jmtd → hardware

These pages explain how to get various bits of computing hardware working, usually in conjunction with Debian.

Things I currently use:

• coil, a ThinkStation P620
• Φόβος (phobos), a Mini-ITX NAS/backup system
• carbyne, a Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 11
• An occasional Apple Macbook Pro M1 Max

Once upon a time running Linux on things was non-trivial, and there was value in documenting some of the caveats and rough edges for particular pieces of hardware. That's not so true any more, but here are some of the notes I wrote about machines of the past:

• Desktop machines
  • tchicaya64, a rarely used Windows machine
  • Medion MD8383XL media PC
  • Sun Sparcstation: PROM circumvention
  • DG35EC mainboard
  • A Raspberry Pi 3, nothing much to write about yet.
  • Kiriath, a Toshiba Portégé R600 spare/hack laptop
  • Commodore Amiga A500.

• Laptops

  • Compaq Evo N1015v
  • Toshiba Portégé R100
  • Toshiba Portégé R700-155
  • Thinkpad X40
  • Thinkpad X61s
  • Thinkpad X201
  • Thinkpad X121e
  • Lenovo Thinkpad T540p (not much to say about this one; and of that, nothing positive)
  • תַּרְשִׁישׁ‎ (tharsis), a Macbook Air 11 (and later a retina MBP 13). So called because the MBA11 circa 2014 had a noticable bulge compared to the 2011 model I'd used prior.
    • qusp, a Thinkpad T470s

• Other

  • Thecus N2100 NAS server (former NAS/backup)
  • Mac Mini G4 PowerPC (former NAS/backup)
  • Nokia N800 internet tablet (pre-iPad, pre-smartphone era tablet)

Other bits and bobs:

• naming schemes for computer nodes

Writing about hardware

Pages:

• raspberry pi , 2017-08-02

Blog posts:

• carbon, posted on 2024-02-07
• Tex Shura, posted on 2023-12-11
• Plato document reader, posted on 2023-11-10
• FreedomBox, posted on 2023-02-04
• Tex Shinobi first impressions, posted on 2023-01-03
• memtest, posted on 2022-09-09
• Temperature monitoring, posted on 2022-08-15
• Broken webcam aspect ratio, posted on 2022-03-09
• Using an iPad for note-taking in talks, posted on 2022-01-27
• ereader, posted on 2021-12-17
• Frictionless external backups with systemd, posted on 2021-11-12
• Internal Gotek, posted on 2021-03-13
• FlashFloppy OLED display, posted on 2020-07-21
• Review: Roku Express, posted on 2020-07-06
• Amiga floppy recovery project: what next?, posted on 2020-05-04
• Amiga floppy recovery project scope, posted on 2020-02-17
• NAS upgrade, posted on 2019-08-19
• First successful Amiga disk-dumping session, posted on 2019-03-20
• Learning new things about my old Amiga A500, posted on 2019-03-07
• glitched Amiga video, posted on 2019-02-02
• Amiga/Gotek boot test, posted on 2019-01-14
• Amiga floppy recovery project, part 3: preliminaries, posted on 2019-01-10
• Maker Faire UK RIP, posted on 2019-01-02
• Amiga floppy recovery project, part 2, posted on 2019-01-02
• iPod refresh, posted on 2018-12-04
• which spare laptop?, posted on 2018-09-17
• Newcastle University Historic Computing, posted on 2018-07-06
• back on the Linux desktop, posted on 2017-12-05
• Coming in from the cold, posted on 2017-06-26
• WD drive head parking update, posted on 2017-06-23
• Western Digital Hard Drive head parking, posted on 2017-06-09
• Blinkenlights, part 3, posted on 2017-02-20
• Blinkenlights, part 2, posted on 2017-02-04
• Blinkenlights!, posted on 2017-02-03
• RetroPie, NES Classic and Bluetooth peripherals, posted on 2017-01-18
• Network Attached Storage, posted on 2016-01-21
• Gigabyte J1900N-D3V Mini-ITX mainboard, posted on 2014-10-02
• Microsoft Windows Surface RT, posted on 2012-11-06
• Rumours of drive death exaggerated, posted on 2009-07-20
• Is my Hard Drive dying?, posted on 2009-07-17
• toys for sale, posted on 2009-02-24
• x40 suspend, posted on 2008-07-24
• DM9601 driver, posted on 2006-12-20
• Debian on Sparc, posted on 2005-05-08
• Sparcstation 5 BIOS hack, posted on 2004-06-12
• Konishi explodes, posted on 2004-03-28
• Linux in PC World, posted on 2002-04-16
• GCSEs, second box, Fractured Universe, posted on 1999-09-03