Installing Linux On An IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad R52

These are some notes from what I've discovered installing Linux, and in particular Ubuntu 5.10 "Breezy", onto an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad R52.

Pre-Installation Steps

These are a few things that I decided to do prior to installing Linux onto the notebook.

Created Rescue & Recovery Discs

In Windows there is a program to create the recovery discs:

Start -> All Programs -> Access IBM -> Create Recovery Discs

It prompts you to put blank/erasable discs in the drive; I used two DVDs though I now believe that the first disc may only need to be a CD rather than a DVD.

After you've created one set of discs it wont let you create any more sets.

Created Rescue Media

There is another program for creating "Recovery Media" accessible from the start menu:

Start -> All Programs -> Access IBM -> Create Rescue Media

I believe this just creates the same thing as the first CD in the above step though so shouldn't be required.

Updated Firmware

I checked Lenovo's website to see if any of the firmware needed updating. I updated the BIOS (from version 1.18 to 1.22), everything else seemed to be up to date for me.

I noticed that most of the firmware updates are available as bootable CD images and things so it shouldn't be a problem to update firmware in future even with no Windows on the machine.

Installed Additional Memory Module

I'd purchased an additional 512MB memory module from Crucial, so I put that in and checked that it was visible by the BIOS and Windows before installing Ubuntu.