Installing Fedora Core 6 on a ThinkPad T60p

Device Listing

Hardware

Lenovo ThinkPad T60p 2613-HQU

• Centrino Duo Compliant
• Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 2330 MHz with 4MB L2 Cache
• 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2-663 Main Memory
• ATI FireGL V5250 GPU with 256 MB GDDR3 RAM
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter

Works out of the box

• Both Cores are accessible, can be verified by ksystemguard
• Processor clock speed can be manually set with cpufreq-selector and verified with kinfocenter's processor section
• Main Battery (6/9 Cells) and ThinkPad Advanced UltraBay Battery (3 Cells)
• All PCI/ExpressCard/PCMCIA/SATA/USB 2.0 Controllers
• Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller
• Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller
• ThinkPad UltraNav
• Blue Tooth Mouse via hidd daemon
• Volume Control and Mute
• Access to USB Flash Drives and PSP System
• PCMCIA Adaptor for Compact Flash Cards
• Headphone Port

Requires configuration

• FireGL Graphics Processing Unit
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter
• Screen Brightness Control
• ThinkVantage Button
• Hot Swap functionality on UltraBay
• ThinkVantage Fingerprint Scanner
• IBM Active Protection System

Undetermined

• DVD-Multi
• VGA Port
• Microphone

Installation and Device Configuration

Installation Instructions

Installation goes smoothly. X starts normally and all operations are normal. I recommend creating at least four partitions. Boot (100 MB, mount point /boot, Ext3 FS), Main (at least 8192 MB, mount point /, Ext3 FS) Swap (at least 2 times installed RAM, no mount point, swap FS) the remainder of space can be allocated to the final partition (/home) the last three, (/, /home and swap can be set together in an LVM, /home should be set up first.) Of course if Windows is to be also installed the partition sizes would have to be adjusted properly. Creating a separate partition for the home directory is recommended, although programs and such will be lost, all settings and User Data will be preserved in the event of a reinstall, provided the partition is not formatted at install. Under package selection, check configure packages now and make sure that the KDE Desktop Environment box is checked.

Updating the System

Open up a Terminal and run the following commands. They will import two important Fedora Release keys so that Package Updater doesn't halt updating.

rpm --import ftp://ftp.padua.org/pub/linux/Mirrors/fedora.redhat.com/releases/7/Fedora/i386/os/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
rpm --import http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/RPM-GPG-KEY-Fedora-Extras

After importing the keys, the first order of business should be to update the system. Click the Fedora Button and under System click Software Updater. Uncheck Gaim (Pidgin conflicts) and click Apply Updates. The system will take quite a while to update and requires input after the long wait to import gpg keys that packages have been signed by. If you didn't perform the previous step, later on the system will pause to get your input if it should import the two gpg keys.

Configuring the FireGL V5250 GPU

Firstly, the Package Repository and GPG Key for Livna should be installed. Perform the following commands as root:

rpm -ivh http://mirror.atrpms.net/livna/fedora/6/i386/livna-release-6-1.noarch.rpm
rpm --import http://dl.atrpms.net/mythdora/4.0/i386/os/RPM-GPG-KEY-livna

Next, you'll need to install the ATI drivers that are provided by Livna:

yum install kmod-fglrx

You'll see packages that are needed for the driver to function and it will ask you to okay the installation. If the installation is acceptable type 'y' and hit enter.

If you see no errors after the installation you now must edit your xorg.conf file. It's located in /etc/X11/xorg.conf I've provided two xorg.conf files that work if this installation is performed as described. If however, the fglrx driver is not functioning, the system will ask you to view X output and then ask if you want to use a fresh configuration. It will ask for you to log in as root and will place a default xorg.conf file in the place of the new one. One disables the TouchPad and the other leaves it as functional.

# For TrackPad functionality enabled use this command:
cp http://www.newyorktechnologies.com/kchalupa/xorg0.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# For TrackPad functionality disabled use this command:
cp http://www.newyorktechnologies.com/kchalupa/xorg1.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf

The details of your GPU can be looked up with ATI's Catalyst Control System found in the System sub menu. It also certifies that direct rendering is enabled, or if the software renderer is being used.

As with all other hardware configuration modifications, you should restart the system after completing this step.

Configuring the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Express Adapter

The Intel Wireless Card also requires installation as it's driver does not come pre-installed into FC6. To begin, you should import the Package Repository and GPG Key for AtRPMs. As root:

rpm -ivh http://dl.atrpms.net/all/atrpms-package-config-117-5.fc6.i386.rpm
rpm --import http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

Next Install the driver and firmware for the card. Note: Please ensure the Wireless switch is set to ON before performing the following steps. As root:

# Note: Please ensure the Wireless switch is set to ON before performing the following steps.
yum install ipw3945
yum install iwlwifi

The following steps are important, as the driver daemon can hang the system at startup. Add these lines to /etc/modprobe.conf

install ipw3945 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install ipw3945 ; sleep 0.5 ; /sbin/ipw3945d --quiet
remove ipw3945 /sbin/ipw3945d --kill ; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove ipw3945

Next add this line to /etc/rc.local

/sbin/ipw3945d --quiet

Next run system-config-network as root and create a new wireless connection and select Intel Wireless 3945 ABG. You may now set the wireless switch to off if you so desire.

As with all other hardware configuration modifications, you should restart the system after completing this step.

Configuring the DVD-Multi Drive

It is apparent that the Matsushita DVD-Multi is not fully supported under FC6. Disks burned with the recorder are often error prone. Rarely does the md5sum check match. A handy way to verify the contents of a disk match those of the ISO that produced it is to perform the following commands: (may be FC6 specific)

md5sum contents.iso
md5sum /dev/cdrom

Note that /dev/cdrom is set up by cdrecord and an alias to the DVD-Multi. Also, to the best of the author's knowledge that Dual Layer DVDs can't be burned with the recording tools that come with Fedora Core 6.

Installation of Media Players

Next the Package Repository and GPG Key for freshrpms should be installed. FreshRPMs along with Livna and AtRPMs will provide the packages necessary to create media functionality. As root:

rpm -ivh http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/6/freshrpms-release/freshrpms-release-1.1-1.fc.noarch.rpm
rpm --import http://freshrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY-freshrpms

Installation of Codecs

Video and Audio codecs are important as they handle different media clips. Each clip is encoded with either an audio codec, video codec or both. Installing various codecs will give a better chance of having the proper components to play videos that you've recorded years ago from your DVR or whatever. A handy set of codecs for Linux have already been packaged. Half of the packages listed below are development versions, they're handy to have if future packages require them.

yum install x264 x264-devel faac faac-devel xvidcore xvidcore-devel

Installation of Media Players

Media Players handle files and perform special operations. VLC for instance, can function as a media streaming application, suitable for transporting media throughout a wireless network. The Playstation 3 can make use of such functionality, although I'm unsure how to get things configured.

yum install vlc vlc-plugin vlc-devel mplayer mplayer-devel