Installing Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) on an X61 Tablet

Introduction

This page covers the additional hardware setup required after installing Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty to make the Thinkpad X61 Tablet Fully Functional. All directions are given in the HAL, fdi, and acpi thus avoiding the xorg.conf file completely.

What Works

Forward / Back Buttons, Audio Buttons, Brightness Fn Buttons, Radio Fn Button, Suspend Fn Button, Power Fn Button, Lock Fn Button, Hibernate Fn Button, Tablet L/R/U/D Buttons, Tablet Enter Button, Tablet Esc Button, Media Fn Buttons NumberLock Fn Button, Tablet Pen, Wireless Radio, Bluetooth Radio,

What Almost Works

Tablet Toolbox Button - causes lock or suspend, Tablet Touch – Requires Calibration,

What Does Not Work

Tablet Control-Alt-Delete Button, Tablet Rotate Button, Middle Mouse Button, ThinkVantage Button, Magnify Fn Button, Fingerprint Reader, Automatic Screen Rotation, ThinkVantage ActiveProtection,

Fixing Touch

Works out of the box, just needs some calibration.

Wacomcpl

The Wacom Tablet in the X61t is a serial Wacom tablet. It can be configured by using wacomcpl. Wacomcpl is part of the wacom-tools package and can be retrieved in apt:

sudo apt-get install wacom-tools

After this wacomcpl can be run by typing:

wacomcpl

in Terminal.

Helping wacomcpl

Unfortunately HAL assigns names to wacom devices in a way that the recent wacomcpl from jaunty cant find them, to help wacomcpl to find them:

Open a terminal and type :

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/wacomtohal

and paste this code in:

#! /bin/sh
## find any wacom devices
for udi in `hal-find-by-property --key input.x11_driver --string wacom`
do
type=`hal-get-property --udi $udi --key input.x11_options.Type`
## rewrite the names that the Xserver will use
hal-set-property --udi $udi --key info.product --string $type
done

then run :

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/wacomtohal
sudo update-rc.d wacomtohal defaults 27

now reboot and launch wacomcpl

Making Wacomcpl Settings Restore on Reboot

If you lose your calibration after reboot:

In terminal:

sudo gedit ~/.xinitrc

Find the line that says:

. /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

and change it to

#. /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Save and exit.

Go to System>Preferences>Startup Applications and create a new entry named whatever you want.

The command should be:

sh /home/yourusername/.xinitrc

Your wacomcpl settings will now restore on reboot

Making Wacomcpl Settings Restore on Resume

If you lose your configuration after resume from standby or hibernate follow these instructions to create a binary daemon that will restore your settings:

In Terminal

gedit monitor_wacom.c

Enter the following code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <assert.h>
 
char method_line[1024];

int main(int argc, char **argv) {

        if (argc != 2) {
                printf("Usage: %s [script to run]\n", argv[0]);
                return 1;
        }

        FILE* in = popen("dbus-monitor --session  type='signal',interface='org.gnome.ScreenSaver',member='ActiveChanged'", "r");

        while (1) {
                char buf[1024];
                assert(fgets(buf, 1023, in));
                
                if (buf[0] == 's' /* early exit optimization */ && strstr(buf, "ActiveChanged") != NULL) {
                        assert(fgets(buf, 1023, in));
                        if (strstr(buf, "false") != NULL) {
                                /* resumed */
                                assert(system(argv[1]) == 0);
                        } else {
                                /* put to sleep */
                        }
                } 
        }
}

Save and Close

In Terminal:

gcc -O2 monitor_wacom.c -o .monitor_wacom

Go to System>Preferences>Startup Applications and create a new entry named whatever you want.

Its command should be:

/home/yourusername/.monitor_wacom /home/yourusername/.xinitrc

Reboot.

Fixing the Tablet Toolbox Button

No Solution Yet.

Setup the Tablet Control-Alt-Delete Button

No Solution Yet.

Setup the Tablet Rotate Button

No Solution Yet.

Setup the Middle Button Scrolling

Create a new file called /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi typing:

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

And fill it with this code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 

 <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.XAxisMapping" type="string">6 7</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.YAxisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.ZAxsisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">true</merge>
</match>

Reboot

Setup ThinkVantage Button

The ThinkVantage button does not work only in that it is not bound to anything. To bind it go to System>Preferences>Keyboard Shortcuts and set it to perform any command.

Setup Magnify Fn Button

No Solution Yet.

Setup Fingerprint Reader

No Solution Yet.

Setup Automatic Screen Rotation

To Be Posted.

Setup ThinkVantage ActiveProtection

No Solution Yet.

Useful Task: Disable Bluetooth on Startup

These instructions will disable the bluetooth radio being activated during the boot. The radio can then be activated at the users discretion using Fn F5 (Radio Fn Button).

edit /etc/rc.local and add:

chmod 666 /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth 
echo "disable" > /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth

before the exit0 line

• note chmod 666 makes this file editable by everyone, this may compromise security, try different settings to find the one that suits your needs (655 may work)

• note proc is depreciated and may not work in future releases

Useful Task: Enable Laptop Mode

Laptop mode is a power saving tool that allows the hard drive to spin down to conserve battery power. This is disabled by default as it has been known to cause problems on some computers, but it appears to work on the X61t.

• Warning: Laptop mode stores data in ram teporarily until it needs to write to disk. Power Loss in laptop mode could lead to significant data loss.

• Warning: Excessive spin-up spin-down cycles will wear out your hard drive much more quickly than normal use. Be careful when configuring laptop mode settings.

• Warning: Do Not Use Laptop Mode if you have a SSD. It is for platter drives only.

Edit /etc/default/acpi-support

sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support

Set: "ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true"

Configure Laptop Mode

sudo gedit /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf

Sources

The above is a compilation of my notes from when I installed Jaunty on my X61t. The code and many of the instructions come from various pages and sources around the Internet. I will attempt to document them when time permits. If you see anything that should be added or wish to cite a source I missed, please edit the page.