Installing Ubuntu Breezy on a ThinkPad A31p

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This page provides details about installing Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy) on a ThinkPad A31p (Type 2653).

Basic Installation

I found the installation process extremely easy. I booted from the Ubuntu Install CD and within a few moments, having selected language settings etc., was happily watching the machine install the various packages. There weren't any tricky bits - it really was rather painless. During the installation both my wireless (802.11b) and wired networking interfaces were detected, and I opted to set the wired networking interface as the primary one and it successfully grabbed an IP from my DHCP server.

First Logon

After the main bit of the install is complete I was presented with the Ubuntu login screen, and after logging in was presented with the usual Linux desktop. The install had successfully established that the screen resolution should be 1600x1200 and with the wired networking interface working, it immediately presented me with information on "new updates available". Choosing to download the updates meant a short wait of 2 minutes while it queued the files for download, and then it proceeded to download at full speed.

Downloading Updates (and Installing Printers)

While the machine downloaded the updates, I took the time to install my Samsung ML-1510 printer (connected to a Windows XP machine on the network). Printing a test page was painless and the 'basic' web browsing and e-mail clients worked right away too.

Device Manager

After rebooting following the updates, I looked in the Device Manager (under System -> Administration) and found the following devices appeared to have installed without any problem:

ATI Radeon RV200 LX [Mobility FireGL] Presumably this is as it should be - my A31p came with ATI Mobility FireGL so it sounds about right.

Prism 2.5 Wavelan Chipset Presumably this is the IBM High Rate Wireless LAN card

82801CAM (ICH3) PRO/100 VE Presumably this is the Intel PRO VE 100 ethernet card

82801CA/CAM USB Presumably this will be the USB hub

82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio Controller Presumably this is the sound device that comes with my Thinkpad, and certainly Ubuntu has greeted me with the usual sort of computer music

82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem Controller Presumably this is the modem that comes with my Thinkpad.

82801CAM IDE U100 Presumably this is the IDE adapter for my hard drive and DVD/CD-RW.

UJDA720 DVD/CDRW Presumably this is the optical drive in my machine

82801 PCI Bridge Presumably the PCMCIA card ports and IEEE1394 Firewire interface

The device manager also listed a number of other devices as being installed: - Standard LPT Printer Port - 82801CAM ISA Bridge - 16550A-compatible COM port - and the usual assortment of "System Board", "Clocks" and "Math Coprocessors".

The only 'issues' were the rather generically named: - PnP Device (IBM0068) - PnP Device (IBM0071) - PnP Device (IBM3780)

Bluetooth Installation

I had presumed that the generic PnP devices were for my built-in Bluetooth device. At this point I switched on the Bluetooth using the button beneath the screen, next to the battery indicator and sleep indicator LEDs. However, after switching it on the Device Manager added to the list of devices "IBM Integrated Bluetooth" and continued to display the PnP devices... On the bright side the Bluetooth seemed to install painlessly!

Testing the Wireless Network (128-Bit WEP)

With the 802.11b wireless card having been detected I proceeded to check that it in fact worked. I went to System -> Administration -> Networking and selected the "Wireless Connection" and activated it, entering the properties (SSID, key, etc.) to get the wireless up and running. I was pleased to see it work perfectly. I then added another Network Monitor to the panel to show the Wireless networking status. Jolly good stuff!

External Sources

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