hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr1833.txt

Episode: 1833
Title: HPR1833: Resurrecting an IBM T40
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1833/hpr1833.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 09:53:39

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This is HPR episode 1,833 entitled, resurrecting an IBM D40.
It is hosted by Swift 110 and is about 21 minutes long.
The summary is, I may can attempt to bring a 13-year-old laptop back to life.
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Okay, this is Swift 110 and today we're going to be talking about bringing an ancient laptop back to life.
The laptop that I'm currently working on is a T40.
It came out in 2003.
So it's a pretty old machine and I just really wanted to be able to put it to use.
I had a friend that gave it to me and he wanted to play games on it.
And that's perfectly possible but they're probably going to have to be older games
due to the graphics that are available and the run limitations in the round, things of that
nature. So it's going to have to work with what I have and do the best I can with it because
it's not all about the work going.
Now currently on this T40 I have a live DVD that's from 2010.
I had it laying around.
I believe it was a magazine I bought in Linux format.
Oh and before I forget to just go ahead and talk about it, you probably noticed a bit of an echo
in my voice element of study room at a library. So it's a rather small room and there's a certain echo
to it. I like it. It might be dropping in nuts. It might not but just wanted to go ahead and
get that out there. Okay, somebody asked a question later, why did you, why did you sound that way?
I'm in a small room. So now with that out the way, let's talk about the specs of this particular
machine. I'm actually trying to look in here for how to go about that.
The operating system that I'm testing from the live DVD is PC Linux OS.
I thought it would be kind of cool to use it. Right now I'm using 3% of the CPU and I'm using
almost half the memory. I have roughly 512 megabytes of RAM available in this machine. Half of
it's being used, which is kind of crazy to me because all I have open is a task manager.
I can close the terminal that I had open. I have a picture that shows one of my earlier
creations in the lender. It's a cloth napkin, by the way. I got that office tutorial on YouTube
by the name of Tutor for you. He does a very good job of being step by step and not skipping steps.
It makes it a lot easier to work with it as a result. So I just get the picture open.
I have a USB drive that I put in here. I was trying to actually connect via Ethernet
and for some reason it's just not working. Apparently what it's telling me is that
that work is down on an interface via Ethernet. I'm a little annoyed by that.
This rumor man, I'm not sure if the Ethernet even works and it's not really a whole lot of places
that I can use Ethernet. The thing about this laptop is I don't appear to have a wireless card.
That's functional in it. So it's a bit of a pain in the butt from that direction.
But let's see what I can do when I plug in the Ethernet to my X20 line, which is awesome,
which is a thing painted by the way. I'll see if that works and it works.
So just a little bit confused right now. I already had it on Wi-Fi so maybe it just didn't switch over.
I don't know. It doesn't really matter a whole lot.
I'll just do some tests there and see if I get that work. I might install a wireless card in here.
You'll see how much that costs. I have a good friend that actually gave me the T40
and he actually was like he wanted to buy it back for me.
Probably like kind of like it. So I don't know if I actually sell it back to him.
And I can make use out of it. It's just a matter of me being creative.
This is just an area that I enjoy doing. Tinkering with computers and making use out of them.
With this laptop, the IDE drive and it was pretty much dead on arrival.
And I took it out. Probably threw it away by now.
But I just didn't want to use it. I was considering using the CF.
A CF card. You like the kind you use in a camera.
Using that is pretty much a ghetto type of SSD versus using a spinning disk technology.
I really don't want to play with an IDE drive. I may end up doing that anyway at the moment.
I'm not sure. I just have a thing we're trying something new. And I'm doing the old and boring way
of doing things. That's just how I am. Oh, now my memory has dropped down. I'm roughly
191 megabytes of 501. I got a CPU usage of, well it goes from 3 to 8 sometimes.
So it fluctuates, which is normal. Let's see if I close the picture.
All I have is a PNG file open. But I close that out.
