Installing Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on a ThinkPad T61

NOTE: I copied the 8.04 document and created this one with the information. Please help to update it so it accurately reflects 8.10.

Items that work out of the box

Intel Video: 2D and 3D acceleration works

Nvidia Video: 2D and 3D acceleration works

Wireless: Intel cards tested. Atheros cards also works.

Wireless WAN: Cingular/AT&T card tested.

Network Card Intel 10/100/1000 tested

Wireless switch Tested (Only has an effect over the bluetooth, wifi is unaffected)

Webcam Tested with cheese and skype.

Headphones Works out of the box

Microphone Just needs to be activated, see section below

Keyboard Shortcuts: Most of them work out of the box, some need to be activated, see section below

Items that need (some) tweaking to obtain full functionality

Open Source Intel Wifi Driver

The following information is important if you are upgrading from a previous version (2007 or earlier) of Ubuntu to 8.10.

Intel has created a new Linux Wifi driver project for Intel Wireless cards, "Iwlwifi". This driver is Open Source and no longer requires the Intel daemon to run in addition. This project will support the T61's Wifi Intel 3945ABG network adapter and Intel 4965AGN network adapter.

An automatic migration will occur when upgrading from Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 8.04. However, there is a caveat to be aware of:

• The new driver wants to name the interface wlan0 (by default -- you can rename it to anything you want), and requires a different entry in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules, which handles the naming of interfaces. Simply edit this file and delete your old entry for the ipw3945 driver, then unload/reload the new driver, or simply reboot. A new entry will automatically be created that is appropriate for the new driver. Here's an example of the lines to delete:

# PCI device 0x8086:0x4227 (ipw3945)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:1b:77:a4:0e:2f", NAME="eth1"

If you need to perform a manual migration, the Ubuntu Help Community has written some documentation that will make this very easy to do.

Network connection after suspend/resume

Networking may not work after a suspend or resume operation, this is because of the ath_pci driver and can be worked around by creating the file /etc/pm/config.d/madwifi and adding the single line

SUSPEND_MODULES=ath_pci

which causes the driver to be unloaded on suspend and reloaded on resume.