Installing Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on a ThinkPad T61

NOTE: I copied the 8.04 document and created this one with the information. Please help to update it so it accurately reflects 8.10.

Items that work out of the box

Intel Video: 2D and 3D acceleration works

Nvidia Video: 2D and 3D acceleration works

Wireless: Intel cards tested. Atheros cards also works.

Wireless WAN: Cingular/AT&T card tested.

Network Card: Intel 10/100/1000 tested

Wireless switch: Tested (Only has an effect over the bluetooth, wifi is unaffected)

Webcam: Tested with cheese and skype.

Headphones: Works out of the box

Microphone: Just needs to be activated, see section below

Keyboard Shortcuts: Most of them work out of the box, some need to be activated, see section below

Fingerprint Reader: With ThinkFinger, not as functional after upgrade (need to hit 'Enter'), see below

Items that need (some) tweaking to obtain full functionality

Open Source Intel Wifi Driver

The following information is important if you are upgrading from a previous version (2007 or earlier) of Ubuntu to 8.10.

Intel has created a new Linux Wifi driver project for Intel Wireless cards, "Iwlwifi". This driver is Open Source and no longer requires the Intel daemon to run in addition. This project will support the T61's Wifi Intel 3945ABG network adapter and Intel 4965AGN network adapter.

An automatic migration will occur when upgrading from Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 8.04. However, there is a caveat to be aware of:

• The new driver wants to name the interface wlan0 (by default -- you can rename it to anything you want), and requires a different entry in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules, which handles the naming of interfaces. Simply edit this file and delete your old entry for the ipw3945 driver, then unload/reload the new driver, or simply reboot. A new entry will automatically be created that is appropriate for the new driver. Here's an example of the lines to delete:

# PCI device 0x8086:0x4227 (ipw3945)
SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTRS{address}=="00:1b:77:a4:0e:2f", NAME="eth1"

If you need to perform a manual migration, the Ubuntu Help Community has written some documentation that will make this very easy to do.

An additional note System lock-ups with Intel 4965 wireless

The version of the iwlagn wireless driver for Intel 4965 wireless chipsets included in Linux kernel version 2.6.27 causes kernel panics when used with 802.11n or 802.11g networks. Users affected by this issue can install the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package, to install a newer version of this driver that corrects the bug. (Because the known fix requires a new version of the driver, it is not expected to be possible to include this fix in the main kernel package.) http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/810

Network connection after suspend/resume

Networking may not work after a suspend or resume operation, this is because of the ath_pci driver and can be worked around by creating the file /etc/pm/config.d/madwifi and adding the single line

SUSPEND_MODULES=ath_pci

which causes the driver to be unloaded on suspend and reloaded on resume.

Fingerprint Reader with ThinkFinger

Here are the general instruction on how to enable the fingerprint reader with ThinkFinger

If you are having a problem you may need to modify the following.

  1. Open up your xorg.conf file:
     sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  2. Add to it (or uncomment if it’s already there):
     Section “InputDevice”
     Identifier      “Generic Keyboard”
     Driver          “kbd”
     Option          “XkbRules”      “xorg”
     Option          “XkbModel”      “pc105″
     Option          “XkbLayout”     “us”
     EndSection
  3. Under Section “ServerLayout”, add:
     InputDevice     “Generic Keyboard”

From: Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex - ThinkFinger Fingerprint Reader

Note: this temporary fix appears to get in the way of Thinkpad keyboard configurations. With the method applied, the up arrow becomes "print screen" and volume buttons stop working.

Another solution is available at the T61p Ubuntu 8.10 page.

Emulate Wheel (Middle-click scrolling)

Michael Vogt described how to get middle-click scrolling to work again in Intrepid. Xorg.conf is not used to configure mice and keyboards anymore, but evdev is. This makes the configuration of middle-click scrolling a little bit different than previous versions of Ubuntu. In terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi

Past and save the following code, which will give vertical wheel emulation only:

<match key="info.product" string="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint">
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheel" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelButton" type="string">2</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.ZAxsisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">true</merge>
</match>

There is another method to get horizontal scrolling as well, but I don't think it worked for me.