Thinkpads Forum

I have installed Linux (Fedora Core 6 distro) onto my i1200 (1161-43A). With the max-out 320Mb ram and a new HD 40Gb, Linux runs smoothly. Using a PCMCIA Ethernet Card, I can connect to home network and surf the web out of the box, without any tweaking of the Linux kernel.

However, I hit one snag i.e. no usb. I need to disable usb in order to run the Fedora Core 6 installer. After installation, I again need to disable usb at boot time before FC6 can start. Effectively, no usb port attachment can be used, e.g. no floppy disk drive (that came with the i1200), no thumb drive, no digicam, no SD/CF card readers, etc. This is a major handicap.

Is there any forum member able to run Linux on their i1200 (or i1300) with full usb functionality? Please help!

I'm interested in this as well, since I'm considering putting Linux on a 380XD that I just acquired. I think though, that you might have better luck in getting an answer if you ask an admin to move this thread to the Linux Conference.

well, I run debian 3.1 w/ 2.6.12.5 kernel on several thinkpads, and USB has always been easy & reliable.
Now I'm using a USB wifi dongle; soon it'll be a remote 40GB hd for some backup; later maybe the camera.
Specifically, tp's 600e, t22 & x20: 2 modules require loading "usbcore," and "uhci_hcd"

It could be a Fedora or kernel issue that you might want to take up on their forums. I use Puppy Linux on an older 310ED Thinkpad with a PCMCIA USB card and have full USB use and support. I had similar luck with other Linux distros that have proper USB support enabled in the kernel. Conversely, some distros I tried did not work due to the kernel not being properly configured for USB.