Installing Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) on a ThinkPad T510
Success Chart - Out of the box experience
I had posted a fedora 13 howto for this same model on kde. Unfortunately results were not good and i decided to change to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS edition. Worked marvelously!
| Item | Working | Notes | |
| Installation | Local CD/DVD install | yes | |
| Network Installation | unknown | ||
| USB Installation | yes | ||
| Display | Laptop Screen (15.6" TFT display with 1920x1080(FHD) or 1600x900(HD+)) | yes | See notes below |
| VGA | yes | ||
| Power Management | Software Suspend (hibernate) | yes | |
| Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) | yes | ||
| Audio | yes | ||
| Wireless | WiFi - ThinkPad 11b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter II | yes | Has some small issue. see notes below |
| Bluetooth | yes | It did detect my HTC legend and i transferred some files from it. | |
| Input | Keyboard | yes | |
| (TrackPoint / Touchpad combo) | yes | ||
| Extra keys | partial | see ThinkPad Extra keys section below | |
| Fingerprint | yes | See notes below | |
| Ports | Ethernet | yes | |
| Modem | unknown | ||
| ExpressCard_slot | unknown | ||
| USB | yes | ||
| Firewire_Port | unknown | ||
| 5-in-1 MultiCard Reader | yes | 2GB SanDisk Ultra II SD flash card automatically detected. | |
| 2.0MP webcamera | yes | Tested with Skype. Works perfectly. | |
| Harddisk Active Protection | yes | See notes below | |
| TPM (security subsystem) | unknown | ||
| Dock removal | unknown | ||
Tested and Verified on ubuntu 10.04
Information in this section has been tested and verified using ubuntu 10.04.
Installation
Installation is very easy and a breeze. The system boots really fast. Even faster then windows. I was like WOW!!! However as the default installation came with windows and drive was not partitioned, i had to manually resize the partitions. I used the following guide to partition the HDD
Updating
I recommend you update your system after installation to get all the bugs sorted out
Configuration
Kernel
..
Issues
NVIDIA
Update the driver by selecting System-->Administration-->Hardware drivers. You will be prompted if you want to upgrade to the relevant driver, Accept and restart. There is a bug in ubuntu in that the startup and shutdown logos get blurred. Beats me why they have not sorted it out yet but its not "important" as the logo only comes up when you start or shut down the system.
Backlight controls are not functional while running nVidia driver 195. They can be controlled by either changing brightness in a VT or adding the following to the "Devices" section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
Reboot and the keys now work
WiFi
The wifi driver with the old kernel before updating is unstable. it hardly detects access points and if it does it continuously disconnects. The problem is solved simply by upgrading your system to the latest kernel.
# sudo aptitude update
# sudo aptitude upgrade
Then reboot and the wifi card works flawlessly.
FingerPrint Reader
Finally worked. It was so easy.
1. Download the driver from here Protector Suite for Linux 2. To enroll type
# enroll
A graphical fingerprint program will come up where you just select which finger(s) you want to enroll.
For PAM, Add this as the first line to PAM configuration files: /etc/pam.d/sudo
auth sufficient pam_upek.s
Although it should be there already.
Done now when you log out, reboot, type a sudo command all you need to do is swipe your finger and press the ENTER key:).
Setup ThinkVantage ActiveProtection
sudo cp /etc/modules /etc/modules_backup sudo aptitude install tp-smapi-source sudo module-assistant prepare tp-smapi sudo module-assistant auto-install tp-smapi sudo modprobe tp-smapi sudo aptitude install hdapsd echo 'tp-smapi' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
You can set the activeprotection sensivity:
cd /etc/default/ gedit hdapsd
# sensitivity SENSITIVITY=25
Now you can try, if the modules are loaded yet. Do so with
lsmod | grep hdaps
if not perform:
sudo modprobe -a thinkpad_ec tp_smapi hdaps
If the installation of hdapsd succeeded, you can test it by typing this into your terminal:
sudo hdapsd -d sda -s 15 -a -v -y
If you suddenly move your laptop the output will change! (stop it with pressing Ctr + C)
Reboot. Now HDAPS should work. If you want to have a HDAPS icon in your notification area like in Windows, follow these steps to install ThinkHDAPS
Download https://launchpad.net/~andypiperuk/+archive/andypiper-ppa/+files/thinkhdaps_0.2.1-1_all.deb and put it into your home directory. Right click on the file and select "Extract Here". In terminal run
cd ~ cd thinkhdaps_0.2.1-1_all sudo cp tar -zxvf data.tar.gz sudo cp usr/bin/thinkhdaps /usr/bin/ sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/thinkhdaps sudo cp usr/share/pixmaps/* /usr/share/pixmaps/
Now you can run
thinkhdaps &
to make the ThinkHDAPS icon appear in the notification area
To make it autostart go to System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications, select the "Startup Programms" tab, click Add and add this
Name: thinkhdaps Command: thinkhdaps
Click Add and then Close. Now the ThinkHDAPS icon should be always visible in the notification area.
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 |
| FnF2 | Lock the computer | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnF3 | Select Power Plan | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnF4 | Put Computer to sleep/standby mode | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnF5 | wireless | - | unknown | yes | Switches the bluetooth off |
| FnF6 | Change camera/audio settings | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnF7 | Switch Display output location | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnF8 | Change ultranav device settings | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnF12 | Put computer in hibernation mode | - | unknown | unknown | |
| FnHome | brightness up | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnEnd | brightness down | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnPgUp | thinklight | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnSpace | zoom | - | unknown | unknown | |
| FnPrtSc | Have the same function as the SysRq key. | - | unknown | unknown | |
| FnScrLk | Enable or disable the numeric keypad. | - | unknown | yes | |
| FnPause | Have the same function as the Break key. | - | unknown | unknown | |
| ThinkVantage | Vendor key | - | unknown | unknown | |
| VolumeUp | Volume Up | - | unknown | yes | |
| VolumeDown | Volume Down | - | unknown | yes | |
| VolumeMute | Volume Mute | - | unknown | yes | |
| MicMute | Microphone Mute | - | unknown | no | |
| NextTab | Browser Next tab | - | unknown | yes | |
| PreviousTab | Browser Previous tab | - | unknown | yes | |
| Power | Power button | - | unknown | yes | |
| Lid | Lid button | - | unknown | yes |
