 4MB of memory, which is a substantial proportion of many older systems' total. [http://chrony.sunsite.dk/ <tt>chrony</tt>] is a pair of programs that replace the standard <tt>ntp</tt> and require much less memory.

Problem with key and trackpoint markings on the display

2007-03-20T07:17:17Z

Pgan: /* Problem Description */

==Problem Description==
You may discover markings on your display that match the positions of the [[TrackPoint]] or/and some of the keys.

This is a known phenomenon that is caused by the display having contact with the TrackPoint or keyboard. The input elements of your ThinkPad gather oil from your fingers. When you carry your ThinkPad around with the display closed, i.e. in a bag, it is very likely and normal, that the display is exposed to small amounts of pressure. Since the space between display panel and keyboard is very tiny, it can happen that they have contact. In that case, parts of the oil on your keys and TrackPoint are transferred to the display. If this happens often, it becomes more difficult to remove mark from the display.

==Affected Models==
*all models except TransNote

==Solutions==
===Prevention===
You can avoid getting these markings by putting a very thin layer of textile or paper between your keyboard and the display before closing it. Take care that the layer you put in between is thin enough to not put pressure on the display panel. A great example is the [http://www.shaggymac.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3_5 ShaggyMac Screen Protector].

Another option is to use a transparent LCD protection film that attaches to the screen. These can be found from around $10. They won't prevent the markings from appearing but they will appear on the film and not the screen itself so you can just replace the film to get rid of them, and you don't need to insert and remove a sheet of textile or papaer each time you open and close the laptop. On the downside, a protective film may affect the visual quality of the screen.

Or try using a couple of self-adhesive felt pads applied to the top corners of the case above the screen. The pads maintain a minimum distance between the display and the keys, even when the laptop gets squeezed in your briefcase.

===Removal===
*Wipe the display gently with a soft patch of dry, lint-free textile. Make sure the textile is clean, since hard particles of dirt will cause scratches.
*If the markings are too resistant, moisten the textile with LCD-Cleaner. If you don't have LCD-Cleaner, water is ok, as well, but don't wetten the textile, you don't want any liquid to drop or flow into the casing. Remember to wipe the display dry afterwards.
*If the markings still resist, DON'T increase the pressure, but be patient and wipe longer. Switching between moist and dry wiping might help as well.
*A camera lens cleaning kit is also helpful - the cleaner is designed to be gentle on coated optics, and won't attack plastics.

==External Sources==
*[http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4A2P54 IBMs LCD care and cleaning instructions]

Problem with key and trackpoint markings on the display

2007-03-20T07:17:03Z

Pgan: /* Problem Description */

==Problem Description==
You may discover markings on your display that match the positions of the [[TrackPoint]] or/and some of the keys.

This is a known phenomenon that is caused by the display having contact with the TrackPoint or keyboard. The input elements of your ThinkPad gather oil from your fingers. When you carry your ThinkPad around with the display closed, i.e. in a bag, it is very likely and normal, that the display is exposed to small amounts of pressure. Since the space between display panel and keyboard is very tiny, it can happen that they have contact. In that case, parts of the oil on your keys and TrackPoint are transferred to the display. If this happens often, it becomes more difficult to remove markings on the display.

==Affected Models==
*all models except TransNote

==Solutions==
===Prevention===
You can avoid getting these markings by putting a very thin layer of textile or paper between your keyboard and the display before closing it. Take care that the layer you put in between is thin enough to not put pressure on the display panel. A great example is the [http://www.shaggymac.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3_5 ShaggyMac Screen Protector].

Another option is to use a transparent LCD protection film that attaches to the screen. These can be found from around $10. They won't prevent the markings from appearing but they will appear on the film and not the screen itself so you can just replace the film to get rid of them, and you don't need to insert and remove a sheet of textile or papaer each time you open and close the laptop. On the downside, a protective film may affect the visual quality of the screen.

Or try using a couple of self-adhesive felt pads applied to the top corners of the case above the screen. The pads maintain a minimum distance between the display and the keys, even when the laptop gets squeezed in your briefcase.

===Removal===
*Wipe the display gently with a soft patch of dry, lint-free textile. Make sure the textile is clean, since hard particles of dirt will cause scratches.
*If the markings are too resistant, moisten the textile with LCD-Cleaner. If you don't have LCD-Cleaner, water is ok, as well, but don't wetten the textile, you don't want any liquid to drop or flow into the casing. Remember to wipe the display dry afterwards.
*If the markings still resist, DON'T increase the pressure, but be patient and wipe longer. Switching between moist and dry wiping might help as well.
*A camera lens cleaning kit is also helpful - the cleaner is designed to be gentle on coated optics, and won't attack plastics.

