[ltp] Installing Ubuntu on old Thinkpad i1720

[rrkrr]

I finally installed Ubuntu 6.06.1, which has the older "piix" disk
driver, instead of the newer ata_piix driver.  The install went very
smoothly, and I then upgraded the 6.06, which got me a gui "Update
Manager" that made the distribution upgrade to 8.04 available as a
network install.  This is in progress at the moment, and seems to be
working fine- so far.
I think the problem with this particular old Thinkpad is the DSDT file
in the BIOS is flawed, and the "Thinkpad ACPI extras" driver does not
get installed during boot process of the installer CD, so somehow the
new disk driver doesn't have the parameters it needs to maintain contact
with the CDROM and spends more time looking for it than installing
software.  It doesn't help that there is an eeprom on the I2C bus that
prevents loading of some driver software - there's a note that says
installing those drivers may overwrite the eeprom and brick the computer.

Bob


Chris Schumann wrote:
> Since I got Ubuntu installed on my 750P, I think it can be done.
>
> Have you tried a network install? Or from USB? Absolute minimum? I
> think I would try in that order.
>
> Chris
>
> rrkrr wrote:
>> That's the one I've been using.  The problem is that there is some bug
>> in the ata_piix bus driver that can't maintain a link to the CDROM drive
>> if that drive is idle for more than a minute or so - so the install
>> always fails.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Bob
>>
>> Chris Schumann wrote:
>>> rrkrr wrote:
>>> <munch>
>>>> I would appreciate any ideas for making a clean install of Ubuntu (or
>>>> Xubuntu) 8.10 work.
>>> You might try the alternate install CD. It installs in text mode, and
>>> requires fewer resources.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Chris
>>
>