Installing Ubuntu 6.06 on a ThinkPad 600E

Introduction

Well, trying to get Ubuntu or some derivate on your good old 600E? If you have a TP 600, these directions may not work, so please try [1] and search the forums for it. For Ubuntu 5.10 try [2].

Before installing: Hibernation Partition

Suspend and hibernate may not work. Anyway, you will need a hibernation partition (FAT16) with a hibernation file on it... see [3] for more infos. Even though this page is quite old you create the hibernation partition like you did back then. Now get the floppy images from there and prepare your floppies. Note: Always substitute c: or C with your hibernation partition drive letter.

• Boot your computer using the DOS 6.22 floppy.
• First create the primary DOS partition using DOS-fdisk (Linux-fdisk doesn't seem to work". It has to be slightly (5-10MB) bigger than your RAM. Then do type the following commands

format c: /s 
c:

• Now insert the floppy containing the Thinkpad 600E tools.

copy a:\tp600e c: 
ps2 HFILE C 

• While PS2 is running re-insert the DOS floppy.
• When PS2 has finished running, turn your PC off and restart the computer (without floppy).

Now install your system. Hibernation should now work.

What you may have to or want to do (optional)

• You maybe want to do all this using ssh. (If you don't know what ssh is then you don't need it.) You'll need to install the ssh-server:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server ssh 

  

• Maybe you'll need to disable IPv6 if your network is much too slow (and subsequently doesn't support it:

Edit /etc/modprobe.d/aliases. Change

alias net-pf-10 ipv6  

to

alias net-pf-10 off 

BIOS

Well, to get sound (and some other things) to work your first step will be to reinitialize the BIOS:

• Disable Quickboot in the BIOS (Press F1 to enter BIOS setup on boot)
• You may also have to select initialise (still in the BIOS). I stongly recommend you to do it for maybe sound won't work otherwise.

Speed up Ubuntu

There are several things you can do to achieve this:

• Select 16bit colours instead of 24bit:

In /etc/X11/xorg.conf, change

DefaultDepth 24 

to

DefaultDepth 16 

• Now, to install a i686 kernel

Select the other installation repositories in Synaptic Fire up a terminal and:

sudo apt-get install linux-686 linux-restricted-modules-686 

Get PCMCIA to work

This is done in the GRUB config file because these are parameters the kernel needs on boot.

• Add the following to your kernel options in /boot/grub/menu.lst:

acpi=force pci=noacpi 

• It seems that to get wlan (wireless) cards to see the router you need to totally disable acpi:

acpi=off pci=noacpi 

• For 1024x768px on statup, add: (I know, this isn't PCMCIA, but it's done in GRUB config)

vga=0x317 

Sound

• Add these lines to /etc/modules:

sound 
ad1848 
uart401 
snd-cs4236 

• Blacklist the incorrect sound card in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist. Add these lines as written below - with the xx's:

blacklist snd-cs46xx 
blacklist cs46xx 

• Add the following lines into /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base:

alias char-major-116 snd 
alias char-major-14 soundcore 
alias snd-card-0 snd-cs4236 
options snd-cs4236 isapnp=0 cport=0x538 port=0x530 sb_port=0x220 fm_port=0x388 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=0 
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0 
alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1 

alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss 
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss 
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss 
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss 
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss 

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss 
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss 
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss 

options snd cards_limit=1 

NOTE: When copying and pasting the above, make sure that the line starting with 'options...' is one line ending with '...dma2=0'. Reboot and enjoy Note: This didn't work on one 600e, I had to reinitialise my BIOS... So if it doesn't work reinitialise your BIOS, it should work afterwards. Otherwise check whether your sound card works at all (using Win9x).

Mwave Modem

I don't know whether there is a deb-package. So you have two possibilities here. 1) Either use an existing package: Download here (for example): Install it:

sudo dpkg -i mwavem* 

Continue with 3 (configuring the modem) 2) Or build it yourself. Here are the instructions:

• Get the mwavem source from [4]
• Install gcc and make:

sudo apt-get install binutils cpp cpp-4.0 gcc gcc-4.0 make gobjc setserial 

• Untar the source, open a terminal and cd to the directory where it is.
• Compile it using:

./configure 
make 

• You can now either build a deb package:

Install checkinstall: Download the deb package from [5] To install the package, cd to the directory where it's stored and

sudo dpkg -i checkinstall* 

Now build the source:

sudo checkinstall -D make install 
  

• Or install it without building a package:

sudo make install 

3) Configuring the modem:

• Loading the module is a bit tricky. Add these lines to /etc/modprobe.d/options:

#mwave modem module options 
options mwave mwave_3780i_irq=10 mwave_3780i_io=0x0130 mwave_uart_irq=3 mwave_uart_io=0x2f8 

NOTE: When copying and pasting the above, make sure that the line starting with 'options...' is one line ending with '...mwave_uart_io=0x2f8'. Add these lines to /etc/pcmcia/config.opts:

#PCMCIA IRQ conflicts with the modem without this 
exclude irq 3 
exclude irq 10 

Add the following line to /etc/modules:

mwave 

Now edit /usr/local/etc/mwavem.conf. Change

DEVICE=/dev/modems/mwave   

to

DEVICE=/dev/mwave   

Also adapt it to your country. For example for Switzerland:

COUNTRY=29 

You'll now need to reboot to get the modem driver loaded correctly. Modprobe doesn't work here.

• Configure the serial port and start the mwavem device software:

sudo mwavem 
sudo setserial /dev/ttyS1 autoconfig 

NOTE: You have to start mwavem BEFORE your execute the setserial command. Otherwise, it won't work.

• Now let's see if the modem can be configured:

wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf 

Go to System > Administration > Networking Open the properties dialog of the modem connection Select /dev/mwave as the modem port Install a dial-up software:

sudo apt-get install kppp 

Now start kppp, choose configure, then modem and select /dev/ttyS1 as the modem port. Configure all you need (like the provider), save your settings and close the configuration dialog. You are now able to browse the web through your built-in Mwave ACP Modem. Congratulations! The configuration part of this Modem howto was taken from the gentoo forum: [6] and slightly adapted to Ubuntu 6.06. Have fun...

Links

The Ubuntu Laptop Testing Team has a page on the 600E: [7] There also is a script for enabling sound on the 600E. I haven't tested it yet but I can tell from the code that it looks excellent: [8] Source of the above (it's from me, actually): [9] And, of course, don't forget to look at Tuxmobil and Linux-on-Laptops. Also, read the Thinkwiki pages on the 600E: [10]

External Sources

• Ubuntu 6.06 on the Thinkpad 600E