==External Sources==
*[http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4A2P54 IBMs LCD care and cleaning instructions]

Embedded Security Subsystem

2007-03-20T07:12:29Z

Pgan: /* The Embedded Security Subsystem */

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;" | [[Image:ESS.jpg|IBM Embedded Security Subsystem]] __NOTOC__
|style="vertical-align:top" |
<div style="margin: 0; margin-right:10px; border: 1px solid #dfdfdf; padding: 0em 1em 1em 1em; background-color:#F8F8FF; align:right;">
=== The Embedded Security Subsystem ===
The Embedded Security Subsystem is a chip on the ThinkPads mainboard that can take care of certain security related tasks conforming to the TCPA standard. It was first introduced among the T23 models and is now under the name Embedded Security Subsystem 2.0 an integral part of most of the modern ThinkPads. The functions of the chip are fall into three main groups:
* public key functions
* trusted boot functions
* initialization and management functions

The purpose of the whole thing is to keep the user's sensitive data out of range from software based attacks (like viruses, internet attacks etc.). One way the chip offers to achieve this is by providing storage for keys along with the neccessary functions to handle them within itself, so that a for example a private key never has to leave the chip (can't be seen by any piece of software). Besides this, there are more complex topics covered by the functionality of the chip. If you want to find out more about it you can find good documents on the [http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa/ IBM Research TCPA resources page].</div>
|}

{{NOTE|Some ThinkPads have the TPM chip integrated into the SuperIO chip, or soldered to the planar card/mainboard. Don't let the picture fool you...}}

{{WARN|There's a bug in the latest release of the security chip software. You end up facing a security chip login, and you press Ctrl-alt-delete, and it just sits there. DO NOT Download the latest patch (Dated 13/06/2006 v 7.00.0017.00) 
Actaully they appear to have removed that patch. 
Ring IBM support (in Australia 131426, 1, 2) and they'll talk you through doing a system restore.}}

==Trusted or Treacherous?==

TC - Trusted Computing - will be the biggest change of the information landscape since decades. Besides positive features like a more secure hardware storage for cryptographic keys, an analysis of the proposed TCG-standards shows some problematic properties. 
As ThinkPads of recent generations following the ThinkPad {{T23}} ([[Embedded Security Subsystem#Models featuring this Technology|see the complete list of models]]) are equipped with this disputed TCG-/TCPA-Technology, it can be interesting, which promises of the TCG are fulfilled inside your ThinkPad and which parts of the TCG-specifications still seem to be a privacy issue for every user of digital devices like a MP3-player or a ThinkPad - so please read [[TCPA/TCG - Trusted or Treacherous|this article]] for more details.

==Linux Support==
Two linux drivers are available, a [[tpm|classical one]] and a [[tpmdd|newer one]].
Coverage of functionality of the first is unknown so far, the second is part of a bigger project aiming to provide a usable security framework.

David Stafford (one of the developers of the tpm code at IBM) on March 10, 2005 sent me the most recent version of the tpm-kml code. With his permission, I quote his email:

"I am attaching our latest driver and library.
This version is in the process of kernel mailing list review, and
will hopefully be accepted into the official kernel. It works
much better across various 2.6 kernels. Note that this builds
three modules tpm, tpm_atmel, and tpm_nsc. You modprobe the
tpm_atmel (for all current shipping atmel based systems), or
tpm_nsc (for the coming national based systems).

Also note that there is a conflict with the snd-intel8x0
kernel module (they each try to grab the LPC bus). You can
either: load the tpm modules first (such as in initrd or
rc.sysinit, before sound), or recompile the snd-intel8x0, turning
off the MIDI and JOYSTICK support. The latest 2.6.11 version
of snd-intel8x0 also reportedly fixes things."

Compiling this library was easy. Compiling the driver on my 2.6.8-686 (debian testing) laptop failed. But the library works with the driver I compiled from the tpm-2.0 package IBM made available on its pages (see the links below).

Gijs

The T43 requires a patch posted to the LKML by Kylene Jo Hall: [http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=111884603309146&w=2 LKML posting]. An updated patch for linux 2.6.12 is available [http://shamrock.dyndns.org/~ln/linux/tpm_2.6.12.diff here].

The atmel driver comes with 2.6.12.
----
now suported in 2.6.15.1(and mabe others kernels under this number) in:

/device drivers/caracter devices/tpm devices

==Versions & Features==
=== Embedded Security Chip ===
IBM introduced it's TCPA/TCG features with some of the [[:Category:T23|T23]] models. The earlier of them didn't yet have the Embedded Security Subsystem, but a kind of pre 1.0 version called the Embedded Security Chip. This chip had the following capabilities:
*Data communications authentication and encryption
*Storage of encrypted passwords

=== Embedded Security Subsystem (1.0) ===
The original Embedded Security Subsystem (in IBM documents there is no use of the additive version-number 1.0) claims to be compliant with TCG specs, but apparently did not fully implement any specific TCG spec.

The Embedded Security Subsystem has the following features:
*hardware key storage
*multi-factor authentication
*local file encryption
*enhances VPN security

=== Embedded Security Subsystem 2.0 ===
The Embedded Security Subsystem 2.0 conforms to the TCG TPM 1.1b specification, with a TPM manufactured by either Atmel or National Semiconductor.

