Laptop Clarification

[Exmix]

So, I see over various subreddits and other forums that when someone is looking for a good/decent "Hacking" laptop some people suggest the Thinkpads(More Specifically Thinkpad T420/T430). Now I can semi see why, they are cheaper with decent/good specs/hardware, etc. Now I want to know if this is a REAL suggestion or just some troll answer. If it's real, I want to know why(Other than what I said above) since they never really give a reason why they suggest that, which is why I think it might be a troll answer.

[barry99705]

The one you can afford.  That's it really.

[Exmix]

6 hours ago, barry99705 said:

The one you can afford.  That's it really.

That was what I guessed since that's the only real reason i've seen anyone give.

[Sebkinne]

9 hours ago, barry99705 said:

The one you can afford.  That's it really.

This, and how well they run Linux / how expandable they are. 

Thinkpads are notorious for running Linux well, and being easy to upgrade (swap out wireless card, add more disks, or ram). They can usually also be found cheaply on eBay.

[Exmix]

5 hours ago, Sebkinne said:

This, and how well they run Linux / how expandable they are. 

Thinkpads are notorious for running Linux well, and being easy to upgrade (swap out wireless card, add more disks, or ram). They can usually also be found cheaply on eBay.

Yeah that much I found out. Found a pretty nice one on ebay for less than $100 that I might grab since it has pretty good hardware and spec.

[0phoi5]

I use a T430, in fact I'm on it now. It's perfect for pentesting, if that what you need it for. Got a refurb for just over £200 ($280 ish), 250GB SSD, 8GB RAM, i5 processor. I love it.

[Rkiver]

The T400 and T500 (and their subvariants) are damn awesome and very tough and hard wearing.

I managed to score a W530 for next to nothing recently (like 100 Euro).

Insane.....INSANE POWER!

[Dave-ee Jones]

Lenovo have upped their game in recent times, however I can't say I like their newest laptops. Feel like cheap plastic toys that love leaving oil-marks all over themselves.

I do like the new "matte" screens though - they're quite nice even though they look cheap.

[barry99705]

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/12/ubuntu-corrupting-lenovo-laptop-bios

Just don't install Ubuntu 17 on the new ones.  One of my coworkers ran into this. He has a big assed paperweight at the moment.

[Exmix]

6 hours ago, barry99705 said:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2017/12/ubuntu-corrupting-lenovo-laptop-bios

Just don't install Ubuntu 17 on the new ones.  One of my coworkers ran into this. He has a big assed paperweight at the moment.

I was probably going to install Netrunner on it.

[orrin]

On 2/9/2018 at 4:45 PM, Sebkinne said:

This, and how well they run Linux / how expandable they are. 

Thinkpads are notorious for running Linux well, and being easy to upgrade (swap out wireless card, add more disks, or ram). They can usually also be found cheaply on eBay.

Sebkinne & folks, that is the kind of advice i've been looking for: that Thinkpads are good for this. But could you help me out with this:

(1) okay, i have Ubuntu14 running on a Thinkpad T400. I am just the past month getting into rfcat, a Yardstick, and using an rtl-sdr dongle for this (instead of just using the rtl-sdr dongle to listen to FM and AM stations).

(2) When i learned about inspectrum from a Hak5 video, i found that Ubuntu14 could not find it anywhere, so i assumed it needed Ubuntu16. I now am running Ubuntu16 in a VirtualBox on one of my Win10 machines. With that config, rfcat is communicating with the Yardstick, and inspectrum is installed. Am about to try using inspectrum today.

(3) Another, cheap, Win10 laptop here (new 6 months ago, an HP product # X7T78UA#ABA, model 15-ba009dx) doesn't seem to "like" anything later than Ubuntu12, either from LiveCD or in VirtualBox. Ubuntu14 is so slow it's unusable.

