Difference between revisions of "Installing Fedora 11 on a ThinkPad X22"

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{{NOTE|This is based on the pre-release version of Fedora 11, but should give a good indication of what to expect of the final release}}
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{{NOTE|Some functions mentioned below might rely on available Fedora updates being installed. So if your having problems with something that is supposed to work, please ensure you have all available updates installed}}
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== Success Chart ==
 
== Success Chart ==
 
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This machines SMOLT profile is available [http://www.smolts.org/client/show/pub_cc9a0371-55a0-4a22-8970-bf8d4496f1a4 here].
 
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| Network Installation || {{Cyes}} ||
 
| Network Installation || {{Cyes}} ||
 
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| USB Installation    || {{Cyes}} ||
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| USB Installation    || {{Cyes}} || booting from USB key, requires that you first disable booting from the internal HDD in the BIOS (known BIOS limitation on this machine). After install is completed you can re-enable booting from the internal HDD.
 
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|rowspan=2|Display
 
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| Serial || {{Cunk}} (should work)|| Requires UltraBase X2
 
| Serial || {{Cunk}} (should work)|| Requires UltraBase X2
 
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| IrDA || {{Cno}} || Device is detected, but device files are not created
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| IrDA || {{Cno}} || Device is detected, but does not seem to work
 
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| PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse || {{Cunk}} (should work)|| Requires UltraBase X2
 
| PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse || {{Cunk}} (should work)|| Requires UltraBase X2
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| colspan=2| Ultrabay device hotswap || {{Cpart}} || 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.
 
| colspan=2| Ultrabay device hotswap || {{Cpart}} || 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.
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| colspan=2| Dock removal || {{Cno}} || No udev or HAL events, starts to complain loudly (beeping) if you try to undock
 
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Fedora 11 uses KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) by default, and this causes problems for now with external displays. Activating mirror mode with an external VGA display has no effect on the external display (no signal). Activating extended desktop, or booting with an external VGA display attached, causes severe corruption on the ThinkPad LCD, while again the VGA display gets no signal.
 
Fedora 11 uses KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) by default, and this causes problems for now with external displays. Activating mirror mode with an external VGA display has no effect on the external display (no signal). Activating extended desktop, or booting with an external VGA display attached, causes severe corruption on the ThinkPad LCD, while again the VGA display gets no signal.
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In addition external displays have a bogus 0x0 resolution mode listing
  
 
On the up side, with KMS the maximum virtual display size is now 4096x4096 (max 2048x2048 without KMS), which should allow extended desktop once the issues with external display support are sorted.
 
On the up side, with KMS the maximum virtual display size is now 4096x4096 (max 2048x2048 without KMS), which should allow extended desktop once the issues with external display support are sorted.
  
 
==== Desktop Effects ====
 
==== Desktop Effects ====
Enabling 'Desktop Effects' (compiz) cause the Xserver to restart
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Enabling 'Desktop Effects' (compiz) works, but is unusably slow.
  
 
=== ThinkPad keys ===
 
=== ThinkPad keys ===
 
ThinkPad keys are handled by a mixture of the thinkpad_acpi, acpi button and acpi dock drivers.
 
ThinkPad keys are handled by a mixture of the thinkpad_acpi, acpi button and acpi dock drivers.
{{NOTE|Due to Xorg limitations, some keys that cause HAL events work with Xorg (ThinkPad and Fn-F7) and others do not. This is a known limitation that should be fixed with the next major Xorg (v1.7) release.}}
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Latest revision as of 09:56, 1 September 2009

NOTE!
Some functions mentioned below might rely on available Fedora updates being installed. So if your having problems with something that is supposed to work, please ensure you have all available updates installed

Success Chart

This machines SMOLT profile is available here.

Item Working Notes
Installation Local CD/DVD install yes
Network Installation yes
USB Installation yes booting from USB key, requires that you first disable booting from the internal HDD in the BIOS (known BIOS limitation on this machine). After install is completed you can re-enable booting from the internal HDD.
Display Laptop Screen yes Occasional corruption may occur.
VGA no currently broken.
Power Management Software Suspend (hibernate) no When entering hibernation the display will get corrupted (vertical lines), and the system hangs.
Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) no Enters suspend, but moon LED does not go on. On resume the display is corrupted (vertical lines), and the system hangs (ssh fails)
Audio yes
Extra Buttons Keyboard Section partial See ThinkPad keys section below
Ports Ethernet yes
Modem no Requires closed-source driver
Serial unknown (should work) Requires UltraBase X2
IrDA no Device is detected, but does not seem to work
PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse unknown (should work) Requires UltraBase X2
Parallel unknown (should work) Requires UltraBase X2
USB yes
PCMCIA/Cardbus yes
Compact Flash unknown (should work)
Ultrabay device hotswap 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.
Dock removal no No udev or HAL events, starts to complain loudly (beeping) if you try to undock

Tested and Verified on Fedora 11

Information in this section has been tested and verified using Fedora 11.

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

Basic X server functionality should work out of the box on the ThinkPad LCD (LVDS). Occasional screen corruption can occur.

Fedora 11 uses KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) by default, and this causes problems for now with external displays. Activating mirror mode with an external VGA display has no effect on the external display (no signal). Activating extended desktop, or booting with an external VGA display attached, causes severe corruption on the ThinkPad LCD, while again the VGA display gets no signal.

In addition external displays have a bogus 0x0 resolution mode listing

On the up side, with KMS the maximum virtual display size is now 4096x4096 (max 2048x2048 without KMS), which should allow extended desktop once the issues with external display support are sorted.

Desktop Effects

Enabling 'Desktop Effects' (compiz) works, but is unusably slow.

ThinkPad 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 partial The key event works, but suspend itself is broken
Fn-F7 videomode - no no
Fn-F12 hibernate acpi button HAL partial does the same as Fn-F4 (suspend), not hibernate. Both suspend and hibernate itself are broken.
Fn-Home brightness up - no yes changing thinkpad_acpi hotkey_mask, causes HAL events. But sysfs backlight brightness value does not change, so OSD is wrong.
Fn-End brightness down - no yes changing thinkpad_acpi hotkey_mask, causes HAL events. But sysfs backlight brightness value does not change, so OSD is wrong.
Fn-PgUp thinklight - no yes changing thinkpad_acpi hotkey_mask, causes HAL events. No OSD in any case.
VolumeUp Volume Up - no yes changing thinkpad_acpi hotkey_mask, causes HAL events. But OSD is wrong
VolumeDown Volume Down - no yes changing thinkpad_acpi hotkey_mask, causes HAL events. But OSD is wrong
Mute Mute - no yes changing thinkpad_acpi hotkey_mask, causes HAL events and OSD. works as a on/off toggle
ThinkPad Vendor key thinkpad_acpi HAL partial No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties
Power Power button acpi button HAL yes Need to press button for ~1 second to trigger event
Lid Lid button acpi button HAL yes
Ultrabay Ultrabay eject switch acpi dock udev no missing udev handler
undock dock eject - no no does not cause udev or HAL events. System starts to beep when you try to undock

Untested on Fedora 11