Computer Hacking Day, BIOS, BIOS, BIOS

My 2013 Thinkpad needed a new battery. Lenovo doesn’t sell batteries for my laptop, so I got a clone. When I installed the non-genuine battery and booted the computer, a warning flashed on the screen: That’s not a genuine Lenovo battery. We won’t charge it. Buy a real battery from us.” The warning didn’t mention that Lenovo currently doesn’t have that battery in stock.

After a little searching, I found that Lenovo’s arm-twisting has been going on for years, and others have found a way to use clone batteries. I eventually found the code needed to patch the kernel and turn off the Lenovo code that detects non-Lenovo batteries. The gory details are too technical to go into. I’ll just say that it takes about 15 minutes to fix this pain.

While I was solving this problem, I installed Ubuntu Linux on the Thinkpad, and I’ve got my Wacom gear working on it with Krita, Gimp, and Inkscape. Speaking of Wacom, I’m Wacom-rich. I have two Wacom tablets, a Wacom One Pen Display, and a Cintiq 22, plus three styluses and one Artist stylus. Wacom gear last forever — my oldest tablet is 15-years old.