Install Ubuntu 9.10 on a ThinkPad T500

Ubuntu 9.10 works great on my T500, with suspend, hibernate, sound, wifi, out of the box. I'm amazed.

I dream about a T series Thinkpad since years, but they are very expensive in France.

I found a T500 2055-45U on ebay. I like to buy in Ebay, because €/$ is at my advantage this century. It's a like new item, just 1 month old in the len,ovo worldwide waranty checker. Seller can send it to France, great.

It's a 15.4' WSXGA+ panel. Here are some hardware scans.

  
lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:03.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset MEI Controller (rev 07)
00:03.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset AMT SOL Redirection (rev 07)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3650
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN [Shiloh] Network Connection
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
15:00.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 21)
15:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev ff)
15:00.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 11)
15:00.5 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 11)

 
lsusb

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 006: ID 0a5c:2145 Broadcom Corp. 
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 08ff:2810 AuthenTec, Inc. 
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 23
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T9400  @ 2.53GHz
stepping	: 10
cpu MHz		: 800.000
cache size	: 6144 KB

I found an el cheapo 2nd hard drive caddy adapter, always in ebay, to insert a 2nd disk. Search about "2nd hard HDD Caddy Adapter For Thinkpad T500" I found mine for 15$ free shipping.

My second disk was a plain old working ubuntu edgy 8.04 install I made in my Lenovo 3000 N100 I reported here several years ago.

After booting the linux partition with F12 at boot time, linux start in console mode. Of course, xorg support is obsolete for this new hardware. Good surprise, Ethernet seems working. I plus a cable, a bit of dhcp magic later, I can send the usual update/upgrade sentences.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Now I have an updated version of edgy, I can test a bit of new magic (for me), "do-upgrade-release"

do-upgrade-release

After a little time of reflexion (computing 98% CPU), it ask me permission to download 1Go of updates. I have the great pleasure to enjoy an optical fiber access. It downloads at 4300ko/s. I'm still amazed with this access, 1 year later.

I reboot to enjoy the new kernel 2.6.28 It spawns gdm in compatibility mode, as this model enjoy a switchable graphics. It can be superseded in the bios.

I start in graphic mode, just time to see working: sound, wifi (home AP preference is still saved, it connects out of the box), Ethernet, suspend and hibernate. Blutooth works out of the box. I connect my logitech blutooth mouse in 2 seconds. Trackpoint and mouse paddle works too.