Subj : What to do with a gia To : Ky Moffet From : Barry Martin Date : Tue Sep 15 2020 08:23:00 Hi Ky! > KM> for the same net horsepower. And since it's a Xeon and I've > KM> already used Xorro as a name, it became Fireball, as in XL-5 > KM> (it's fast, it has an X, isn't logic wonderful? :) > But Zorro on TV spelt his name with a 'Z'! Much fancier to go slash- > slash-slash than swoosh-swoosh!! KM> Well do I remember the TV Zorro... Xorro is a Xeon. Now if they'd KM> named the CPU Zeon instead..... People would still mispronounce it! > KM> The Lenovo board has an embedded Win10 license. (It shipped with > KM> Win7; how it acquired this is a mystery. Maybe that "free" > KM> upgrade.) It LOVES Win10. I do not. Win10 is what sent me > KM> screaming off to linux. Win10 ate my old external HD. Win10 is on > KM> my $#!+ List. > Yes, that does seem a bit odd: has a license for Windows 10 though using > and running Windows 7. I'd probably wipe Windows all together and > install Linux (here Ubuntu), though probably try for dual booting as KM> I am long cured of dual booting, especially outside one's KM> species. I have one laptop here which dual boots and that's mainly because it came with Windows-something and so I thought I'd try to keep it when installing Linux just to have another system which has Windows -- occasionally I do need. I don't know if it rewrites the boot sector or not. KM> Win7 maybe, and Win10 definitely rewrites the boot KM> sector every time you switch OSs, and whether it'll respect GRUB KM> and leave it alone... I have doubts, considering it won't even KM> respect a cousin Windows. Only reason I have a couple multiboot KM> Windows setups is cuz they were supposed to be experimental, and KM> there's nothing so permanent as a temporary camp. Yuuup: temporary stays, permanent goes! KM> But even then KM> it's a nuisance, and a risk every time you switch OSs. (Also KM> Windows no longer respects being told to stick to a given drive KM> letter, but instead wishes to always be C:, which changes KM> everyone else's drive letters every time one switches OSs.) That can get very confusing to the human user, even more so for any batch files. KM> Well, I might multiboot linux only, provided none of 'em was of KM> the Ubuntu family... having learned that unstable GRUB is a KM> feature there. (Or why there exists an Ubuntu-specific GRUB fixit KM> disk. Which also works on Mint.) Not sure if the fault goes back KM> further to Debian. It may be fixed, by what I've read, but it was KM> a known problem a couple years ago. Which having run into it KM> twice in short order, is why I no longer have a Mint setup. (And KM> I could trigger it reproducibly: just LOOK in the video KM> resolution settings. Look, don't touch. Next boot, GRUB reliably KM> commits seppuku.) Glad I don't have that problem here! Wonder if you hae a quirky video card? No idea what the connection would be, but if just looking at the video configuration screen does it -- 'looking at the screen' triggers a "what card and monitor am I?" No idea on the connection to GRUB. > some things do need Windows. (Wonder how one can keep Win 7 from > upgrading?) KM> I dunno... none of mine has attempted it. Then again, I tend to KM> make updating manual or turn it off entirely. Turning off is probably the trick. Until Microsoft decides to bypass. KM> BTW first thing XP64 on Silver did is download 1.2GB of updates!! KM> and I was like, WTF. Didn't we get told that ended years ago? KM> Win7 still gets updates too, mostly for Windows Defender but KM> occasionally other stuff. Maybe they thought Silver was a corporate/business installation -- that might still be viable, > KM> Win7 would not install, tho a portable Win7 install runs fine. > KM> (Not sure why this Win7Ultimate of uncertain provenance is > KM> portable, but it is. Just stick it in anything, and it runs.) > So a permanent Windows 7 won't work but a temporary one will! Wonder of > the 'permanent' version is designed for a specific brand such as HP and > so is missing anything Acer needs whereas the portable version has or > can get all manufacturers. KM> Oh, I tried those too. No improvement. Could not find a KM> Lenovo-specific ISO, it's no longer available for download from KM> them, and so far no one has uploaded it to any of the Usual KM> Suspects. Also tried "Black" (fan-generated Win7) and no joy. The KM> problem is that the I/O controller is too newfangled (both its KM> UEFI and having that additional SAS controller), and requires KM> specific drivers slipstreamed into the install media, PLUS two KM> different drivers