What I like about PCOS, PC Linux OS rather is that this version at the very least already comes
with a lot of programs that I use. So it's useful out the box without even installing anything.
Gimp is actually one here. Surprise, surprise. Fire Fox browser is on here.
Let me stop saying arm so much because I hate when people do it. So I'm not going to do that to
you either. I have open office manager on here. I would much prefer Abbey Word.
So I would switch that around once I get a hard drive. And then I can actually install things
on your permanent basis. And I don't have to run from a live CD or DVD every time I want to use
something. And it's the interesting thing because when I first got this laptop, I wasn't even
expecting to get to start up. I was just, okay, I'll try to power it on and see what happens
from there. And then I put it in the live DVD as I mentioned from 2010. And it worked pretty good.
So, so far I've tested out Puppy 5.2. I've tested our VRK aid. I've tested PC Linux OS.
I have tested, what else is on here, this log DVD. I have tested OpenSus KDE, which I had no idea
was going to work on here at all. Because it's like I said, a laptop from 2003. My goal is to
simply put it to use. I'm not expecting it to be a super machine by any definition. And I already
have other laptops available to do more intensive activities. But this work pretty well.
I can certainly play movies, listen to music on it. You eventually I'll be able to get online with it.
So, it's nice. That effect it has 4x3, 4. I don't know how to even say it. It has the original
square screen aspect revolution 4x3. I'm just going to call it 4x3. If you write it down on papers
like 4, I said I was going to stop saying 4, colon, whatever that sign is, 3. You know what I'm
trying to say. You guys are smart enough to know what I'm talking about. The original square
screen. It's not the short screen that I was so prevalent actually is the only thing available
laptops for the most part. Like for instance, my x201. I love this machine. It's really nice
upgrade from what I had before. But it's a short screen. And when you put these laptops next to
each other, the screen size is immediately apparent. Yes, it's. I do have a nice weight
on the x201. It's roughly 3 pounds a little more with the 9th cell battery. It's in there,
but I noticed a difference. Anyway, at that grace, I really like the screen on the T40.
It's not the highest resolution. So, if you're one of those people that are resolution fanatics,
it's going to instantly get on your nerves. Just the same for read-it-all machine.
I'm content that it works at all. And I'm one of those people that's not particular about such things.
So, it just doesn't take a lot to make me happy in that area. Thankfully, that's just the case.
I mean to talk about the specs on this particular machine and somehow I don't know how to do that on here.
I really don't know how to do that here. Trying to figure out how to go about it. Oh, the CPU is
actually a Pentium M. 1.3 GHz. I have 512 MB of RAM. There's no hard drive in here. It originally
came with an IDE. A laptop IDE hard drive in here. Took it out. I was dead. I know I'm recapping
for earlier. And right now, it will not boot from a USB. So, I'll see what I can do with
Plop Linux. Get that working. At some point, I've just been procrastinating lately. That's why I don't have that set up.
That gives you a little bit of idea what the screen is. I have what the specs of the machine are. The screen
is 14.1, about 14 inches. Squarespace screen, like I mentioned. It's really nice.
I really, really am following up it. It actually made me want to get a T60.
That would be a nice addition to the family. I would sell this back to him and
had the money for the T60 actually. So, needless to say, this may not even last long in my possession.
Now, with regards to the desktop environment, that's available on this version of PC Linux OS.
This is LXD. And I like it. It's really nice. Very lightweight. I noticed that
Plop Linux was lighter, certainly. I can't think of anything that's really much lighter than that.
If you can get lighter than Puppy Linux, you're really doing something to be honest with you.
And I don't really need it to be much lighter than Puppy. This version is actually pretty decent.
PC Linux OS is actually pretty good. I like the look, the feel, I have bigger icons, apparently on here.
That's fine. It's not a problem. In-player is my video player that's available. I also have
climate time available for sound. The Synathy Package Manager I'm so familiar with is on here.
This is making me really rethink which OS I want to actually put on here at some point.
