HOWTO: UBUNTU 9.10 ON LENOVO THINKPAD SL300
I’d like to share how I have managed so far with Ubuntu 9.10 on my Lenovo Thinkpad SL300.
This is my system specifications:
Lenovo Thinkpad SL300
Processor: Intel Core Duo CPU T5670 @ 1.80GHz
Video GPU: Nvidia 9300M GS
Memory: 4 GB (being listed as 3.9 GB as the Nvidia chip syphoon some memory for more performance)
Storage: 320GB ATA Hitachi (the supplied 150GB hard disk died on me during my recent trip to Peru. Major failure! Thanks to that incident I have upgraded!)
At the moment, I am running Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala 64-bit edition. Except for the external microphone which until now I have yet to use successfully, everything works out of the box. You need to do a few tweaks though to make the webcam working; also be very mindful about external media – there is an issue on suspend/hibernate if you have external media mounted (such as SD card, external hard disk through USB).
RECOMMENDED: CLEAN INSTALL. This means that you have to wipe out your hard disk sans the important files you work with (Documents, Music, Video, all other folders). Ubuntu 9.10 is well known to break systems using the upgrade path from Ubuntu 9.04.
1. Install Ubuntu. During the partitioning process, I recommend that you set at least 20GB for the filesystem (”/”). For the swap partition, I recommend that you set it at 4GB – I know it’s a lot of space, but if you are planning for a memory upgrade to maximize the performance of your rig in the future this will save you a lot of trouble. For all the remaining space, you can allocate it to your home directory (/home). If you have internet connection at this point of the installation process, the installer will automatically install updates related to the distribution.
2. Boot to the newly installed Ubuntu 9.10 in your hard disk. Select System > Software Sources. I always download Ubuntu Software from the Main Server as the mirrors are sometimes lagging or incomplete. Go to the “Other Software” Tab, enable the two unmarked options: http://archive.canonial.com/ubuntu karmic partner and http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic parnter (Source Code). Close the window – the system will ask you to update your sources list. I suggest to cancel so that we can integrate this step with the addition of the Medibuntu repositories.
3. Add Medibuntu repositories – open Terminal from Applications > Accessories. Cut and paste the following (remember that when you paste via keyboard, use Crtl+Shift+V):
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release
-cs).list –output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
4. And then:
sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install medibuntu-keyring && sudo aptitude update
5. And then:
sudo update-apt-xapian-index
6. Now, we are ready to install additional software. I tend to install language support first (since I’m in China and from time to time I have to input Chinese characters), and enable iBus. You can do this by going to System > Administration > Language Support
7. Install your graphics card driver (I have the Nvidia chip) – go to System > Administration > Hardware Drivers. At this point your system should be able to auto detect your graphics card. Use the latest driver (at the time of writing, the latest version is 185). You may opt to restart your system before further installation of other software.
8. I recommend installing ubuntu-restricted-extras to get support from proprietary formats and additional fonts. You can do this through Synaptic Package manager under System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. Make a quick search for “ubuntu-restricted-extras”, then check it for installation. Alternatively, you can use the Terminal:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
9. Media Players? I use VLC and Exaile. You can search for these on Synaptic Package Manager or install them through Terminal:
sudo apt-get install exaile vlc
10. I use the following for office productivity: Adobe Reader, Planner, Google Earth, Filezilla, Hugin (for panorama picture stitching). Yours may vary… you can always use Synaptic Package Manager or the Ubuntu Software Center to look for your favorite applications. If you want to use the same suite of software I use, open Terminal and type the following:
sudo apt-get install acroread planner googleearth filezilla hugin
TWEAKS!
The following are the tweaks that I had to do in order to make my system connect properly to Windows shares in my office network.
1. Edit nsswitch.conf
sudo gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf
Erase all the old code and paste the new code below:
# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# Example configuration of GNU Name Service Switch functionality.
# If you have the `glibc-doc-reference’ and `info’ packages installed, try:
# `info libc “Name Service Switch”‘ for information about this file.passwd: compat
group: compat
shadow: compathosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] wins dns mdns4
networks: filesprotocols: db files
services: db files
ethers: db files
rpc: db filesnetgroup: nis
2. Edit smb.conf – I had to do some tweaks on this configuration file in order to display Windows shares in Chinese properly, and also to resolve some addressing issues within my office network (YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THIS IF YOU ARE NOT WORKING ON LANGUAGE SPECIFIC SHARING ENVIRONMENTS):
sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf
Paste the code below just under the [global] heading:
dos charset = CP936
unix charset = UTF-8
display charset = UTF-8
Additionally, edit Remember to change “workgroup = WORKGROUP ” to something else (your workgroup name i.e. WORKGROUP or MSHOME or MSOFFICE etc.). You may also want to add a line below “workgroup = WORKGROUP” that looks like this:
netbios name = your_computer_name
To know your computer’s name, type in Terminal:
hostname
3. You may encounter a problem installing ttf-mscorefonts-installer. If you are the unlucky few, try this:
sudo gedit /var/lib/dpkg/info/ttf-mscorefonts-installer.postinst
Find the following lines:
# Base URL for Microsoft fonts
# Can be more than one to try, but here we just use SF.net’s redirection,
# which will work in most cases. The others serve as fallbacks to retry.
Below the last line above, add the following codes:
MYURL=”http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/corefonts/the%20fonts/final/”
MYMIRROR=”?use_mirror=internode”
Then change the following lines (located in line 150) from:
if ! wget –continue –tries=1 –dns-timeout=10 –connect-timeout=5 –read-timeout=300 $QUIET_ARG –directory-prefix . –no-directories –no-background $URLROOT$ff ; then
to
if ! wget –continue –tries=1 –dns-timeout=10 –connect-timeout=5 –read-timeout=300 $QUIET_ARG –directory-prefix . –no-directories –no-background $MYURL$ff$MYMIRROR ; then
Save the file and exit.
Special thanks goes to user NovaSci from the Ubuntu Forums for sharing this trick.
4. After doing number 3 above, try re-installing ttf-mscorefonts-installer through Synaptic or Terminal
sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer
5. Webcam. In order for the webcam in your SL300 to work properly, you need to have uvcvideo loaded in quirks mode. To do this:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/uvcvideo.conf
Paste the following one line code:
options uvcvideo quirks=16
Restart your system. Check that the webcam works (you can use the webcam software “Cheese” or the popular “Skype” for testing)
NOW, your Ubuntu 9.10 on your precious Lenovo Thinkpad SL300 is ready to do your bidding!
