Installing Debian Sid on a ThinkPad T500

Configuration

The model number is 2082-6PG.

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 07)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:03.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset MEI Controller (rev 07)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3650
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5100
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
15:00.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 21)
15:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev ff)
15:00.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 11)
15:00.5 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 11)

lsusb

Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 007 Device 004: ID 17ef:4807 Lenovo 
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 0a5c:2145 Broadcom Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 08ff:2810 AuthenTec, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Hard drive

Model=ST9250827AS                             , FwRev=3.CMF   , SerialNo=            5RG5RGBM
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=488397168
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 
DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 
AdvancedPM=yes: unknown setting WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: unknown:  ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7

Before installation

• switched to discrete graphics (Intel 4500MHD) in the BIOS. I did't want to mess with the ATI card because of the driver issues.

Installation

Used an (amd64) USB image (hd-media) and the Lenny RC1 netinstall ISO. Installation worked flawlessly, the Gigabit Ethernet adapter was detected and configured. Installed without X, switched to sid in sources.list and then went for X and Gnome.

After installation I compiled a vanilla 2.6.28 that I'm currently running.

Working

Pretty much out of the box with the 2.6.28 kernel:

• Gigabit Ethernet (e1000 module)
• 5300AGN wireless (iwlagn) with CRDA userspace regulation
• Intel graphics, X driver from sid repository
• suspend to ram (echo mem > /sys/power/state OR Fn+F4)
• sound (HDA) + volume control buttons
• Bluetooth
• webcam (UVC driver, tested with guvcview)
• card reader
• watchdog timer (iTCO_wdt kernel module and the watchdog daemon)

HDAPS

The source package in the sid repository for tp_smapi is a bit outdated, so I compiled and installed using the tarball for SourceForge.

In order to get the OpenGL visualization utility (hdaps-gl) and the head parking daemon (hdapsd) working properly:

• created /etc/modprobe.d/hdaps , containing:

options thinkpad_ec force_io=1
options hdaps invert=1

• added to /etc/modules the following line:

hdaps

• installed hdapsd, which creates the required udev rule (/etc/udev/rules.d/z60_hdapsd.rules). I used the 1:0.0.20081004-1 version of the package, as it was required by the new sysfs interface in 2.6.28.
• However, if you don't want hdapsd (i.e. just want accelerometer data with no head parking), you can create a rule containing:

KERNEL=="event[0-9]*", ATTRS{phys}=="hdaps/input1",ATTRS{modalias}=="input:b0019v1014p5054e4801-*",SYMLINK+="input/hdaps/accelerometer-event

• installed hdaps-utils

Hard drive issues

Running hdparm -i /dev/sda i get the exact model and firmware version of the disk (Seagate Momentus 5400.4 SATA 250GB):

Model=ST9250827AS                             , FwRev=3.CMF

I modified (in the kernel header ata.h) the ata_id_has_unload() to print the hex value of the ATA_ID_CFSSE word (Command Feature/Set Supported Extension). Here's what i get:

[    3.910056] ata: CFSSE 4000

According to the ATA-7 spec, the 13th bit should be 1 if the drive supports "IDLE IMMEDIATE with UNLOAD FEATURE", and it is not the case here. At this point it is quite clear that the drive reports it doesn't support the feature.

However, doing a manual write to the sysfs file (like echo 10000 > /sys/block/sda/device/unload_heads) does NOT cause an error and causes the drive to park the heads (the specific sound is clearly audible).

So, in the end, hdapsd has the expected behavior, regardless of the hard drive bug.

Not working

• mute button
• fingerprint reader, seems there's no driver yet

Not tested

• DisplayPort
• modem