Thinkpads Forum

I'm new to the forum and so I'm not quite sure whether Lenovo laptops strictly qualify, but I'll give it a shot.

I'm thinking of purchasing a Lenovo 3000 C100 to replace an ancient Dell Inspiron 5000e that just died. I'm planning to install Ubuntu on it.

General question: How well do Lenovo boxes play with Linux?

Specific question: Is the standard wireless card offered with this model (Lenovo 11a/b/g Wi-Fi Wireless II) compatible with Linux?

Thanks.

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums, Lagger

All of the Thinkpads I have dealt with were very friendly to Linux, even my T43 which has the SATA-PATA bridge plays nicer with Linux than my Dell M60 laptop. I haven't tried the 3000 series of Lenovo notebooks, but if they use standard parts, they should work just fine. There is nothing with the 3000 Series that raises a red flag to me in the context of linux compatibility.

What is the make of the card in it? Intel or Atheros?

Both should work just fine.

HTH

Thanks for your feedback.

I don't know who makes the wireless card in question. It's only listed in the Lenovo specs as a "Lenovo 11a/b/g Wi-Fi Wireless II." I've googled for more info, but the only alternative I find is "ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi Wireless II."

The Lenovo A/B/G card is Braodcom based so you're stuck with ndiswrapper for that one. There is an alternative card, the Intel Pro 2915 A/B/G which is Atheros based.


The C100 has a locked down BIOS like many of the thinkpads and will not power up if it detects an unauthorised mini pci card.

Working on taking the BIOS apart at the moment to see if I can add cards to the list.

if you use ubuntu dapper, it has builtin broadcom support =) it was sweet for the time being, but i moved on. i used xp for everyday use. it does word, gaim, outlook 2003, and internet. and now, dvd burning.

I have xubuntu (next to winxp) installed on my TP R60. Everything seems to work out of the box (even wireless, which I was a bit afraid of)...
Probably will work just fine an a lenovo 3000.