Installing Linux on IBM ThinkPad R52

Version dated 8^th Oct. 2006

My Background

I was totally novice to linux (till I did this) and have never worked with any operating system other than the M$

Once I found that OpenOffice.org has also launched the free office suite on Windows, hence I downloaded it and then was very impressed with it. I thought that i should also try Linux if OpenOffice.org is so cool.

It happened that i bought the laptop in the same month and then my urge to explore about Linux gave me the shot in my arm to proceed with it.

I bought the laptop without os and asked my friends to check if they can locate any linux cd. Baggers have no choice . . . . One of my friend gave me Mandrake 9.2. I checked on net and found that its about 3ys old. I said what difference it would make let me try.

Hence I got the experience, and its worth sharing :

Experience

I was surprised to find that it works really well and with not much of trouble.
I have also created a blog to post my experience

Technical and further details

Some technical details are as under :

Configuration of the Laptop

Intel Celeron M processor 370

(1.5 Ghz, 1MB L2 Cache)

Integrated wireless netowrk connection 802.11b/g

Intel 910GML chipsets

Intel Media Graphics accelerator 900

512MB RAM

40GB HDD

PCICMA card

Intel integrated Gigabit Ethernet

How I went about

I started with the installation by booting with CD 1, I tried with VGALO option for installation but it didn't start at first. I then tried the text option and everything started well and menus after menus came up I selected few items of my choice and all went fine. I booted it without CD to find that i m directly put to the shell environment. Novice like me can not make head or tail of it.

I then again thought of installing the linux in the VGALO mode. This time it went well as everything was pre-installed. I selected the standard mouse and it went well with the trackpoint and touchpad.

After completion the laptop booted in Linux with KDE 3.1.1 and it was cool.

Some of the selection that I made while installation are as under :

SCREEN vesa Flat Panel 1024x768

Mouse standard

Tried many options for ethernet but didn't work. Also the sound and video support is not working well. While adding the sound device the application on Mandrake is not opening.

Things working well

Screen with its full capacity is working great.

USB support is perfect.

CD ROM is mounted on desktop and easily accessible.

PCICMA support is on (not yet tested)

OpenOffice.org is too good . !

Things NOT working well

Ethernet

Modem