Installing Debian squeeze on a ThinkPad T61p

Out-of-the-box Stats

Component	Status
3D video	Needs tweaks; See below
ultranav scrolling	Needs tweaks
Fingerprint Reader	Needs tweaks
ACPI - Suspend to Disk (Hibernate)	Needs tweaks
Harddrive Active Protection	Needs tweaks
VGA out	Untested
Firewire	Untested
Modem	Untested
Audio in	Works out-of-box
Audio out	Works out-of-box
Wired LAN	Works out-of-box
FN-F5 (Wifi/Bluetooth)	Works out-of-box
FN-F7 (VGA)	Untested
FN-F8 (Ultranav/Trackpad)	Untested
FN-F9 (Eject)	Needs tweaks
Thinkvantage Button	Untested
FN-Arrows (Media Controls)	Untested
2D video	Works out-of-box
Wireless - 4965AGN	Needs tweaks; See below
Front wireless killswitch	Works out-of-box
Touchpoint	Works out-of-box
Trackpad	Works out-of-box
Trackpad scrolling (side)	Works out-of-box
Sound card	Works out-of-box
Volume up/down/mute buttons	Works out-of-box
Optical drive	Works out-of-box
USB	Works out-of-box
FN-F2 (Lock)	Works out-of-box
FN-F3 (Battery)	Works out-of-box
FN-F4 (Sleep)	Works out-of-box
FN-F12 (Hibernate)	Works out-of-box
FN-Home/End (Brightness)	Works out-of-box
FN-PgUp (Thinklight)	Works out-of-box
ACPI - Lid Open/Close	Works out-of-box
ACPI - Suspend to RAM	Works out-of-box
SD/MMC Memory card reader	Works out-of-box

Hardware Tweaks

Wireless - 4965AGN

This should work for any of the Intel cards that came in the T61p, but I just have the 4965 to test with. Note: this requites that you are connected to the internet, the on-board Ethernet Adapter works out of the box.

Option 1 (graphical):

1. Go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager
2. search for "firmware-iwlwifi" in the package manager
3. select that package and install it
4. reboot your system

Option 2 (command line):

1. run "apt-get install firmware-iwlwifi"
2. reboot your system

Video Driver

2D video works out of the box. There are 2 options to enable 3D Video.

Option 1 (graphical):

1. Go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager
2. search for "nvidia" in the package manager
3. select nvidia-glx and nvidia-settings for installation
4. install the packages and restart X

Option 1 (command line):

1. run "apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-settings"
2. restart x

Option 2:

1. download the lastest nvidia driver from nvidia's site
2. press {ctrl}+{alt}+{f1} to switch to a terminal
3. cd to the directory that you downloaded the nvidia driver to
4. either run all following commands using sudo, or just run sudo su and be root for a while
5. run "/etc/init.d/gdm3 stop"
6. run "sh NVIDIA-Linux-{arch}-XXX.XX.run" where {arch} is your archetecture, and XXX.XX is the driver version
7. follow the instructions, I usually install the ia32 compat libs
8. the last step of the installation asks if you want nvidia-settings to automatically configure xorg.conf. Say yes
9. reboot your system

Harddrive Active Protection

Option 1 (graphical):

1. Go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager
2. search for "tp-smapi" in the package manager
3. select the packages "hdapsd" and "tp-smapi-dkms"
4. install the packages

Option 2 {command line):

1. run "sudo apt-get install hdapsd tp-smapi-dkms"

Other Notes

NetworkManager + Wired LAN problems

If you use NetworkManager, you may notice that it might not want to manage the wired LAN.

To fix this problem:

1. open a terminal and run "sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf" (or use the editor of your choice)
2. in the section labeled "[ifupdown]" change "managed=false" to "managed=true"
3. save and exit the editor
4. run "sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart"