Installing Ubuntu on a ThinkPad T20

Ubuntu 6.10, Edgy Eft

As described in Installing Ubuntu on a Thinkpad T21, there is an issue with the Savage driver which makes the initial boot into X hit and miss.

Perhaps this could be worked around using the text-based alternate install CD. However, that wouldn't allow you to do any pre-installation evaluation of the GUI that the Live/Install CD provides.

Even with the newest BIOS (1.22) isntalled in the T20, Linux will still recognize the BIOS as "too old" and will disable ACPI. You can override this by adding this boot option: `acpi=force`.

Even this option, once booted into the LiveCD, suspend still does not work. `gnome-power-manager` logs to `/var/log/messages` that is beginning to suspend, but nothing happens. This looks like it might be a known bug in Ubuntu.

A complete installation has not been attempted due to this issue.

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, Dapper Drake

When booting the Live/Install CD, adjust the boot options to add the following:

`noacpi acpi=off apm=on`

Sometimes the CD may stall on boot with a blank black screen. Trying again with "Safe Graphics" mode may help. (Or prehaps this is the same X issue with the Edgy Live CD, and it is simply trying again that helps).

Once booted, suspend and resume using Fn-F4 was successfully tested running from the LiveCD. However, in at least a couple of cases, the Live CD froze at seemingly random points shortly after resuming.

Results from a complete install still need to be documented.

See Also

Because the models are very similar, Installing Ubuntu on a Thinkpad T21 may also be helpful.

External Resources

• Bookmarks tagged with Ubuntu and T20 on del.icio.us
• Forum posts tagged with T20 on ubuntuforums.org

Categories

Ubuntu T20