Installing Debian on a ThinkPad T420

The machine

This is a T420 that I bought secondhand off Ebay in December of 2013. I opted to buy this instead of a new Thinkpad because I dislike the new 6-row keyboards and the buttonless trackpads. This is its configuration:

• Intel® Core™ i5-2520M (2.5GHz, 3MB L3, 1333MHz FSB)
• Discrete NVIDIA NVS 4200M (1GB VRAM) with Optimus™ Technology
• UEFI BIOS Version 83ET76WW (1.46)
• 4GB DDR3 - 1333MHz main memory
• 14.0" HD+ (1600 x 900) (230 NITS) TFT display
• Intel® 82577LM Gigabit (Hanksville) Digital Office ethernet adapter
• Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 (Taylor Peak) 2x2 AGN WLAN adapter

Installation

I installed Debian 7.3.0 (Wheezy) from a bootable flash drive. The process of creating bootable flash drive is described here. It is helpful to add the non-free firmware package and wifi firmware package to this drive so wifi can work while you're done installing.

(note: will adding the wicd packages to the flash drive cause it to be automatically installed?)

Plug in your bootable flash drive and turn on your T420. Quickly press F1 to get into the BIOS. Check to make sure that booting from a USB flash drive is enabled. Don't change its priority. If you changed anything, save and exit to reboot the machine. Quickly press F12 to get a boot menu and select the flash drive. The Debian installation process will then begin.

After answering questions about what keyboard you have, timezone, root password, first user, and so on; you will be shown a menu of software to install. There are ten options. "Debian Desktop Environment", "Laptop", and "Standard system utilities" should be preselected for you. If you don't care for Gnome3, deselect "Debian Desktop Environment". That will yield a machine with no X11 at all. The process for installing MATE is detailed below.

The remaining steps of the install process are uneventful. You will end up with a bootable and usable system.

Post-Install Configuration

MATE Desktop

Add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list:

 deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/debian/ wheezy main

Then update your APT cache

 #  apt-get update

Install the MATE keys with

 #  apt-get install mate-archive-keyring

and press 'Y' when you're asked if your sure. Then do:

 #  apt-get install mate-core

This installs the basic environment. If you want more, do:

 #  apt-get install mate-desktop-environment

For even more:

 #  apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-extra

Now, if you don't want to install GDM, you'll need to install the xinit package:

 #  apt-get install xinit

This will enable you to start an X session by typing "startx".

Wireless

I prefer using wicd for controlling network connections. Doing the following as root should install all you need for that # apt-get install wicd-cli wicd-curses wicd-gtk You will need to explicitly tell wicd the name of your wireless device name. It won't guess. Go to Preferences and you'll see a section labeled "Network Interfaces". The "Wireless Interface" field is blank. Put eth1 there.

Discrete Graphics versus Integrated Graphics

TODO	Incomplete