Ubuntu 8.10 Beta on my Thinkpad T60 laptop? It is more likely than you think. Case of the missing wired Ethernet connection! (e1000e blacklisted)

You might be wondering why a Linux-centric post is doing here, but it could be helpful for others out there trying out Ubuntu 8.10 Beta with systems that have Intel gigabit Ethernet adapters in them.

Only newer Intel chipsets seem to be affected by this bug in the earlier Linux 2.6.27-RC builds, but there is a potential of NVRAM wiping if certain (rare) situations occur. For this reason, by default, Ubuntu 8.10 Beta has the affected PCI IDs blacklisted.

However, if you update your kernel to the latest kernel release for Ubuntu Intrepid, using Update Manager or other methods (apt-get or synaptic). As of today, the package version is 2.6.27-4.6.

If you want to read more about the blacklisting and the bug fix involved, read the article here, and here.

The only other bummer I have run into so far with this new version of Ubuntu is that the newest ATI binary drivers do not support X.org 7.4 (yet) so if you want 3D goodness *right now* you have to downgrade to the old Hardy 7.3 libraries. I don't want to go through that hassle and will just wait for ATI/AMD to play catch up.

Info on ATI getting the binary drivers to work on Ubuntu 8.10 here.

Other than that, everything works out of the box after you un-blacklist the wired interface.

Bluetooth, wireless, everything, fired right up. I can't say that about prior versions of Ubuntu with my Thinkpad T60.

Thankfully wireless was working with WPA2 so that I could get on my home network and upgrade the kernel or else I would have been sneakernetting the upgrade files.