Installing Fedora 16 on a ThinkPad T410
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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.
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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;
- Intel WiFi (iwlwifi) is unstable after suspend, fixed in 3.2 kernel from the Updates repo
- Harmless Intel DRM error messages in log ([drm:ironlake_update_pch_refclk] *ERROR* enabling SSC on PCH), fixed in 3.2 kernel from the Updates repo
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 /etc/default/grub and adding pcie_aspm=force to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line, and running # grub2-mkconfig. 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). This issue is resolved in the upstream 3.3 kernel release.
Likewise you may also want to add the option i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 which will allow the Integrated (Intel) graphics to enter a lower power state, and save yet some more power. Again this could cause problems on certain implementations, but I have not noticed any negative effects.
The kernel does log one error message on this ThinkPad, regardless of the above parameters;
[drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] *ERROR* failed to get supported _DSM functions
This error seems to be a BIOS bug that Lenovo has so far failed to fix. It does not cause any problems so the warning can be ignored. However, printing the error does cause a modeswitch during boot which breaks the seamless graphical boot.
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 | yes | yes | |
| FnF3 | battery | thinkpad_acpi | yes | yes | |
| FnF4 | suspend | acpi button | yes | yes | |
| FnF5 | wireless | thinkpad_acpi | yes | partial | Works as a radio kill switch, kills WiFi but not Bluetooth |
| FnF6 | video conference | thinkpad_acpi | yes | partial | No default action, but can be associated in the Gnome keyboard settings |
| FnF7 | videomode | thinkpad_acpi | yes | yes | |
| FnF8 | mouse input select | thinkpad_acpi | yes | yes | |
| FnF12 | hibernate | acpi button | yes | yes | |
| FnHome | brightness up | acpi video | yes | yes | includes on-screen display of brightness level |
| FnEnd | brightness down | acpi video | yes | yes | includes on-screen display of brightness level |
| FnPgUp | thinklight | - | no | yes | no OSD. |
| FnSpace | zoom | thinkpad_acpi | yes | no | Known Xorg limitation, scheduled to be fixed with the new XKB2 extension, whenever that may be. |
| VolumeUp | Volume Up | ? | yes | yes | |
| VolumeDown | Volume Down | ? | yes | yes | |
| VolumeMute | Volume Mute | ? | yes | yes | |
| MicMute | Mic Mute | ? | no | no | |
| ThinkVantage | Vendor key | thinkpad_acpi | yes | partial | No default action, but can be associated in the Gnome keyboard settings |
| NextTab | Browser Next tab | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| PreviousTab | Browser Previous tab | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Fn Up | Stop | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Fn Left | reverse | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Fn Right | forward | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Fn Down | play/pause | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Power | Power button | acpi button | yes | yes | Need to press button for ~1 second to trigger a Suspend event. |
| Lid | Lid button | acpi button | yes | 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.
