Installing Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on a ThinkPad R61

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This wiki is about the R61 series laptops which come with a 14.1 inch widescreen lcd & Intel graphics cards inbuilt. The live cd will detect the correct resolution and color depth.

Compiz

Default installation will not be able to enable compiz becasue of the way the Intel chipsets work. It was previously thought that this would not be fixed until October 2008 at the earliest but it is sorted out for Ubuntu 8.04. I have found the following script to get around it (credits to the original author). Save the file as .sh and run it once to confirm you can get the compiz effects. You can add the file to your "Gnome Session" for subsequent reboots. q 

#!/bin/sh
SKIP_CHECKS=yes compiz --replace

A better way is to edit the file </etc/compizconfig/config> and add the option there. 

# /etc/compizconfig/config
SKIP_CHECKS=yes

This way the setting will be available for all users of the laptop.

/etc/compizconfig/config didn't work for me but doing the following did: 

echo "SKIP_CHECKS=yes" >> ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager


I found that any program that uses Xv video will glich or just crash with compiz enabled if you haven't patched your intel video driver (The astronomy package "Stellarium" is one example, video on skype calls is another). If you don't wish to patch the video driver you can use non Xv video by changing the settings in each application.

To patch the video driver to have compiz and Xv video follow the instructions here:

To disable Xv video: Solution is to run from the command line: 

gstreamer-properties

switch to the video tab, and set the default output to Xwindows system (No Xv). This will use a bit more processor power playing movies, but you get your video playback + compiz.

To use gmplayer, the output has to be set to gl2 in the video preferences tab.

To use xine, start the program once. It will crash, as the XV extension is not available. Then edit the config file <~/.xine/config> and replace <video.driver=auto> with <video.driver=xshm>. 

# ~/.xine/config
video.driver=xshm

To use vlc, start it without any video and select Settings/Preferences. Check Advanced Options and select the Video/Output modules option.

There you can selct the default video output module. Use <X11 video output> and the player will work. OpenGL works as well and provides better looking video but menus video ends up on top of menus etc.

Wireless

The wireless works out of the box with the Atheros driver.

The same applies for the intel ipw3945 module.

Sound

Sound card drivers are loaded out of the box but the default sound device is Microphone for some reason. You can see this by opening up the Volume Control window by right clicking on the taskbar volume applet and selecting "Open Volume Control". Because of this the special Volume buttons will also change the volume of the Microphone. To change this, click on System-> Preferences -> Sound and set Default Mixer Track to PCM.

Touchpad/Trackpoint

Works out of the box, including thinkpad side-scrolling.

If you want to use synaptics configuration tools like gsynaptics, edit the xorg.conf file and add the <SHMConfig> option in the synaptics device entry. 

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
        Option          "HorizEdgeScroll"       "0"
        Option          "SHMConfig"             "true"
EndSection

If you want the trackpoint middle button to behave like a mouse wheel when clicking the middle button and moving the trackpoint, add 

Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"

to the Section "InputDevice" with the Identifier "Configured Mouse" that it looks similar to that: 

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier	"Configured Mouse"
	Driver		"mouse"
	Option		"CorePointer"
	Option		"Device"		"/dev/input/mice"
	Option		"Protocol"		"ImPS/2"
	Option		"ZAxisMapping"		"4 5"
	Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"true"
	Option		"EmulateWheel"		"true"
	Option		"EmulateWheelButton"	"2"
EndSection

Further information on activating the thinkpads trackpoint middle button

Networking

Works out of the box.

Modem

There is a driver for 32 Bit installations ( http://packages.ubuntu.com/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=sl-modem&searchon=names&subword=1&version=all&release=all).

I was unsuccessful to get the modem working with the linuxant drivers.

Hard disk

It has been found that Gutsy will spin up and down your laptop hdd far too many times, this affects the life of the disk. You can perform these steps to avoid it. 

hdparm -B 255 /dev/sdX

[1]

This can easily be done by putting the following at the end of the file </etc/hdparm.conf>. 

# Disable power saving functions of harddrive, as it may limit it's
# lifespan.
command_line {
       hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda
}

hdaps module does not load, will be fixed in next kernel update: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/133636

To use the Advanced Protection System, the package hdapsd has to be installed.

