Installing Fedora 13 on a ThinkPad X40
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NOTE!
This is based on the Alpha version of Fedora 13 with the default GNOME desktop. Your experience with KDE may be different.
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Success Chart - Out of the box experience
This machines SMOLT profile is available here.
| Item | Working | Notes | |
| Installation | Local CD/DVD install | yes | |
| Network Installation | yes | ||
| USB Installation | yes | ||
| Display | Laptop Screen (LVDS) | yes | |
| VGA | yes | ||
| Power Management | Software Suspend (hibernate) | partial | Seems a bit flaky |
| Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) | no | Seems like it works (saves image), but does not resume image on boot. Instead it does a regular boot. | |
| Audio | yes | ||
| Wireless | WiFi - Atheros | unknown | |
| WiFi - Intel 2200BG | yes | ||
| Bluetooth | yes | ||
| Input | Keyboard | yes | |
| TrackPoint | yes | Install gpointing-device-settings rpm for full configuration capabilities | |
| Extra keys | partial | see ThinkPad Extra keys section below | |
| Ports | Ethernet | yes | |
| Modem | no | Requires closed-source driver. Install the slmodem rpm from the rpmfusion-nonfree repository, edit /etc/sysconfig/slmodem and set INTERFACE=ALSA and ALSA_DEVICE=hw:1,0 and optionally the country. | |
| Serial | yes | Requires dock | |
| IrDA | no | It seems the device is detected, but then it tries to register a second device and fails with "nsc_ircc_open(). can't get iobase of 0x2f8". | |
| PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse | yes | Requires dock. Mouse works, but disables Trackpoint. | |
| Parallel | unknown (should work) | Requires dock | |
| USB | yes | ||
| PCMCIA/Cardbus | yes | ||
| SD slot | yes | 4GB SDHC flash card automatically detected. | |
| Harddisk Active Protection | partial | There is now a hdapsd rpm, but it is not installed by default, and neither is the hdaps kernel module getting automatically loaded. And even after install it is not started automatically. Starting it manually (modprobe hdaps; hdapsd -d sda), does seem to cause the HDD heads to get parked, but it gives lots of warnings that seem to indicate it does not yet work as intended. | |
| Ultrabay device removal | partial | Eject switch causes udev event, but no default udev script to handle the event to unmount filesystems in time. ata_piix does handle the removal and insertion of ATA devices. | |
| TPM (security subsystem) | unknown | Not brave enough to mess around with it. You can try to install the tpm-tools rpm. | |
| Dock removal | no | Dock removal is completely un-handled. doing so without first powering down is not recommended. bugzilla | |
Tested and Verified on Fedora 13
Information in this section has been tested and verified using Fedora 13.
Installation
Installation is straight forward; you can follow the generic Fedora install instructions.
Configuration
Kernel
It is recommended to edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and add hpet=force to the kernel line. This will activate HPET (High Precision Event Timer), which will allow the CPU to sleep for longer periods and save power.
X Server - Intel 855GM
Both LVDS and VGA displays work in mirror and extended desktop mode, although extended desktop is rather limited as the Intel graphics chip is limited to just a 2048x2048 desktop size.
Compiz seems to work (needs more testing)
Cycling through external display modes with Fn-F7 only works, if the combined horizontal resolutions of the LVDS and external display combined does not exceed 2048 pixels. Since the LVDS (ThinkPad LCD) is 1024 pixels horizontal on a X40, that means the external display cannot have more then 1024 pixels either or otherwise Fn-F7 will fail.
WiFi
Both the Intel 2200BG and Atheros wireless should work out of the box.
I did limited tested with the Intel 2200BG and it seemed to worked.
Atheros WiFi was not tested.
ThinkPad Extra keys
ThinkPad keys are handled by a mixture of the thinkpad_acpi, acpi button and acpi dock drivers.
| Key | Function | Handled by | Event | Works | Notes |
| Fn-F3 | lock screen | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-F4 | suspend | acpi button | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-F5 | wireless | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | partial | Switches WiFi on and off, has no effect on Bluetooth |
| Fn-F7 | videomode | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | partial | Fails if external monitor >1024 horizontal |
| Fn-F9 | undock | acpi button | HAL | no | causes event, but does not actually undock |
| Fn-F12 | hibernate | acpi button | HAL | partial | button works, but hibernate does not |
| Fn-Home | brightness up | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| Fn-End | brightness down | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| 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 with the new XKB2 extension, whenever that may be. |
| 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. |
| Access IBM | 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 | |
| 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 | no | no | Does not cause any event |
| Ultrabay | Ultrabay eject switch | acpi dock | udev | no | Causes udev event, but missing handler. See below. |
Ultrabay
Ultrabay eject is not handled properly by default. Since there is no undock udev handler. This udev rule and eject script works for me: How to hotswap Ultrabay devices
Untested on Fedora 13
- Atheros WiFi
- Parallel port
- TPM
