Test Device

We ordered a Lenovo ThinkPad T400 from Minifree with Trisquel and Libreboot preinstalled. Just three days after the order, an unexpectedly large package arrived with a 14-inch notebook (Figure 2). In addition to the ThinkPad and its power supply unit, the package included a patch cable and two power cords, one with a plug for continental Europe and the other with the British three-pin connector and a built-in fuse.

Figure 2: The T400 from Minifree arrived in our test lab in practically new condition.

The ThinkPad T400 has a 14-inch display in the 16:10 form factor with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. The Core 2 duo processor of the "Penryn" generation includes energy-saving features, running at a maximum clock speed of 2.4GHz. The T400 comes with 4GB of RAM and a 160GB conventional SATA hard disk. The rechargeable battery supports mobile use for up to six hours.

Although the test notebook was created in May 2009 and is therefore more than eight years old, it looks almost as good as new. The positive impression of the hardware was confirmed by reading out the parameters of the still-sealed hard disk: The test system was in use for just under 7100 hours of operation – an unusually low number for a computer of this age. The original keyboard, as well as the case itself, show no discernible signs of usage even if you look closely. Minifree also includes a two-page quick start guide that explains the authentication data provided in Trisquel Linux.

In addition to the free BIOS and the VBIOS modification, the device has another special feature: An Atheros WLAN card that supports free firmware replaces the original Intel WLAN card.

After the device switches on, the rapid speed is surprising. The Libreboot BIOS, which does not display a ThinkPad logo, works significantly faster than the Lenovo BIOS. Trisquel Linux also boots considerably faster than other systems on similar hardware.

Unusual

Unlike conventional BIOS or UEFI systems, Libreboot does not offer a way to call a dialog from the firmware at startup that lets you configure the boot order or other settings. Instead, a GRUB selection menu opens directly. You can choose the medium from which the computer will boot.

It is possible to select the desired option using a hotkey. The most important functions are to start the installed Trisquel with an encrypted hard disk, to boot from a storage medium connected via the USB bus, to boot the system from an optical disc, and to find a GRUB 2 configuration on an external disk. You will also find a Poweroff option for shutting down the system and a Reboot option for restarting the system.

In our lab, manually burned CDs and DVDs from ISO images functioned as boot media without any problems. In other cases, the boot options failed: For example, distributions preinstalled on different USB media would not start, although they started on similar Fujitsu-Siemens and Hewlett-Packard devices with a non-free BIOS. Linux Magazine DVDs generally wouldn't boot.

The Libreboot project describes options for manually booting from external discs in its detailed documentation. The developers recommend transferring ISO images to data media such as USB memory using dd (Listing 1). Accordingly, we prepared several USB sticks of different types with different distributions. All manually created flash memory devices booted without any problems. Media created with tools like UNetbootin or the ROSA Image Writer did not work.

When booting from removable media, the startup time was significantly shorter compared with conventional computers. We experienced no problems with hardware components during the test mode. Even the modified VBIOS of the ThinkPad T400 caused no problems (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Even movies work on Trisquel Linux without any problems.

Weak Points

As expected, the "liberated" ThinkPad T400, in combination with Trisquel Linux, displays weaknesses where developers have not yet replaced proprietary blobs and firmware with free components. This applies in particular to WWAN devices that could not be talked into cooperating, such as CardBus plugin cards. In view of the thousands of components and devices available on the market, it is hardly surprising that a small project like Libreboot is not able to equip all these components with completely free firmware.

Non-free software codecs, which are completely missing in Trisquel Linux but which are necessary for playing certain multimedia content, also limit the possible applications. Nevertheless, the complete system with more than 47,000 packages from the Ubuntu repositories is completely suitable for everyday use (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Thanks to Ubuntu's software repositories, almost all users get their money's worth.