Linux on IBM Thinkpad 560?

[mikebw at bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

Mark Spencer wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 MS> I have an older IBM Thinkpad 560 - specifically a 2640-50A.
 MS> This machine has a 100mhz pentium, 8meg ram, and DSTN
* * *
 MS> I guess the major concern would be support for the 560's sound 
 MS> and graphics chipset? I would have to install Redhat using a 
 MS> parallel port cdrom drive .. 

There are a ton of variations on the basic ThinkPad 560, but I believe that
they all use one of the C&T 655xx video chipsets and the ESSx688 sound chip,
both of which are well supported by Linux.  I suspect that your worst obstacle
will be getting the parallel port CD-ROM drive to work under Linux.

I would be more worried about trying to run X in only 8 MB RAM, which is
pushing it.  If your goal is to demo Linux, don't make it run slowly.

Finally, some of the ThinkPads use Cyrix M1 CPUs instead of Intel Pentiums, and
these can be problematic running a real 32-bit OS with cache enabled.
 
-- Mike


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