Installing Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on a ThinkPad T61

Video

Intel X3100 Works out of the box

Nvidia accelerated 3D support is not installed by default. To install 3D support click System->Administration->Restricted Drivers Manager

The Restricted Drivers Manager drivers didn't work for me, crashing X on reboot. This is a known bug [1]. The really quite easy solution was to install the latest Nvidia drivers using the ENVY script, which needs to be slightly edited to run on Gutsy... see this thread [2] at Ubuntu forums for details.

Audio

Tim Gardner from Canonical posted test packages on the Launchpad bug report:

This does not work on x86_64. Put the old instructions back in! Why is anyone even running i386 on a T61 anyway???

wget http://people.ubuntu.com/~rtg/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-10-generic_2.6.22-10.24_i386.deb-122560.1
sudo dpkg -i linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-10-generic_2.6.22-10.24_i386.deb-122560.1
sudo reboot

Modem

The modem works with the Linuxant drivers available at http://www.linuxant.com

Fingerprint Reader

The reader works with ThinkFinger. Instructions.

Trackpad scrolling

Trackpad scrolling works out of the box in the standard thinkpad way: Slide your finger up and down the very right edge of the trackpad.

To enable using the middle mouse button to scroll, add the following lines to the "Configured Mouse" section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

   Option    "EmulateWheel"          "true"
   Option    "EmulateWheelButton"    "2"

Suspend/Hibernate

Hibernate works fine, but when resuming from a suspend the backlight doesn't come back on, making it nearly impossible to see anything on the screen. Switching to a console (Ctrl-Alt-F1) and then back to X (Ctrl-Alt-F7) brings the screen back to life. Launchpad bug report.

Fonts on High-Res Screens

On high-res screens (e.g. 15" 1680x1050), the default fonts are too big. You can fix this by following these steps:

1. Open System->Preferences->Appearance
2. Select the "Fonts" tab
3. Click the "Details" button (lower right)
4. Adjust the Resolution down until fonts look how you like them (96dpi is a common standard)
5. Make sure you have Subpixel (LCD) Smoothing enabled
6. Close the Details window and adjust the Application, Document, Desktop, etc fonts as desired (I set them all to 10).

Brightness

The brightness controls (Fn-Home, Fn-End) don't seem to work reliably (if at all), and the brightness dialog box occasionally will pop up at random or "stick" on the screen, often causing the screen to flicker. Messing around with the brightness controls (Fn-Home, Fn-End) will usually make the dialog to go away and the flickering stop. Launchpad bug report.

With the Nvidia card to increase/decrease brightness hit Ctrl+Alt+F1 to drop to a virtual console, change the brightness and hit Ctrl-Alt-F7 to return to Gnome. This can be done without affecting running applications.

If you install the Gnome Brightness Applet, it'll give you an easy way to change the brightness from within Gnome:

1. Right-click on the top menu bar.
2. Select "Add to Panel".
3. Scroll down to the "System & Hardware" section.
4. Highlight the "Brightness Applet" and click the "Add" button.

Using this applet often results in the "flickering screen syndrome" described above, but jiggling the brightness slider a little will cause this flickering to stop.

T61