Installing Fedora 14 on a ThinkPad T510

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Revision as of 20:21, 17 February 2011 by Michiwend (Talk | contribs) (→‎Success Chart - Out of the box experience)
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NOTE!
This is based on the Gnome live CD version of Fedora 14 64bit. Your experience with KDE or XFCE may be different. While this page is still very raw, i do invite all T510 fedora users to edit and fill it up. Tested with Thinkpad T510 model 4349-4JG with Intel Core i7 processor.
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.

Success Chart - Out of the box experience

Item Working Notes
Installation Local CD/DVD install yes
Network Installation unknown
USB Installation yes
Video NVIDIA Quadro NVS 3100M and 15.6" TFT display with 1600x900(HD+) yes The setup automatically installs the nouveau driver correctly, however if you want 3D acceleration you may install the proprietary nvidia driver (described below)
VGA yes
Brightness control no Not out of the box but there is a workaround that works well (described below)
Power Management Software Suspend (hibernate) yes
Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) yes
Audio yes
Wireless WiFi - Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 yes
Bluetooth yes Its always turned on after booting (workaround needed)
Qualcomm Gobi 2000 WWAN modem partial Works perfectly when firmware is correctly loaded (Gobiloader will not work on Fedora 14)
Input Keyboard yes
UltraNav (TrackPoint / Touchpad combo) yes
Extra keys partial See ThinkPad Extra keys section below
Fingerprint reader yes
Ports Ethernet yes
Modem unknown
Serial unknown
ExpressCard slot unknown
PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse unknown Requires dock. I don´t have a dock. Maybe someone with it can test and edit this page
Parallel unknown
USB yes
ESATA Port yes
Firewire Port unknown
PCMCIA/Cardbus yes
[Multicard reader 5-in-1 (MMC, MS, MS Pro, SD, SDHC)] yes 4GB SanDisk MicroSDHC detected.
2.0MP webcamera yes Tested with Cheese and Skype. Works perfectly.
Harddisk Active Protection no
TPM (security subsystem) unknown
Dock removal unknown

Configuration

Video card

By default the open source Nouveau driver is installed and works quite well with this model. However, if you need 3D graphic acceleration you need to install nVidias proprietary driver. To install it you´ll need to add the RPMFusion repository described on this page [1]

Install the driver with 

yum install kmod-nvidia

After installing the nVidia driver your boot splash disappears and the resolution of the terminal is very low. To fix that, open /boot/grub/grub.conf and add the following at the end of the kernel line 

vga=0x361

This is the highest possible resolution according to the resolution table of grub.

Workaround for brightness control

To enable brightness control edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf (if this file does not exist, create it!) 

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "nvidia"
        Option      "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection

For Nouveau users please change Driver to "nouveau"!!! After restarting your machine (or X-server) the brightness control should work.

UltraNav

Both Touchpad and TrackPoint work out of the box. Howerver I recommend to install gpointing-device-settings for more options than in standard mouse settings. 

yum install gpointing-device-settings

after installation you can find it under System --> Settings --> Pointing Devices

Trackpoint

If you feel uncomfortable with the slow TrackPoint you can adjust it´s speed and sense by passing values between 0 and 255 to /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/[speed,sensitivity,rate] either manually or at boot with this script (this will not affect other pointing devices): 

#! /bin/bash

# TrackPoint Settings

echo -n 200 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/speed 
echo -n 255 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/sensitivity
echo -n 255 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio2/rate

save it as .trackpoint-settings in your home folder.
Open a terminal and change into your home folder with 

cd ~

make the file executable 

chmod +x .trackpoint-settings

then add the file to your rc.local (replace YOUR_HOME_DIR with your username!!) 

su -c 'echo ". /home/YOUR_HOME_DIR/.trackpoint-settings" >> /etc/rc.local'

Play with the values between 0 and 255 until it fits for your needs.

To enable middle button scrolling for your TrackPoint open Pointing Devices go to TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint and check emulate mouse wheel. Choose a button from the dropdown (2 = middle)

Touchpad

Under Fedora you can use two finger scrolling. If you want to enable it open Pointing Devices and navigate to scrolling

Fingerprint reader

The fingerprint reader is supported by libfprint which is installed by default on Fedora 14. You can use the following commands in a terminal to manage the fingerprint reader 

fprintd-enroll
fprintd-delete 
fprintd-list
fprintd-verify

To enable authentication with your fingerprint first you need to enroll your finger and then simply enable it in System --> Administration --> Authentication --> Advanced options.

NOTE!
The fingerprint reader is an INSECURE device and gives a false sense of security! There has been quite a bit of research by a hacker who outlined in two very good talks how to forge each and every available fingerprint sensor available at the cost of a few euros, using materials from your local hardware store, a digicam and a laser printer! Remember, using fingerprints for authentication is much similar to having a password which is written on anything you touch.

ThinkPad Extra keys

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

Key Function Handled by Event Works Notes
FnF2 Lock the computer - unknown yes
FnF3 Select Power Plan - unknown unknown
FnF4 Put Computer to sleep/standby mode - unknown yes
FnF5 wireless - unknown unknown
FnF6 Change camera/audio settings - unknown unknown
FnF7 Switch Display output location - unknown unknown
FnF8 Change ultranav device settings - unknown partial Allows to turn on/off trackpad
FnF12 Put computer in hibernation mode - unknown unknown
FnHome brightness up - unknown yes
FnEnd brightness down - unknown yes
FnPgUp thinklight - unknown yes
FnSpace zoom - unknown unknown
FnPrtSc Have the same function as the SysRq key. - unknown unknown
FnScrLk Enable or disable the numeric keypad. - unknown yes
FnPause Have the same function as the Break key. - unknown unknown
ThinkVantage Vendor key - unknown unknown
VolumeUp Volume Up - unknown yes
VolumeDown Volume Down - unknown yes
VolumeMute Volume Mute - unknown yes
MicMute Microphone Mute - unknown no
NextTab Browser Next tab - unknown yes
PreviousTab Browser Previous tab - unknown yes
Power Power button - unknown yes
Lid Lid button - unknown yes
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