Sunday, April 19, 2015

Installing Bodhi Linux on Lenovo T400

Used to run Centos on my T400.  Just want to rebuild the laptop with Bodhi Linux.  Try to install Bodhi Linux 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 but the CD only boots to command line for some reason.  Suspect it is the ATI card.  Some people have success with 32 bits.  However, I am only interest in 64 bits.  So, I try the new 3.0 and it works fine.  Boot up the machine with the Live CD first and start the Bodhi Linux Installation.

Hardware
This is a 5 yrs old laptop without SD card reader, webcam and bluetooth.  Only have builtin WiFi.  All hardware are detected correctly.  Wireless work fine however, I don't see a list of access point.  To correct that, I found this link.  It works after I complete step 3.

  1. turn on wireless switch
  2. in a terminal windows execute the below command sudo rfkill unblock wifi
  3. reboot
VMware Workstation 9 installation
After the installation, I add the following packages before installing VMware Workstation 9.
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Download VMware Workstation 9 and copy to my home folder.  Then, follows steps below to complete the installation.

chmod +x VMware-Workstation-Full-9.0.4-1945795.x86_64.bundle
sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full-9.0.4-1945795.x86_64.bundle

Now, goto /usr/bin and start vmware with "vmware &"

However, you will see vmware failed to build the vmnet.  Search google and see it happens with VMware 10 on Ubuntu.

Download the patch in VMware Community (see post  https://communities.vmware.com/message/2327060.  I download the patch upload by WoodyZ).

cd /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source
tar -xvf vmnet.tar
patch vmnet-only/filter.c < ~/ws1001.vmnet.filter.c.313.patch
tar -uvf vmnet.tar vmnet-only
rm -r vmnet-only
/usr/bin/vmware&

Installation completes successfully.

Java Installation
All the hardware are detected and work fine.  Run the speaker-test to confirm sound card is working fine.  I plan to try the lightweight browser Midori.

To install Java, I run the following command.
sudo apt-get install default-jre  (java 1.7 is installed)
sudo apt-get install icedtea-plugin  (version 1.5 is installed as of today.  From Midori FAQicedtea6 version 1.8 and above has been known to crash midori)

Flash Installation
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

Gdebi installation
sudo apt-get install gdebi

Foxit Reader installation
Foxit Reader is used to open Adobe document.  Download a copy and use Gdebi to install it.
sudo gdebi FoxitReader.deb

Office suite installation
Go to AppCenter and select the office you want to install.

VideoLAN installation
The last version I know that will work with rm file is 1.05.  After that, playing rm file with videolan will crash intermittently.  Not sure if it is fixed in version 2.  Find a 1.0.5 deb package but fail to install with dependency issue.  Eventually, install what's available in appcenter.

Disable auto-login
To disable auto-login, open up /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf with epad and comment out the line
#autologin-user=username

DIA installation
sudo apt-get install dia
 

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