Installing Ubuntu 6.06 Flight 5 on a ThinkPad T60

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Installation of Ubuntu 6.04 Flight 5 on a T60 (2623D6U).

The Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) installer did not recognize the network card (Intel 82573L), so I decided to try 6.04 (an alpha version of Dapper Drake).

Summary

What works out of the box

  • Ethernet
  • Sound

What needs to be fixed post-install

Installing of Ubuntu 6.04 alpha Flight 5

  • First, you should look at Installation of Ubuntu 5.04 on a ThinkPad Template:T43 (1875). There is information on preserving the functionality of the ThinkVantage button, which I did not follow.
  • You should probably create the IBM Rescue CDs before you begin. I expected the rescue partition to be able to restore my system to the factory default state if I messed up, but I was wrong.
  • Downloaded CD ISO of Ubuntu's Dapper flight 5 (http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/flight5).
  • I used the installer's partitioner. I eliminated the Windows partition, left the IBM recovery partition alone, and created four partitions for the Linux system: / (8GB), /usr (8GB), swap (2.5GB), and /home (56.4 GB).
  • I let the installer install GRUB in the MBR. I kind of regret doing that because now the ThinkVantage button does not work properly. See the T43 instructions on the alternative methods.
  • The installer recognized the network card (unlike Ubuntu 5.10).
  • The blue "ThinkVantage" button now goes to GRUB instead of IBM's Rescue System. You can get to the IBM partition from the GRUB menu by choosing the "Windows NT" partition.

Fixes after installation

  • X wouldn't start. There is no support for the ATI x1300. I changed the Device driver in xorg.conf from "ati" to "vesa" and made the maximum resolution 1024x768 with a color depth of 24, which at least works.
  • I installed the linux-686-smp package to support the dual core processor. I verified that it worked by looking at /proc/cpuinfo. I then decided to compile the 2.6.16 kernel using the "Pentium M" processor type with 2 processors ([1]). This worked when I used the "--initrd" flag with make-kpkg.