Installing Kubuntu on a ThinkPad A30

2008-10-14T23:46:52Z

Aurora: /* Wireless LAN */

= Summary =
I have a {{A30}} (2652-3CU) model. I wanted to install {{Kubuntu}} upon it and get everything working, using the base install as much as possible. That is I didn't want to install a bunch of extra software. I just wanted an 'out of the box' configuration

-updated 2007/01/07 jstrauss

== Update System ==

First things first, edit your /etc/apt/sources.list and uncomment the other sources and get your system up to date

# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get upgrade -y

== Wireless LAN ==

-2007/01/07 - When installing 6.06 of KUbuntu, wpasupplicant is already installed, but you still need
to install hostap-utils

I wanted to use WPA encryption. To get WPA you must use the wpasupplicant module. In order to use the wpasupplicant module you must also use the hostap wireless driver. Kubuntu comes with both the hostap and orinico wireless drivers installed by default. But, you need to install the hostap-utils package because it does a couple of things for you (like blacklisting the orinico driver so it doesn't load on boot and adds another wireless interface).

# sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant hostap-utils -y

=== Rename network interfaces ===
On my machine when I did the install, Kubuntu named the wired LAN eth1 and my wireless eth0. eth0 is usually your wired interface and wlan0 is your wireless. So edit the /etc/iftab file and rename eth1 to eth0 and eth0 to wlan1. Afterwards mine looked like:

root@ubuntu:/# cat /etc/iftab
# This file assigns persistent names to network interfaces. See iftab(5).
eth0 mac 00:d0:59:83:5f:d2
wlan1 mac 00:20:e0:89:8f:e2

=== Using knetworkmanager ===
- 2007/01/07 (Added this section)

You can use knetworkmanager to manage your wireless configuration and skip all the next sections regarding networking.

First install knetworkmanager

# aptitude install knetworkmanager

start it up under K -> internet -> knetworkmanager

Then you need to use the "other wireless networks" to configure. For some reason, WPA is not presented in the dropdown if you just select the ESSID of your network

=== Configure wpa_supplicant ===

You need to add the information to connect to you wireless access point into the /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file like:

# wpa_passphrase <ssid> <passphrase> >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

in my case it looks like:

# wpa_passphrase StayOffChannelOne my_password >> /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

=== Edit /etc/network/interfaces ===

Lastly, I you need to change your /etc/network/interfaces to include bringing up wpa_supplicant prior to ifuping wlan0, and change the old entry for eth1 to eth0. Mine looks like:

root@ubuntu:/home/jstrauss# cat /etc/network/interfaces
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo wlan0
iface lo inet loopback

# This is a list of hotpluggable network interfaces.
# They will be activated automatically by the hotplug subsystem.
mapping hotplug
script grep
map eth0

# The primary network interface
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

iface wlan0 inet dhcp
pre-up wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -D hostap -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf &
post-down killall wpa_supplicant

** Note ** you should be able to use the /etc/default/wpasupplicant to startup the wpa_supplicant, but I can't get it to work correctly

== Kaffeine & Multimedia ==

By default kaffeine uses the gstreamer engine. Install the kaffeine-xine engine:

# apt-get install kaffeine-xine

Then launch kaffeine and change the engine by:

Settings -> Player Engine -> kaffeine

Talk:Installing Kubuntu on a ThinkPad A30

2008-10-14T23:31:41Z

Aurora: New section: Bug not adressed in instructions

Please make it read more like instructions, and less personal.

I have moved the page so it has the proper title like other such pages, and linked it back to the A30 page so people can find it easily.

If you want you can also create a general {{Kubuntu}} page, if you feel so inclined, just have a look at some of the other Distro specific pages first such as {{Debian}}

--[[User:Tonko|Tonko]] 04:10, 21 Nov 2005 (CET)

= wpasupplicant note seems wrong =

I've set wpasupplicant up on Debian and Ubuntu [http://www.vollink.com/gary/deb_wifi.html See My Page On This] and have never needed to install the hostap (Access Point) package drivers to get wpasupplicant to function for client purposes. Could somebody have a look to see if this is really a requirement under Kubuntu.

-- Gary Vollink 16:41, 12 Jan 2006 (CST - US/Chicago)

== Bug not adressed in instructions ==

There seems to be a bug in the kubuntu installation regarding the A30 Thinkpad that is not adressed in this instruction manual. When selecting to suspend to RAM, the system really suspends (amazingly), but the screen goes all whacky - strange colors appearing and the screen light stays on (so its not really suspended). That way, there is no sense in suspending, since the display will eat the batteries. Is there a solution to this and if there is, could you please add it to the instrucions? --[[User:Aurora|Aurora]] 01:31, 15 October 2008 (CEST)

ThinkWiki - User contributions [en]

Installing Kubuntu on a ThinkPad A30

Talk:Installing Kubuntu on a ThinkPad A30