This IBM Thinkpad model is powerful, yet at 2.8 pounds, this computer is a light weight portable computer. It is small enough to fit nicely on an airline tray table. IBM Thinkpads are top quality laptop computers. The standard XGA screen is the best in the class.
This laptop has been retired from Blonde Guy service. The hard drive was completely erased and replaced with Blonde Guy's custom eComStation installation.
This section documents what I did to get this computer to work under eComStation. These notes are intended to show what goes into this computer, and also as a guide to the user who wants to build it himself.
I ordered the laptop, battery and a used fan from e-Bay. The hard drive is from NewEgg. The computer has been disassembled and the fan replaced.
In Feb 2014, replaced fan with a new fan. Computer now boots and will run migrate3 (a Blonde Guy program that syncs a 500 GB dataset) without shutting off. Bijoupeep idles at 55 after multiple reboots and is quieter. With the new battery and fan, this computer is ready to sell. If used as a server replacement, the only two gotchas are that 1920 x 1200 is only 16 bit color, and that the analog VGA screen won't display the boot manager.
WiFi card was loose. I reinstalled the WiFi card, and WiFi is working.
Run sysbench with SNAP and with Panorama. Graphics appear faster with SNAP, but CPU is much slower. Dive is faster with Panorama. Firefox uses Dive, so I chose Panorama.
Filed bug 3024
I installed two bootable volumes, H: and N:. The H: drive has my server-H installation with SAMBA server included. The N: installation has the traditional IBM NETBIOS and NetBIOS over TCP/IP networking from the IBM File and Print Client.
On each eComStation installation, I replace the ndpsmb.dll to prevent damage to my SAMBA server files. Then I save the installations in the eCS22 directory. If you want the bare eCS installation, this is what you get.
In the default state, the 1920 x 1200 resolution does not work with my external
monitor. The external monitor works after this:
PanoUtil -d 1 n:
PanoUtil -c 1920 1200
DOS Window works normally on server-H, but it takes up to 60 seconds
for the first DOS Window to appear on eCS-N. Even after the following
change:
add /int10textgrfxsafe to vsvga.sys device driver in
config.sys
add mode co80; cls to autoexec.bat
I have installed DVDDAO and CDRTools to write to the optical drive in the dock. As a result, there is an error message when booting the laptop out of the dock.
Cant get SCSIMGR$ entry point
ASPI Init Error
SYS1201: The device drive H:\os2\boot\ASPIINKK.SYS specified in the DEVICE
statement
on line 204 of the CONFIG.SYS file was not installed. Line 204
is ignored.
Press Enter to continue...
This has been cured by adding PAUSEONERROR=NO to Config.Sys.
To make the bootable recovery DVD, the bootable program is used. The program object for bootAble is changed. The environment page has the following addition, which is case-sensitive:
PATH=h:\dvddao;h:\cdrtools2;%PATH%
Notable options are to use GenGRADD at 1024 x 768, no EMX or Peer and ACPI.
The computer is set up to connect via ethernet cable. The interface has been set up to configure automatically. Wifi is off by default. To enable WiFi, select "Enable Radio" on the WiFi widget.
The USB 2.0 ports support keyboards, mice, scanners, thumb drives, cameras, MP3 players, external hard drives, floppies and CD Writers.
DVDDAO and CDRTools2 are installed to write DVD and CD media on the DVD-RW drive in the dock.
I use Suntan Special to install the software on all Blonde Guy computers. Suntan Special software can be used to install all updates to the system and its applications and to install additional applications. When newer versions of software are released, Suntan Special can keep your Blonde Guy computer up to date.
Suntan Special was used to bring the system up to date on September 18, 2016.
The recovery DVD supplied is a bootable eComStation DVD with a backup of the hard drive as delivered. You can boot the machine from DVD, and perform maintenance functions. The maintenance folder is available on the recovery DVD. The factory backup is stored in the \image\Factory directory. The backups are simple zip files. You can use unzip to extract some or all of the files in a backup.
