Installing Debian 3.1 (Sarge) on a ThinkPad T43

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Revision as of 20:01, 22 April 2005 by Rca (Talk | contribs)
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This is how I slapped Debian/Sarge onto my shiny new T43, which seems quite a nice machine all in all. It's a very new type, being based on the Sonoma platform with PCI Express, SATA and other happy things. Does Intel marketing really call Sonoma a "platform"? Oh well.


Repartitioning/Resizing the Windows Partition

This is only necessary if you want to keep your Windows installation for dual booting. I kept mine just so I could update the BIOS more easily in case it becomes necessary.

I was able to boot Knoppix 3.7, but only with the 2.4 kernel. Then resizing the existing 70-odd GB NTFS partition presented no problems at all, but it was rather slow (no DMA mode) due to the ICH6 IDE/SATA controller not being recognized properly. Use ntfsresize, or if you don't trust your knowledge of this powerful tool, try QtParted. Both are available in Knoppix' K menu. Don't be worried if nothing happens while you resize your partition, it took more than an hour on mine.

To repeat myself: You cannot boot Knoppix (at least up to 3.7) using the 2.6 kernel. Use 2.4.


... To be continued ...