how to install linux on T42 ?

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samba · #1 Post by **samba** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 3:53 pm

I have received the T42. It has Windows XP on it. I also like to partition the disk and install linux on it.
1) which Linux goes easy with T42 ? Redhat or SUSE ? I mean interms of drivers , setup etc?
2) Is there a way to do this with out uninstalling windows ?

Thanks

akerman · #2 Post by **akerman** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:13 pm

don't know much about linux (yet).. but I have a friend who is running Gentoo on his notebook..

you have two options:

1) kill the recovery partition, format it, and use it as a linux partition
2) resize the windows partition (for isntance with partition magic) and use remaining space for linux

with either option you'll have to install a boot-manager, so you can swith OS'es at boot!

#3 Post by **carbon_unit** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 5:43 pm

Most linux distro's include a partitioning tool but not many handle NTFS well.
You should be able to leave the restore partition intact and resize the windows partition to install linux.
Linux will usually ask if you want to install a bootloader so you can dual boot.
See my post here for my recommendation.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
It is supposed to resize NTFS properly and is very easy to install.

Chun-Yu · #4 Post by **Chun-Yu** » Thu Jun 10, 2004 7:02 pm

I have Gentoo on my T41, and I have it set up so I can even boot it from VMWare in Windows as well as boot it normally. IMHO, it is really too much trouble to set Linux up on a T41 and have everything working. Power management doesn't work perfectly (neither APM or ACPI - various devices will be broken after resuming from suspend), and most importantly, I can't seem to get a VPN connection working, even though I have in the past in Fedora. Quite honestly, Gentoo runs better on my xbox than on my ThinkPad :-\ That's part of the reason I usually just start it in VMWare instead of normally (actually, I just tried it for kicks one day to see if it would work, and now I use it a lot, heh).

Mofongo · #5 Post by **Mofongo** » Fri Jun 11, 2004 3:01 pm

First off, go to http://tuxmobil.org/ibm.html and look at the pages there.

I just put Redhat Fedora Core 2 (FC2) on my T42 and did so with almost no problem (but not quite). The problem I encountered was that FC2 does not come with cpufreq enabled. cpufreq permits speedstep support. This *was* availible in FC1, so I had assumed that FC2 had it, but no dice. Otherwise, you basically have everything you need in FC2 and it installs just fine "out of the box".

My steps were:

1) Create recovery CDs (7 of them) using the Access IBM menus.

2) Resize partitions on the drive using PartitionMagic 7.0. This is a handy utility that lets you move and resize partitions without deleting anything on them. They already have it where I work, but if you purchase it, it's money well spent. I also deleted the IBM_SERVICE partition. Note that a restore from recovery CD's will wipe your entire hard drive. A restore from the IBM_SERVICE partition will give you the option of preserving existing partitions (thus allowing you to restore Windows without blowing away Linux). Depending on your situation, you may want to leave the IBM_SERVICE partition in place. I chose to delete it because I have access to a copy of Norton Ghost to back up the NTFS partition, and I went through an involved process to create a Windows XP boot and install CD from the existing installation. Search for Comee's initial post on his impressions of his T42 for info on how to do this.

3) Stick in the 1st disk of FC2 and install away. It will automatically configure GRUB to let you boot Windows or Linux

4) If you want to enable speedstepping, you will have to recompile the kernel. This is actually not that hard...the hardest thing by far is configuring the kernel, but I can give you my config file if you want. I also got suspend-to-disk to work in linux with the new kernel as well.

5) install wireless drivers: This is the other hard part, and depends on which card you have. But there are plenty of people on Tuxmobile.org who have done this.

Specific pages that I found mode helpful (all linked from tuxmobile.org):

http://theorie.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/ ... uter/T41p/ very very useful for madwifi drivers and ACPI (but network configuring is different in FC2 than in Debian, so some Debian-specific things don't work)

http://vsharma.net/thinkpad-t41p-fedora-core1/ has more apropos network configs.

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~vbraun/comput ... index.html has great info on ACPI configuration and kernel configuration.

I am currently writing a webpage with my FC2 install experience. In the meantime, let me know if you get to the stage where you want to rebuild the kernel and I can send you my kernel config and some HOWTOs.

Mofongo

mdwood · #6 Post by **mdwood** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 8:41 am

I have seen in several forums that linux distros with new 2.6 kernel can run into problems when setting up a dual boot system. You can see a fairly detailed description of the problem as it appears in FC2 here:

http://lwn.net/Articles/86835/

I guess it has something to do with differences in the way that windows and linux 2.6 read the harddrive geometry.

!db! · #7 Post by **!db!** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 11:07 am

Mofongo wrote:

1) Create recovery CDs (7 of them) using the Access IBM menus.

... I don't have my T41 yet, but really? as an alternative to phoning up IBM and asking for the recovery disks?

Mofongo · #8 Post by **Mofongo** » Sat Jun 19, 2004 3:55 pm

I think you may need the a T42 to have the option of creating your own recovery CDs. IBM changed their recovery software between T41 and T42.

But you should check when you get your T41 just in case. On the T42, you launch "Access IBM" (from within Windows), then select "Protect & Recover", then "Create Product Recovery Disks".

Mofongo

how to install linux on T42 ?

how to install linux on T42 ?

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