Installing Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) on a ThinkPad X61
I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on the same ThinkPad X61 that I installed Ubuntu 8.10 on last year.
This time I installed from DVD+R using the Ultrabay Slim Multi-Burner III Drive in the UltraBase X6.
In the coming days I will test various features and extend this page.
Contents
DMI info for this model
# dmidecode -s system-manufacturer LENOVO # dmidecode -s system-product-name 7673CTO # dmidecode -s system-version ThinkPad X61
Problem: Kernel misdetects memory
Right at the beginning there was an important obstacle to overcome. The installed kernel would panic on boot.
I ran memtest+ from the installation disc to see if I had a memory problem. It reported errors above 4 GiB. That's odd, because I only have 4 GiB of RAM installed.
I surmised that the new kernel, version 2.6.31-14-generic-pae, errs in reckoning the amount of installed RAM. And indeed, the solution to the kernel panic was to add mem=4096M to the kernel boot parameter list.
Docking
The ThinkPad X61 can be docked in an UltraBase X6.
Undocking
Unlike with the previous versions of Ubuntu the X61 can be removed from the UltraBase X6 without danger of locking up. Formerly, drives installed in the Ultrabay had to be deleted before undocking in order to prevent a hard lockup, but now nothing has to be done to prevent a hard lockup on undock. That is progress.
It does seem, however, that the "prepare to undock" button has to be pressed before undocking, otherwise USB devices connected to the UltraBase will not work after redocking.
After pressing the "prepare to undock" button the USB devices connected to the docking station and drives installed in the UltraBase's Ultrabay cease to function. However, a monitor connected to the docking station's video port continues to function. The desktop remains the same size even after physical undocking; windows that were visible on the external monitor become invisible.
I haven't done more thorough testing yet; e.g., I haven't checked to see what happens if, when undocking, volumes are mounted on devices connected to the UltraBase.
Redocking
After redocking, USB devices, external monitors and UltraBase drives work again. Nice.
Problem: Display configuration not restored on redock
However, there is a bug. After redocking the display is refreshed and the monitors do not have their original relative positions; furthermore the display appearance is different—different icons, etc.—as if the wrong theme is selected. Running System | Preferences | Appearances (without doing anything further) suffices to restore the display configuration.
Contents of /sys/devices/platform/dock.*/
Under /sys/devices/platform there are directories dock.0 through dock.3 with these contents:
/sys/devices/platform$ ls -l dock.0 total 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2009-11-22 18:59 docked -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2009-11-22 19:22 flags -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2009-11-22 19:22 modalias drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 2009-11-22 19:22 power lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2009-11-22 18:59 subsystem -> ../../../bus/platform -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2009-11-22 19:22 type -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2009-11-22 19:59 uevent -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2009-11-22 19:22 uid --w------- 1 root root 4096 2009-11-22 19:22 undock
| n | type |
|---|---|
| 0 | dock_station |
| 1 | battery_bay |
| 2 | ata_bay |
| 3 | ata_bay |
After pressing the "prepare to undock" button on the UltraBase the content of two of the "docked" files changes.
| n | content when docked | content after pressing "prepare to undock" button |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | 1 | 1 |
On the other hand, if the X61 is removed from the UltraBase without pressing the "prepare to undock" button the content of the docked files remains the same as when the machine was docked.
Keys
Problem: Zoom key not seen by X
The "Zoom" key (Fn-Space) cannot be assigned a function in GNOME.
The key combination is seen and reported by ACPI
$ acpi_listen ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001014
but it does not show up in the output of input-events.
Bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/+source/linux/+bug/267682
Table of keycodes for special keys and key combinations in Karmic
- Troubleshooting instructions
- Instructions for showkey, acpi_listen, xev and GNOME keyboard shortcuts methods
For input-events the following command was used:
# input-events 4 /dev/input/event4 bustype : BUS_I8042 vendor : 0x1 product : 0x1 version : 43860 name : "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard" phys : "isa0060/serio0/input0" bits ev : EV_SYN EV_KEY EV_MSC EV_LED EV_REP waiting for events
The suffix "(*)" indicates that the value has changed since Ubuntu 8.10.
