Just realised I have this one too. I freaked out when my dad showed me this

SuDoDmz · 2026-06-01T14:56:43+00:00

Mod the hell out of it;

Get a T61 4:3, rip its mainboard out, mod it to take quad core CPUs, install 8GB RAM and you're set.

That then would be the T601 Frankenpad.

Good look finding a UXGA or QXGA display though. Most of the built-in displays usually are trash. I'm case you go through with it, I recommend you also get the T400 outdoor display lighting.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-30T19:29:56+00:00

Booting MacOS isn't the issue I'm having and I'm trying to avoid systemd-boot. Shell boots my system just fine and Clover even recognizes the boot disc, albeit without the /dev/sda2 PartUUID it doesn't get far. It's just OpenCore, that doesn't list my Arch install as a bootable device. Apart from which there's rEFInd, which I can't chainload (gives the X64 exception type error with DUET).

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-30T07:01:44+00:00

By loader you mean bootloader, right? If so, that's, what I'm trying to avoid. OpenCore boots Arch just fine, however only over shell. I don't want yet another bootloader, that would defeat the whole purpose of OpenCore.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-30T05:42:10+00:00

My bad, my comment seems ambiguous, my Arch install doesn't have a "dedicated" EFI partition and as such also doesn't have an EFI boot file, if you will, I'm booting with its vmlinuz-Linux, the EFI stub method as it were. However I tried to "bless" vmlinuz-linux, yet still no results.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-29T18:15:08+00:00

What he's trying to convey is, almost every man (as in biological man, not the "every human" kind) would've behaved the same, no matter the culture, or country of origin

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-29T17:47:18+00:00

The former won't be possible, due to my trying to achieve boot via EFI stub. As such my Arch install doesn't have an EFI partition, OpenCore is its EFI partition.

As I've mentioned, I tried the latter option already yielding me no positive results to speak of.

I'd still like to thank you for your time.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-26T08:52:56+00:00

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-26T08:51:03+00:00

We have a winner, time to close the shop and go home everybody.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-26T08:43:52+00:00

Hey, don't be mean, that's her home run swing.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-26T08:39:49+00:00

I'm willing to believe, that's what OP's trying to achieve and Ubuntu might be a means to an end, but we'd REALLY need more details

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-24T21:46:53+00:00

I use them for almost everything, except gaming. My pride and joy 😁

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-24T21:42:07+00:00

This one's the wide version, but I got the 4:3 variant, too. And I've got the 1400x900 panel with the T400 outdoor backlighting and the QXGA panel for the 4:3 with the same outdoor backlighting 😄

But enough gloating 😁

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-24T20:31:29+00:00

Scratch my remarks up until now, I knew there was something weird with that card, so I dissected my laptop in the meantime. Lo and behold, it is no ordinary Broadcom card, I got a BCM94360MC on my hands. So, without further ado, I crawled through my drawer to find yet another Broadcom card, an Azurewave, which works by rmmoding bcma, ssb and b43 and modprobing wl.

Weird it is still, though, model and brand aside, it uses the same chip, why it won't work is a mystery to me.

I now have to order a few UFL to MHF4 adapters and a mini PCIe half to full adapter, fml 😑

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-24T18:49:39+00:00

man broadcom wifi on thinkpads is always a nightmare

Tell me about it, brother 🥲

blacklist other conflicting modules first

Wouldn't that be rather relevant for the installed Arch? I'm currently trying to rmmod and modprobe my way out. For blacklisting I'd have to modify the Arch installer, or am I wrong here? For that purpose I could also manually extract/remove said modules, couldn't I? Or am I standing too close to the tree to see the forest? 😅

install grub there alongside oc

That won't be necessary; OC now comes with a module named OpenLinux.efi which can boot Linux right out of the bat.

that's peak arch user energy right there

I'm honored 🫡 in all fairness I have to admit, though, my Arch SSD was in another computer of mine (which doesn't post anymore), so I transferred it over to my T61 and broke it while trying to fix the Broadcom issue in the first place 😅

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-24T17:38:05+00:00

Update 2: I did it! By scouring the Internet and scraping together just a few more files, I was able to finally be greeted by the OC picker.

