Thinkpads Forum

Dear all,

Anyone know of any remaster of a known distro that just works (wireless and everything) on a entry model Thinkpad T41 Centrino laptop (like 2373-1FU)? I am thinking of a downloadable .ISO file that can be burned into a CD which, upon booting, will give me a few install options and one of them will just work, wireless, X and everything so that I can have a working linux machine where emacs, gimp, openoffice, gcc etc can be readily used and wireless net browsing or email correspondene is just as easy as in WinXP now. I have had experience of installing several older versions of Knoppix (and I have installed the Debian full CD set into two desktops) working on several desktops during the last one year. And I do know how to walk through the filesystem. But the easier, the better.

Or do you know of an organization that will sell a CD set that can do the above affordably?

Regards

Shoaib

Dear all,

Have anyone ever prepared a set of Linux recovery CD for the popular ThinkPad T4x series? Just as the 4 CDs in T41 or the 8 CDs in T42 will restore the laptop back in Windows factory settings, similarly I am looking for a few CDs or DVDs that will cause the T4x to a kind of usable factory setting with hybernation, WiFi, CPU step down all working.

I know of different LiveCD distros, but here I am consdering formatting a machine to linux environment for say January to March of a given year. But formatting to Windows environment in April to June of that same year. And so on.

Please inform whether it's an undoable thing or not.

Regards

Shoaib

You may want to try :
http://www.yoper.com/

NB: I havent tried this yet: I have to wait until next month before I can download cos I am on ADSL and my download limit is restricted.........

I'm not sure if I completely understand your question, but I know that the latest Knoppix works with my T-41 centrino wireless. If you set up your networking and whatever prior to installing it to your hard drive all your settings should be carried over during the installation. You can also remaster a CD to include all your settings and requirements, but this can be an involved process.

level wrote:I'm not sure if I completely understand your question, but I know that the latest Knoppix works with my T-41 centrino wireless. If you set up your networking and whatever prior to installing it to your hard drive all your settings should be carried over during the installation. You can also remaster a CD to include all your settings and requirements, but this can be an involved process.

Thanks for the reply. The latest knoppix liveCD that I tried on a T41 is the V.3.6-2004-08-16. I did not install into the HDD. Could you please specify what did you mean by "the latest Knoppix works with my T-41 centrino wireless" Means you can surf the net? No need of MadWifi or ndiswrapper?

To make my requirement a bit clearer, I was looking for a CD set that will convert a bare metal Hard disk (or a FAT formatted partition, say half of the the entire T4x HDD) to an workspace that have a working web browser (say Firefox) using wireless, GIMP, LaTeX, Ghostview, some plotting software, some C programming environment, Open office or Star office, some CD Writing software, some DVD playing software, etc as is common fare with a 4 CD (or 8 CD) set of Windows XP for a T41 (T42). Is there any such remaster already done? I do not want to reinvent the wheel, if possible.

Regards

Shoaib

It's been a while since I used Knoppix on my T-41, but I'm fairly sure it detected the centrino card automatically. Knoppix uses the ipw2100 drivers. If it doesn't detect your card try the following command: cardctl insert The drivers should appear under your lsmod listing. I'm not sure if all your required software is on Knoppix, but once you have it installed you can aptget what you need if it's available as a deb package, otherwise use a source package. Hope this helps.