Installing Ubuntu 7.10 on IBM Thinkpad A21m
Last updated:12/11/2007
General Hardware Specifications of A21m:
| Hardware Components | Status under Linux | Notes |
| Pentium III (Coppermine) Processor | Works | No special procedure required during installation. |
| Display: 15" 1024x768 TFT - active matrix | Works | No special procedure required during installation. |
| 512MB, SDRAM, 2DIMMs | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
| 20 GB Hard Drive | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
| Integrated Floppy Drive | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
| Integrated Network Card | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
| Internal 56k Modem | Detected, not tested | Not tested |
| 16X Max Variable CD-ROM Drive | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
| Linksys Wireless-G WPC54GX Adapter | Doesn't Work | Hangs up the wire connection |
| Lithium-Ion Battery | Works | No special procedure required during installation, does not estimate remaining power time. |
| Sound Card | Works | No special procedure required using Kernel 2.6.22-14 Generic |
This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.22-14 Generic
- Obtaining Ubuntu 7.10: www.ubuntu.com
- Installing: Just pop the CD, change the BIOS boot order if necessary and run. I did a clean install wiping off the old Windows 2000 (R), but have done dual boot in the past and is fairly easy. Just select "resize current partition" and that will take care of it (at least it did it fine with W Vista on a new HP machine)
- Post-Install modifications/tweaks: ssh-server added to basic install.
- Conflicting wireless card (linksys WPC54GX ver.2) is detected by the Device Manager, but not found on the network panel or displayed by ifconfig. This also is apparently screwing up the wired network connection.
- Battery meter doesn't function correctly. Indicates charge but fails to provide available battery time
- Skype has issues with microphone input, though microphone is fully recognized and functional
- No configuration files changed so far
VERY IMPORTANT !!
This is my second Ubuntu 7.10 install. The first one went flawlessly... but the A21m install had a little problem, not related to the machine itself, but to the installation process:
On my first install attempt with the live CD, the network cable was unplugged, which resulted on a warning message telling me that not all packages were downloaded nor installed. It seemed to be working alright, at least on the GUI part, but apt-get install was not downloading packages or telling me they were not available. The network connection was very flaky, and the update manager reported no updates while I was aware that a clean install from that CD would require at least 100 updates... so the final solution was to reinstall the OS, but with an active internet connection and it worked just fine.
