Installing Arch Linux on a ThinkPad X40

2010-07-03T21:04:22Z

Nuex:

Some notes to get [[:Category:Arch|Arch]] Linux running on a Thinkpad {{X40}}.

{{Todo|Not fnished yet. I'm documenting the installation process as it goes}}

= Preface =

I downloaded the FTP installation CD on http://www.archlinux.org/

= Wireless =

== Atheros-based ==

My main concern was getting the WIFI to work. As the downloaded ISO also
functions as a livecd, I tried to get it up and running with that. Without
success. I found the answer to my question here:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=482359

I installed madwifi and madwifi-utils.
In the modules section of {{path|/etc/rc.conf}} I banged the ath5k module, disabling
it.
With ath5k not banged the card showed up as wlan0,
associated correctly with the AP, but didn't get a DHCP lease. Even with
manually setting the IP and adding the default route, I couldn't ping the AP.

After banging ath5k, the wireless card shows up as ath0. Associating works,
DHCP doesn't time out. :)

== Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG ==

dmesg should mention the ipw2200 card was detected. To get this running, you will need to do

{{cmdroot|pacman -S ipw2200-fw}}

and add ipw2200 to the MODULES variable in your /etc/rc.conf. Reboot to get the module initialized.

= Power Management =

The two most important factors of a mobile device are battery life and weight. I'm always a bit disgrunted when an advertisement doesn't mention one or either.

Without any powersaving installations the 8cell battery still managed for a nice 4 hours.

== CPU Frequency Scaling ==

CPU Frequency Scaling is a technology primarily for notebooks that enables the OS to scale the CPU speed to system and/or power use.

I simply followed the following instructions: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cpufrequtils

== Suspend ==

I tried pm-utils. {{footnote|2}}

{{cmdroot|pacman -S pm-utils}}

Add {{bootparm|acpi_sleep|s3_bios}} to the file {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}} as kernel option.

I added following modules to the {{path|/etc/pm/config.d/config}} file in the order they are dependant of eachother. The last ones depend on the first modules.

SUSPEND_MODULES="wlan_wep wlan_scan_sta ath_rate_sample ath_pci wlan ath_hal"

But suspending seems to work even without this.

If the backlight is not working when resuming from suspend, the following might fix it [http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=61558]:

#!/bin/bash
case $1 in
suspend)
;;
resume)
chvt 1
vbetool post &
sleep 1
kill $!
chvt 7
;;
esac

Put the script in {{path|/etc/pm/sleep.d/}}. The changing of the virtual terminals with chvt is used to avoid a garbled screen after invoking vbetool in X.

== Hibernate ==

To hibernate, you can simply use pm-utils too. It provides the pm-hibernate program.
Only add the resume drive to the kernel line in {{path|/boot/grub/menu.lst}}:

{{bootparm|resume|/dev/sda2}}

The drive assigned is the swap partition. The swap partition should be at least big enough to hold your RAM data.

I also needed to add the ''resume'' hook to the file {{path|/etc/mkinitcpio.conf}} [http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=718892]. Then recompile the kernel:

mkinitcpio -p kernel26

=== Enable suspend/hibernate buttons ===

To get the suspend keycombo (fn+f4 and fn+f12) to work, install xbindkeys:

{{cmdroot|pacman -S xbindkeys}}

And place the following in ~/.xbindkeysrc

"sudo pm-suspend"
c:223
"sudo pm-hibernate"
c:165

The keycode you can find out by running ''xev'' and looking for the appropriate keycode.

Adding {{path|xbindkeys}} to a startup script of your windowmanager makesthe keys active. As the name suggests, xbindkeys only works in X.

= Xorg =

Installed xorg with

{{cmdroot|pacman -S xorg}}

Then generated the xorg.cong file with

{{cmdroot|hwd -xa}}

(I know, risky ;))

Looked good, but X didn't start with this (couldn't find display).
I installed the xf86-video-intel and changed the display driver from i810 to
intel in {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}}:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
VendorName "All"
BoardName "All"
EndSection

== Getting the back/forward special keys to work ==

Add the following to your {{path|~/.Xmodmap}} {{footnote|1}}
keycode 77 = Num_Lock
keycode 234 = XF86Back
keycode 233 = XF86Forward

== Enabling scrolling with middle mouse button ==

Add the following to your {{path|/etc/X11/xorg.conf}}, to the PS/2 mouse section {{footnote|1}}
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"

= Postface =

Don't forget to run [http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ALSA]
{{cmdroot|alsaconf}}

to get the sound to work properly.

{{footnotes|
#[[Installing_Ubuntu_7.04_(Feisty_Fawn)_on_a_ThinkPad_X40]]
#[http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pm-utils pm-utils]
}}

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Installing Arch Linux on a ThinkPad X40