Raspberry pi Desktop for Lenovo T400

Other than running Puppy Linux, I decided to try the Raspberry pi Desktop on Lenovo T400 laptop.  Now, I can use my old laptop for browsing and checking email.  Speed is acceptable.  Still hard to believe my T400 is still working fine.  

All the instructions can be found in https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/install-raspberry-pi-desktop

You use the same update command to update the OS periodically.  

sudo apt update

sudo apt full-upgrade

I install 2 additional tools to check HDD status.  

sudo app-get install smartmontools 

sudo app-get install gsmartcontrol

All the hardware are discovered and functioning correctly including the old built in wireless card Intel 5300.  Surprisingly, my old Target USB docking station ACP50US is working with Raspberry pi while there is no driver for Windows 7.  At least, the ethernet port and the sound cards in ACP50US are working fine.  

Update Raspberry Pi and basic commands

I have purchased a Raspberry pi 4 with 4GB RAM for my dad as a desktop replacement.  He only uses it to login to the bank, check news and look for deal.  

Here are some commands I used to update the Raspberry OS.

sudo apt update

sudo apt full-upgrade

Use commands below to check temp of the board and CPU

sudo vcgencmd measure_temp

sudo vcgencmd measure_volts

To read Chinese in the browser, run the command below to install the fonts.

sudo apt-get install fonts-arphic-uming

Performance between different OS for Raspberry pi 4

Raspup 8.2 is the first one I installed in Raspberry pi 4 (4GB RAM).  It is ok but I am not happy with the performance for web browsing.  So, I tried Gentoo and Raspberry Pi OS.  I got the Raspberry pi 4 as a desktop replacement for the old laptop for my parents.  They only use browser or goto youtube.  

Definitely, Raspberry Pi OS is slightly faster than Gentoo.  Raspup 8.2 performance is the worst among the three.  Since they use it for browsing, I have not spent time to do research on how to make it faster.  So, I only use default settings.  

You can find the OS links below.  

Raspup | Home (eezy.xyz)

Releases · sakaki-/gentoo-on-rpi-64bit · GitHub

Raspberry Pi OS – Raspberry Pi

Setting up PuppyLinux on my Raspberry

Just receive my Raspberry pi 4 with 4GB of memory.  Decide to install Raspup 8.2 on it.  Details instructions can be found in Raspup page.

I copy the Windows instructions below.

1. Download Raspup image from the Downloads page and check the checksum.
2. Extract the image file from the downloaded .zip file, so you now have "raspup-XXXXXX.img".
3. Insert the SD card into your SD card reader and check what drive letter it was assigned. You can easily see the drive letter (for example G:) by looking in the left column of Windows Explorer. You can use the SD Card slot (if you have one) or a cheap Adapter in a USB slot.
4. Download the Win32DiskImager utility (it is also a zip file). You can run this from a USB drive.
5. Extract the executable from the zip file and run the Win32DiskImager utility; you may need to run the utility as Administrator! Right-click on the file, and select 'Run as Administrator'
6. Select the image file you extracted above.
7. Select the drive letter of the SD card in the device box. Be careful to select the correct drive; if you get the wrong one you can destroy your data on the computer's hard disk! If you are using an SD Card slot in your computer (if you have one) and can't see the drive in the Win32DiskImager window, try using a cheap Adapter in a USB slot.
8. Click Write and wait for the write to complete.
9. Exit the imager and eject the SD card.
10. You are now ready to plug the card into your Raspberry Pi.
11. In Windows, the SD card will appear only to have a fairly small size once written - about 512 MB. This is because most of the card has a partition that is formatted for the Linux operating system that the Raspberry Pi uses which is not visible in Windows. If you don't see this small directory with files such as kernel.img then the copy may not have worked correctly.

PuppyLinux is my favourite Linux and it is a nice desktop for my dad to browse the net.

To read Chinese, just install package fonts_arphic_uming.  

To create Shortcut, go to /usr/share/applications and drag the icon to the Desktop.