Several Problems you may find after installing Ubuntu 10.04 on your ThinkPad T420

The problem 1: No network devices available

Answer: It's a well-know problem. The reason is very obvious. There are no network drivers for your laptop. That means the header of Linux 2.6.32-XXX CD images (the standard official image you download from Ubuntu Web server) have no network drivers for your T420 network interfaces.

Therefore, you should download the drivers from other laptop/pc or Windows system if you have it on your laptop. Please follow the steps:

1. Download e1000e from sf.net; choose the latest one (be careful that please don't download the one out of box, which is named "ixgbe-XXXX". That one may not contain a suitable/compatible e1000e.). In my case, I choose the one named "e1000e-2.0.0.1".

2. Use the following commands:

tar -xvf /path to /e1000e-2.0.0.1.tar.gz

cd src/

sudo make install

sudo modprobe e1000e

3. Plug your wired ethernet cable to your PC.

4. Wait for 5 seconds, you will find your PC now has ethernet connection.

Done!!!

The problem 2: Wireless network driver and Display drivers are missing.

Answer: the problem can be solved in several ways. But here I would like to provide the simplest way.

1. After problem 1, you are able to access to Internet. So, now please install the header which has the wireless network drivers and display drivers for T420. I recommend the one named "Linux-image-2.6.38-13-generic". You could use the commmand: sudo apt-get install linux-image-2.6.38-13-generic.

2. Reboot your PC... Done....

The problem 3: How to remove the headers you will never use it in the future?

Answer: in the grub list, you could find all the image headers. After updating to higher version, you may never go back to the lower version again in the future usage. So, how to remove them? The steps are simple:

1. Go to the one you will use, for example, login into "linux-image-2.6.38-13-generic".

2. Use the following command to remove the unused header lists: "dpkg -l ‘linux-*’ | sed ‘/^ii/!d;/’”$(uname -r | sed “s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/”)”‘/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d’ | grep “linux-headers” | xargs sudo apt-get -y purge". 

3. Reboot, you will not see the older headers in the login grub list again.

The problem 4: How to change the priority of systems in grub?

Answer: sometimes, you would like to use ubuntu more than Window, sometimes verse. So, you could change the priority of grub list. Follow the steps:

1. First problem you may find is that in Linux-2.6.38-X or later, you cannot find /boot/grub/menu.lst. But don't worry, you have nothing to lose. You can find the equal file named "/boot/grub/grub.cfg" under the same directory. Open it with command "sudo vim /boot/grub/grub.cfg". 

2. Move the menuentry of Windows before the one of Linux. At the same time, you can also remove some items you hate them to appear in the grub list. 

3. Save it with option of "wq!" in vim.

4. reboot your pc. You will see the effect. Done.   

Other problems??? Let me update later. 

Thanks, 

Our GOD blesses you, in Jesus.