Installing Ubuntu 6.10 on a ThinkPad X40

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This document describes the process of installing and configuring the release version of Ubuntu Edgy Eft on a Lenovo ThinkPad X40.

Success Chart

Item Working
Installation Network Installation Unknown
USB Installation Yes (CD)
Display Laptop Screen Yes
CRT / Projector Yes
Power Management Software Suspend (hibernate) Yes
Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) Yes
Audio Yes
Wireless 802.11b/g Yes
Bluetooth Unknown
Harddisk Active Protection Unknown
Extra Buttons FnF4 Yes
FnF5 Only toggles Bluetooth Power
FnF12 Yes


ATTENTION!
This is a page in progress. I used this page as a template, so any section that looks the same means I haven't updated it yet. The chart above is accurate.

Pre-Installation Notes

Wireless Support

Wireless seems to be supported flawlessly in terms of drivers, though I'm not sure how well the built-in Network Manager works. I use the iwconfig command to manage my wireless, as I have a need to create pseudo-"profiles", and in this document I will describe this alternative process.


Terminology Used

For those of you new to Linux, I'll try to detail a few terms I use with little explanation:

  • Xorg configuration -- the display configuration file, residing in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  • Execute a command -- press Alt-F2, then type gnome-terminal into the prompt and press enter -- this is a terminal into which you input said commands

Installation Notes

Post-Installation Notes

Configuring Wireless

Renaming Wireless Interface

By default, the internal Intel 2200BG wireless card was named eth0. Aside from being annoying it also causes the Network Monitor to mistake the wireless card for a standard ethernet card. To rename it to wlan0 edit the file /etc/iftab: Change

eth0 mac <mac address> arp 1
eth1 mac <mac address> arp 1

to

eth0 mac <mac address> arp 1
wlan0 mac <mac address> arp 1
NOTE!
Follow the below instructions, only if your network cards get renamed to something else when you resume from standy or hibernation. This did not happen with me with 6.06, but does with 6.10.

To prevent your networks from being renamed when you resume from standy or hibernation, modify the resume scrips to pause for a few seconds before reloading the kernel modules. To do this modify /etc/acpi/resume.d/35-modules-load.sh: Add the line

sleep 3

right before

# Load any drivers that we removed
for x in $MODULES; do
    modprobe $x;
done


Using WPA

The packages necessary to use WPA are installed by default, but no GUI configuration program. There are a few options available, refer to this page: instructions. I suggest using the NetworkManager.