[ltp] Installing 7.2 on ThinkPad 770ED

[Ronald W. Heiby]

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Hello enigma-list,

As I type this on a ThinkPad A21p, I am installing 7.2 on a ThinkPad
770ED. It is sitting on the docking station with built-in SCSI
connected to a SyJet 1.5 GB removable hard drive. Also in the dock are
the floppy drive and a TDK 16/10/40x CD-RW drive. In one of the PC
Card slots is a 3Com Modem / Ethernet combo card whose model number I
don't remember, and I'm not pulling out now.

I will be entering my observations, etc. I am sure that as I go along,
I will be showing ignorance in some matters. However, to whatever
extent a 20+ year computer industry professional is confused by the
installation process, I can only imagine what a relative newcomer to
computers must be facing.

Also, I admit that I have not read all of the documentation that came
with 7.2. I have read a good deal about Linux. I installed 6.2
(painfully) on this same hardware some time ago. I installed 7.1 on
the A21p. So, there may be things that I am doing stupidly that are
clearly explained in the manuals. I expect that I will be referring to
them whenever I am confused by some point along the way.

We begin.

I booted the 7.2 CD and am pleasantly surprised to see the graphical
install working. It was not with this hardware under 6.2.

I choose to use English during the install. This is easy!

Oops. Spoke too soon. "IBM ThinkPad Keyboard" is not a choice. I am
pretty sure I want the "Generic 101-key PC" Model, even though there
are not that many keys on the notebook keyboard. The installation
manual does not seem to be much help. It seems to be saying the same
thing that the Online Help pane is saying. Perhaps it is helpful
during a text mode install? Anyway, I choose "Generic 101-key PC", as
the help does explain about funky Win95 keys that are not on this
generation of ThinkPad, and I am pretty sure that "Intl" means
"International", which I do not want. OK. What the heck are "Dead
Keys"? What are they labelled? What special characters might require
them? Why might I wish to use them? These are all mysteries to me, but
I choose to enable them, in case they are needed, and because that is
the default.

My "mouse" is a TrackPoint pointing stick. It has a left button and a
right button, and a third button that kinda works (in conjunction with
pushing on the stick) like the Microsoft Mouse wheel. So, is this
mouse with three buttons a "3 Button Mouse"? I really don't know,
though I suspect that the 770ED's 3rd button is not the same as a
normal 3rd button. I do know that it is a PS/2 interface. The manual
says that my notebook probably has a PS/2 interface, so that's good.
No help on whether a 3rd button is a 3rd button, though. The manual is
reassuring at this point, because it appears that if I screw this up,
I can fix it later. (whew!) I'll take the default "3 Button Mouse".

I'm at the Welcome screen, now. I feel warm and fuzzy. :-)

Because I don't want to accidentally blow away my Win2K install on
this (to be) dual boot system, and because I want complete control
over what goes on, I override the Laptop default and choose Custom as
my Installation Type.

Before I stared, I used Partition Magic to set aside my partitions the
way I wanted. As I recall, I need to choose Manual Disk Druid to tell
the installer how I want it to use the existing partitions. Since my
partitions are already formatted ext2 (and my Drive Image software
knows ext2 and not ext3), I choose to leave all unchanged and not
reformat any of the partitions. I figure this will save me some time,
too. I make my 250MB hda6 the root partition. I am warned against not
formatting, which warning I ignore. I am warned that I might not be
able to boot from this partition and should be sure to make boot
diskettes. This confuses me, as I thought Grub could boot from pretty
much anything anywhere on my disk. Hmm. I had been planning to use my
30MB hda2 as /boot, but thought I'd read that that was no longer
necessary with Grub. Hmm. The install manual is not helpful on this
point, but 5.1.2 of the Reference Guide makes it sound like I should
be OK even without the /boot partition. So, I'm going to skip the
/boot partition for this go, and hope for the best. I set my my 2037MB
hda7 as /usr. I set my 1018MB hda8 as /var. Oh, by the way, the main
Disk Setup screen shows my hda7 as 2038 and hda8 as 1019, while the
edit popups for the two showed 2037 and 1018, respectively. Weird. It
figured out that my hda9 was a 532MB swap partition and hda11 is a
1728MB swap. I hadn't really planned on having them both be active
swap areas all the time, but for now it won't hurt. I set my 4503MB
hda10 as /data. Finally, I seem to have forgotten all about /home, so
I convert the 1728MB hda11 from swap to ext2 /home. I had originally
planned the extra swap for an occasional program I run that needs lots
of virtual space, but I might be able to get away with using a swap
file on those occasions. Anyway, things look pretty good now, so I go
on, formatting swap and /home. Looks like the formatting is being
deferred, since it could not have completed in < 5 seconds.