DFSee is a generic disk, partition and filesystem utility for maintenance and data-recovery. It supports partition tables (FDISK, LVM), FAT, FAT32, HPFS, NTFS, and partly JFS, EXT2/3 or REISER filesystems. DFSee is commercial software which requires a license key for continued use.
Use of DFSee is limited to using the Recovery DVD to prepare a replacement hard drive for the Blonde Guy Computer.
Height: 1 inch
Width: 10.5 inches
Depth: 9.25 inches
Weight: 2 lbs 12 oz
Power consumption is 24 Watts, measured with the computer booted to the desktop. This computer consumes less than 1 Watt if it's plugged in, but switched off. When charging a depleted battery, it consumes up to 45 Watts.
The disk is partitioned to provide two bootable partitions, one for use as a server and including SAMBA server, and the other is set up for as a tradtional NetBIOS networking using the IBM File and Print client. User data is stored on a separate volume.
This is the layout for the 500 GB hard drive. The Air-Boot boot manager is installed to select the volume to be started. Only 64 GB are allocated -- the rest is free space.
| Volume Name | Disk Format | Drive Letter | Volume Size | Disk Name |
| eCS-N | JFS | N: | 12,001 MB | Internal 500 |
| server-H | JFS | H: | 12,001 MB | Internal 500 |
| Data | JFS | D: | 40,003 MB | Internal 500 |
eComStation 2.2 beta 2 (Dec 30) is the version used for this installation. This is the output of the version command.
For the server-H volume:
Installed Component Name Version Service Level Drive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Serenity Systems eComStation 2.2 XR0C007 H:
. Base Operating System 4.52 XR0C007 H:
. Base Device Drivers 4.52 XR0D003 H:
. Base Networking (MPTS) 6.01 WR08708 H:
. Internet Applications (TCP/IP) 4.32 UN02334 H:
For the eCS-N volume:
Installed Component Name Version Service Level Drive
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Serenity Systems eComStation 2.2 XR0C007 N:
. Base Operating System 4.52 XR0C007 N:
. Base Device Drivers 4.52 XR0D003 N:
. Base Networking (MPTS) 6.01 WR08708 N:
. Internet Applications (TCP/IP) 4.32 UN02334 N:
. File and Printer Sharing (Peer) 5.2 IP08608 N:
. LAN Requester 5.2 IP08608 N:
. User Profile Management 5.2 WR08608 N:
This table reports the SysBench 0.9.5 benchmarks for this computer. You can download SysBench 0.9.5 here: http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/
| Category | Measurement |
|---|---|
| PM-Graphics-marks | 79 |
| CPU integer-marks | 4314 |
| CPU floating point-marks | 215 |
| DIVE-marks | 1989 |
| File I/O-marks | 32460 |
| Memory-marks | 5681 |
| Simultaneous I/O-marks | 11 |
| Disk I/O-marks | 338 |
To buy this computer, use the order button below. Be prepared to enter any special notes about your needs or customization for the computer. Blonde Guy will review your order and send you an PayPal invoice. If you prefer to pay by check, note that in the notes field of the order form, and I will e-mail you an invoice payable by check.
If you have questions, you may enter them in the notes portion of the order form.
The final price of the computer depends on tax, shipping and options. Shipping outside the USA is available, but it is costly.
The following table shows the options for licenses to be applied to this computer.
| Product | License | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| eComStation | Business | $290 |
| Home and Student | $145 | |
| User's own copy | $0 | |
| Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS drivers and software package | Commercial | $79 |
| Personal | $49 | |
| User's own copy | $0 |
The eComStation License is available three ways. For a business, the full license is required. For most other uses, a Home and Student license is sufficient. If you already have an eCS 2.1 license available for this machine, and you upload your license key, there is no charge for eComStation.
The Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS drivers and software package is available three ways. For a business, the commercial license is required. For most other uses, a Personal license is sufficient. If you already have an Arca Noae OS/2 & eCS drivers and software package available for this machine, there is no charge.