Toshiba M200 Dual Boot

So the OS was finally fragged on the M200 (XP Tablet Edition) that it would not even shut down correct, run most browsers, and regularly overheat (Toshiba’s power management software was crashing on computer boot).

So I decided that it would be good to dual boot Ubuntu 10.10 as well as Windows 7 (very impressed with the integrated features for laptops/tablets…like remembering display devices/settings, tablet functions, etc.) Needing Ubuntu for doing both Wifi related ‘stuff’ as well as probably for the new career path (all linux based computing at the office). I will include a ‘common’ file storage area for both operating systems to make things easy and easily shared across the platforms.

Apparently Ubuntu is very popular on the M200, so lots of people have configured the OS for all the screen weirdness that this computer can perform (rotate, pen input, resize, etc)

Not sure why XP Tablet got so fragged, but my guess is that after ~4 years of operating it heavily remotely, and picking up a few nasty virus that never quite got adequately irradicated, it just needed a good wipe. I like XP for stability, but Win7 really impressed me on my old work laptop so lets give it a shot. I can always throw XP in a background few gigs for the day that I find software that NEEDS XP.

Installing Ubuntu 10.10 over LAN

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/WindowsServerNetboot

Useful, but was very buggy when it came down to pulling the image off of a remote server. Couldn’t get it to work, and besides, I needed the linux partition manager booted up via the “Live” version…no install (my Toshiba M200 doesn’t recognize the external PCMCIA optical drive under linux…AND doesn’t have boot from USB (major failure))

Slick for most other machines though…especially if they don’t have drives or similar.