Installing Fedora 13 on a ThinkPad T60
Contents |
NOTE!
This is based on the x86-64 version of Fedora 13 with the default GNOME desktop. Your experience with the 32bit version and/or KDE may be different.
NOTE!
These instructions will no longer be updated by the original author, as he no longer has this particular ThinkPad.
Help needed
Not all models of this ThinkPad are equal, you may have a different Video or WiFi adapter, or some options I did not have. If you tested them, please add their status down below.
|
New in this release
Fixed or new in this Fedora release, with regards to this model ThinkPad is the following;
- New ThinkPad audio mixer (see below) for the volume keys, although userland support is missing so no effective user visable change
- New gnome-color-manager (see below) now allows you to load colour profiles
- Intel graphics + Compiz + Extended desktop no longer freezes the system, but it still causes Compiz to crash
Success Chart - Out of the box experience
The SMOLT profile for the T60 used for testing Fedora 13 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 | Requires a dock | |
| Display - ATI | Laptop Screen | unknown | |
| VGA | unknown | ||
| DVI | unknown | Requires a dock | |
| Power Management | Software Suspend (hibernate) | yes | |
| Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) | yes | ||
| Audio | yes | ||
| Wireless | WiFi - Atheros AR5414 | yes | |
| WiFi - Intel 3945ABG | yes | ||
| Bluetooth | yes | ||
| WWAN - Verizon | unknown | ||
| WWAN - GSM/HSDPA | unknown | ||
| Input | Keyboard | yes | |
| TrackPoint | yes | Install gpointing-device-settings rpm for full configuration capabilities | |
| TouchPad | 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. Should work with the Linuxant HSF 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 | ||
| Harddisk Active Protection | no | Fedora ships the hdapsd rpm, but not the tp_smapi kernel module, which is required to read the motion sensor bugzilla | |
| Ultrabay device hotswap | partial | see below, use with caution out of the box | |
| Fingerprint reader | yes | ||
| TPM | yes | tpm_tis is automatically loaded. After installing the tpm-tools rpm, and starting the tcsd service, the tpm_* commands seem to work. | |
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
X Server - Intel 945GM
Works out of the box, including Compiz and external displays (VGA and DVI). Can switch between displays with Fn-F7.
One of the new Features of Fedora 13 is support for Colour Profiles (found under System > Preferences > Color Profiles). Instructions for locating the correct colour profile for your ThinkPad can be found on the Colour profile page.
What does not work though is the following;
- combination of Compiz and extended desktop when virtual desktop size >2048. Doing so crashes Compiz [1]
- xvideo with a virtual desktop size >2048 resulting in a black video window. bugzilla. Workarounds are documented here.
X Server - ATI
?
DPI
If you do not like the default size of desktop components (icons, tool bars), you can change the default DPI from 96 to something else by going 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. A lower number will cause desktop components to shrink while a larger number will cause them to get larger.
The correct DPI for a 14.1" 1400x1050 display is 124
Fedora defaults to 96 DPI as that is the accepted norm, and used by Windows.
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.
Audio
Starting with the 2.6.33 kernel, as included with Fedora 13, the thinkpad_acpi driver now exports a volume control to ALSA, which represents the volume and mute buttons on the ThinkPad keyboard. Unfortunately for ALSA/PulseAudio this is just another volume control (one without actual inputs/outputs), and as such there is no effective end-user change from what you had with previous kernels.
This volume control can be seen by running alsamixer, pressing F6 and selecting ThinkPad Console Audio Control
ThinkPad Extra 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 |
| FnF2 | lock screen | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | |
| FnF3 | battery | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | |
| FnF4 | suspend | acpi button | HAL | yes | |
| FnF5 | wireless | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | partial | Works as a radio kill switch, kills WiFi but not Bluetooth |
| FnF7 | videomode | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | Cycles through LCD only, external only, both (mirrored), and both (extended desktop) |
| FnF8 | mouse input select | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | Switches touchpad on and off, including OSD |
| FnF9 | undock | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | partial | No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties |
| FnF12 | hibernate | acpi button | HAL | yes | |
| FnHome | brightness up | acpi video | HAL | yes | includes on-screen display of brightness level |
| FnEnd | brightness down | acpi video | HAL | yes | includes on-screen display of brightness level |
| FnPgUp | thinklight | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| FnSpace | zoom | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | no | Known Xorg limitation, scheduled to be fixed with the new XKB2 extension, whenever that may be. |
| VolumeUp | Volume Up | thinkpad_acpi | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. Hardware and Software volume controls are independent from each other. |
| VolumeDown | Volume Down | thinkpad_acpi | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. Hardware and Software volume controls are independent from each other. |
| Mute | Mute | thinkpad_acpi | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. Hardware and Software mute controls are independent from each other. |
| 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 | yes | Works, but check out this page for some potential issues and workarounds |
| 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 13
The following options have not been tested yet. If you try it with Fedora 13, please update the table.
- ATI Graphics
- WWAN
- parallel port
