Installing Fedora 12 on a ThinkPad T60
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NOTE!
This is based on the Beta version of Fedora 12. I will try to update the results when the final version is available.
NOTE!
This is based on the x86-64 version of Fedora 12
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Success Chart - Out of the box experience
The SMOLT profile for the T60 used for testing Fedora 11 is here.
| Item | Working | Notes | |
| Installation | Local CD/DVD install | yes | |
| Network Installation | yes | ||
| USB Installation | yes | ||
| Display - Intel 945GM | Laptop Screen | yes | |
| VGA | yes | ||
| DVI | yes | ||
| Display - ATI | Laptop Screen | unknown | |
| VGA | unknown | ||
| DVI | unknown | ||
| Power Management | Software Suspend (hibernate) | no | Fails to hibernate |
| Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) | yes | ||
| Audio | yes | ||
| Wireless | WiFi - Atheros AR5414 | yes | occasionally takes a few tries to connect |
| WiFi - Intel | unknown | ||
| Bluetooth | yes | ||
| WWAN - Verizon | unknown | ||
| WWAN - Cingular | unknown | ||
| Extra Buttons | Keyboard Section | partial | see ThinkPad keyboard section below |
| Ports | Ethernet | yes | |
| Modem | no | Requires closed-source driver | |
| Serial | yes | Requires port-replicator or dock | |
| IrDA | no | Device is detected, but does not work. | |
| PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse | yes | Mouse tested, Requires port-replicator or dock | |
| Parallel | unknown (should work) | Requires port-replicator or dock | |
| USB | yes | ||
| PCMCIA/Cardbus | yes | even ATA adaptors (for CF cards, etc) now work! | |
| Harddisk Active Protection | unknown | ||
| Ultrabay device hotswap | partial | see below, use with caution out of the box | |
| Fingerprint reader | unknown | ||
| TPM (security subsystem) | unknown | Not brave enough to mess around with it | |
Tested and Verified on Fedora 12
Information in this section has been tested and verified using Fedora 12.
Installation
Installation is straight forward; you can follow the generic Fedora install instructions.
Configuration
X Server - Intel 945GM
Everything seems to work out of the box, including multi-head and Compiz. Even cycling between display modes with Fn-F5.
X Server - ATI
?
DPI
On the 1400x1050 (and 1600x1200) LCD Fedora comes up with a DPI (Dots per Inch) of 124 (or higher). While this is correct for the physical screen size, it waists a lot of screen real estate.
To change to the more typical 96 DPI, go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance. Now in Appearance Preferences select the Fonts tab and press the "Details ..." button. Here you can change the dots per inch to 96. Of course, many things will shrink, but that is what you wanted, after all.
OSD
By default OSD (On-Screen-Display) will only function for the brightness keys, not for other functions such as Volume.
For this you can install the 'tpb' package from the standard Fedora repository
yum install tpb
But afterwards, you need to edit /etc/tpbrc and change
#OSDBRIGHTNESS OFF
to (remove the #)
OSDBRIGHTNESS OFF
Otherwise you will get two OSDs when using the brightness keys, one from gnome-power-manager and the other from tpb.
Wireless Network
Both the Intel and Atheros wireless should work out of the box.
Atheros AR5414 WiFi
Atheros was tested and works, but you may encounter occasional problems connecting to a wireless network and it may take several attempts to connect. After a suspend/resume cycle it may help to unload/reload the ath5k module.
Intel WiFi
Intel wireless was tested and works.
ThinkPad 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 |
| Fn-F2 | lock screen | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-F3 | battery | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-F4 | suspend | acpi button | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-F5 | wireless | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | partial | Works as a radio kill switch, kills WiFi but not Bluetooth |
| Fn-F7 | videomode | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | Cycles through LCD only, external only, both (mirrored), and both (extended desktop) |
| Fn-F8 | mouse input select | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | partial | No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties |
| Fn-F9 | undock | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | partial | No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties |
| Fn-F12 | hibernate | acpi button | HAL | partial | It attempts to hibernate but fails |
| Fn-Home | brightness up | acpi video | HAL | yes | includes on-screen display of brightness level |
| Fn-End | brightness down | acpi video | HAL | yes | includes on-screen display of brightness level |
| Fn-PgUp | thinklight | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| Fn-Space | zoom | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | no | Known Xorg limitation, scheduled to be fixed in Xorg 1.8 with the new XKB2 extension in 2Q 2010 |
| VolumeUp | Volume Up | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| VolumeDown | Volume Down | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| Mute | Mute | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| ThinkVantage | Vendor key | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | partial | No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties |
| NextTab | Browser Next tab | standard keyboard driver | HAL | yes | |
| PreviousTab | Browser Previous tab | standard keyboard driver | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-Up | Stop | standard keyboard driver | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-Left | reverse | standard keyboard driver | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-Right | forward | standard keyboard driver | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-Down | play/pause | standard keyboard driver | HAL | yes | |
| Power | Power button | acpi button | HAL | yes | Need to press button for ~1 second to trigger event. Causes a dialog asking you what to do. |
| Lid | Lid button | acpi button | HAL | yes | |
| Dock | Dock eject button | acpi dock | udev | partial | causes udev event. Disconnects Ethernet, switches to battery and unload of USB devices (including internal Bluetooth!!).Does not restore video to ThinkPad only. |
| 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. Fedora 11 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].
IrDA
IrDA is detected, but does not work. Part of the problem is that the default Fedora configuration expects to find the IrDA port at /dev/ttyS2, while it should use /dev/ircomm0 instead. This can be fixed in /etc/sysconfig/irda after which the irda service can be started (# service irda start).
However, even after this communication with other devices fails. irdadump does not show any output when something like a mobile phone with IrDA is sending data.
Untested on Fedora 12
The WWAN option has not been tested yet. If you try it with Fedora 12, please update the table.
