Kernel for IBM Thinkpad T41

alok · n00b Joined: 05 Mar 2004 Posts: 38 Location: Austin, TX

I'm about to purchase an IBM Thinkpad T41 with the following hardware:

Pentium M 1.4GHz
256 MB Memory (Will upgrade)
40 GB Hard Drive
ATI Mobility Radeon 7500
UltraNav Ultrabay Slim CD-RW/DCD-ROM
Intel PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Intel PRO/Wireless Network Connection

The first thing I plan to do when I get this laptop is format and install Gentoo. However, I wondered if there was a "better" or more popular kernel for use on a laptop or a Thinkpad specifically.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance.

kiezpro · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:01 pm Post subject:

Well, the most popular kernel is Windows XP, obviously :-)
Seriously, I'm writing this on a TP X31 with Gentoo, and it works great. I can't say anything about the Gbit Ethernet and the Ultrabay, but otherwise I seem to have the same hardware in my Thinkpad, and (mostly) everything works great. There's a lot of information on the web (check http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ibm.html) and a mailing list especially for Linux on Thinkpads (http://www.linux-thinkpad.org/mail-list.html) that's even used by IBM people. This is already my second Thinkpad I'm using with Linux, and I guess it won't be the last one.

alok · n00b Joined: 05 Mar 2004 Posts: 38 Location: Austin, TX

Thanks, I've already read most of those and have decided on the T41. What I am wondering is which specific kernel sources to use. I've read that some Thinkpad users run mm-sources. What is advantageous about mm-sources?

kiezpro · Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:54 pm Post subject:

Sorry for the misunderstanding... I don't know what difference the mm patches make, I'm using 2.4.25-gentoo-r4 and I'm pretty happy with it. Do you need any special features the usual kernel sources don't provide?

alok · n00b Joined: 05 Mar 2004 Posts: 38 Location: Austin, TX

Well, I'm told that custom kernel patch-sets can greatly improve speed and performance of the kernel. While I probably won't need those improvements, I'll readily take them if availible.

markandrew · Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2004 8:28 am Post subject:

I generally use mm-sources and have been happy with them until recently (2.6.6) when they suddenly failed to work on my T41 (hangs at login prompt with a blank screen); i also discovered that the last version i could use had some unusable bluetooth modules - whether these are because of my config i can't say (i've been unable to get them working by changing config), but i know a few other people have had similar problems. I had to switch to gentoo-dev-sources which i find slightly less responsive (and now 2 minor releases behind), but they at least work, including the bluetooth.