Installation instructions for the ThinkPad T21
Specific installation notes for the ThinkPad T21.
General Notes
Distro specific Instructions
Ubuntu 6.06 Desktop
The Ubuntu 6.06 Desktop CD is both a Live CD and a installation CD. You can boot directly from the CD and it will run Ubuntu in live mode in X Windows so you can play with it. Your hard drive will not be changed at all in this mode. You can then choose to install it to your hard dirve by clicking the install icon on your desktop. After going through 5-6 screens and 15 minutes later, you are done.
Well, things are always more difficult than I thought. My Thinkpad froze a few times during installation, when it tries to boot into X windows. Later I found out that Ubuntu 6.06 Desktop has trouble with the S3 Savage video hardware on my thinkpad. The only solution at the install stage is to keep rebooting from the CD. I tried to boot 5-6 times, and finally got though.
I did the following to get things working.
1) I removed my thinkpad from its port replicater. (It probabaly doesn't matter in retrospect.)
2) Remove the PCMCIA WiFi card. (It probabaly doesn't matter in retrospect.)
3) Make sure that the ethernet port on your Thinkpad T21 is connected to the internet. My Thinkpad froze again halfway through copying files to the hard drive. I guess it was trying to find some files on the internet, so I plugged in the ethernet cable and reinstalled the OS. My guess was right, and the second installation went through smoothly.
After installation. Ubuntu will often freeze when it tries to boot into X windows. My Thinkpad T21 kept getting stuck on a blank screen with "_" on the upper left corner. Here is a solution that worked for me:
1) Choose Safe Boot instead of Normal Boot. It is the second line on the boot menu.
2) Click Applications > Accessories > Terminal
3) Type: Sudo -H -s (This command gives you power to modify the xorg.conf file later.)
4) Type: gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf (Make sure that the "X" in "X11" is capital X, and the "11" is number "eleven" not lowercase "LL".)
5) Add the following two lines into the "Device" section of your xorg.conf.
Option "BusType" "PCI" Option "DmaMode" "None"
6) Save the file. Done! Your Thinkpad won't freeze anymore when booting into X Windows.
I like Ubuntu 6.06 Desktop a lot mainly because of its auto-update feature. The Ubuntu update feature is similar to that of Windows XP. It keeps the OS fresh with the latest drivers, patches, packages, etc. Moreover, you can search any programs you want to install by using Synaptic Package Manager, and Synaptic will find all the related packages and their prerequisites and install them for you. No more package-dependency headaches.
