Installing Fedora on a ThinkPad T60

Creation timestamp: Whizkid 05:00, 6 February 2008 (CET)

This document is meant to be the definitive resource to getting the latest current release of Fedora running on a ThinkPad T60. I welcome improvements to the page, especially for hardware I don't have (video chips, WiFi cards, WWAN devices).

This document is current for Fedora 8. Fedora 9 Alhpa 1 has just been released, but we have a few months before that goes gold.

Installation Methods

Every T60 has a drive that can read DVDs. Nothing else is needed during the install, and it's the method I'm documenting first. Other methods of installation are detailed on the Fedora web site.

Pre-installation

Fedora 8 does not have a method to shrink NTFS partitions during installation. You can use Knoppix or other LiveCD's to do that if you want to dual-boot. Links to pages on how to do that would be nice right about.... here.

Installation tips:

• Set the optical drive mode to High Performance during the installation to speed it up a little.

Installation Steps

• Boot the DVD. I recommend completing the media test at least once on each disc you burn. You are presented with a title screen and no instructions. (That's what we're for!) Click Next.
• Select the installation language. Click Next.
• Select your keyboard language. Click Next. The installer looks for existing installations. You are prompted to choose a clean installation or upgrade. I'm documenting a clean install. Click Next.
• You are asked how to partition your drive. The default is to remove existing Linux partitions. That's a fine choice. Turn on the Review check box to see how it will partition the drive if you're curious. Click Next.
• Confirm that you want to delete partitions.

If you checked the Review box above, you are presented with the new disk layout. Edit as you please then click Next.

• The installer looks for other installed operating systems. You are asked where the boot loader will be installed. If you want to keep ThinkVantage functionality, check Configure advanced boot loader options. You can change the label of the other operating systems on the drive and select a default OS. Click Next.

If you selected advanced option configuration, you are asked where the boot loader should be installed. Select the first sector of the boot partition, not the MBR, if you want ThinkVantage to work at startup, or if you want another OS to manage the boot process. We may want to add kernel parameters here. Click Next.

• You are asked whether the wired Ethernet controller should be active on boot. Since I use mine with WiFi most of the time, I turn that off and set the hostname manually. Click Next. Click Continue to confirm no network devices at boot if asked.
• Select your time zone, choose whether or not the clock uses UTC and click Next.
• Enter your root password. Do it again. Click Next.
• The installer looks for common installation packages. Since everything is out of date already, I turn off all options and customize later. Click Next.
• The installer checks dependencies. You are asked one last time to confirm installation. Nothing has yet been written to the disk and this is the last point you can abort installation without changing anything on the drive. Click Next.

The partition table is written, partitions are formatted, the install image is copied and packages are installed. The disc is ejected and you are asked to reboot the machine. The process took 17 minutes on my T60 with a 2.0GHz Core Duo and 5400RPM hard drive.

First Boot

During the first boot, the system may wait a long time while trying to connect to a WiFi access point, even though your WiFi card may not have been detected by the installer.

• A welcome screen is presented. Your screen should now be in its native resolution. Click Forward.
• A license information screen is presented. Click Forward.
• Firewall configuration is presented. Configure as you like. Click Forward.
• SELinux setting is presented. Click Forward.
• Set your local date and time. Click Forward.
• Your hardware profile is shown. If you opt in and send your profile, your machine is counted by the Fedora team to get an idea of the population on which Fedora runs. Consider opting in to let them know we have these machines and want Fedora to run well on them. Click Forward.
• Create a user. Click Finish. Done!