Boot Loader Configuration. I don't have Win95/98. I don't have NT. I
have Win2K Pro. No help on that one. I have to guess which way is
best. Previously, I have used LILO on a /boot partition, and Boot
Magic has been in the MBR to transfer control to it there. I'm hoping
to do this system without Boot Magic, so I'm in new territory. The
manuals are in no help -- no mention of Win2K. So, I choose the
defaults (Grub, MBR, default Linux boot) and hope for the best. (I do
change the boot label for hda1 to "Win2K".) I pick a Grub password.

Network Configuration, I choose the defaults of DHCP and activate on
boot. I choose the default Medium firewall, allowing DHCP and SSH
(since experimenting with SSH is a prime reason I'm installing this
now).

I choose no additional languages, since my French isn't up to it.

I like the time zone map. Cool! I pick Chicago. Since Win2K is here
as a dual boot option, I'm stuck with my clock in local time.

I set my root password and create a "heiby" login.

I choose the defaults for Authentication Configuration (Enable MD5 and
shadow; No NIS, LDAP, Kerberos, or SMB).

Packages! The install manual is absolutely no help here. I guess since
I'm choosing custom, I must know what I am doing. Mostly, I do. I have
already chosen a Firewall Configuration, but now I am given the choice
of whether I want to install the "Router / Firewall" package. I am
guessing that this package is for use if I want to turn the system
into a router and/or firewall system, and not just have some internal
firewall protection. I don't know what "Network Managed Workstation"
is, but it sounds like what I might install if I had a whole office
full of these systems and wanted to administer them from a basement
office over the network. "Authoring and Publishing", I am guessing, is
TEX, etc.? I love utilities, even when there's no clue what utilities
they are. I suppose if I went for individual packages, this would be
more clear. I don't know what Windows Compatibility / Interoperability
is, but since I'm still stuck running some Windows boxes, this sounds
good.

I choose: Printing, Classic X, X Window, Laptop, Gnome, KDE, Sound,
Network, Dialup, Messaging/Web Tools, Graphics Manip, Samba, Anonymous
FTP, Web Server, Authoring and Publishing, Emacs, Utilities, Software
Development, Kernel Development, Windows Compatibility, Games and
Entertainment.

I just remembered that I want to explicitly de-select lm_sensors,
since they are reported to fry ThinkPad system boards. I recall that
they are sucked in for KDE, which I am installing. The trick is going
to be finding them in the Individual Package Selection list. Tree View
is hopeless for this task. Flat View, it's easy (since I know the name
of the package).

Back to the Tree View, I exercise my curiosity. Wonder why xbl game is
not chosen along with the other games. I select it. Ooo! gtoaster
sounds really useful, since being able to burn CD-R discs is on my
"eliminate Windows" checklist. I select it. I'm big on Kermit, so even
though I've bought the manual (and so, am entitled to run the full
C-Kermit), I choose gkermit. I want to try it so I can know whether to
recommend it to others. Send/receive FAX, and receive voice messages
are also on my eW checklist, so the mgetty family looks promising.
But, efax is chosen by default. What is the difference? Why one vs the
other? I choose them all. I add in the emacs-el and hexedit packages.
Although I really like emacs, sometimes I still want to use "vi", so I
choose vim-X11 and vim-enhanced. I choose ethereal and ethereal-gnome,
in case I need to analyze my network traffic. I choose ircii, lynx,
mozilla-chat, mtr, mtr-gtk, openssl-perl, tcpdump, ttcp. I choose
gimp-data-extras, grip, xcdroast. I choose gnucash, because it sounds
interesting and I want to compare it with Quicken. jpilot sounds
interesting, too. I doubt I'll be trying it on this system, but choose
it, just in case, along with kdepim-pilot. I choose arpwatch, cdrdao,
iptraf, junkbuster, rpmfind, samba-swat, sysctlconfig, and tripwire. I
choose sysreport. I choose ElectricFence and dmalloc. snavigator
sounds interesting, so I choose it, too. I choose ttfm. I choose pdksh
and zsh. I'm not sure why ttfonts-ja (Japanese TrueType fonts) are
selected, since I chose no languages other than English, and they are
14MB. But, since they are selected by default, I am supposing there
must be a good reason. Whew!

