ArcaOS freezes on IBM Thinkpad T43

[Neil Waldhauer]

I am perplexed how I might track this down. The T43 is actually supported under MCP. So I installed ArcaOS without any options and used APM instead of ACPI.

The machine freezes when the mouse hovers over a PM widget. Not every time, but I use a lot of PM programs, most of which are almost entirely made of PM widgets. I can type on command line all day it seems.

[Doug Bissett]

Wireless mouse, with dying battery???

Does the stick do the same?

The T43, that you sold me, a number of years ago, works a LOT better with ACPI, than it does with APM (I never try to put it to sleep). Mine is a 1871-W8M model.

[Neil Waldhauer]

Thanks, Doug. The T43 comes in two flavors, 1xxx and 2xxx. The 1xxx certainly worked better with ACPI. The 2xxx was certified to run MCP. I'm tempted to just run MCP on it.

When the machine freezes, the stick stops, the USB mouse stops (hmmm, maybe eliminate the USB mouse?), the clock stops, control-alt-delete does nothing, control alt shift numlock control alt shift numlock offers to dump to floppy disk.

[Doug Bissett]

I would start with the mouse (it is probably the easiest). Try one of the alternate mouse drivers (Lewis seems to like SMouse, on his T43 2xxx, if I remember correctly). Also, try a different USB stack.

I expect that dumping to floppy disk doesn't work. 

[Neil Waldhauer]

It turns out that USB stack 12.1 is the cause of the freezes. I installed USB stack 11.17 and the freezes are gone.

[Doug Bissett]

It turns out that USB stack 12.1 is the cause of the freezes. I installed USB stack 11.17 and the freezes are gone.

The current release of the AN USB stack is 12.4. It works a lot better than 12.1, or 12.3, for me.

[Neil Waldhauer]

Installing from USB stick hangs. You probably guessed that. Why did I even try that?

Installing IBM File and Print Client returns an error. I'll post an update after another attempt from DVD.

Following up, I can see that this time, File and Print Client installed successfully. I don't know why it failed before.