CentOS - Sep 2011 - CentOS 6 Installation on Thinkpad X220

I am trying to install CentOS 6 x86_64 on a Lenovo Thinkpad x220.

During the installation it asks me to insert a driver.

Has anyone done this successfully?
-- 
Rgds,

Janne Nyman
M: +44 751 696 1842
E: jnyman at jbtec.org

On Fri, 9 Sep 2011, Janne Nyman wrote:
> I am trying to install CentOS 6 x86_64 on a Lenovo Thinkpad x220.
>
> During the installation it asks me to insert a driver.
>
> Has anyone done this successfully?
You might want to be a bit more specific about what it's complaining about.
About the only generic thing I'd check was that the BIOS was set to AHCI for
the SATA controller if that's an option.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/575569-linux-x220-17.html

This suggests that people have got it working fine.

jh

On Fri, 2011-09-09 at 08:41 +0100, Janne Nyman wrote:
> I am trying to install CentOS 6 x86_64 on a Lenovo Thinkpad x220.
> 
> During the installation it asks me to insert a driver.
What type of 'driver' ?  Any more clues ?  At what stage of the
installation did you get the request ?

Paul.

> Hi
>
> unless you are doing this for a specific reason (ie eval/training) would
> advise that centos is not really a laptop distribution despite what
> redhat may try to suggest.
>
> best desktop/laptop in my opinion is mageia
>
> regards peter
>> I am trying to install CentOS 6 x86_64 on a Lenovo Thinkpad x220.
>>
>> During the installation it asks me to insert a driver.
>>
>> Has anyone done this successfully?
>>
>
>
Hi Peter, thanks for your feedback.

I guess the reason I am doing it, is as I love the way CentOS works, I.e.
the stability and performance. I am currently running it on a ThinkPad
Edge 11 and all seems to work great.

Just looks like the e1000e NIC driver is not working with the kernel in
6.0. I have also tried this with RHEL 6.1 but that also gets me stuck at
the booting of the x220.

I have tried to understand how the "load driver disk" works with
CentOS
and RHEL based systems, but I am failing to get it working.

I have got my hands on the e1000e driver and patched the initrd but still
no go.

That's why I wanted to check if anyone else has got this working :)

Anyone else?


Kind regards,
Janne Nyman
E: jnyman at jbtec.org

> And she changed it from AHCI to compatibility mode (had to change itto
> that mode to make the drive being recognized?), which is not the best
> setting regarding speed.
Alexander: The she is actually a he :)
> Quite right, sorry, I'd read it backwards.  So presumably either a bug
> in the
> AHCI support, or a limitation/bug of the kernel driver?
> jh
John: Actually, this is a complete false alarm.

Actual Solution:
You don't have to change anything on these laptops. But it is a good tip
that when installing from external cd/dvdrom, if it first does not work,
change usb port and try again.

I changed back the BIOS to AHCI. I was previously plugged into the top
left USB port I.e. the one on the left hand side closes to the monitor
or back side.

When lenovo's external CDROM/DVD is plugged into this port, I am unable
to install linux in general or other OS's. Once I plug it into any of
the other USB ports bottom left or right, it works perfectly.

No wonder I haven't found any problem posts regarding x220 and
CentOS/RHEL.

Thanks for all your time supporting me. Fantastic responses on this
mailing list.

Use external CD/DVD ROM, just ensure to plug it into the right port :)

Cheers,
Janne "Janski" Nyman
E: jnyman at jbtec.org

>>  I might be wrong, but is it possible that this port is USB3?  That way
the
>>  BIOS would be able to boot the CD from it, but neither linux nor
windows is
>>  likely to have suitable drivers for using it.
>>  jh
That may be the reason :)

I thought it was me going nuts. Again, thanks all for you assistance.


Cheers,
Janne "Janski" Nyman
E: jnyman at jbtec.org