tacked on during the install. Except only one KM> works; the other download (from Lenovo) is corrupted. Wonderful. :( Did a bit of Google-fu with: 'windows 7 lenovo download iso'. Nothing all that new so probably the same as what you discovered (but just in case!) This one has a list that looks interesting: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_ install/i-do-not-have-windows-7-media-but-i-do-have-my/5ce13741- ac25-4969-ae82-2494726aac1c KM> To be fair, the pile of i5/i7 laptops someone gift me are equally KM> cranky about older Windows... Black will install but won't stay KM> activated. Win10 thinks it's activated (no one did so) on some of KM> 'em and not on others, which I take to be a flaw in its hardware KM> hash mechanism. (They all came with it. Will only stay on the KM> more agreeable specimens... two already have PCLOS instead. They KM> need more RAM to be really useful, most having only 4GB. And KM> right now RAM prices are pretty durn high.) Winter project: I'll have to go through to see what I have - not just RAM but some old daughterboards. ...Probably not that much of interest in the RAM Dep't: recalling a bunch of small capacity units. > KM> Better than on Silver, actually, where it's decided NVMes are not > KM> in its future. > I haven't played with them yet. SSDs, yes. KM> This one is my first. It needs the Storport patch from Microsoft, KM> and an OS-specific driver. Which worked fine on XP64, and not at KM> all on Win7. Holy crap, I've never seen Windows do an autorevert KM> like THAT before... cycled through a bunch of angry screens and KM> finally did a full system restore... it was VERY unhappy... Well, KM> we won't try THAT again!! So it's true: computers _do_ get mad! KM> ...tho Win7 also has trouble hanging onto the vidcard driver on KM> that box (XP has no such problem, and neither does Win10). About KM> half the time when Win7 wakes up from Sleep (or hibernation, KM> haven't checked which it's doing), it has the resolution set down KM> a notch, and you have to tell it "Detect Screen" to make it KM> reset. I have a suspicion the mainboard, or at least the chipset, KM> is just a fraction too new for Win7, tho that doesn't explain why KM> XP64 likes it just fine. And why Win7 runs perfectly on the other KM> i7 of about the same age. (Different chipset, not as fancy. But KM> same era.) Out of curiosity have you tried manually setting the resolution for something slightly smaller than the real resolution? Thinking should be 1920x1080, try setting at 1900x1060. Was able to do that with a nVidia driver add-on some time back. KM> Speaking of hibernation -- on XP it does not work if you have KM> more than 4GB RAM and it's using PAE. You can still Sleep, but KM> not Hibernate. Have read where there are problems with Hibernation. > Reminds be of the headaches I had with the install of Ubuntu 18.04 on > this system because of a faulty memory module! And didn't help this was > my first time trying to use UEFI so didn't know also needed a 'special' > partition. KM> Ouch. Yeah, one of those things we learn by deleting it. "This looks empty and I need the space." Oops! > And speaking of NAS, probably going to build one here as the pre-built > device I'm using is no longer supported, plus was running short on KM> The only prebuilt NAS I have is so old it maxes out at a pair of KM> 120GB HDs. And tho the hardware appears to work, I could not get KM> the software to work (browser-based). Oh well... There are thumbdrives bigger than that! My NAS is also browser-based with two options to access: one is User (for users) and the other Administrator. If type in user_name-password-enter goes to the User login, To get to the Admistrator login have to user_name-password- mouse-and-click on the 'Administrator' button. Probably obvious but if the screen is hard to read..... > storage -- deleted some old-old stuff and took care of that problem! > FreeNAS, Amahi, etc. are considerations for the new NAS. KM> ExplainingComputers lately demo'd building a NAS from a Pi, which KM> was quite interesting. I forget which of the several options he KM> used as the OS, but it wasn't real difficult. Or at least he KM> explains well!! I'll have to sit down and see what's out there. Basics isn't that difficult; those little "we do this!" special stuff is sometimes of interest. Using a Pi has some interest: it's physically small and doesn't use much power; power and enclosure for the hard drives could be a small problem. Repurposing an old computer mostly solves that (depends on the number and type of hard drive); could die of old age