I was thinking Puppy Arcade because it allows you to play a lot of games via emulators and
just be able to do classic games that way. I think that would be really cool, but I'm not sure
if it's yet still making decisions. I'm pretty much playing with this game. Pretty much playing
with the side type as it is. I'm looking for what tells me the specs of the laptop completely.
And I have no idea how to do that one here. I normally am good at finding it,
but this time I'm a bit of a loss. So then I can give you a little more details, but that
tells you enough. That pretty much sums it up. Right now I'm still deciding which OS to put on here.
So far PC letting OS is a decent choice. I wasn't going to consider that first, but now
kind of growing on me. Puppy version 5.2. I really like the way it looks even though it's really old.
The thing about Puppy is that sometimes it will be a version that I will really like,
but then there'll be other things that I'm missing. There'll be another version that I kind of
like, but it'll be certain things that it's missing. But if it's a laptop and I can actually get it
online, none of that actually matters. So I'm just going to work with what works best on this
particular system. Right now I want to check out the audio when you hear again just because I
haven't done it in a while and see how it goes. Let's see. Trying to think what I want to play.
I could play. Trying to think. Let's see. I'm tempted to do some projects in Gimp when he
here just to be funny. I'll be so funny actually. I did a tutorial in Blender where I have the
text of my screen name, Swift 110. It's like water and there's a ball passing through it. So I'll see
if I can see how that works when I play it. You can hear the CD drive spinning up. And there's
this annoying line in the background. Not really a line, but some kind of irritating noise that I'm
hearing that I'm not used to hearing. And I'm sure you hear it. And it's annoying. I don't know why
it's doing that. It doesn't normally do that. So we'll just have to live with it for the time being.
Hopefully that will resolve itself. I like the fact that I may well
say even try out different operating systems by the live DVD. And there's at least five operating
systems because it's a multiple live DVD. So it gives me an opportunity to check stuff out,
decide what I want without even using virtual box. And that's pretty cool to use. I like that
program, but when I don't have to use it, that's good. Because then that takes resources away
from the machine itself. So I'd much rather be able to just do it directly from a live DVD.
It's not horrible at all, by the way. It's not a problem. Right now, I'm trying to open up this video.
It's kind of being done. I don't know why, but what others said before is given me
all this lip about it. And I'm not interested in doing all that really. Okay, so what I'll do is
open it up in the employer. Why is this such a hassle? All right, so the employer,
by the way, I don't really like the employer. I'm not sure how to use VLC
because I have no idea how to do this. Just the way it looks when you hear so our cake. I got to
remember this is an old version of in-player. But it reminds me almost like, what's that old
audio player where they made the sound of a sheet? We used to use it in Windows. I forgot what it's called.
All I know is this is really annoying. And I'm just not feeling it. So I would change that around.
Actually, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and log out and log back in using Puppy
and see how that works out. So let's shut this down and switch over to Puppy Linux.
I'm a little more familiar with Puppy Linux. And we'll just go that way.
Oh, excuse me. Bear with me. We'll get that done. All right, let's put the DVD back in.
And let's get it back on. Now from putting the DVD back in, let's see how long it takes to actually
get to a usable screen in Puppy. Man, that sort of thing off. I think I did. I did. Dummy. Oh well.
We'll see about getting this thing back on. So I just powered the T40 back on.
And we'll see how long it takes to go from powering it onto starting Puppy.
And it's probably going to be a little while. So let me see if I can move away from that stupid noise.
I'm going to avoid buying. I'm pretty sure you'll be annoyed as well.
I'm already 20 minutes into this. I have no idea what I'm going to do this.
Oh well. You're so loud.
And we haven't started yet. Now you're saying missing operating system.
This is really done. Oh well. Tell you what, how about I stop here?
And this will be pretty much about me using PC Living SOS on the T40.
And then I'll do part two very soon. All right. Thanks for listening.
Again, this was Swift 110. Thank you for listening. And I hope you all have a great day.
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