(4) So now i finally get to my point or question: what about putting Ubuntu16 on the HP, wiping out Win10 completely? (If I could even get an Ubuntu16 LiveCD to load; if not, try Ubuntu12 and then upgrade to 16?) ... Will i brick the HP by trying to wipe out Windows completely and make the laptop boot right into Ubuntu16? (And can the HP be made into dual-boot Ubuntu16/Win10? I read that it can be hazardous.) The HP will not boot off a USB or CD unless i hit one of the F keys to get into an HP boot utility. In the BIOS settings, changing the boot order does not work. I think this HP is kind of lame.

(5) Or should i leave the HP the way it is (Win10 with only Ubuntu12 in VirtualBox), and just get another Thinkpad T400 on eBay for Ubuntu16? 

Discovering that inspectrum is not available for my  Ubuntu14 T400 is what is booting me into asking these questions. Thanks for any comments.

 

--orrin in NE California

 

 

[Dave-ee Jones]

3 hours ago, orrin said:

(4) So now i finally get to my point or question: what about putting Ubuntu16 on the HP, wiping out Win10 completely? (If I could even get an Ubuntu16 LiveCD to load; if not, try Ubuntu12 and then upgrade to 16?) ... Will i brick the HP by trying to wipe out Windows completely and make the laptop boot right into Ubuntu16? (And can the HP be made into dual-boot Ubuntu16/Win10? I read that it can be hazardous.) The HP will not boot off a USB or CD unless i hit one of the F keys to get into an HP boot utility. In the BIOS settings, changing the boot order does not work. I think this HP is kind of lame.

(5) Or should i leave the HP the way it is (Win10 with only Ubuntu12 in VirtualBox), and just get another Thinkpad T400 on eBay for Ubuntu16? 

If you want both OS' there are a few things you can do:

1. Partition the drive so you can have an OS on each partition (maybe have a 3rd for general storage shared between both OS')
2. Buy another drive and swap between them on boot as you want
3. Live Boot USB that boots a Live CD version of Ubuntu (keep in mind this will probably be slow, but you can set up persistence)
   • There's a really cool app for Android phones that allow you to have a boot partition on your phone so it can act as a live boot CD - pretty cool. Here's a link.

Unless you do one of those things you can't have both OS' on the one hard drive (unless, of course, VM but you are already doing that).

You could buy another Thinkpad but that means you would be carrying around 2 laptops. Not really an ideal solution.

Hope this helps!

[orrin]

21 hours ago, Dave-ee Jones said:

If you want both OS' there are a few things you can do:

1. Partition the drive so you can have an OS on each partition (maybe have a 3rd for general storage shared between both OS')
2. Buy another drive and swap between them on boot as you want
3. Live Boot USB that boots a Live CD version of Ubuntu (keep in mind this will probably be slow, but you can set up persistence)
   • There's a really cool app for Android phones that allow you to have a boot partition on your phone so it can act as a live boot CD - pretty cool. Here's a link.

Unless you do one of those things you can't have both OS' on the one hard drive (unless, of course, VM but you are already doing that).

You could buy another Thinkpad but that means you would be carrying around 2 laptops. Not really an ideal solution.

Hope this helps!

Dave, thanks for the response. I will have to think  about this. My questions now are: (1) Can my Win10 HP be made dual-boot? I know how to do it, but will doing this on Win10 break the laptop? (As i said, for some odd HP reason, boot order can't be changed in the BIOS. Can only be changed by hitting F11 to enter an HP boot utility. Don't know if this is relevant to making it dual-boot.) and

(2) Have you or anyone put Ubuntu16 on a Thinkpad T400? (Would it be too slow.) I put Ubuntu14 on it, not knowing that apps like inspectrum need Ubuntu16.

(3) (not a question): Ubuntu16 works fine in VirtualBox on an older, higher quality Toshiba here. Communicates fine with the Yardstick.  I just need another Ubuntu16 machine here.

Off-topic: Today I hacked my wireless doorbell! My first success. Using my notes from Hak5 + ConsoleCowboy videos. Def a rush!  And i can ssh to it from the outside world if i want to.

[Dave-ee Jones]

10 hours ago, orrin said:

Dave, thanks for the response. I will have to think  about this. My questions now are: (1) Can my Win10 HP be made dual-boot? I know how to do it, but will doing this on Win10 break the laptop? (As i said, for some odd HP reason, boot order can't be changed in the BIOS. Can only be changed by hitting F11 to enter an HP boot utility. Don't know if this is relevant to making it dual-boot.)

