Linux on Laptops |
![]() |
Home | New | Models | Components | Discussion | Submit |
Last updated: 1st June 2006
General Hardware Specifications of IBM Thinkpad T30 Type 2366-83G:
Hardware Components
|
Status under Linux
|
Notes
|
Mobile Pentium IV Processor, 1.8 GHz | Works | No special procedure required during installation. |
14.1 SXGA+ TFT Display | Works | Select Generic LCD Display in Installer |
ATI Video ( Radeon M 7500 ) | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
256MB, SDRAM, 2DIMMs | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
40 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
Speedtouch 330 USB Modem (Rev 4.0) | Works | requires Firmware. See Below |
Integrated Network Card | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
Internal 56k Modem | Detected | Not Tested |
NEC 6650A DVD-RW Drive | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
BT1060 Wireless PCMCIA Card | Doesn't Work | Given up |
TV-Out | Not Detected | Not Tested |
AC '97 Audio Controller/Sound Card | Works | No special procedure required during installation |
This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.15-1.2054_FC5
Installing
Downloaded and burned the 2.6.15-1 i386 FC5 ISO image onto a DVD-R, using
DeepBurner. My Thinkpad had a Windows XP Pro installation and I wanted to keep
that to dual boot. Initially I had some problems getting the FC5 DVD to boot,
and then later discovered that the NEC 6650A DVD-RW drive was at fault (More on
this later). As a temporary measure, I borrowed a friends compatible DVD-ROM and
that was able to boot from the FC5 DVD that I burned.
I used Partition Magic under Windows XP to resize my partitions to the following
: 1. 18 GB Primary Windows NTFS partition 2. 9.2 GB Primary ext3 Linux Partition
3. 0.5 GB Linux SWAP partition 4. 10 GB Extended FAT32 Windows Partition
Installation was fairly straight forward thanks to Stanton Finley's excellent
Fedora 5 Installation notes :
http://www.stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_5_installation_notes.html
Post-Install modifications/tweaks
Display/Monitor
Worked fine in 800x600 resolution. I had to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf
adding the following entires to get it to display 1024x768 :
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "LCD Panel 1024x768"
HorizSync 31.5 - 48.5
VertRefresh 40.0 - 70.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection
I haven't tried setting any higher VertRefresh rates greater that 70.0, but I am going to try taking this up to 80.0 to support higher resolutions.
Sound
Sound card detected. Tested and no problems found.
Network
The internal intel ethernet controller worked right away, but I still haven't
been successfull in configuring the BT 1060 PCMCIA Wireless Card. This card is
not detected when plugged in and none of the lights on it lit up as it does in
Windows. eth0 is configured to initialise at startup, if you don't have a
network cable plugged in. If you're dialing up to a ADSL broadband service, you
need to configure a ppp0 interface, and this can be done as explained in the
Speedtouch 330 USB ADSL Modem section below.
Power Management
ACPI works without any modifications.
Internal 56K Data/Fax Modem
Detected properly but I haven't tested this as I don't use it.
NEC 6650A DVD-R/W Drive
Works fine. Downloaded Xine and successfully tested DVD playing. Then downloaded
GnomeBaker and tested that burning DVDs works fine too. Hotswapping the DVD
drive in the Thinkpad Ultrabay causes a system freeze however, and I haven't
found any remedies for this problem yet..
Thinkpad Buttons
Volume/Brightness seemed to work without any configurations changes however the
on-screen display did not function. To get this working I downloaded and
installed tpb, the ThinkPad button support utility which is
available with the Fedora Extras package. The on-screen display for the Thinkpad
buttons works flawlessly with tpb.
Speedtouch 330 USB ADSL Modem
I have a ADSL connection from Virgin Broadband, and this USB modem came along
with the subscription. There is a lot of information about this modem on the
internet, and its problems in Linux are well known. Finally, what got my modem
working was the advice given for PPP over ATM at :
http://www.linux-usb.org/SpeedTouch/fedora/index.html
Follow this advice and you should be connected to the internet in no time.
You'll need to download the requisite files from an online system prior to
installing this modem. If you live in the United Kingdom, the VP.VC values
should be 0.38. At the command prompt, an /sbin/ifconfig should show how that
the the ppp0 was configured.
Accessing Windows Partitions
FAT32 partitions are seen in Linux by default, and you will just need to mount
them. Its recommended to have a small FAT32 partition to share files between
your Windows and Linux systems, if you intend to dual boot. To access NTFS
partitions, you will have to install kmod-ntfs. Another option is
to recompile the kernel. But both options will only give you read access to the
NTFS partitions, you cannot write to them.
/etc/X11/> /sbin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge
(rev 04)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge
(rev 04)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #2) (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM USB (Hub #3) (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 42)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801CAM ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801CAM IDE U100 (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM SMBus Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Audio
Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801CA/CAM AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon
Mobility 7500]
02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1520 PC card Cardbus Controller
(rev 01)
02:00.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1520 PC card Cardbus Controller
(rev 01)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801CAM (ICH3) PRO/100 VE (LOM)Ethernet
Controller (rev 42)
Overall Fedora Core 5 installed very cleanly on the Thinkpad T30. I was pleasantly surprised at how far Linux distros have come in terms of user-friendliness during/after install since the days when you needed a miracle to get you're X-Windows up, or have 10 years of Unix system administration experience up your sleeve!
Please do contact me if you need any help in installation of Fedora Core 5 on your Thinkpad, or you have something to add to these notes.
Sanjib Mitra
Email : sanjibm2006 (at) googlemail.com