Linux On The IBM Thinkpad 760LD

Prelude

Back in 1998 I picked up an old IBM Thinkpad 760LD on what used to be the Egghead auction site. On a whim I tried loading an old copy of RedHat Linux 5.0 on it and wonder of wonders, it worked. The only problem I had was getting XFree86 to run on it. Other than that, things went well. After a lot of trial and error (and no small amount of cussing) I was able to get X to work. I quickly put the config file out here on the net just in case there was some other poor soul trying to do the same thing. Since then, I have sold my venerable old 760LD and replaced it with an A31. I am keeping this page up for awhile to help out anyone who may still be tinkering with a 760.


Hardware

The IBM Thinkpad 760LD is a great laptop for traveling. It's small with reasonable weight. For basic word processing, e-mail and internet access it works great. The best thing about it is the keyboard; it lifts up out of the way for quick access to the CD-ROM, battery and hard drive. You can switch out any component in 30 seconds or less.

The 760LD came in one flavor: the Pentium 90. The 760LD had two brothers that came in Pentium 90 and Pentium 120 models known as the 760C and 760CD. These had uprated video and sound cards, better LCD screens plus larger hard drives. Most of the parts, however, are interchangable with the 760LD including the motherboards (both lines used the same chassis).

I also had the IBM Thinkpad Dock II docking station (model number 3546-001). These things are tanks! Not only do they provide port replication like most docking stations, but they also have two EISA slots, two PCMCIA slots, extra speakers, one bay for a SCSI drive, and one bay for an IDE drive. As of the 2.4 kernel, Linux supports the Adaptec SCSI controller. I've heard, but not confirmed, that the NCR SCSI controller in the IBM Thinkpad Dock I for the 760 series does not work with Linux. Again, this is unconfirmed.


Loading Linux

Loading Linux on the 760LD is fairly easy. One thing to keep in mind is that 760LD units DO NOT support booting from CD-ROM. You must start your install by booting from a floppy disc. Most Linux distros contain a utility and instructions for creating installation boot disks. For example, RedHat uses the Rawrite utility to build a boot floppy from an image contained on the first disk of the installation CDs.

Also, before starting insert any PCMCIA cards such as modems or NICs. This will ensure they are installed correctly.

Once you get the install started, I recommend using the text mode installer. Sure, there's a lot more keyboard activity, but it's faster and works everytime (unlike the GUI installers of some distros).


Getting X Running

Support for the Cyber 9320 chipset is included in XFree 3.3.x. However, XFree86 4.0 dropped support for the chipset. This means X will not work correctly for any distribution using X 4.0. Usually 3.3.6 is included and some distributions will detect that X 4.0 will not work and install 3.3.6 for you. You may also upgrade to the lastest version of X. With version 4.2, support for the 9320 was returned.

To get X running with X 3.3.6, boot into run level 4 and log in as root. Once logged in, change to the /etc/X11 directory. There you will find the XF86Config file. Remove or backup this file (I recommend backing it up) and replace it with a new XF86Config file that looks like this example. Test out your new X config file by starting X with the command startx.


Other Hardware

All of the other hardware should be detected and load correctly. With RedHat and RedHat-based distributions, you may need to run the sndconfig utility (best done before starting X). For other distributions the sound should configure okay.

Modems and NICs should be detected by the install. If not, they are easy to install. Simply insert them in a free PCMCIA slot, boot the computer and use your distributions modem and/or NIC install utility to install and configure the device. Be careful that you do not get a Winmodem or WinNIC. In many cases, these will only work with Microsoft Windows and not with Linux. Stick with name brand modems and NICs. I used a Creative Modem Blaster model DI5615.


Some Helpful Links

If you have any comments or suggestions, please e-mail me.

Back to Linux Page