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    Do NOT buy a Lenovo if you like Linux or FreeBSD.

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by niriven, Jul 17, 2012.

  1. niriven

    niriven Notebook Geek

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    Unless they fix the numerous problems that others have been having with their products. It has been close to a year and I cannot run Linux or FreeBSD due to certain BIOS issues they are choosing not to fix or support. Granted, not all is lost and I can run Linux without VT-D enabled, but who wants slow virtualization on a brand new product?

    Just a warning to those Linux and BSD users out there.


    If you'd like, please see this thread I posted:

    Why won't Lenovo fix or comment on BIOS problems? - Lenovo Community
     
    niriven, Jul 17, 2012
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  2. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    You could always run Windows.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 17, 2012
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  3. niriven

    niriven Notebook Geek

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    And that is what I and many others are forced to do on these machines ...
     
    niriven, Jul 17, 2012
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  4. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thors.Hammer, Jul 17, 2012
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  5. niriven

    niriven Notebook Geek

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    So you are saying you are okay with these type of issues?
     
    niriven, Jul 17, 2012
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  6. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    FYI,

    On the serious side, I posted a message on the Lenovo forum in support of you.

    Vote with your dollars, I am.

    Thor
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 17, 2012
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  7. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Not at all. I am totally supportive of your position.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 17, 2012
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  8. Kaso

    Kaso Notebook Virtuoso

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    "... rotary phone ... argghh that guy has two zeros ... and then if you weren't home the phone just would ring lonely by itself ..." (0:45-0:55) :D "... the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots ..." (1:35) :D :D
     
    Kaso, Jul 17, 2012
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  9. miliranga

    miliranga Notebook Consultant

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    The only comedian in our generation that comes close to the great George Carlin :D
     
    miliranga, Jul 17, 2012
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  10. ThinkRob

    ThinkRob Notebook Deity

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    Of course if you do want to use Linux or FreeBSD you can always just use MBR partitioning and boot just fine...
     
    ThinkRob, Jul 17, 2012
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  11. ALLurGroceries

    ALLurGroceries  Vegan Vermin Super Moderator

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    Hmm, that's too bad about the W520. I bought my X220 precisely because of the good feedback from early adopters of it.

    +1 for Louis C.K.
     
    ALLurGroceries, Jul 18, 2012
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  12. not.sure

    not.sure Notebook Evangelist

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    Best to avoid nvidia opticrap, no matter what notebook brand.
     
    not.sure, Jul 18, 2012
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  13. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    That is nearly impossible with the quad core CPU based machines.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 18, 2012
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  14. ThinkRob

    ThinkRob Notebook Deity

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    I suspect that this will be fixed as soon as the UEFI reference implementation doesn't, you know, suck. But for now, UEFI is complex, buggy software -- and software with both of those properties often makes life worse for people for a long time...

    So it's BIOS emulation + MBR for me for the immediate future... (My T420 works flawlessly under Linux this way.)
     
    ThinkRob, Jul 19, 2012
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  15. niriven

    niriven Notebook Geek

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    Well MBR works great for FreeBSD, I can live with that. Discrete Graphics, 64-bit and VT-D all enabled fails boot on all linux systems that have a x2apic implementation. Only workaround is to disable VT-D in the bios, but at this point we cannot use x2apic anymore :(
     
    niriven, Jul 20, 2012
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  16. ThinkRob

    ThinkRob Notebook Deity

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    Ah, I guess I never used VT-D, so I never ran into those issues.

    I'm still wondering whether it's a Lenovo-specific thing or a Tianocore issue though. (Mainly out of curiosity...)
     
    ThinkRob, Jul 20, 2012
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  17. kirayamato26

    kirayamato26 Notebook Deity

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    I can run Linux just fine on my W520. Though, I do run it in BIOS mode and not UEFI (partially because it shipped like that).
     
    kirayamato26, Jul 20, 2012
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  18. Thors.Hammer

    Thors.Hammer Notebook Enthusiast

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    UEFI won't offer anything tangible for most people until v2.3.1C is implemented.
     
    Thors.Hammer, Jul 20, 2012
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  19. niriven

    niriven Notebook Geek

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    Do you run 64-bit linux, discrete graphics enabled in the bios and VT-D enabled and it works properly?
     
    niriven, Jul 20, 2012
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  20. kirayamato26

    kirayamato26 Notebook Deity

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    I run 32-bit Linux (Ubuntu) with Optimus via Bumblebee. I'm not sure about my VT-d setting. I'll admit that I don't use it much, nor am I a power user in Linux by any stretch of the imagination, but everything I've tried has worked just fine.
     
    kirayamato26, Jul 20, 2012
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