How To Install GNU+Linux on an IBM Thinkpad 240X
Last week I provided some GNU/Linux support to a residential user in Dorset, and he gave me a IBM Thinkpad 240X that he no longer had any use of.
This has a P3 CPU, 64Mb RAM, an 11Gb harddisk, and thus more than capable of running GNU+Linux; it currently had a copy of Windows 98b installed, with Firefox 2.0.0.1.
This seemed bizarre because it did not initially appear to have any networking hardware, other than a modem and an empty PCMCIA slot. I soon realised that it does have a network card built in, but one with a strangely wide and thin socket that you connect a dongle with a standard Ethernet socket to.
So, how to install GNU+Linux?
I inserted a wireless card that is known to work with free software, and the Windows Driver Installation Wizard appeared, saying that the card is a “Netgear MA401RA.” I connected the modem to my phone line and dialed up using one of the 0845 dialup ISPs of the day and searched for “netgear ma401ra windows 98 driver” which returned the direct FTP download of the Netgear MA401RA Windows 98 Drivers (4Mb) on the first hit, and after 20 minutes of 5k/sec downloading, I had working WiFi.
I thought I could use Instlux for Ubuntu 6.06 and the gNewSense ISO, to install gNewSense, but that only works for Windows 2000 and XP systems because it uses the NT boot loader.
PuppyLinux for Windows 98 works but its a bit strange.
I wonder if I can upgrade it to a full installation…
The How To Install GNU+Linux on an IBM Thinkpad 240X by David Crossland, except the quotations and unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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