# IBM Thinkpad 600X type 2645-5EU

## ferecnzy

Greetings,

It seems that gentoo release 1.2 does not work on IBM Thinkpad

600X laptops that use the SD-C2302 6X DVD-ROM.

The CD begins the boot, comes up to the boot: prompt at which 

time I hit enter...  it then looks something like this:

ISOLinux 1.67 2002-02-03  Copyright (C) 1994-2001 H. Peter Anvin

Welcome to the Gentoo Linux Install CD!  Hit enter to continue...

boot:

Loading kernel..................

Loading rescue.gz........<extraneous dots removed>

 ready.

Uncompressing Linux...

invalid compressed format (err=2)

 -- System halted

I tried this with two different IBM Thinkpad 600Xs with the same result

each time. 

Just thought I would mention it in case someone else tries the same thing.

Too bad too, I was hoping to give gentoo as shot...

Ferecnzy

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## delta407

I think your CD burned incorrectly; try cooking it again and/or re-downloading your ISO (it may be corrupt).

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## ferecnzy

I burned the CD twice,   both of them successfully start uncompressing

without error on my desktop...

ferecnzy

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## delta407

Hmmm... well, there's an entry in the FAQ about Sony laptops that might be applicable, though it's a long shot.

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## Lactic

I get the exact same behavior on an IBM ThinkPad 380ED. And my CD is burned fine (installed gentoo with it on the PC I'm writing this post on).

Ever find any information about this??

/Lactic

::edit::p.s. the item in the FAQ for the sony laptop is in re: to a PCMCIA external CD-ROM drive

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## mjh

I have a IBM 600X also (2645-4EU).  I had the exact same problem you did.  Someone on #gentoo recommended that I buid it from a working linux partition.  So I did that.  I'm familiar with debian, so that's what I used.  But you could use just about *any* distro.

To get this to work, what I did was create three partitions: swap, / and /root2.  Onto root2, I installed debian.  Which is something that took me about 30 minutes.  Then once I got that working, I downloaded the .tbz2 for the stage that I wanted (in my case stage 1) unpacked it into /root2 then picked up the x86 install instructions at step 9.  After I was finished with everything, I took the original / partition and made it /home.

Worked like a champ, and considering that it took well over 24 hours to download and compile stage2 & 3, then Xfree + kde + gnome, the extra 30 mins at the front end wasn't that bad.

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## mjh

In my previous post I should have said that I installed debian onto /, not onto /root2.  I installed gentoo onto /root2 after I was able to boot into debian.

Sorry for the confusion.

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## alec

You could also mount the CD-ROM with something like Tom's Root Boot Disk if you're low on hard drive space.

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## bagu

I think I know what the problem is with the 600 thinkpads vs. gentoo.

I just bought a used 600E and tried to boot off the CD. It (of course) failed like it did for all of you other 600 owners.

I read somwhere that the gentoo cd is made bootable using no-emulation mode. A regular bootable cd creates a "fake floppydrive" that the bootable info is loaded from, and is thus limited in the size of the system you are presented with when booting of the cd. The no-emulation mode is not limited in size, but the downside is that practicly any computer older than 1998 that has not had their BIOS upgraded won't boot the CD.

Ok, so where did this get me? I scooted over to www.ibm.com in search for a BIOS upgrade. I found one applicable to most thinkpad 600E's hereand all 600X's here. 

As always with BIOS upgrades: 

READ ALL AVAILABLE DOCUMENTATION! 

..or you might end up with a dead laptop.

This is the last entry of changes in the new BIOS version:

 *Quote:*   

> (New) Microsoft Windows XP Support 
> 
> (Fix) Operating system installation failure with CD-ROM boot

 

Since the Windows XP CD's also use no-emulation mode (I'm told), this leads me to think this would solve the problem. Since I'm waiting for my new battery to arrive, I haven't been able to test it (you need a fully charged battery and the AC adapter "firmly attached" according to the instructions =), but it sure looks like it would solve the problem.

On a side note, an earlier entry in the changelog for the BIOS indicates that the problem of linux not detecting the thinkpad memory also has been fixed:

 *Quote:*   

> (Fix)Linux system fails with memory detection. Linux operating system only.

 

Someone try this out and post the results, I'll try it myself when my battery arrives but don't wait for me! =)

Regards..

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## pac_man

I have a ibm thinkpad 600 and i also had that system halted problem. BUT i only had that problem with the pre-gentoo-i686-1.2.iso

what i did to fix this was  just start with the gentoo-ix86-1.2.iso and just before i had to mount the cd-rom i switch the cds and loaded straight to stage 3.

if i always did that i never had a problem.... so try that...if u get a problem when starting up with the x86 cd...just reboot.....

and dont forget to pat your head and rub your stomach and hop on one foot.....  :Wink: 

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## ryan83vt

Before you try to do a BIOS upgrade or work through some long fix....

I had the same problem. Before I tried the install-other-distro-then-install-gentoo-with-that option, I gave Gentoo 1.4 r4 a try. I had r3 on a cd so I tried that first. Worked like a charm! No boot issues at all. Make sure you type in 

```

boot: gentoo dopcmcia

```

to get pcmcia nic support on bootup.

 :Smile: 

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## Cuboid

I have a 6X DVD drive marked SD-C2302; looks like it was manufactured by Toshiba.  No problem booting eithe 1.2 or 1.4 Gentoo installs.

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