Installing Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on a Thinkpad T60

Features

1. Compiz Fusion 3D Desktop (eye candy)

Graphical Configuration Tool

Some Thinkpad T60s laptops ship with ATI video cards. Previously Ubtuntu 7.04 Open Source video drivers could be graphically configured with a minimal utility that allowed to choose a single resolution. However, users could be compelled to use the non-free ATI video driver (Fglrx) because ATI shipped a more featureful utility, Catalyst Control Center. Gusty Gibbon now ships a more fully-featured utility, making the Open Source video drivers a more attractive choice.

Installation

Installation of Gutsy Gibbon on the ThinkPad T60 2623KFU went without a hitch. I was able to resize an existing ext3 partition and perform a new install of Ubuntu 7.10 without removing Feisty Fawn. If you are resizing or installing Gutsy Gibbon on a clean partition while maintaining other operating system partitions, I would suggest reinstalling the Grub boot loader so a fresh partition is created with Gutsy Gibbon and other existing OSes like Feisty Fawn or Fedora.

Known Issues

ATI Fglrx breaks over suspend resume

If your laptop uses the ATI Fglrx driver and you have a perfectly fine Ubuntu Feisty 7.04 installation, Fglrx breaks on a suspend/resume after an upgrade to 7.10. The Open Source driver is available as an alternative; else it is recommended to not upgrade until Ubuntu bug 121653 is fixed.

Enabling ATI Fglrx

It is possible to have a fresh install of Gutsy, however, you will have to type several commands to load the ATI restricted drivers. The trick is two-fold.

1. Gutsy will auto attempt to set the resolution. When it fails, it will give you an error message saying that it will try again in two minutes. This means you have small windows of opportunity (2 minutes each) to type in your needed commands.
2. The resolution will be stretched such that the command prompt will be off the screen (bottom). You will have to hit Enter about 10-14 times in order to see what was at the bottom of the screen.

With that said, this is how you can install Gutsy:

1. Boot off Live CD - highlight Install with Safe Mode Graphics, then press F6 for additional options.
2. In the command line at the end, delete "quiet" and change "splash" to "nosplash"
3. Start the install. After awhile, your screen will start flashing as Gutsy tries to find a resolution. Just let it go until you get a blue screen saying that it will try again in two minutes. Press Enter to exit.
4. Press enter about 10-14 times until you can see a command prompt.
5. Enter:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo depmod -a

You may need to hit enter a few times to see what's going on.

Then Enter:

sudo aticonfig --initial
sudo aticonfig --overlay-Type=Xv

Hopefully you'll get all of this typed in under 2 minutes. But if not, don't worry. If the screen starts flashing, just let it go until you see the blue screen with the error message saying that it will try again in 2 minutes.

When you're finished, let the 2 minute timer run out by just waiting. This time, however, when the screen starts flashing, it will start the X server.

1. Install Ubuntu.
2. Reboot.
3. When you boot for the first time, you will have to REPEAT THE PROCESS. However, you may need to login as well as confirm your sudo password, which will be tricky since you may not be able to see the prompt off screen. One alternative is to:

Hit CTRL + ALT + F2 which will take you to a login screen. Login, and repeat the process, ignoring the flashing screens that will appear every 2 minutes. When you are finished with your typing, enter:

startx

Then once you're in Ubuntu, immediately click on the restricted drivers icon and enable ATI's fglrx. Then reboot.

Post-Installation Setup

ATI Radeon X1300 with Compiz

Users with the ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 module must use the XGL driver instead of Fglrx to run Compiz.

$ sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl

Notes

Default Non-free Drivers

The Intel PRO 3945ABG wireless network card requires drivers in the Restricted Repository which are non-free.

References

• Installing Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) on a ThinkPad T60