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Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

arstechnica.com

21–30 of 103 posts

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#21
post #10

Lenovo is now using rootkit-like techniques to install their software on CLEAN Windows installs, by having the BIOS overwrite windows system files on bootup. Someone detailed this here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=29497693&sid=dd... I had this happen to me a few weeks ago, on a new Lenovo laptop, doing a clean install with a new SSD, Win 8 DVD + wifi turned off. I couldn't understand how a Lenovo ser…

That's incredible and should be more widely reported.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#22
post #10

Lenovo is now using rootkit-like techniques to install their software on CLEAN Windows installs, by having the BIOS overwrite windows system files on bootup. Someone detailed this here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=29497693&sid=dd... I had this happen to me a few weeks ago, on a new Lenovo laptop, doing a clean install with a new SSD, Win 8 DVD + wifi turned off. I couldn't understand how a Lenovo ser…

CompuTrace has been doing it for years for their "Theft Protection". Opt-out, too, and included on about every Windows laptop.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#23
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love seriously over-powered "luggables" and these machines might have impressive specs, but there's a big problem; a lot of open source folks won't buy NVIDIA gear due to the need for non-free binary-blob drivers. NVIDIA makes some impressive products, but they seldom play well with others, and they seem to have a real vendetta against supporting open source efforts by simply providing the necessary documentation.…

That's not a big problem, because most people aren't "open source" people. The "open source" people won't even get wifi working. The real problem for Linux users is that the Linux drivers aren't good, or don't support Optimus (do they now?), and you get poor battery life or poor performance or you have to manually do configuration just to get a basic working system.

When did you see the Linux distribution like that? In 2000?

Specifically Thinkpad laptops are known to work out of the box with popular Linux distributions.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#24
post #18
post #13

If only they had a non-chiclet keyboard... I guess I have to wait till retro ThinkPad :-(

That's very likely still going to have a chiclet keyboard – they didn't ask for user preferences on it –, but it will at least have a proper seven-row layout. Personally, I don't mind the chiclets – the mechanic is the same as in the old keyboards – as long as the layout gets fixed…

I guess I'll have to 3D print custom keys then...

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#25
post #11

Finally ECC memory in a laptop, I've wanted this for years! However, I am seriously unimpressed by the maximum memory specifications. 64GB?! I had 32GB in my ThinkPad W510, which was released over five years ago. I've also had 16GB in my seven year old T400. 16GB was enough for me back then, 64GB now is barely enough for me, it will certainly not be enough in a few years, although by then maybe we'd get larger memory…

What do you do on a laptop that requires more than 64 GB of RAM ?

OP probably run lots of virtualization instances or is running a huge set of big data that uses RAM as a cache.

I have 16 GB and I ran a cluster of 3-4 of Cassandra that are virtualized via Vagrant and it was pretty solid. Wouldn't mind 32 GB though.

As for the big data comment, an example is the programming language R runs in memory... And yeah running big data in memory require lots of memory.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#26
post #22
post #10

Lenovo is now using rootkit-like techniques to install their software on CLEAN Windows installs, by having the BIOS overwrite windows system files on bootup. Someone detailed this here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=29497693&sid=dd... I had this happen to me a few weeks ago, on a new Lenovo laptop, doing a clean install with a new SSD, Win 8 DVD + wifi turned off. I couldn't understand how a Lenovo ser…

CompuTrace has been doing it for years for their "Theft Protection". Opt-out, too, and included on about every Windows laptop.

There is no setting I can see to opt-out of what the Lenovo is doing. It's not an anti-theft software, it's software that makes popups appear, asking you to install their software.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#27
post #10

Lenovo is now using rootkit-like techniques to install their software on CLEAN Windows installs, by having the BIOS overwrite windows system files on bootup. Someone detailed this here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=29497693&sid=dd... I had this happen to me a few weeks ago, on a new Lenovo laptop, doing a clean install with a new SSD, Win 8 DVD + wifi turned off. I couldn't understand how a Lenovo ser…

That's incredible and should be more widely reported.

I just replied to the Ars thread - it's even stranger. Windows 8 and up have an officially Microsoft sanctioned way of letting manufacturers load software through Firmware, called "Windows Platform Binary Table". It means it is impossible to do a clean install of Windows now. I've seen zero mention of it anywhere - maybe Lenovo was the first to pull the trigger and make use of it recently.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a big problem, because most people aren't "open source" people. The "open source" people won't even get wifi working. The real problem for Linux users is that the Linux drivers aren't good, or don't support Optimus (do they now?), and you get poor battery life or poor performance or you have to manually do configuration just to get a basic working system.

When did you see the Linux distribution like that? In 2000? Specifically Thinkpad laptops are known to work out of the box with popular Linux distributions.

The rule of thumb for Thinkpads and Linux is that you'll be fine as long as you get an Intel wifi card (or some other known quantity) and integrated graphics. For example, the NVS 4200M gpu hasn't really worked out of the box for me even on Ubuntu on a T520, nor the Quadro 2000M on a W520, without having to do some fiddling, or (later) knowing what specific packages to install. Optimus or certain multi-monitor setups was a lost cause, so when you do get it to work, the battery life hurts. (I've read things have improved since a couple years ago.) Wifi drivers (such as Intel's) carry proprietary blobs, which you have to install manually on Debian, but they work reliably -- that's only a problem for true open source radicals, or normal computer users that were tricked into using Debian.

Re: Lenovo announces laptops using new mobile Xeon processors

#30
post #10

Lenovo is now using rootkit-like techniques to install their software on CLEAN Windows installs, by having the BIOS overwrite windows system files on bootup. Someone detailed this here: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?p=29497693&sid=dd... I had this happen to me a few weeks ago, on a new Lenovo laptop, doing a clean install with a new SSD, Win 8 DVD + wifi turned off. I couldn't understand how a Lenovo ser…

RMS is sounding less and less crazy with discoveries like this. To think a manufacturer would essentially rootkit their own machines is testament to how bad things have become. Would running TrueCrypt full disk encryption protect you from your own hardware? If the BIOS can't read the disk on boot, I don't think it would inject the binary into the file system.

No - see my reply to the Ars thread. Windows 8 introduced an "official" way to do this called "Windows Platform Binary Table". Every time Windows boots, it checks your ACPI table for an entry called "WPBT", writes that to disk as "wpbbin.exe", and executes it. There does not seem to be any way to disable this behavior in Windows. Truecrypt would not help in this case because it happens after boot.
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