As expected, it's griping about kdebase needing lm_sensors. But, it's
also complaining that gnucash needs Guppi and g-wrap, so back I go to
Flat View. Guppi is 7MB, but sounds cool. g-wrap is only 1MB. I choose
both and go on. This time, I choose to Ignore package dependencies
(kdebase missing lm_sensors).

The "Graphical Interface (X) Configuration" is where I always spend a
lot of time scratching my head. However, it seems to be telling me
that I have a "Trident Cyber 9397 (generic)" with 4MB. I seem to
recall that being correct, but thought there was a "DVD" in there
somewhere. Doesn't matter much, since none of the choices include
those letters. I go with the default. (It must be close, since the
graphic installer has been running all this time!)

Moment of truth time. I choose to go ahead and install. I was
wondering whether my choices could be captured somewhere to be tweaked
and replayed. I see that they are, in /root/anaconda-ks.cfg. Way cool!

It's cooking, now. It estimates about a half hour, of which 5 minutes
have elapsed, except that by my clock 7 have elapsed. Odd that the two
disagree. Good time for a quick break. Came back in just under a half
hour. Knew it wouldn't be done. It's waiting for me to stick in the
2nd CD-ROM. :-)

While I wait, I'm looking at the 7.3 errata, about 20 of them. I
remember not choosing mew or xemacs, and I don't think I'm using squid
(whatever that is). I'm not using nfs. By the time I get any of these,
the install should be done, so not much point in updating the anaconda
installer. Several of the others seem inapplicable, but I'll need to
log on and use rpm to be sure of what I selected or had selected for
me. The up2date utility (which I use on my primary box, still at 7.1)
is really quite nice. When I looked a while back, it seems like
setting up additional systems for updating cost something like
$30/month. Looking just now, it appears to be about $20 one time, a
much more palatable figure for automated updates for my personal
machines. I hope I'm reading that right.

Install basically finished. Going ahead and making a boot disk.

Great. Now it wants to ask me more questions for X configuration. My
favorite. It wants to know what kind of monitor I have. It's built in
to an IBM ThinkPad, so I go to IBM first. No ThinkPads listed. Back up
to Generic, I choose "Generic Laptop Display Panel 1024x768". Not
knowing any better about the Sync frequencies, I leave the defaults
alone. I choose 24-bit color at 1024x768 with Gnome and Graphical
login. The "Test Setting" attempt succeeded.

It thinks I'm done! Rebooting.

GRUB comes up and tells me that I have 639K lower and 228160K upper
memory. That fits within the 228800K that the BIOS reports on
power-up, a distinct improvement over 6.2, where I had to figure out
that I needed to override the memory info and configure it into LILO.

Boot proceeds. sshd takes a long time. I suppose it's doing initial
key generation for the host. Login screen is up. Since it didn't ask
me what the system name was, it doesn't know. I'll have to dive into
that next, I suppose. Icons are pretty. System griped at me about my
battery being at 0%. I suppose it will keep doing that until I buy a
replacement. sigh.

Rebooting now, to try GRUBing into Win2K. Beautiful! Booted me into
Win2K with no muss, no fuss.

That seems like enough for one evening. The adventure will have to
continue another day.

Thanks to the Red Hat team for all the improvements to the install
process! 6.2 on the 770ED was pretty painful. 7.1 on the A21p was very
good. 7.2 on the 770ED is even better.

Ron.

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