Installing Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) on a ThinkPad Edge 14" (Intel)

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This guide is for a Thinkpad Edge 14" with Intel processors. Things go quite smooth, the one and only major drawback is that the tp_smapi drivers do not work with this model's BIOS (AFAIK), so there will be no advanced battery charge control and accelerometer - unfortunately.

Worked

  • Ethernet (Realtek)
  • WiFi (Centrino Wireless-N 1000)
  • Pointing devices. (Their settings can be tweaked.)
    • TouchPad
    • TrackPoint.
  • Fn+F[1-12]
  • Special Keys
    • Sound Mute (F1)
    • Volume Up (F2)
    • Volume Down (F3)
    • Change Display Output (F6) (Intel HD Graphics)
    • Brightness down (F7)
    • Brigtness up (F8)
    • Wireless switch (F9)
    • Previous track in Movie Player (F10)
    • Play/Pause in Movie Player (F11)
    • Next track in Movie Player (F12)
  • Hibernation. (Swap size must be greater than RAM size)
  • Suspend
  • Integrated Camera
  • Integrated Microphone

Worked with Tweeking

  • Fingerprint reader (UPEK 147e:1001): Follow the instructions at Fingerprint GUI Launchpad site, the reader will work like charm after this - this GUI is a match for the Windows version!

TrackPoint and TouchPad Tweeks

The TouchPad and TrackPoint can be configured using the GPointing Device Settings. Install it using... 

sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings

...and run it from System->Preferences->Pointing Devices.

Enabling TrackPoint scrolling

Go to System->Preferences->Pointing Devices and select the TrackPoint in the left pane. Check "Use wheel emulation" and select 2 for "button"

Changing TrackPoint's speed and sensitivity

The TrackPoint's sensitivity and speed can be altered. For example, to set the speed to 150 and the sensitivity to 175 become root... 

sudo -i

And then enter... 

echo -n 150 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio4/serio5/speed
echo -n 175 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio4/serio5/sensitivity

To make these changes permanent, add these two lines to the end of "/etc/init.d/rc.local". See this article for more details.

Didn't work

  • Special Keys
    • Microphone Mute (F4)
    • Toggle Camera (F5)
  • Hard Drive Active Protection System It seems that the thinkpad_ec driver cannot read data from this BIOS. Indeed, installing tp_smapi and loading module thinkpad_ec will put the embedded controller to a state where even Windows cannot read data from it any more. To fix it, you have to completely unpower the Edge by disconnecting both AC and Battery. If anyone has some solution or just information about it, please share it with us!

Untested

  • HDMI Video & Audio

Tweaks

Here are some smaller tweaks to make your Ubuntu system work smoother.

Hiding service partitions from GNOME Places

Create a new file at: /etc/udev/rules.d/99-hide-partitions.rules, and put the following contents into it: 

# we only care about block devices
ACTION!="add|change", GOTO="hide_partitions_end"
SUBSYSTEM!="block", GOTO="hide_partitions_end"
KERNEL=="loop*|ram*", GOTO="hide_partitions_end"

################################################## ############################

# Partitions which desktops should not display
ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="ntfs", ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="SYSTEM_DRV", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1"
ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="ntfs", ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="Lenovo_Recovery", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1"

################################################## ############################ 

LABEL="hide_partitions_end"

Then, run the command: 

sudo udevadm trigger

...so the changes will be immediately visible.

See also

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