This page describes installation, some configuration and a little operation of Linux on an IBM Thinkpad A22p. Let me say up front that I am probably biased in favor of IBM Thinkpads. The Trackpoint is, in my opinion, much better than a touchpad. IBM Thinkpads also have the best keyboards and screens available on a notebook.
The style and format from this page was borrowed from some of the pages available at Linux on Laptops and specifically the A22p page by Peter Schwenke.
I've installed RedHat versions 6.2, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, 9.0; Fedora Core 1, Core 2 and Core3; Mandrake versions 8.1 and 8.2; and SuSE 8.2, 9.0 and 9.1 on this notebook. All installations went reasonable well. The only problems were with X configuration, specifically dealing with an external monitor.
With earlier distributions, the default XF86Config-4 file created during install doesn't support external monitors with the ATI video adapter. I haven't tried later distributins, RH 9, Fedora or SuSE with an external monitor yet so I don't know if they suffer the same problem. You have to add a line "Option" "Display" "BIOS" under the video card definition to allow that configuration. The BIOS display option and other cool settings are covered in the r128 driver pageThe built-in Lucent winmodem works with the ltmodem drivers, but after I proved to myself it worked, I turned the modem off in the BIOS. I REALLY don't like winmodems. Instead I use a PCMCIA modem from 3Com. These days it is difficult to find a modem that isn't a winmodem, but it can be done. I use a 3CXM756.
The built-in Intel Ethernet Pro-100 10/100 NIC works fine and is detected by the installer. I also use an Orinoco 802.11 wireless card that required modification of the /etc/pcmcia/wireless.opts file before it would work. I had to comment out all the "Lucent Wavelan IEEE" settings from the file, go figure. (Update - 20040220: This is no longer a problem since RH 8, Fedora and SuSE also work fine out of the box with the Orinoco card.) Cisco Aironet cards also work well with these distributions. Since my notebook frequently isn't connected to a network via eth0, I have that interface set to NOT start on boot. If I need it I just run "ifup eth0" as root.
I recently bought a USB CF Card reader which I've tested under SuSE 9.0. It's a SimpleTech FlashLink UCF-100 and SuSE recognizes it right away when I plug it in. It assigns the CF Card sda1 which I can then mount as a drive.
The CD/RW works fine. Having a CD/RW on a notebook is wonderful. It's one of those things that seems indispensable once you have it.
Sound works, no problems.
I bought the IBM USB Camera II which connects to the top of the LCD screen. It works great under Windows. Unfortunately I have been unable to get it to work under any version of Linux I've installed on this notebook. I've added drivers, recompiled the kernel but still no workie. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but from what I've read the driver for this camera is fairly new and included in the Linux 2.5 kernel source which I have not tried yet.
Bottom line, this is a GOOD notebook with hardware that is well supported by the Linux community.
This page was revised Dec. 12, 2004.
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