Installing Fedora 16 on a ThinkPad T410

NOTE! This is based on the x86-64 version of Fedora 16 with the default GNOME desktop. Your experience with the 32bit version and/or KDE may be different. Help needed Not all models of this ThinkPad are equal, you may have a different WiFi adapter or graphics, or some options I did not have. If you tested them, please add their status down below.

New in this release

New in this Fedora release, with regards to this model ThinkPad is the following;

• Better out of the box support for Undock
• Better video performance for Intel graphics

Regressions;

• ...

Success Chart - Out of the box experience

The SMOLT profile for the T410 used for testing Fedora 16 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	yes
	Displayport	unknown
	DVI	yes	Requires a dock or Displayport to DVI adapter
Display - NVidia	Laptop Screen	unknown
	VGA	unknown
	Displayport	unknown
	DVI	unknown	Requires a dock or Displayport to DVI adapter
Power Management	Software Suspend (hibernate)	yes
	Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep)	yes
Audio		yes
Wireless	WiFi - Intel 6200	yes
	WiFi - Intel 6300	yes
	WiFi - Realtek	unknown
	Bluetooth	yes
	WWAN with GPS	unknown
Input	Keyboard	yes
	TrackPoint	yes	Install gpointing-device-settings rpm for full configuration capabilities
	TouchPad	yes	Install gpointing-device-settings rpm for full configuration capabilities
	Extra keys	partial	see ThinkPad Extra keys section below
	Fingerprint reader	unknown
Ports	Ethernet	yes
	Modem	no	May work with the binary Conexant HSF modem drivers.
	USB	yes
	ExpressCard	unknown
	Smartcard Reader	unknown
	5-in-1 MultiCard Reader	partial	Reads SD and SDHC, but not MemoryStick
	eSATA	unknown
	Firewire 400	unknown
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		yes	tpm_tis is automatically loaded. After installing the tpm-tools rpm, and starting the tcsd service, the tpm_* commands seem to work.
Docking		partial	Events work partially, not as complete as older generation ThinkPads

Tested and Verified on Fedora 16

Information in this section has been tested and verified using Fedora 16.

Installation

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

Configuration

Kernel

You may want to consider editing /boot/grub/grub.conf and adding pcie_aspm=force to the kernel line. This will force enable PCIe ASPM power saving functions, which are getting disabled because the BIOS claims not to support it, but it does work and it makes a significant difference in battery life. A potential downside is that if the system really does not support it, you could experience system freezes, but I have not noticed any (YMMV).

X Server - Intel HD Graphics

Works out of the box.

Instructions for locating the correct colour profile for your ThinkPad LCD can be found on the Colour profile page.

External VGA and DVI (through a Dock) displays work, DisplayPort has not yet been tested.

X Server - NVidia

?

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
FnF2	lock screen	thinkpad_acpi	HAL	yes
FnF3	battery	thinkpad_acpi	HAL	yes
FnF4	suspend	acpi button	HAL	yes
FnF5	wireless	thinkpad_acpi	HAL	partial	Works as a radio kill switch, kills WiFi but not Bluetooth
FnF6	video conference	thinkpad_acpi	HAL	partial	No default action, but can be associated in the Gnome keyboard settings
FnF7	videomode	thinkpad_acpi	HAL	yes
FnF8	mouse input select	thinkpad_acpi	yes	yes
FnF12	hibernate	acpi button	HAL	yes
FnHome	brightness up	acpi video	HAL	yes	includes on-screen display of brightness level
FnEnd	brightness down	acpi video	HAL	yes	includes on-screen display of brightness level
FnPgUp	thinklight	-	no	yes	no OSD.
FnSpace	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
MicMute	Mic Mute	?	no	no
ThinkVantage	Vendor key	thinkpad_acpi	HAL	partial	No default action, but can be associated in the Gnome keyboard settings
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 a Suspend event.
Lid	Lid button	acpi button	HAL	yes	Triggers suspend event
Dock	Dock eject	-	yes	partial	Events work partly
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.