| Key combination | Extra function symbol | Scan code (showkey -s) (hex) |
Key code (showkey -k) |
Input event (input-events) |
ACPI event (acpi_listen) |
X event (xev) |
Keyboard Shortcuts name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⟦◁̸ (loudspeaker icon with stroke) | down: e0 20 up: e0 a0 |
113 | KEY_MIN_INTERESTING (*) | (none) | 121 | XF86AudioMute | |
| ⟦◁ ▾ (loudspeaker icon, down arrow) | down: e0 2e up: e0 ae |
114 | KEY_VOLUMEDOWN (*) | (none) | 122 | XF86AudioLowerVolume | |
| ⟦◁ ▴ (loudspeaker icon, up arrow) | down: e0 30 up: e0 b0 |
115 | KEY_VOLUMEUP (*) | (none) | 123 | XF86AudioRaiseVolume | |
| ThinkVantage | down: e0 1f e0 9f | 148 (*) | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001018 | 156 | XF86Launch1 | |
| Fn | up: e0 63 e0 e3 | 143 | KEY_WAKEUP (*) | (none) | 151 | XF86WakeUp | |
| Fn-F1 | (none) | 466 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001001 | (none) | (none) | |
| Fn-F2 | padlock | down: e0 12 e0 92 | 152 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001002 | 160 (*) | XF86ScreenSaver |
| Fn-F3 | battery | down: e0 71 e0 f1 | 236 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001003 | 244 (*) | XF86Battery (*) |
| Fn-F4 | ☾ | down: e0 5f e0 df (but sometimes nothing?) |
142 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001004 | 150 (*) | XF86Sleep |
| Fn-F5 | radiating computer | down: e0 73 e0 f3 | 238 (*) | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001005 | 246 (*) | XF86WLAN (*) |
| Fn-F6 | (none) | 471 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001006 | (none) | (none) | |
| Fn-F7 | screen, line, computer | down: e0 56 e0 d6 | 227 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007 | 235 (*) | XF86Display (*) |
| Fn-F8 | trackpoint, line, trackpad | down: e0 79 e0 f9 | 192 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001008 | 200 (*) | 0xc8 (*) |
| Fn-F9 | computer, ⏏ | down: 6f ef | 194 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001009 | 202 (*) | 0xc9 (*) |
| Fn-F10 | down: e0 63 up: e0 e3 |
143 | KEY_WAKEUP (*) | (none) | 151 (*) | XF86WakeUp | |
| Fn-F11 | (none) | 476 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100b | (none) | (none) | |
| Fn-F12 | screen, arrow, diskpack | down: e0 25 e0 a5 (but sometimes nothing?) |
205 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000100c | 213 (*) | XF86Suspend (*) |
| Fn-Home | ☀▴ | down: e0 54 e0 d4 | 225 | (none) (*) | video LCD0 00000086 00000000 (*) | 233 (*) | XF86MonBrightnessUp |
| Fn-End | ☀▾ | down: e0 4c e0 cc | 224 | (none) (*) | video LCD0 00000087 00000000 (*) | 232 (*) | XF86MonBrightnessDown |
| Fn-PgUp | illuminated overhead lamp | (none) | (none) | (none) | (none) | (none) | (none) |
| Fn-Space | screen with magnifying glass ("zoom" symbol) | (none) | 372 | (none) (*) | ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001014 | (none) | (none) |
| Fn-→ | barred right arrowhead ("next" symbol) | down: e0 19 up: e0 99 |
163 | KEY_NEXTSONG (*) | (none) | 171 | XF86AudioNext |
| Fn-↓ | right arrowhead, double bar ("play/pause" symbol) | down: e0 22 up: e0 a2 |
164 | KEY_PLAYPAUSE (*) | (none) | 172 | XF86AudioPlay |
| Fn-← | barred left arrowhead ("prev" symbol) | down: e0 10 up: e0 90 |
165 | KEY_PREVIOUSSONG (*) | (none) | 173 | XF86AudioPrev |
| Fn-↑ | ∎ ("stop play" symbol) | down: e0 24 up: e0 a4 |
166 | KEY_STOPCD (*) | (none) | 174 | XF86AudioStop |
| ◂ ⎗ (left arrowhead, page icon) | down: e0 6a up: e0 ea |
158 | KEY_BACK (*) | (none) | 166 | XF86Back | |
| ⎘ ▸ (page icon, right arrowhead) | down: e0 69 up: e0 e9 |
159 | KEY_FORWARD (*) | (none) | 167 | XF86Forward |
Hotkey mask when the above table was compiled:
$ cat /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/hotkey_mask 0x00fdffff $ cat /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/hotkey_all_mask 0x00ffffff $ cat /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/hotkey_recommended_mask 0x008c7fff $ cat /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/hotkey_report_mode 1
Compare Default meanings of special keys.
Suspend & resume
In Intrepid suspend & resume was unusable because the machine frequently hung sometime after resume. Furthermore the WLAN card was unusable after resume.
Having tried it only once I can report that in Karmic suspend & resume does work properly. After resume the Atheros WLAN card is re-enabled and NetworkManager reconnects to my wireless network. That's progress!
Adding the tp-smapi module
$ sudo aptitude install tp-smapi-source $ sudo module-assistant build tp-smapi-source $ sudo module-assistant install tp-smapi-source $ sudo modprobe thinkpad_ec tp_smapi hdaps
Edit the file /etc/modules to add these lines:
thinkpad_ec tp_smapi hdaps
Ubuntu 9.10 contains version 0.40 of tp-smapi.
There is currently (19 November 2009) no hdaps-utils package in Karmic and so no hdaps-gl application.
Increasing battery life
I am advised that, to make the battery cells last longer by reducing the number and depth of charge cycles, the charge thresholds should be set as follows.
Edit /etc/sysfs.conf to add the lines:
# Make battery live longer devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/start_charge_thresh = 50 devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/stop_charge_thresh = 90
To effect the change either reboot or do:
$ sudo su # echo 50 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/start_charge_thresh # echo 90 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/stop_charge_thresh
Sound
Sound generally works well.
Problem: No beep
After installation the system beep does not work. In Intrepid this could be fixed by starting the Volume Control application and unmuting Beep. In Karmic that application does not appear to exist so I don't know how to unmute the beep.
There is currently a discussion on the linux-thinkpad mailing list about this problem. Stay tuned.