Unfortunately the kernel module in gutsy has a bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/138018), so the module does not load. There are ways around that. (See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi#Installation).

enable hdaps:

hy all!

hdaps is work on my lenovo thinkpad r61 but need a litle hack. downgrade your bios to 1.03 ( http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/license.do?filename=mobiles/7puj01uc.iso ) from cd then recomplime your kernel (act. 2.6.23) whithout the hdaps module. if it's ok you need download the tp_smapi-034 from sourceforge edit the hdaps.c insert HDAPS_DMI_MATCH_INVERT("LENOVO","ThinkPad R61", HDAPS_ORIENT_INVERT_XY), insert HDAPS_DMI_MATCH_INVERT("LENOVO","ThinkPad R61i", HDAPS_ORIENT_INVERT_XY), insert HDAPS_DMI_MATCH_INVERT("LENOVO","ThinkPad R61e", HDAPS_ORIENT_INVERT_XY), in whitelist section

make it with HDAPS=1 option then run update-initramfs -u edit the /etc/modules insert tp_smapi and hdaps

reboot your notebook and check with hdaps-gl

have lot of fun :)

vendel

Thinkpad Buttons

Most of the buttons of the thinkpad are already configured correctly, with two exceptions: the <Fn+F7> key and the <Fn+F9> key. They can be activated quite easily.

First edit /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.modprobe 

# /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.modprobe
#options thinkpad_acpi hotkey=enable,0xffff8f experimental=1
options thinkpad_acpi hotkey=enable,0xffffff experimental=1

This activates the deactivated key events, so that the next section works with them.

Now for the <Fn+F7> key, I'm using grandr to configure the monitors. For this install grandr. Then edit /etc/acpi/events/ibm-videobtn and change the action line to the path of grandr. 

# /etc/acpi/events/ibmvideobtn
# This is called when the user presses the video button. It is currently
# a placeholder.

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007
action=/usr/bin/grandr

This is it for this key.

For the <Fn+F9> key I set the function to let gnome handle the eject events. For this create a file </etc/acpi/events/lenovo-eject>. 

# /etc/acpi/events/lenovo-eject
# This is called when the user presses the eject button
# /etc/acpi/lenovo-eject.sh to fake the key input

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001009
action=/etc/acpi/ejectbtn.sh

And now gnome handles the eject requests. I found the howto for the eject button in the net, but I've forgotton where. So thank you to the original author, if he is reading this. Sorry, no link.

If your media keys don't function with Amarok go to the Tools->Script Manager menu in Amarok. Click "Get more scripts" and install "Gnome Multimedia keys". Run the script from the script manager.

TODO: There are still 4 keys without functions attached: The <Fn+Space> key and the two additional keys beside the cursor keys. Also the <ThinkVantage> key has no function attached at the moment.

Suspend

Suspend did not work out of the box for me. I had to change </etc/default/acpi-support> to get it working. 

# /etc/default/acpi-support
MODULES_WHITELIST="ipw3945"
SAVE_VBE_STATE=false

If the LCD backlight does not come on after suspend see Problem with display remaining black after resume. To fix this, I edited </etc/default/acpi-support> so that 

 DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true

Then everything (suspend to ram, suspend to disk) were working. NOTE: When waking up, network-manager is crashing.

Graphics

When using an Intel GM965 card, external monitor on VGA port work using xrandr. I was not able to get TV out (SVIDEO) working at all.

Fingerprint Reader

To get the build-in fingerprint reader working by using free software, there are at least two projects you could use:

  1. Thinkfinger. Have a look at the Ubuntuwiki here for further instructions.
  2. Fprint. Gutsy-debs for Fprint can be found here. Visit madman's blog entry to get additional help with installation and configuration.

If you are using KDE, it is highly recommended to use Fprint instead of Thinkfinger since Thinkfinger isn't properly working together with kdesu nor with the kdm login screen at the current version.

Misc Hardware

The webcam / camera works (tested w/ snapshot) with the xfce windows manager (xubuntu), but seems to have some problems under the default ubuntu. Bluetooth works from a default install. ThinkLight works.

FireWire works.

SD-Card reader works out of the box.

Cardbus worked out of the box (test with dual port USB 2.0 PCMCIA).

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