Installing Fedora 7 on a ThinkPad 600X

Preface

Installation Method

Fedora 7 can be installed using a rescue CD, Live CD or a full DVD. The 600X came with a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Neither of these will read DVD+R discs, and while the latter may read a DVD-R disc, I am going to document my install using the LiveCD and install the rest of the system over a network.

You will need a wired network card that is compatible with Fedora 7 to follow the install procedure. Unfortunately, there is no single list of compatible network cards. On the other hand, the majority of wired network cards work well and with no tweaks needed during installation.

Hard Disk Issues

I will not spend time on various philosophies about hard drive partitioning or dual- or multi-boot installations. If you have concerns about your data, make backups and practice on a spare hard drive before you perform an installation on an important drive.

Pre-installation

Back up any data on your hard drive.

You may wish to set the CD-ROM drive mode to High Performance. This may save you a few seconds here and there. You can do this using the ThinkPad Configuration Utility for Windows or DOS.

Installation

Boot the CD

Boot the 600X using the Fedora 7 Live CD. I suggest using the "Verify and run from image" at least once to test the CD itself at least once before you attempt an installation.

I get the following errors during boot. I ignore them:

pci 0000:00:01.0: Error creating sysfs bridge symlink, continuing...
pci 0000:00:02.0: Error creating sysfs bridge symlink, continuing...
pci 0000:00:02.1: Error creating sysfs bridge symlink, continuing...

Booting will take a good long while, and by the time NetworkManager starts, your wired network card should show some activity. Shortly after that, you'll get the login prompt. Enter "root" as your user name.