Installing Fedora 12 on a ThinkPad X22
|
NOTE!
This is based on the Beta version of Fedora 12 with the default GNOME desktop. Your experience with KDE may be different.
NOTE!
This page will no longer be updated by the original author, as the ThinkPad has had a systemboard failure and no longer boots.
|
Success Chart
This machines SMOLT profile is available here.
| Item | Working | Notes | |
| Installation | Local CD/DVD install | partial | Requires booting with 'nomodeset', or 'text' |
| Network Installation | partial | Require booting with 'nomodeset', or 'text' | |
| USB Installation | partial | Require booting with 'nomodeset', or 'text'. 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 | partial | KMS is broken, need to boot with nomodeset kernel boot parameter.
|
| VGA | no | see below | |
| Power Management | Software Suspend (hibernate) | yes | |
| Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) | yes | Moon LED remains off | |
| Audio | no | Horrible screeching | |
| Input | Keyboard | yes | |
| TrackPoint | 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 | |
| Serial | yes | Requires UltraBase X2 | |
| IrDA | no | Device is detected, but does not seem to work | |
| PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse | yes | Mouse tested. 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 | yes | Seems to work. Pressing the undock button at the front of the UltraBase causes a flurry of UDEV activity with device removals. Docking does the reverse. | |
Tested and Verified on Fedora 12
Information in this section has been tested and verified using Fedora 12
Installation
Installation is straight forward, once you add the nomodeset boot parameter. Afterwards 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 - RV100
Basic X server functionality is broken on this ThinkPad. The problem is with KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) and as such needs to be disabled to be able to install or run Fedora 12. This is a regression as KMS did work in F11. After switching to UMS the ThinkPad LCD (LVDS) will work. Still occasional screen corruption can occur.
To disable KMS, boot with the nomodeset boot parameter.
When hotplugging an external VGA display, xrandr is able to see its properties. But trying to activate mirror mode does not work (external display remains black). Without KMS the virtual desktop size is too small to allow extended desktop.
Trying to enable 'Desktop Effects' (compiz) fails with an error dialog that Accelerated 3D graphics is not available.
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 |
| Fn-F3 | lock screen | thinkpad_acpi | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-F4 | suspend | acpi button | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-F7 | videomode | - | no | no | |
| Fn-F12 | hibernate | acpi button | HAL | yes | |
| Fn-Home | brightness up | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| Fn-End | brightness down | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| Fn-PgUp | thinklight | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| VolumeUp | Volume Up | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| VolumeDown | Volume Down | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| Mute | Mute | - | no | yes | no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround. |
| 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 | acpi dock | udev | yes | Gray button on the front of the UltraBase X2 |
