View source for Install Mandriva 2009.0 on a ThinkPad W500

[[:Category:W500|W500]] {{NOTE|The below issues have been fixed in later GNU/Linux versions, but they have been left in case someone decides to try installing Mandriva 2009.0 for some reason.}}

==BIOS Issues==

* [[Switchable Graphics]]
GNU/Linux with X.Org previously lacked the support for on-the-fly switching of GPUs. It not only did not support switching, you also had to explicitly turn off switching in BIOS. Go to Config->Display->Graphics Device and '''DISABLE''' OS detection of switchable graphics.

If you don't disable OS detection, Linux will enumerate two graphic adapters (see `lspci` output) and X.Org will be confused as to which one to use, leading to random weird side effects such as hangs and worse.

* AHCI
I also had to turn off AHCI in Config->SATA and used '''Compatibility Mode''' instead, otherwise the kernel would not boot occasionally.

* Intel Virtualization
The T9400 and up CPUs also support advanced Intel Virtualization technologies. Just don't turn on '''VT-d''' (disk I/O virtualization) in BIOS, otherwise WLAN any a couple of other things will not work and even freeze your system, see [https://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=44711 https://qa.mandriva.com/show_bug.cgi?id=44711]

==Things not working/issues==

As I've found most of the components are just working out of the box, I will only list the issues I have found so far:

* booting with "vga=788" not working
** the Mandriva installer added the "vga=788" parameter to my Linux boot line. That prevented the laptop from booting quite frequently, not always though. Still to be investigated, but removing "vga=788" from the kernel boot line solved the issue for now.
* [[Active Protection System]]
** HD-APS is not working for me, probably due to a BIOS bug, see [http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12221 http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12221]
*** some kind of workaround is to add pnpacpi=off to the kernel boot line, but that turns off ACPI, which is no real option
* Suspend/Resume
** while suspending works fine, resuming always ended with a blank screen, workaround below
* muted audio not shown in alsamixer
** when you use the built in "mute audio" button on the ThinkPad keyboard, the EC does a hardware mute without sending a XF86AudioMute event, so the mute state will not show in any audio mixer. So if you don't hear a sound, press the "mute audio" or "volume up" button to unmute :-)
* 3D and radeonhd
** the radeonhd driver did not support 3D acceleration
* 2D and fglrx
** see below

== Suspend/Resume problem ==

If resuming just leaves you with a blank black display, try the following:

  echo "ADD_PARAMETERS='--quirk-vbe-post'" > /etc/pm/config.d/w500_vbe_post

== Display / Xorg ==

The laptop comes with [[Switchable Graphics]], so you can choose on your own which GPU to use:

* intel
** consumes the least energy
** DVI connector on the [[ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock]] ist not recognoized
** a static dual head configuration gives weird background garbage when one of the statically configured monitors is not connected, see [http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19412 http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=19412]

* radeonhd
** consumes the most energy
** lack of 3D support

* fglrx
** changing runlevel to 3 (init 3) leaves you with X eating 100% CPU
** huge performance issues when switching between virtual desktops, switching can take a couple of seconds with 100% CPU again

So if battery life and 3D are important for you, you should probably use the intel driver, but I am fine with the radeonhd driver for now. And fglrx is nothing but proprietary nonsense, IMHO ... for a '''commercial''' driver this is ridiculous.



[[Category:W500]][[Category:Mandriva]]