Installing Fedora 13 on a ThinkPad X201i

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NOTE!
This is based on the x86-64 version of Fedora 13 with the default GNOME desktop. Your experience with the 32bit version and/or KDE may be different.

Success Chart - Out of the box experience

The SMOLT profile for the X201i used for testing Fedora 13 is here.

Item Working Notes
Installation Local CD/DVD install yes
Network Installation yes
USB Installation yes
Display - Intel HD Graphics Laptop Screen yes
VGA unknown
Displayport unknown Requires a dock
DVI unknown Requires a dock and Displayport to DVI cable
Power Management Software Suspend (hibernate) unknown takes a long time to suspend/resume, and could use a progress/activity indicator
Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) unknown
Audio yes
Wireless WiFi - Intel 6200 yes
WiFi - Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 unknown
WiFi - Realtek unknown
Bluetooth yes
WWAN with GPS unknown
Input Keyboard yes
TrackPoint yes Install gpointing-device-settings rpm for full configuration capabilities
TouchPad unknown
Extra keys partial see ThinkPad Extra keys section below
Fingerprint reader unknown
Ports Ethernet yes
Modem no
USB yes
ExpressCard unknown
SD Card slot yes
Harddisk Active Protection no Fedora ships the hdapsd rpm, but not the tp_smapi kernel module, which is required to read the motion sensor bugzilla
Ultrabay device hotswap partial see below, use with caution out of the box
TPM unknown
Docking unknown

Tested and Verified on Fedora 13

Information in this section has been tested and verified using Fedora 13.

Installation

Installation is straight forward; you can follow the generic Fedora install instructions.

Configuration

X Server - Intel HD Graphics

Works out of the box, including Compiz.

One of the new Features of Fedora 13 is support for Colour Profiles (found under System > Preferences > Color Profiles). Instructions for locating the correct colour profile for your ThinkPad can be found on the Colour profile page.

ThinkPad Extra keys

ThinkPad keys are handled by a mixture of the thinkpad_acpi, acpi button, acpi dock and acpi video drivers.

Key Function Handled by Event Works Notes
Fn-F2 lock screen thinkpad_acpi HAL yes
Fn-F3 battery thinkpad_acpi HAL yes
Fn-F4 suspend acpi button HAL yes
Fn-F5 wireless thinkpad_acpi HAL partial Works as a radio kill switch, kills WiFi but not Bluetooth
Fn-F7 videomode thinkpad_acpi HAL no Switches, but gives black display on both and cannot restore display
Fn-F8 mouse input select thinkpad_acpi HAL unknown
Fn-F9 eject thinkpad_acpi HAL partial No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties
Fn-F12 hibernate acpi button HAL yes
Fn-Home brightness up acpi video HAL yes
Fn-End brightness down acpi video HAL yes
Fn-PgUp thinklight - no yes no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround.
Fn-Space zoom thinkpad_acpi HAL no Known Xorg limitation, scheduled to be fixed with the new XKB2 extension, whenever that may be.
VolumeUp Volume Up ? HAL yes
VolumeDown Volume Down ? HAL yes
VolumeMute Volume Mute ? HAL yes
ThinkVantage Vendor key thinkpad_acpi HAL partial No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties
NextTab Browser Next tab standard keyboard driver HAL yes
PreviousTab Browser Previous tab standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Fn-Up Stop standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Fn-Left reverse standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Fn-Right forward standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Fn-Down play/pause standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Power Power button acpi button HAL yes Need to press button for ~1 second to trigger event. Causes a dialog asking you what to do.
Lid Lid button acpi button HAL yes
Dock Dock eject button acpi dock udev unknown
Ultrabay Ultrabay eject switch acpi dock udev no Missing handler, see Ultrabay instructions below
Radio switch Radio kill switch thinkpad_acpi udev yes

Ultrabay

The Ultrabay has some glitches out of the box with respect to hotswapping. It is possible to lock the machine when pulling out devices, even the CD/DVD device.

The culprit is that the Ultrabay pre-eject switch is not hooked into anything useful. It does cause udev events, but nothing is listening for them. When a device that has a mounted partition or CD is actually pulled out it is too late to do the right thing. linux will usually just complain, sometimes bitterly, but may also lock up for some unknown reason, even if just pulling out a CD/DVD device with a mounted CD.

Manually unmounting before removal will help. Manual powering down may also be required for correct performance.

A better solution is to set up a udev rule and script to handle the pre-eject switch event for Ultrabay devices that have mountable things in them as in How to hotswap Ultrabay devices.