Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 on a ThinkPad T60p

This article covers the installation of CentOS 4.4 on a ThinkPad T60p. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 4 should be exactly the same.

This article is not complete--I am editing it as I make progress on my installation. I just wanted to share the tricks I have discovered so far, and start a page where you can share your experience.

Preparation

Before you do anything else, boot Windows and create a set of Product Recovery disks. Even if you hate Windows, the next user of your computer may need it. When you need to restore Windows, you just pop in the the Product Recovery disks, and tell them to restore the computer to its original factory-installed state.

I used a set of CD-ROMs for this installation. The T60 can boot from DVD-ROM, so you can also use the DVD if you like. It also appears to be capable of booting from USB, but I could not get it to work for the purpose of installing Linux.

Installing from CD-ROM or DVD

Insert the first disk, and let it try to boot. If it hangs on "ACPI: Found ECDT", try again, but at "Install or Upgrade..." type:

   linux acpi=off

If you still have problems (particularly if you later find that USB does not work), you might try adding "noapic":

   linux acpi=off noapic

Automatic disk partitioning did not work for me, probably because I retained my Windows and Rescue and Recovery partitions. I just mimicked the partitioning scheme shown in Section 4.16 of Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

What Works

• SMP (dual processor kernel)
• e1000 Gigabit Wired Ethernet
• DVD-ROM

Requires More Work

• Intel 3945 wireless network adaptor

Not Tested

• Bluetooth
• IR interface