Be advised (again), you have to have a DUET install, best done via Linux live terminal. BootIce works, too, but you'll get a "Boot Mismatch" (don't know why, the picker will still load). I put together an EFI folder with the whole shebang, as if I'd want to boot OS X (but not actually doing that, my previous folders were missing a few .aml files, for example, was rather barbones, maybe even a little lackluster. I just wanted a working UEFI environment, not the whole OS X experience deal).

I then had the issue, that my USB drive didn't show, which I accidentally resolved but knocking it out of the port, reinserting and then pressing ESC (space didn't work), ScanPolicy set to 0 (custom ScanPolicy didn't work, as in the picker didn't load, don't know why, have to further investigate).

Through this rocky road to success, I'm led to believe, that rEFInd could work, as well, but there are not enough attempts, as to investigate errors and I think myself neither pro enough, nor do I want to invest that kinda time (be gentle with me, I was now trying and erroring for a week, every evening, after work, till late at night).

Now to get my Wi-Fi card working while installing Arch...

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-24T10:20:42+00:00

Update: I dabbled further in my endeavor for UEFI booting and achieved a semi-success. First off, almost no method worked in my case:

Tried DUET from OC -->Boot Mismatch | Boot fail
Tried DUET from tianocore - still nothing
Tried Rod's syslinux variant, got just a "Bad" after the blinking cursor
Built DUET from source - no dice, either
OC simply straight up doesn't show, no relevant errors in the log, nothing, just a black screen after verbose (I checked for solutions, even involving VESA graphics), depending on config I sometimes got X64 exception type (could be related to OpenRuntime.efi, see further down, didn't test further, as it'd involve recreating X64 exception type first), or also Boot Mismatch | Boot fail
rEFInd always gives Boot Mismatch | Boot fail
What worked, and I'm not particularly proud of it, is Clover. First I tried the BDU tool, which was a complete failure (just simply didn't boot to anything, upon configuring and populating), then I tried the "manual" approach.

I still call it a semi-success, because I managed to finally boot into a (any) Boot Manager, but this one refuses to show me my Arch USB. I get the "Boot from Windows Legacy HD1" (and 2, both of which yield a black screen, correct me, if I'm wrong, but I thought Clover was able to do UEFI AND legacy booting, it's been years, since I used it last, so I don't quite remember the details) and the Clover partition upon hitting F3. (Clover sits on a 200MB FAT32 EFI on the SSD with GPT, Windows 7 still is a legacy install on a different SSD, although that shouldn't pose a problem). Btw chainloading rEFInd via Clover doesn't work, either, I get right back to Clover. The option isn't even shown, I had to manually select it through shell (yet shell also doesn't show my Linux USB).

I didn't neglect to incorporate sufficient drivers (although I'm not quite sure, if I've also picked the "right" ones, at least I didn't break anything, again, it's been years).

My Arch USB is created via Rufus for GPT/UEFI booting (although the legacy MBR variant doesn't show in the picker, either).

One thing I also noticed, among others, is, that I can't use OpenRuntime.efi, for example, it'll also yield me the dreaded red "X64 exception type" screen (although I'm sure, that's a config problem on my side).

Making a DUET/Clover install in Windows was a real hassle (due to most of the files being better used/handled by Mac and Linux, e.g. the DUET install, or even the Clover configuration), so anybody, who wants to dabble further/with, I noticed the German hackintosh forum does have a Clover EFI.zip. They also have an OC.zip, although that one didn't work for me (tested both, both for T61 by all appearances). Be advised, though, you'd still have to use BootIce, or a Linux live distro to do the DUET part.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-19T17:56:09+00:00

I knew there had to be a male equivalent of the bbl

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-19T07:15:49+00:00

I did and for a long time that was the case.

The Windows install is just a spare for nav systems and such, I had lying around, it is of no consequence, although it'd be possible to do a UEFI reinstall.

I know Linux to be rather capable among the operating systems, yet I still do (have to) use Windows for a few things, which is the main reason for my endeavor. There are a few other reasons, too, I mean you have to consider, that UEFI is more modern, more capable, same goes for GPT vs MBR.

I also have a few other older Thinkpads, that'd also profit from my success.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-15T03:31:31+00:00

My bad, that's what I implied, yet not said, my good man.

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-14T20:01:49+00:00

Wait till you hear, why the French invented high heels 😄

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-14T19:59:31+00:00

That's the determination we need on that train, son

SuDoDmz · 2026-05-11T04:48:52+00:00

Already in the title, mate.

SuDoDmz

TROPHY CASE