I'm not sure about that. I don't see why it would affect it but it would definitely be worth seeing if anyone has a tutorial or a bit of documentation for dual-boots with HPs and Windows 10.

10 hours ago, orrin said:

(2) Have you or anyone put Ubuntu16 on a Thinkpad T400? (Would it be too slow.) I put Ubuntu14 on it, not knowing that apps like inspectrum need Ubuntu16.

Can't say I have since Ive never owned a ThinkPad T400, and I've never flashed a Windows laptop with Linux (only ever used VMs or laptops/PCs with Linux already on it).

10 hours ago, orrin said:

Today I hacked my wireless doorbell! My first success. Using my notes from Hak5 + ConsoleCowboy videos. Def a rush!  And i can ssh to it from the outside world if i want to.

Okay, I don't know if that's good or bad - depends what you do with it :P

You could try making it more secure, though, as it sounds like others can hack it fairly easily too - unless you were just hacking the software?

[orrin]

On 2/17/2018 at 2:36 AM, Dave-ee Jones said:

I'm not sure about that. I don't see why it would affect it but it would definitely be worth seeing if anyone has a tutorial or a bit of documentation for dual-boots with HPs and Windows 10.

Okay, I don't know if that's good or bad - depends what you do with it :P You could try making it more secure, though, as it sounds like others can hack it fairly easily too - unless you were just hacking the software?

-- Well i don't intend to do anything that will make this 'hobby' too expensive, such as doing something that will get me a hearing by a judge!

-- So now i did find some dual-boot info as you suggest, and put Ubuntu16 dual-boot with Win10 on the "new" HP laptop. The Ubuntu runs very fast, unlike when it was in a VirtualBox on the HP where it was so slow it was unusable. ... I think i must have made some error in making the dual-boot, because i don't get a grub menu when i turn on the machine. I have to hit ESC, then F9 (Boot Manager), then boot option "Notebook Hard Drive" and then i get the Grub menu. It works for me for now; i'm not going to re-do the whole process. I followed two identical tutorials, but as often happens, the tutorials don't correspond exactly to the reality.

 You wrote: Okay, I don't know if that's good or bad - depends what you do with it :P You could try making it more secure, though, as it sounds like others can hack it fairly easily too - unless you were just hacking the software?

 

-- Well i don't intend to do anything that will make this 'hobby' too expensive, such as doing something that will get me a hearing by a judge!  Next i'm going to hack my remote light switch, a motion detector, my wireless thermometer, and then my TVs. If i want to try some pranks (very few pranks), i'll just buy a TV-B-Gone LOL.

 

[Dave-ee Jones]

1 hour ago, orrin said:

-- So now i did find some dual-boot info as you suggest, and put Ubuntu16 dual-boot with Win10 on the "new" HP laptop. The Ubuntu runs very fast, unlike when it was in a VirtualBox on the HP where it was so slow it was unusable. ... I think i must have made some error in making the dual-boot, because i don't get a grub menu when i turn on the machine. I have to hit ESC, then F9 (Boot Manager), then boot option "Notebook Hard Drive" and then i get the Grub menu. It works for me for now; i'm not going to re-do the whole process. I followed two identical tutorials, but as often happens, the tutorials don't correspond exactly to the reality.

That is a wee bit strange. Maybe it's trying to boot from another partition first?

1 hour ago, orrin said:

Well i don't intend to do anything that will make this 'hobby' too expensive, such as doing something that will get me a hearing by a judge!  Next i'm going to hack my remote light switch, a motion detector, my wireless thermometer, and then my TVs. If i want to try some pranks (very few pranks), i'll just buy a TV-B-Gone LOL.

A very silly person once said "it's only illegal if I get caught".

[Dave-ee Jones]

Also, haven't seen anyone mention the Thinkpad X220 yet.

I wouldn't mind putting Kali on a Samsung tablet though (Tab S2, maybe?) because of their small footprint, it's just the touchscreen would be useless.