I just installed the latest beta of Ubuntu 7.10 on my old IBM T30. Unlike the last time I tried this, both the wireless and the video worked first try. Woot! I ran the movie player and attempted to stream a video off my slug and it calmly downloaded the required codecs and then played it perfectly.
Of course, I can’t run the fancy desktop effects, but I couldn’t do this on the old version either, and at least it now notices that it can’t run them instead of attempting to switch and leaving the UI in a busted state.
This spirit of helpfulness carries through in other places too. When I booted the first time, it warned me that my battery was “busted” because the capacity was down to 32%. Yup, that seems busted to me. Anybody know of a good source of T30 batteries in Ottawa?
Anyway, I probably won’t start using the laptop for anything important until the Gibbon comes off beta in a couple of weeks, but man it sure is nice to have found a way to make the old beast useful again. As usual, Ubuntu feels much snappier then WinXP did on this box.
Another much needed addition: You can now turn off “tap to click” on the touchpad. Not being able to do that, even more than having a broken wireless, was what finally stopped me from using Fiesty Fawn.
Hey Mike. This is probably too late, but I would try TTE.ca (the trailing edge) for batteries for your T30. They’ll either be reasonable or really really expensive. (Hopefully note like the batteries for my Armada M300 which are priced over $250)
Thanks for the pointer, Kevin. I found a place over on Baseline Rd. that had them for somewhere around $75. It took a few charge cycles to stabilize, but now I’m getting over two hours of use.