ubuntu 20.04 system locks

[Liam Proven]

>
> The box is not local. Its also OLDER hardware.

Story 1:

I got a spare Thinkpad W500 recently. That's a 2008 vintage machine:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Update-Lenovo-Thinkpad-W500-Notebook.12551.0.html

It has switchable GPUs, so I wanted to try a distro with built-in
switchable GPU support. I only know of one.

But it wouldn't boot Pop_OS.

I checked and its BIOS was about 1/2 dozen versions out of date, and
the only way to update it is via a bootable CD-ROM. Actual optical
media: the file won't boot from USB.

So I found my dusty decade-old spindle of blank CDs, burned one,
booted it, it updated the BIOS, and lo! Pop_OS ran fine.

It doesn't support the elderly GPU switching but it installed.

Story 2:

2Y ago I got given an old dead Apple MacBook Pro by a chap on
Facebook. It had a dead hard disk and scuffs on the case showing it
was dropped _hard_.

I put in a spare HDD from the bits bin and booted it off a MacOS 10.13
USB. It took about 2h to install, with at least 7-8 reboots, because
MacOS verifies that the firmware of all the subcomponents is valid. It
stores the Wifi SSID and password in NVRAM, so the bootable image can
connect to the Internet, fetch updates, put them in the EFI partition,
reboot, restart Setup, do the next one, and repeat.

I thought it was in a boot loop but I was cautious and left it. In the
end, it completed the install, it runs like a champ, and my girlfriend
uses it every day. My daughter is watching Peppa Pig on it right this
instant (it's her 2nd birthday today), streamed off the wifi.

This is a 2009 machine.

Both laptops are Core 2 Duo boxes, albeit with dedicated discrete
GPUs, and both still perform well.

The moral of the story: it doesn't matter how old the computer is,
there may still be a BIOS update. If there is, do it.


-- 
Liam Proven – Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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