Installing Ubuntu 9.10 on a ThinkPad T-400

Ubuntu 9.10 (aka: Karmic Koala), 64-bit version.

Download Kanotix and burn to CD

Boot Kanotix

Open a terminal window and set admin password:

sudo passwd

At the bottom right of the Kanotix desktop, click the “K”, go to “Settings” and then “Partition Editor”. When prompted, enter your newly set admin password.

Though I burned a set of recovery disks (one CD and two DVDs), I left the restore partition intact since I have a 500gb drive and loads of spare space. I resized the Windows partition (from 460gb to 29gb) and applied the change. Perhaps because it was such a large hard drive it, it took some time. Occasionally, it seemed to stop working until I touched the touchpad, and then things would start moving again. After at least twenty minutes of the slider moving back and forth, it started resizing (showing the progress), and indicated that it would take another 33 minutes. However, the number soon dropped to 21 minutes.

Once that was done, I shutdown Kanotix and restarted the system to see if Windows would still boot. ThinkVantage and/or Windows detected something different and initiated a startup repair. This went on for two hours with little indication that anything productive was happening. I aborted, then restarted and initiated a full restore using the ThinkVantage button (pressed during the first seconds of boot up).

I was warned, and I expected, that restore would put the hard drive back to how it was when it left the factory. However, after restore finished and Windows booted up, I was pleasantly surprised (ecstatic, in fact) to discover that my partitioning was intact and that restore only restored Windows within its now restricted partition, leaving the rest as free space.

Then I booted using the Ubuntu CD. After answering the usual questions about time zone and keyboard, etc., the partition manager loaded. I chose to partition manually rather than accept any of the suggested options. From my free space, I create the following partitions:

• Swap: 8gb
• Root (/): 30gb
• Home: 410gb

After that, installation went as usual.