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Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 9:27 am
by PhoenixR
I tried installing the latest versions of Ubuntu, Kubuntu & Mint (downloaded from the official websites) on a couple of T400 from a scratch and surprisingly it was not successful as Ubuntu installation aborted, Kubuntu & Mint installed but worked with some errors or failed to start after the USB disk removal. However Debian & Manjaro installed flawlessly at the same time and on the same machines. So I was thinking what could be the problem and if anybody encountered a similar thing?
Re: Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 10:14 am
by TPFanatic
Could be faulty hardware, how healthy is your storage drive and memory?
Re: Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 11:24 am
by PhoenixR
The hardware looks fine - I tested and even swapped both the memory and the drives too. My first guess was a hardware fault as well but it's quite easy to recognize a faulty HDD by that unmistakenly scratching sound of course. Nothing of the like. Tried installing on 160 Gb Hitachi HDD, 320 Gb WD, 500 SSD. The drives look fine. The memory modules look fine too as I tried the installation on 3 different T400 in fact with some minimal config differences. Besides, if it was a hardware fault I doubt Debian & Manjaro could have been installed & run but they have. The ones that do not install are strangely Ubuntu-based distros mostly like Ubuntu, Kubuntu & Mint. Ah, and the Elementary does not install neither by the way. I could retest all the drives and the memory once again just in case but I'm pretty 99.9% sure that it wasn't about the drive or memory fault.
Re: Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Mon May 20, 2024 1:10 pm
by TPFanatic
I’m in agreement it’s unlikely a hardware fault. With t400 being old-tech I would guess it’s something lacking in t400’s chipset. Maybe an older or lts version of ubuntu will work? Mint xfce worked well on an x200 i have which is the same generation as t400.
Re: Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Tue May 21, 2024 12:53 am
by dr_st
If there is some hardware incompatibility with one of the drivers in the distribution or a particular configuration, there may be some useful information in the system log.
Re: Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Thu May 23, 2024 2:43 am
by PhoenixR
Right thanks guys for the suggestions I think I have found a clue; I am going to share after it confirms.
Re: Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2025 12:50 pm
by Splank
where you ever able to resolve this OP?
Re: Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2025 11:42 am
by blegas78
I recently had no issues installing Linux Mint XFCE on my T400. I’m unsure if internal hardware can differ but I’d be happy to check my configuration if needed.
Re: Ubuntu & Mint installation failure on T400
Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2025 9:55 am
by micrex22
blegas78 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 21, 2025 11:42 am
I recently had no issues installing Linux Mint XFCE on my T400. I’m unsure if internal hardware can differ but I’d be happy to check my configuration if needed.
The issue was likely something else, a T400 is not exotic hardware and will run on any distribution, unless it's one known to be problematic sometimes (re: Ubuntu)
Splank wrote: ↑Fri Sep 12, 2025 12:50 pm
where you ever able to resolve this OP?
Recent versions of Ubuntu have some sort of issue and will produce 'unknown error' upon installation.