Installing Ubuntu on a ThinkPad X21

2007-10-26T13:21:29Z

Hwl:

Because the {{X21}} does not have room for a CDROM, one must plug it into the dock to perform a CD based install.

Using the Live CD for any of the {{Ubuntu}} versions listed above, I was able to get the Live CD to boot, but installing {{Ubuntu}} to the Harddrive would hang during loading of the usb-storage module. Looking at the logs, I received the famed "Maybe the USB cable is bad?" error message.

Using the Alternate CD, was able to install. At the installer's boot screen, F6 and enter a boot parameter of "debian-installer/probe/usb=false" (don't use quotes). Once you're in the text mode installation and have hit your first set of questions, press {{key|Alt}}{{key|F2}} to enter the BusyBox console, then find and delete (rm) "usb-storage.ko" from {{path|/lib/modules/2.6.*/}} Then {{key|Alt}}{{key|F1}} to return to the install, and answer questions as normal. The install process should work fine from here on out, and booting into your fresh installation should go without a hitch.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

I used the {{Ubuntu 7.04}} CD. I booted the live CD and clicked the install icon on the Gnome Desktop. It installed without problem. I have 256 meg Ram.

June 7, 2007

The Motorola WN825G WiFi cardbus card works. I use ndiswrapper with the Windows driver from Motorola and wifi-radar to connect to encrypted wifi.
To get the card working :
1) Boot Ubuntu
2) Log in into the user account
3) Insert the card : the green led ligts
4) run wifi-radar

September 25, 2007

My X21 does not have a cd drive, connected a cd-rom drive via usb (used a standard IDE external cage). Booted off the Ubuntu disc without any problems, and began installation. Due to the speed of the laptop, installation took significantly longer then usual.

October 26, 2007

installation problem with PCI Interrupt

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Boot hangs with the last dmesg as
ACPI : PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ11
ACPI : PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.1[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11

The machine is IBM Thinkpad X21.
Tried boot options:
acpi=off, noapic, nolapic, etc. but didn't work.

The machine works fine with Windows XP, so it shouldn't be hardware problem.

The machine used to work fine with 6.06LT, but after I install 7.04, it hangs afterwards. 7.10 doesn't help either.

Would appreciate if anyone can help.

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After another day investigation.

I tried redhat 9, 8, 7.3, 7.2, and then finally successfully boot up the system with redhat 7

During redhat 9, 8, and 7.3/7.2 installation, they all showed and hanged:

PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0a.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:0a.0
Redundant entry in serial PCI_table.
Please send the output of
lspci -vv, this message (11c1, 045C, 8086, 2205) and
the manufacturer and name of serial board or modem board to serial-PCI-info@lists,sourceforge.net

After I boot up with redhat 7, lspci command showed output
00:0a.0 as Ethernet Controller, INTEL 82557 (Ethernet Pro 100) rev.0c
00:0a.1 as Serial Controller, Lucent Microelectronics unknow device 045c (rev 01)

I tried to boot up the system with Ubuntu 6.06LT with PCI3 (ethernet/modem combo card) disabled, but the kernel still hanged as before.

I remember that this syndrome happened after I boot up my working 6.06LT, then after a kernel update, the system never boot up again thereafter.

I wonder if recent versions of kernel won't support the combo card anymore. Is there anyway to work around the problem?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Installing Ubuntu on a ThinkPad X21