and have nothing. ....Hmm: the RPi option is sounding interesting: I have 5v/12v power supplies and a hard drive rack....... > It's just toying with your mind! Unfortunately I haven't played with > the NVMe's yet so I can't help there. KM> Very freakin' fast, that's for sure. But anything that requires KM> an OS level driver just to be seen at all, I can't really trust KM> -- how do you access the files if the OS is nowhere to hand? So KM> its function will be basically very fast scratch space for crap KM> that needs speed, like VM images and Mail files (and browser KM> cache, far as it can be set -- when I can't set the location, I KM> turn it off entirely because otherwise it fragments the disk way KM> too much). And I should try moving the swapfile there (not that KM> it should ever touch it with 32GB RAM, but some very dumb KM> software, like anything Adobe, requires swapfile is present, or KM> it won't run). Yes on the Swapfile. I have 32 GB in this system; right now 6.2 GiB is being used (20%) but 10.5 MiB is in Swap. As far as I have seen I've never used anywhere close to half the RAM, just something demands to be in the Swap area every once in a while -- sometimes it's empty. Have read where a swapfile is no longer necesary -- sure seems like it is! > KM> Well, I guess I just swap their OSs. And get to use my preferred > KM> XP for everyday. > When life gives you lemons.... KM> ....find a lemon catapult and throw them back!! eBay or Etsy?! > KM> Unless someone can show me how to get linux to gracefully allow > KM> network access to its precious hard drives... PCLOS runs lovely > KM> on both of 'em, but it's very annoying to be stuck with only ONE > KM> network drive that it will access (I don't know how I did that, > KM> either) and refusing to let anyone else see its own naughty bits. > I'm using VNC here but limited experience. Have been going from this > system to a couple of the Raspberry Pi's. Have been able to do > read/write of their SDcards, which I suppose is similar to a hard drive > over a network. KM> I've been told it's easier to set up by using the device's IP KM> address (192.168.x.x) BUT you still have to do each one manually. KM> I must have 40 shares in Windows (counting stuff that's not KM> usually running but has an ID on the network), so that's not KM> really a satisfactory solution. I want to just be presented with KM> a list of available shares and click to go, same as I do in KM> Windows! Yes and no. I haven't set up all of my computers with VNC because I don't need to. Right now four are configured and as I recall the initial configuration was rather easy -- couple of minutes at most. (OK, so with forty computers that's a few hours.) After it's set up it is a simple click. > ..Right_click, Properties, Local Network Share tab. More for a > specific directory than the hard drive in total. KM> Whereas I usually want to share the whole disk. Cuz they're my KM> files, dammit, I will show them to anyone I like! Yes, sort of figured you wanted the whole thing, Files > Other Locations (at bottom of left pane) > Connect to Server. Also thinking to permanently mount a remote connection. > KM> Oh... and never ever not EVER change the "use optimized defaults" > KM> setting on a Lenovo. If it ain't broke, don't touch it. You Have > KM> Been Warned. If you change it (hoping to fool the desired OS into > KM> installing, because Lenovo Support suggested looking at this > KM> setting) and if your vidcard is not BRAND FREAKIN' NEW, you will > KM> experience an apparently-bricked system, until you try a BRAND > KM> FREAKIN' NEW vidcard out of sheer desperation. (Well, new enough > KM> to know newfangled BIOS stuff, anyway.) Per Lenovo Support, the > KM> function comes factory-preset to Do Certain Settings, and if it > KM> disagrees with any bit of hardware, the result Does Not Work. > > "Optimized" seems to mean "best results with the original way we shipped > it". KM> Exactly!! and all that's left of the original is the KM> motherboard... And that comes without CPU, RAM, sometimes other parts! > KM> And how was YOUR day? :D > Apparently better than yours! KM> You shoulda seen my day when I thought the damn thing had bricked KM> itself... was just about to No More Lenovos Ever. Yet I've had pretty good luck with them. OTOH, I don't dig at 'em like you do! > .. To be, or not to be. *BOOM!* Not to be. KM> That's my day! Thought the tagline was appropriate! ¯ BarryMartin3@ ® ¯ @MyMetronet.NET ® .... Aborted effort. Close all that you have worked on. You ask too much. --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .