Sigurd, as I follow this thread, it's great news that you got both Win11 and AOS up and running on this Thinkpad. If I'm following correctly, it means you can dual-boot (multiboot) into one OS or the other.
One remaining task seems to be preserving all this effort, as in, imaging both OS's plus the EFI stuff, to the point where you can resurrect the entire machine from scratch, and get it right back to where this known-good state.
I also assume that AOS can see 1.4GB of "free" RAM, as this seems to be a 64GB ram system. This means you'll have one OS/2 running at any time, and you'll still be somewhat RAM-bound at times, depending on what you're doing. Possibly, you'll still be fiddling with hardware issues here and there, under OS/2. If you need something under Windows, you'll be rebooting into that OS, and losing access to OS/2 temporarily.
In the meantime, there are plenty of powerful hardware resources left over on your machine needing exploitation, and perhaps not just as a RAM drive?
Might I suggest AToF'ing (ArcaOS - Thrusters on Full) this system? All the docs are in the "virtualization" forum of OS2World.com. These docs have received lots of "views", but not much in the way of feedback. AToF docs are at:
os2world.com/forum/index.php/board,24.0.html
From where you are right now, I'd suggest this quick test, which shouldn't risk any changes to your existing build in which you've invested so much time:
1. boot to Win11, install Virtualbox, and then install AOS in a VM, and see how it works for you, including how much free RAM is available inside that VM. Note that both OS's are running at once, which is powerful magic, as you can switch between them with a mouse click.
2. now install another AOS in a VM (for test purposes, just reuse your AOS license), and perhaps even another. Each has 4GB of RAM to play with, and you are no longer bound to one AOS. In the meantime, each is accessing the resources available to the Win11 OS above it, meaning wireless network access, etc., and everything is running at once, with no multi-booting.
This test doesn't really change anything on your current Thinkpad build, as you can throw the test parts back out again (remove Virtualbox and the VM's). But, it does let you, or anyone else with a similar laptop setup, see the power of running everything at once, with virtualization and multiple VM's. You'll still have more resources for other VM's, for Linux, for development, or whatever.
I don't have Thinkpads myself, and am not tied in to the "experience of ArcaOS on any given model of Thinkpad", but I've run a similar test on my Dell laptops, and others, and it works well. It would be helpful if you ran the same (reasonably quick) test, and reported your experiences back to the forums. No other part of AToF needs to be done, just this part of Virtualbox and VM's.
You'll be in a unique position where you can test things under AToF (ArcaOS in a VM), and/or test things under a boot straight into ArcaOS via rEFInd, and compare/contrast both experiences.
Plenty of folks might have all kinds of issues with running OS's in VM's (particularly OS/2), and until that gets exposed by folks running more tests, we don't really know if AToF is all that helpful, especially to the ArcaOS/Thinkpad set of folks.
Obviously, you can disregard my whole post and continue running one OS at a time, out of your current two OS's under the EFI/rEFInd setup. Again, it's really great that you got to this point! But, if you can run the test, it would help plenty of others who might be considering AToF but not wanting to take the risk until others have tried it and reported back ...
I might be able to add to AToF the ability, as noted by others, of running ArcaOS in a VM or easily booting directly into ArcaOS, if any issues need comparison to sort out.
A long post, but your new machine should rip right through it in seconds! Good luck with your new build!