The Embedded Security Subsystem 2.0 has the following features:
*hardware key storage
*multi-factor authentication
*local file encryption
*enhances VPN security
*TCG compliant

==Models featuring this Technology==
===IBM Embedded Security Chip===
*ThinkPad {{T23}}
===IBM Embedded Security Subsystem===
*ThinkPad {{A30p}}
*ThinkPad {{R31}}
*ThinkPad {{T23}}, {{T30}}, {{T41}}
*ThinkPad {{X22}}, {{X23}}, {{X24}}

===IBM Embedded Security Subsystem 2.0===
*ThinkPad {{R32}}, {{R40}}, {{R50}}, {{R50p}}, {{R51}}, {{R51e}}, {{R52}}, {{R60}}
*ThinkPad {{T40}}, {{T40p}}, {{T41}}, {{T41p}}, {{T42}}, {{T42p}}, {{T43}}, {{T43p}}, {{T60}}, {{T60p}}
*ThinkPad {{X30}}, {{X31}}, {{X32}}, {{X40}}, {{X41}}, {{X41T}}, {{X60}}, {{X60s}}
*ThinkPad {{Z60m}}, {{Z60t}}
[[Category:Glossary]] [[Category:Trusted Computing]]

==TCPA/TCG clean models==
*all models produced before 2000
*all i Series models
*ThinkPad [[:Category:240X|240X]]
*ThinkPad [[:Category:A20m|A20m]], [[:Category:A20p|A20p]], [[:Category:A21e|A21e]], [[:Category:A21m|A21m]], [[:Category:A21p|A21p]], [[:Category:A22e|A22e]], [[:Category:A22m|A22m]], [[:Category:A22p|A22p]], [[:Category:A30|A30]]
*ThinkPad [[:Category:R50e|R50e]]
*ThinkPad [[:Category:T20|T20]], [[:Category:T21|T21]], [[:Category:T22|T22]]
*ThinkPad [[:Category:X20|X20]], [[:Category:X21|X21]], [[:Category:X22|X22]]
*ThinkPad [[:Category:TransNote|TransNote]]

==External Sources==
*[http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/think/thinkvantagetech/security.html IBMs ThinkVantageTM Technologies Embedded Security Subsystem page]
*[http://www.pc.ibm.com/presentations/us/thinkvantage/56/index.html?shortcut=ess& IBMs ThinkVantageTM Technologies Flash presentation - Embedded Security Subsystem]
*[http://www.research.ibm.com/gsal/tcpa/ IBM Research TCPA resources page]
*[http://www.prosec.rub.de/trusted_grub.html Trusted Grub]

ThinkScribe

2007-03-20T07:09:26Z

Pgan: /* IBM ThinkScribe */

{| width="100%"
|style="vertical-align:top;padding-right:20px;width:10px;white-space:nowrap;" | __NOTOC__
[[Image:ThinkScribe.jpg|IBM ThinkScribe]]
|style="vertical-align:top" |
<div style="margin: 0; margin-right:10px; border: 1px solid #dfdfdf; padding: 0em 1em 1em 1em; background-color:#F8F8FF; align:right;">
=== IBM ThinkScribe ===
ThinkScribe is a digitiser notepad on TransNote notebooks. The pad's digitizer technology was produced by the company [http://www.cross.com/home.aspx Cross] and was produced as a standalone product under the name CrossPad. However, as the TransNote, the CrossPad line of products is discontinued.

The pad combines the convinience of a classic paper notepad with that of a digitizer pad that captures your input into digital image data. This required a special pen that includes ink as well as the digitizer technology. Also the pad included some amount of memory to buffer the captured image data.

The concept of the TransNote was to couple this innovative input method with a ThinkPad notebook computer, all together in a standard letter size business shelf. Hence the ThinkPad part of it could use the image data transmitted from the pad and transform it to any usable digital data format like most importantly text.
</div>
|}

== Partnumbers ==
*Digital Pen Marketing PN: 02K5280
*Digital Pen FRU PN: 02K5633
*TransScribe Paper Pads Marketing PN: 04P3686

==Linux Support==
The ThinkScribe digitizer is connected with the TransNote notebook through the second serial port ({{path|/dev/ttyS1}}). It can operate on rates of 38400, 57600 or 115000 baud, with 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.

More information can be found on [http://www.netjunki.org/projects/transnote/transnotedevnotes.html Ben "netjunki" Moores TransNote Development Notes].

Since the notepad is based on technology by AT Cross, the [http://www.swcp.com/~hudson/pilot/PROTOCOL protocol specifications] for the Crosspad might help in developing a driver. There is also [http://www.swcp.com/~hudson/pilot/crosspad.html Perl software to convert CrossPad ink data to Postscript].

==Models featuring this Technology==
*ThinkPad {{TransNote}}

[[Category:Glossary]]