Comment 70 for bug 33617

I installed Xubuntu Linux 7.4 (Feisty Fawn) on my teacher's Thinkpad model T20 2647-84U because it was running to slow with Windows 2000 that came installed with it by default. My teacher timed it and told me it would take seven minutes to reach to MS Windows desktop. So, I thought, there is no way that Windows XP can make things faster and I thought Xubuntu was a good choice since it was designed to run well on older systems.

After the install process everything worked nicely until I shut it down: I noticed the system would turn off but the screen would remain on with the Xubuntu logo. So, I held down the power button to turn it off and I pushed it again to start it. The Xubuntu logo appeared along with the progress bar, then the screen went blank as it does when before the desktop appears, but it didn't. It stayed a blank screen. I became worried because it's my teacher's Thinkpad and I am trying to get her into the Linux world. So I committed myself to give her a working Linux system.

At first I was frustrated and was about to give up. I wasn't getting a system that "just works" as the Ubuntu website claimed. After I chilled my frustration a bit, I decided to Google my problem and I found the site www.thinkwiki.org which deals, precisely. with installing Ubuntu on a Thinkpad:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_video_related_system_lockup

That site gave me the solution by just adding the line Option "BusType" "PCI" to yhr xorg.conf file. I have to thank Carlos Diener for posting his comment confirming that adding that line fixes the problem, since we both have the same Thinkpad.

Thanks to all the people who take the time to write detailed explanations and, also, thanks to those who by trial and error solved this problem for everyone.