Archive for May, 2008
Installing Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on a Lenovo R61
*** UPDATE 2008/11/28 ***
See a more complete review of Ubuntu 8.10 on this Lenovo R61 here
***************
General Hardware Specifications of Lenovo R61
| Hardware Components | Status under Linux | Additional notes |
|---|---|---|
| Intel Dual Core T7100 1.8Ghz | Ok | |
| 15.4 in 1280×800 LCD | Ok | Default resolution properly set. |
| Intel X3100 | Ok | No proprietary drivers available.I installed compiz manager and activated some nice desktop effects like desktop cube. Works perfectly. |
| 2GB RAM | Ok | |
| 120GB Hard Drive | Ok | |
| Integrated Network Card | Ok | |
| Intel Pro Wireless 3945ABG | Ok | Beware to turn on the hardware switch BEFORE booting Ubuntu and if the card has been disabled within Windows, enable it before switching to Ubuntu.Note: The signal indicator on the display panel is is always off even if wireless is working/active. Regarding this, this blog post has more information about it.After installation, I tried to setup my home network, but the network manager was not displaying SSIDs available in my area. A reboot didn’t help. I tried configuring by providing my SSID manually but still didn’t work. I realized that I disabled the card from my dual-booted Windows installation. So I rebooted into Windows, enabled the card, the re-rebooted into Ubuntu and to my surprise network was working (is it luck??).
*** UPDATE 2008/10/27 *** I am using this laptop with Ubuntu on and on since the release of 8.04, keeping it up to date and I hadn’t much issues with Wireless. It worked as expected when moving from one network to the other. In Windows, I keep enabling/disabling the Wi-Fi depending on my needs. No matter its state in Windows, when I boot Ubuntu it is enabled (as expected). So changing it’s state in Windows does not impact the Ubuntu installation as it first seemed to appear before… |
| Internal 56k Modem | I don’t know | I never tried the modem |
| CD-RW/DVD-RW | Reading:Ok Writing:Untested |
I’ve been able to read DVD/CDs, but I haven’t tried burning CDs or DVDs with it. |
| 6 cells Lithium-Ion Battery | Ok | |
| Integrated sound card | Ok | |
| Mouse button | Ok | |
| Mouse trackpad | Ok |
|
| PC Speaker | Ok | Note: You can easily disable PC Speaker beeps using System/Preferences/Sound in “System beep” tab. |
Special Keyboard Keys
| Key | Status | Additional notes |
|---|---|---|
| Volume Up / Down | Ok | |
| Mute | Not working | |
| Power button | I don’t know | |
| Navigation Back/Forward | Not working | The browser navigation buttons near the arrow keys. |
| Fn + Light On / Off | Ok | There is a little light in the display panel that can be turned on to see the keyboad when using at night. |
| Fn + Brigthness Up / Down | Ok | |
| Fn + Zoom | Not working | |
| Fn + CRT/LCD | I don’t know | |
| Fn + Sleep | Ok | |
| Fn + NumLock | Ok | |
| Fn + Scroll Lock | I don’t know | |
| Fn + SysRq | I don’t know | |
| Fn + Wireless (on/off) | Partially | It worked to turn wireless off, but I never succeed to bring the signal back until I did a sleep/unsleep of the system. |
Installation Steps
The installation steps are the same that I used when I installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my Inspiron 8600
see additional configuration and conclusion on following page >>
5 comments