Installing Debian Lenny on a ThinkPad T60
Debian Lenny on a T60 6371-6NU
You might also want to check out Debian Etch on a Thinkpad T60 HowTo and Installing_Debian_Lenny_on_a_ThinkPad_T61.
In case you can't decode the Thinkpad model number above, here are the specs (I've left out modem, infrared, cardbus since I haven't ever used them):
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom) 1.83GHz |
| Graphics Adaptor | Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 |
| Display | 15.4" TFT display with 1200x800 resolution (widescreen) |
| RAM | 1 GB PC2-5300 (upgraded to 2GB) |
| Harddisk | 120GB 5400 RPM Hitatchi HTS54161 |
| Audio | AD1981HD HD Audio 1.0 controller |
| Ethernet | 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller |
| Optical | LG-Hitatchi HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4083N Dual Layer DVD+/-RW |
| Wireless | Atheros AR5418 |
| Biometric | STMicroelectronics Fingerprint Reader |
I'm going to do everything in Linux (i.e. assume that you already have a running linux version running somewhere else).
Installation
- First of all, get the "businesscard" cd image for amd64 if you want to run 64 bit or i386 if you want 32 bit. Note however that going 64 bit no longer means you have to forgoe proprietary software like flash or java. See this article on the "debian adminstration" blog. If you do however go 64 bit you won't be able to use proprietary 32 bit modules in your kernel. Most notably, ndiswrapper won't work with 32-bit windows drivers.
- Burn the cd image to a cd with the command
cdrecord -v debian-testing-amd64-businesscard.iso
You may find that you need to add dev=/dev/cdrom (or whatever your burning device is) to the above command. - Now stick in the newly burned disc and reboot. You'll need to have the laptop plugged in via ethernet for this since the business card image has pretty much just the installer itself and relies on the internet to download the latest base system. As such, there may be a couple places where you wonder if it's hanging when in fact it is just downloading the system. Be patient and it will all work out. Follow the instructions and when it gets to asking you what software to install select nothing (we'll do that manually later). If however you want to be more comprehensive than streamlined, you should go with the "Desktop", "Laptop", and "Standard System" software classes.
The First Boot: installing packages
You should boot up to a commandline login prompt (X-Windows hasn't been installed yet). Log in as root. It's now time to install the packages necessary to get things running. You'll find that thanks to the business card installation, you have an up to date system (i.e., aptitude update&& aptitude dist-upgrade won't find any packages needing upgrade. So lets get on with installing all the packages necessary to get things looking a little more like home.
- First of all, you'll need to update the /etc/apt/sources.list file so that it can find the packages for the fingerprint reader. These actually are in debian, but they're in the experimental branch which isn't enabled by default. Below is my sources.list file.
# testing - lenny deb ftp://lizard-eth0.linux-srv.anlx.net/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free deb-src ftp://lizard-eth0.linux-srv.anlx.net/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free # stable - etch deb ftp://lizard-eth0.linux-srv.anlx.net/debian/ etch main contrib non-free deb-src ftp://lizard-eth0.linux-srv.anlx.net/debian/ etch main contrib non-free # unstable - sid deb ftp://lizard-eth0.linux-srv.anlx.net/debian/ sid main contrib non-free deb-src ftp://lizard-eth0.linux-srv.anlx.net/debian/ sid main contrib non-free # experimental deb ftp://lizard-eth0.linux-srv.anlx.net/debian/ experimental main contrib non-free deb-src ftp://lizard-eth0.linux-srv.anlx.net/debian/ experimental main contrib non-free # security updates deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
If you use a different mirror than lizard, you'll want to make sure that it hosts the experimental branch. You'll notice that I've also included entries for etch and sid in addition to experimental. I do this for completeness in case there are packages I want that that are only available in sid, or if I want to revert to a more stable version of a package in etch. Note that the order I specify the branches in the sources.list file makes no difference, thus in order to maintain priority for lenny packages, I also have an /etc/apt/preferences file with pin priorties:
Package: * Pin: release o=Debian,a=stable Pin-Priority: 300 Package: * Pin: release o=Debian,a=testing Pin-Priority: 600 Package: * Pin: release o=Debian,a=unstable Pin-Priority: 200 Package: * Pin: release o=Debian,a=experimental Pin-Priority: 100
Basically this is saying that unless I specify otherwise, "testing" (lenny) packages are to be preferred over "stable" (etch) over "unstable" (sid) over "experimental". Basically a lower Pin-Priority means lower precedence. If you want to override this precedence, you can either use the aptitude gui and select a specific version to install or add the flag -t <targe branch> to your aptitude install <package> command. If you do this in such a way as to select a package that has a higher priority alternative available it will be upgraded next time you do an aptitude upgrade unless you pin that particular package version (see the relevant section of the apt howto).
to be continued . . .
