Installing Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) on a ThinkPad T61
We'll I got it basically working, so far (will update as i get more thing working).
Contents
Pre Installation Notes
SATA Issues
At first, the Ubuntu Live CD would not start at all, this seems to be a problem with the SATA AHCI driver. I had to go into the BIOS and change the SATA driver from ACHI to compatibility (What is the difference? Am I loosing performance?).
GM965 Woes... (Solved)
After that the CD seemed to boot but the screen was just garbage Picture]. In order to get around that issue I had to go back and download the Alternate CD, which allows you to install in text only mode. From here, the text-only install went okay.
Post Installation Notes
More GM965 Woes... (Solved Also)
When I booted up after the installation, I was still getting the same garbage on the screen. To resolve this I edited my [xorg.conf] file as shown. I also had to install the latest kernel for Feisty, as the one off of the install disk did have have /dev/agpgart. And I could then use X11. There were still some issues however. The screen seemed somewhat fuzzy. This was a little more challenging of a fix... I found [this] mailing list posting, according to it, there was a small glitch in the driver. To fix it:
apt-get install source xserver-xorg-video-intel cd xserver-xorg-video-intel-1.9.94/ vim src/i830_lvds.c Goto line 230 and delete (PFIT_ENABLE | VERT_AUTSCALE ....);, replacing it with 0; then quit vim dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc -b cd .. dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-intel_1.9.94-lubuntu3_amd64.deb (wont be amd64 with a 32-bit install)
Now reboot your computer, and it should work. **NOTE: For some reason just restarting X didn't fix it, seems like you must reboot.** At this point you should have a nice, crisp display.
I am still working on aiglx and compiz (switching desktops on a cube doesnt seem to work, though I have some ideas...). It at least partially works.
ThinkFinger
Ubuntu does not come with a package for thinkfinger. Downloading the most recent source and building it was simple enough: Download most recent version (0.3 at time of writing)
tar xvzf thinkfinger-0.3.tar.gz cd thinkfinger-0.3/ ./configure --with-securedir=/lib/security --with-birdir=/etc/pam_thinkfinger make -j5 (hey its dual core!) sudo make install
Configuring it is easy as well, open /etc/pam.d/common-auth:
auth sufficient pam_thinkfiger.so auth required pam_unix.so try_first_pass nullok_secure
Now just run sudo tf-tool --add-user <username> and it will all be setup. (I found this somewhere on the web, I wish I could give a source but I'm afraid I cant find it, thank you Anonymous!).
HDAPS
It appears that the T61 is not included in the list of supported devices. I have a feeling I just need to add it to the driver.
Overall
I initially had some big problems getting this working, but now its working quite well. The wifi card worked at startup (uses madwifi) and I am happy because I don't seem to need any proprietary software to run this system.