Free as in "I found it in a dumpster"
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I've got this x61s with a good clean body that needed a new screen. Did that. Now I want to replace the wireless card with a free one. I've been told that the BIOS will likely not accept a free card. So, I assume that some other hardware component(s) will need to be replaced. Can anyone suggest what further surgery needs to be done?
Acquire a Wifi adapter that works with free software/firmware. http://libre.thinkpenguin.com sells some and guarantees they will work with free software/firmware.
Yes, the proprietary BIOS of your x61s might contain a whitelist that could prevent laptop booting when the "unknown" wireless card is installed. You would need to either hack your whitelist to remove it completely, or to replace some whitelisted card IDs with yours, or just replace the proprietary BIOS of your laptop with coreboot or libreboot if that is possible.
> or just
> replace the proprietary BIOS of your laptop with coreboot or libreboot if
> that is possible.
I'm pretty sure that the X61/X61s can't be librebooted or corebooted,
but you can swap out the motherboard for an X60 motherboard and
libreboot that. The X60 motherboard is easy to libreboot because it
doesn't require external flashing.
> You would need to either hack your whitelist to remove it
> completely, or to replace some whitelisted card IDs with yours,
Do you have any information on how to do this?
I am a translator!
Do you have any information on how to do this?
You can try Middleton's BIOS:
thinkwiki.org/wiki/Middleton%27s_BIOS
Sounds like I should start by replacing the wireless card. I have the Think Penguin adapter. (I can't help but notice that wireless cards are pretty cheap. I'd just as soon have a freer computer and USB slot.) Once that's installed I'll work on any BIOS issues. I was concerned whether I'd have to replace the motherboard or something.
However, I've run into a new problem. My Trisquel installation, from the desktop, kept repeatedly returning to the sign-in window. I thought I had a faulty installation. So I tried reinstalling. But now, in a similar fashion, I get part way through and the computer returns to a blinking cursor in the upper left.
Thanks for your suggestions so far. I hope you can recommend a solution to the present problem.
Can you log into a text session, such as the one you get by typing Ctrl+Alt+F1?
My lengthy thoughts briefly boiled down:
No results with shortcut to terminal session.
Sorry, I can't grasp Middleton's.
I can get to BIOS.
I can get as far as "[!]Choose a Mirror" in text mode installation.
To eliminate any BIOS network connection rejection, I'm using direct cable from my modem for the time being.
ON second thought. I guess I'll just get the x60 motherboard unless Chaosmonk has some news from Middleton's that would get me running with present x61s motherboard.
> No results with shortcut to terminal session.
Since you say later that you were able to start the text installer, you
should be able to boot into a live Trisquel or Trisquel Mini session.
If you have any data on the machine that isn't backed up somewhere else,
I would boot into a live session and use that to recover your files, and
then reinstall. If there is nothing important on the machine, I'd just
reinstall now.
> I can get as far as "[!]Choose a Mirror" in text mode installation.
Is it by any chance this error?[1] I ran into this too the other day.
Maybe a graphical install would work.
> Sorry, I can't grasp Middleton's.
When I have time I'm going to try to install Middleton's BIOS on my X61.
If I am successful I can walk you through doing the same.
I installed Middleton's BIOS on my X61 and it works - I was then able to use different wifi card. I was hoping to solve an intermittent wifi problem, but that remains. Maybe I'll replace the motherboard with an X60 one.
> I installed Middleton's BIOS on my X61 and it works - I was then able to use
> different wifi card. I was hoping to solve an intermittent wifi problem, but
> that remains.
What WiFi card are you using? I've had intermittent WiFi problems with
the Atheros USB dongles, but the internal cards have always worked well
for me.
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