Installing Fedora 11 on a ThinkPad T60
Contents
Success Chart
| Item | Working | Notes | |
| Installation | Local CD/DVD install | yes | |
| Network Installation | yes | ||
| USB Installation | yes | ||
| Display - Intel | Laptop Screen | yes | only 1 video mode available |
| VGA | yes | with hotplug only | |
| DVI | yes | with hotplug only | |
| Display - ATI | Laptop Screen | unknown (should work) | |
| VGA | unknown | ||
| DVI | unknown | ||
| Power Management | Software Suspend (hibernate) | yes | |
| Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) | yes | ||
| Audio | yes | ||
| Wireless | WiFi - Atheros | yes | occasional disconnect/reconnect |
| WiFi - Intel | unknown (should work) | ||
| Bluetooth | yes | ||
| WWAN - Verizon | unknown | ||
| WWAN - Cingular | unknown | ||
| Extra Buttons | Keyboard Section | partial | see ThinkPad keyboard section below |
| Ports | Ethernet | yes | |
| Modem | no | Requires closed-source driver | |
| Serial | yes | Requires port-replicator or dock | |
| IrDA | unknown (should work) | Device is detected | |
| PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse | unknown (should work) | Requires port-replicator or dock | |
| Parallel | unknown (should work) | Requires port-replicator or dock | |
| USB | yes | ||
| PCMCIA/Cardbus | yes | ||
| Harddisk Active Protection | no | ||
| Ultrabay device hotswap | no | Does not work reliably, Ultrabay eject button not detected | |
| Fingerprint reader | unknown (should work) | F11 has standard support for Fingerprint readers | |
| TPM (security subsystem) | unknown | Not brave enough to mess around with it | |
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
X Server (Intel)
Basic X server functionality should work out of the box on the ThinkPad LCD (LVDS), as long as no external displays are attached at boot.
Fedora 11 uses KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) by default, which for now has some up and down sides for external displays. The down sides are that external displays attached during boot might not function properly, but they do when hot plugged afterwards. Another down side is that currently mirror mode is very limited as the ThinkPad LCD (LVDS) is limited to one single display mode, so only if the external display supports this same mode can you activate mirror mode. On the other hand with KMS enabled the maximum virtual display size is now 4096x4096 (2048x2048 without KMS) meaning you can have an extended desktop.
These issues have been reported to Red Hat bugzilla.
Desktop Effects
Compiz (wobbly windows, desktops on a cube) seems to work
dpi
On the 1400x1050 LCD Fedora comes up with a DPI of 124. While this is correct for the physical screen size, it waists a lot of screen real estate.
To change to the more typical 96 DPI, go 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 to 96.
Wireless Network
Both the Intel and Atheros wireless should work out of the box.
Atheros was tested and works, but you may encounter occasional disconnects and reconnects. Intel wireless was not tested.
ThinkPad keys
ThinkPad keys are handled by a mixture of the thinkpad_acpi, acpi button, acpi dock and acpi video drivers.
| Key | Function | Handled by | HAL event | Works | Notes |
| Fn-F2 | lock screen | thinkpad_acpi | yes | yes | |
| Fn-F3 | battery | thinkpad_acpi | yes | yes | |
| Fn-F4 | suspend | acpi button | yes | yes | |
| Fn-F5 | wireless | thinkpad_acpi | yes | no | Can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties |
| Fn-F7 | videomode | thinkpad_acpi | yes | yes | Attempts to enable mirror mode |
| Fn-F8 | mouse input select | thinkpad_acpi | yes | no | Can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties |
| Fn-F9 | undock | thinkpad_acpi | yes | no | Can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties |
| Fn-F12 | hibernate | acpi button | yes | yes | does the same as Fn-F4 (suspend), not hibernate |
| Fn-Home | brightness up | acpi video | yes | yes | |
| Fn-End | brightness down | acpi video | yes | yes | |
| Fn-PgUp | thinklight | - | no | yes | changing thinkpad_acpi hotkey_mask, causes HAL events. No OSD in any case. |
| Fn-Space | zoom | thinkpad_acpi | yes | no | |
| 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 |
| ThinkVantage | Vendor key | thinkpad_acpi | yes | no | Can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties |
| NextTab | Browser Next tab | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| PreviousTab | Browser Previous tab | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Fn-Up | Stop | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Fn-Left | reverse | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Fn-Right | forward | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Fn-Down | play/pause | standard keyboard driver | yes | yes | |
| Power | Power button | acpi button | yes | yes | Need to press button for ~1 second to trigger event |
| Lid | Lid button | acpi button | yes | yes | |
| Dock | Dock eject button | acpi dock | yes | yes | causes unload of USB devices (including internal BlueTooth!!) and switch to battery mode. Does not restore video to ThinkPad only. Causes HAL event, but not a button event. |
| Ultrabay | Ultrabay eject switch | acpi dock | no | no | Should be handled by ACPI dock driver |
| Radio switch | Radio kill switch | yes | partial | works for Bluetooth only |
Untested on Fedora 11
I was not able to test the Fingerprint reader, Intel WiFi, ATI Graphics or WWAN options as my ThinkPad T60 lacks those features. If you tried them with Fedora 11, please update the table.
