Just bought this thinkpad 420s. The first thing I did when I got it was install Ubuntu 11.04 on it. Most everything worked on first install, including things which many people seemed to have problems with on the forums.

Working:

• Displays work fine with 3d effects and everything (dual monitor with and without docking station) (Intel HD Graphics 3000)
• Built in speakers and headphone jack both work
• Built-in mic and web-cam both work - I used skype and google hangouts and both worked flawlessly.
• wireless worked with my open network connection (I haven’t yet tried it on secure networks)
• Bay battery seems to work.

Not Working:

• Audio output on docking station
• Dual Displays sometimes reset to showing the same image on both rather than two seperate displays. This has always been fixed by reseting the settings in the Monitor configuration page.

I am impressed with how flawless the install was. I was dreading it because last time I did this on my last laptop 4 years ago, I spent a few hours getting everything in working order. So far I have not yet had to do any custom installation. Everything that I needed working, worked out of the box!

Let me know if you want me to test anything out and I’ll try if I can.