Installing Debian Sid (September 2004) on a ThinkPad R50

Installing Debian on a Thinkpad R50

by Didrik Pinte (pinted at tiscali dot be ) Please correct or update this page !

The computer is delivered with a preinstalled Windows XP. A "secret" partition is hidden in your harddrive. It took approximately 7Gb on my 40 Gb disk...

First step : remove everything

The first think i've done is to call the IBM support to get a CD of Windows XP. They have sent it to me for free in 3 days. I've also created a backup copy of the DRIVERS and TOOLS and SUPPORT directories from the preinstalled XP. If you want, you can also create a functionnal CD of windows XP using the I386 directory.

After that, i've disabled the predesktop area from IBM using the BIOS. After this, when you push the "Access IBM" button, you have a simple black and white screen with the ability to enter the setup or choose a boot option (no more menu with mouse support, etc.).

See : http://www.4saad.com/WhatsNew/Fresh_XP_Install/

Second step : installing Sarge

Booting with the new beta 3 Sarge installer, i've then followed the basic installation procedure.

Here is the partition i've made :

/dev/hda1 1,5Gb swap /dev/hda2 10Gb ext3 / (bootable) /dev/hda3 5Gb vfat /windows /dev/hda4 23,5Gb vfat /shared (in a logical partition)

(it could be interested to create a little partition for hibernation, see lphdisk).

Starting with that, my e1000 network card was detected without any problem. After installing x-window-system and gnome, my ATI Radeon 9000 card was recognized. The sound card seems to work too (module intel8x0).

Without any modification, when I close the lid, the computer goes into supsend mode, waking up perfectly well when opening it. The power management is done by APM (i've tried acpi successfully but commands where not easyer ...).

Upgrading to Sid

Changing the sources.list, and doing a "apt-get dist-upgrade", i've update my Sarge sytem to Sid.

At this step, i'm running a 2.4.25 kernel. I'm running a Sid system (Debian/unstable).

Installing the Synaptics driver, i've got the touchpad working with tapping, etc. (see deb http://jopa.studentenweb.org/debian ./, package synaptics : simply install the package and change in your XF86Config-4 the driver of the mouse using the /dev/psaux device to "synaptics", then restart your X server).

X11

The ATI Radeon 9000 is supported by the radeon driver. The touchpad and ultranav work out of the box (but not completely well). Using the synaptics driver for XFree, you will have all the functionnality (see before). I've configure my XFree with the ultranav, the touchpad and a USB mouse. The screen resolution is 1400*1050. 3D is activated too.

See my XF86Config file.

Customizing the kernel

I prefer using the latest kernel (at the moment 2.6.8. Following the list of modules (lsmod) of my 2.4.25 kernel, I've found all the specific hardware to install.

I've installed kernel-source-2.6.8, some modules (thinkpad-source) and downloaded ipw2100 driver for the WiFi card (http://ipw2100.sourceforge.net/). I've also patched the kernel for MPPE support for PPP (accessing PPTP Microsoft VPN)

Some things to know : there seems to be a bug when shutting down the computer if LAPIC is on. You may disable it with a kernel parameter (nolapic) or compile the kernel with lapic support.

For the harddrive support, you need some parameters (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PIIX=y et CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ADMA=y). I've compiled most of the things directly in the kernel. **BUT** i did not succeed to hard compile the synaptics driver... It only work as a module (CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSE_PS2).

For the WiFi : CONFIG_NET_RADIO=Y and CONFIG_FW_LOADER=Y

The ALSA sound system works perfectly on my computer (with the intel8x0 card). The Bluetooth is fully functionnal only by enabling it in the kernel. Fn-F5 enables or disable it directly.

See my .config file for more information (send me an e-mail)

Then :
export PATCH_THE_KERNEL=YES
make-kpkg --append-to-version=customized clean kernel_image modules_image
dpkg -i kernel-image...
dpkg -i modules...

Wireless

If you've alreay inserted hostap in the kernel, it's very easy. Download the ipw2100 drive (see before).

Unzip the driver in the directory :

make
make install

Then, you need to install the firmware (see the ipw2100 page). For a 2.6 kernel, just copy the firmware in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware.

Then modprobe ipw2100. See in your log to what interface it has been bound.

Add to /etc/hotplug/blacklist the name of the module if you do not want it to be loaded at boot time.

Udev

A simple apt-get install udev worked perfectly well. Do not forget to add your user in all the required groups (video, audio, cdrom, etc.)

! it is safe to try it. It wont delete your old /dev, only mounting a new filesystems over it.

APM

By default apm is functionnal. The only problem seems to be the usb support on resuming from suspend.

For the Fn-F12 : use the tphdisk (http://samba.org/junkcode/, based on lphdisk) to create a save2dsk.bin file on one of your FAT partition. Then it will be completely usable. (Problem with the ipw2100 : had to rmmod then modprobe to make it work again).

13/05/2004 : it seems that my fan is always on... Big problem with the fan on R50 --> see the newsgroup. Use fglrx to arrange this.

Speedstepping

At the moment i'm using the cpufreqd to manage the processor. It seems that powernowd is better with 2.6.x kernels. I've not tested it. Updated : i've compiled the cpufreq-userspace module to make powernowd work. It's nice, seems to be better than cpufreqd that only lowers the cpu when the AC is off. Powernowd does it even with AC on.

Infrared

Enabling the infrared in the BIOS and adding some info in the kernel, it is automatically bound to /dev/ttyS0 (after installing the package irda-utils).

I've tested it with my Nokia 6210 using the gnokii software. It works well.

I've disbled the startup script S20irda in the /etc/rc2.d directory

Last things

Install apt-listchanges
Install gphoto2 - gtkam - gthumb

Changed the default radeon driver to the fglx driver (http://xoomer.virgilio.it/flavio.stanchina/debian/fglrx-installer.html ).The fan is now more silent. But have a problem with the change resolution tool from gnome. Is it related with this (http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33733550 )