https://www.thinkwiki.org/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=MezThinkWiki - User contributions [en]2026-05-09T09:55:28ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.31.12https://www.thinkwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Installing_Ubuntu_on_a_ThinkPad_T21&diff=27730Installing Ubuntu on a ThinkPad T212007-01-18T06:42:20Z<p>Mez: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''Ubuntu 6.10 Desktop'''<br />
<br />
To install, we have to use the "alternate install" CD because X freezes on boot.<br />
Note: Safe boot won't work.<br />
<br />
Once it is installed and reboots,<br />
press ESC to get to the grub menu,<br />
'e' to edit the menu entry,<br />
then DOWN to get to the "kernel ..." line.<br />
Press 'e' to edit the kernel boot entry,<br />
then type "init=/bin/sh", ENTER.<br />
Press 'b' to boot the modified entry.<br />
This should get you in single-user mode.<br />
<br />
Type (without the # signs)<br />
# mount -o remount,rw /<br />
# cd /etc/init.d<br />
# mv gdm gdm.old<br />
# mv x11-common x11-common.old<br />
<br />
To prevent X from booting the next time around.<br />
Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot the computer.<br />
<br />
Let Ubuntu boot normally.<br />
Don't edit the entry.<br />
<br />
You should get a login prompt in a text-terminal.<br />
Login with your username and password, then type (don't type the $ sign)<br />
$ sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf<br />
<br />
Once in vi, type in order<br />
<br />
/DefaultDepth<br />
ENTER<br />
:s/16/24<br />
ENTER<br />
ESC<br />
ZZ<br />
<br />
Once this is done, try starting X manually<br />
<br />
$ X<br />
<br />
Which should get you a X screen.<br />
No window manager will be running,<br />
so you can't do much but exit by pressing CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE.<br />
<br />
Once X is known to work,<br />
you can enable gdm and X again by undoing to first steps:<br />
<br />
$ cd /etc/init.d<br />
$ sudo mv gdm.old gdm<br />
$ sudo mv x11-common.old x11-common<br />
<br />
Then reboot the computer<br />
<br />
$ sudo reboot<br />
<br />
You should then be greeted by the usual gdm login prompt.<br />
<br />
<br />
Crapulon says:<br />
<br />
I also found it is a good idea to have "acpi=off apm=on" as GRUB kernel options.<br />
Without this Ubuntu could not recognise the Ethernet port or internal modem.<br />
Edit the GRUB menu.lst file so that update-grub automagically adds these options.<br />
To do this:<br />
<br />
1) Type: sudo vim /boot/grub/menu.lst<br />
<br />
2) Find the section titled ## Start Default Options ##, then add the two new options to the line that begins with "# kopt=" eg. in my menu.lst file the new line (line 66) reads:<br />
<br />
# kopt=root/dev/hda1 ro acpi=off apm=on<br />
<br />
3) Write the changes and exit vim.<br />
<br />
4) Now use update-grub to rewrite the boot options<br />
<br />
Type: sudo update-grub<br />
<br />
Reboot, and check that all is well.</div>Mez