Category: Linux

OK, so you have installed Ubuntu or another version of GNU/Linux on your Thinkpad and realise that you need to upgrade your BIOS. The files are available on Lenovo’s web site to create a bootable diskette. The problem is that the application is for Windows.

Not to worry. Just download the BIOS update application, extract the diskette image and use it to create an ISO file that you can then burn to a bootable CD.

> wget ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/spsuiv69.exe
> cabextract spsuiv69.exe
> mkisofs -b IVUJ11US.IMG  -o biosboot.iso IVUJ11US.IMG

Then just burn the file biosboot.iso using your favourite ISO burner. Boot from the CD and follow the on-screen instructions.

Please note that, while this worked for me, I take no responsibility for what happens. There is always the risk of BIOS upgrades going wrong, turning the computer into an expensive paper weight.

When installing Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn on a Thinkpad A20p the display is a mess. In addition power management does not work which means that it is not possible to make the computer go into standby when the lid is closed. This article explains how to fix both issues.

To fix the display, you will need to break out of the desktop (Alt+Ctrl+F1) so that you can see what you are doing. Log on and get root privileges (sudo su) to be able to write the changes below.

Edit xorg.conf (nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf) and add the following (the existing Monitor section can be kept):

Section "Monitor"
Identifier      "Monitor0"
VendorName      "IBM"
ModelName       "ITSX93"
HorizSync       30-100
VertRefresh     50-100
ModeLine        "1400x1050" 122.00 1400 1464 1784 1912 \ 
                1050 1052 1064 1090 -HSync -VSync
EndSection

N.B. There should be no line breaks in text after ModeLine.

Then change the reference to “Default Monitor” under the Screen section to Monitor0. Save the file with Ctrl+X Ctrl+Y. The setting will take effect when the system (or X-windows) is restarted.

The next issue was with the power management. The BIOS in the A20p is from before 2000 which is the cut-off year for ACPI support in Ubuntu 7.04. The computer has ACPI support but the kernel needs to be forced to load it. This is done by changing the boot options. To make the change persistent, edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst.

nano -w /boot/grub/menu.lst

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic root=UUID=\ 12345678-1234-1234-1234-000000000000 \ ro quiet splash acpi=force

Reboot to make all changes take effect.

After having run Windows Vista Ultimate unactivated for some time I decided it was time to install it properly and take a full backup of the system drive at intermediate steps along the way to be able to back-track later.

I could have used the built-in Volume Shadow Copy service, perhaps together with DriveImage XML. I did try that and even made a slipstreamed boot CD using Bart PE to be able to restore the system.

However, I wanted a little more control and the potential of being able to boot off a USB stick when restoring. I also wanted to backup to and restore from a network based NAS (in my case a DNS-323). Besides, Volume Shadow Copy is only available on Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate whereas this method will work for virtually any system.

For the time being I have settled on the following process.

a) Download and burn the Ubuntu 7.04 desktop CD and use it to boot your computer

b) Start a terminal window and change to root

  > sudo su

c) Add repositories by adding /etc/apt/sources.list and uncommenting the two lines for universe repositories.

  > nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list

d) Update the sources and install partimage and smbfs (answer yes when requested)

  > apt-get update
  > apt-get install partimage
  > apt-get install smbfs

e) Mount the NAS over the network using the samba file system driver.

  > mkdir /mnt/backup
  > mount -t smbfs -o username:[login] //[ip]/[share] /mnt/backup

Replace the parts within square brackets with whatever is appropriate in your case.

f) Run partimage and select the partition to save and the filename where the image should be placed (somewhere below /mnt/backup where the network NAS share is mounted).

  > partimage

ClarkConnect is a nice Linux distribution for a home server and it is especially suitable for a computer sitting in a closet without a display as the web based GUI makes it a snap to configure it (even if you, like me, after a while tend to do all the maintenance through a SSH console connection).

Many people that use ClarkConnect will probably want to use it to host their own sites. At least I did and I quickly realised the limitations of the included caching DNS server (dnsmasq). It is very well for supporting local users that want to access Internet access but it is no good for holding your master DNS information. After some trouble I managed to switch the included dnsmasq to the full-blown ICS BIND implementation.

While I initially did this for ClarkConnect Home 3.1 and later upgraded my server to 3.2 it should work for ClarkConnect Home 3.2 as well.

I assume that you have a standard installation of ClarkConnect Home 3.1/3.2 and have learned how to get a SSH connection to your server.

Note that I have used RPM files to install as I didn't have the development packages installed at the time I did this. If you want to compile Bind yourself then that is of course possible.

1. Ensure that the caching DNS server (dnsmasq) is disabled from within the web GUI of ClarkConnect so that it does not start when the server boots.
2. Download the RPM files from http://www.isc.org/index.pl?/sw/bind/. Use the link for Red Hat RPMs under Documents/References. Select RHEL-4 -> 9.3.2-4_EL4 -> i386 and download all the files to a temporary folder on your server.
3. Update the existing components of ClarkConnect by issuing

   rpm -Fvh bind-libs-9.3.2-4_EL4.i386.rpm
   rpm -Fvh bind-utils-9.3.2-4_EL4.i386.rpm
   

   You can also put those two files in a directory and run “rpm -Fvh *.rpm”

4. Put all other files except bind-sdb-9.3.2-4_EL4.i386.rpm in another temporary directory and issue the command “rpm -Fvh *.rpm” from within that directory.
5. The installation will put a default configuration file at /etc/named.conf. Edit it so that it looks something like this (replace the domain for your domain)

   // Default named.conf generated by install of bind-9.3.1-1
   options {
           directory "/var/named";
           dump-file "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
           statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
   };
   include "/etc/rndc.key";
   zone "example.com" in {
           file "master/example.com";
           type master;
           allow-transfer { any; };
   };
   

6. Create a folder for primary DNS zones:

   mkdir /var/named/chroot/var/named/master
   

7. Add a zone file for your domain. My file (/var/named/chroot/var/named/master/example.com) looks like this:

   $TTL 2d
   @               IN SOA          dns.example.com. postmaster.example.com. (
                                   2005082502      ; serial
                                   3h              ; refresh
                                   1h              ; retry
                                   2d              ; expiry
                                   1h )            ; minimum
   example.com.    IN NS           dns.example.com.
   example.com.    IN MX           10 mail.example.com.
   www             IN A            10.11.12.13
   mail            IN A            10.11.12.13
   dns             IN A            10.11.12.13
   

8. After changing the zone file you should restart the DNS server by issuing “/etc/init.d/named restart”. Run “tail /var/log/messages” to make sure that the daemon could read your zone file correctly. Use nslookup from another computer to verify that the server can resolve names for the domain.
9. Put a soft link in /etc/rc3.d to the file /etc/init.d/named to make the daemon start automatically when the server is booted

   ln -s /etc/init.d/named /etc/rc3.d/S12named