Installing Slackware 13.37 on a ThinkPad W520 - Revision history

Dimm0k at 01:13, 22 July 2011

2011-07-22T01:13:50Z

Dimm0k: /* Misc notes */

2011-07-22T01:12:00Z

‎Misc notes

Dimm0k: /* Video */

2011-07-22T01:08:20Z

‎Video

Dimm0k: /* Audio */

2011-07-22T01:03:18Z

‎Audio

Dimm0k: /* Networking */

2011-07-22T00:59:15Z

‎Networking

Dimm0k: /* Audio */

2011-07-22T00:58:55Z

‎Audio

Dimm0k: /* Networking */

2011-07-22T00:58:30Z

‎Networking

Dimm0k: /* Audio */

2011-07-17T23:06:01Z

‎Audio

Show changes

Dimm0k at 22:42, 17 July 2011

2011-07-17T22:42:30Z

Dimm0k: â†Created page with '== Installation == Slackware 13.37 64-bit installed like a breeze on a hot, humid day! For the most part all of the essentials to get the system up and running on the W5...'

2011-07-17T22:33:11Z

â†Created page with '== Installation == Slackware 13.37 64-bit installed like a breeze on a hot, humid day! For the most part all of the essentials to get the system up and running on the W5...'

New page

== Installation ==

Slackware 13.37 64-bit installed like a breeze on a hot, humid day! For the most part all of the essentials to get the system up and running on the W520 was detected and put into play with little or no intervention or editing of files on my end. Kernel 2.6.37.6 was supplied with Slackware 13.37 so I compiled and installed 2.6.39.2 using the .config file from the testing/source/linux-2.6.39-rc4-configs/ directory on the Slackware install DVD. Made some minor changes to the config as follows:

{{NOTE|Sections with -[ ] were removed.}}
* Processor type and features
** Preemption Model > Preemptible Kernel
* Networking support
**-[Amateur Radio support]
**-[CAN bus subsystem support]
**-[IrDA (infrared) subsystem support
**-[WiMAX Wireless Broadband support]
*Device Drivers
**-[Parallel port support]
**-[Fusion MPT device support]
**-[I2O device support]
**-[Macintosh device drivers]
***Network device support
****-[ARCnet support]
****-[Token Ring driver support]
****-[ATM drivers]
****-[FDDI driver support]
****-[HIPPI driver support]
****-[ISDN support]
**-[Dallas's 1-wire support]
***Multimedia support
****-[Remote Controller adapters]
****-[Radio Adapters]

== Video ==

Coming from a W510, the W520 introduced me to the concepts of discrete and integrated graphics, as well as NVIDIA's Optimus technology. Unfortunately because of NVIDIA's unwillingness to bring Optimus support to Linux, you have three choices. You can use the integrated Intel HD graphics, NVIDIA's discrete graphics, or look into the bumblebee project [https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee#readme here]. I went with the NVIDIA discrete graphics route with plans to try out the bumblebee project at a later time. Make sure to specifically set your graphics option in the BIOS to discrete, otherwise Slackware/Linux will select integrated.

Instead of the open source nouveau driver, which is limited to 2D graphics I went with NVIDIA's binary, version 275.09.07. Used xf86-video-nouveau-blacklist-noarch-1.txz in the extra/ directory on the Slackware install DVD to blacklist the loading of the nouveau driver, which causes conflicts with NVIDIA's binary. With X.Org's X Server 1.9.5 in Slackware, xorg.conf is pretty bare these days as detection is done pretty smoothly at start. Using NVIDIA's installer to create a default xorg.conf, the only things I edited were

{{xorg.conf}}

== Networking ==

The [[Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300]] Wi-Fi card and [[Intel Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000) PCI-Express]] Ethernet card both worked right out of the box.

By default the Wi-Fi indicator flashes whenever there is activity, which I found to be quite annoying and distracting. You can change its behavior so that it will be on steady whenever the radio is powered on and off when the radio is off by adding "'''options iwlcore led_mode=1'''" to /etc/modprobe.d/iwlcore.conf. Setting '''led_mode=0''', the default, will cause the indicator to flash whenever there is wireless activity.

== Misc notes ==

* You can verify that Turbo Boost is working properly by using Intel's powertop or i7z to show the actual CPU state, including Turbo Boost and advanced C-states.

* You will need to make sure the following modules are loaded: ac, battery, button, coretemp, fan, processor, and thermal for proper ACPI and temperature monitoring.

{{W520}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:13, 22 July 2011
Line 348:		Line 348:

	{{W520}}		{{W520}}
		+	--[[User:Dimm0k\|dimm0k]] 03:13, 22 July 2011 (CEST)

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:12, 22 July 2011
Line 344:		Line 344:

	* You will need to make sure the following modules are loaded: ac, battery, button, coretemp, fan, processor, and thermal for proper ACPI and temperature monitoring.		* You will need to make sure the following modules are loaded: ac, battery, button, coretemp, fan, processor, and thermal for proper ACPI and temperature monitoring.
		+
		+	* BIOS version was 1.25, which was buggy with Linux in terms of ACPI. I had reverted to 1.22 temporarily to get ACPI working fully, but it looks to be all fixed in 1.26, which is what I am currently running.

	{{W520}}		{{W520}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:08, 22 July 2011
Line 35:		Line 35:

	{{xorg.conf}}		{{xorg.conf}}
		+
		+
		+	The thinkpad_acpi module reports the wrong number for the LCD brightness level. On mine, issuing '''cat sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/max_brightness''' shows 15 regardless of what I change it to. Because of this the LCD’s brightness always gets set to 15 when resuming from hibernation so we add a '''options thinkpad_acpi brightness_mode=2''' to ''/etc/modprobe.d/w520.conf'' fix. You can also disable it altogether and use ACPI with '''options thinkpad_acpi brightness_enable=0'''.

	== Audio ==		== Audio ==

@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
      Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
-In the above you can see that the HDMI device is seen as card 1 so the above probe_mask is appropriate.  If you have card number 0, remove the extra 0xffff so '''probe_mask=0xfff2''' would be more appropriate.  If it was card number 2, add two 0xffff like '''probe_mask=0xffff,0xffff,0xfff2'''.  After putting this in ''alsa-base.conf'' and reloading the snd_hda_intel module, '''aplay -l''' should list only one nVidia card.  On mine it looks like this:
+In the above you can see that the HDMI device is seen as card 1 so the above probe_mask is appropriate.  If you have card number 0, remove the extra 0xffff so '''probe_mask=0xfff2''' would be more appropriate.  If it was card number 2, add two 0xffff like '''probe_mask=0xffff,0xffff,0xfff2'''.  After putting this in ''w520.conf'' and reloading the snd_hda_intel module, '''aplay -l''' should list only one nVidia card.  On mine it looks like this:
    **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

@@ Line 334: / Line 334: @@
 The [[Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300]] Wi-Fi card and [[Intel Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000) PCI-Express]] Ethernet card both worked right out of the box.
-By default the Wi-Fi indicator flashes whenever there is activity, which I found to be quite annoying and distracting.  You can change its behavior so that it will be on steady whenever the radio is powered on and off when the radio is off by adding "'''options iwlcore led_mode=1'''" to /etc/modprobe.d/w520.conf.  Setting '''led_mode=0''', the default, will cause the indicator to flash whenever there is wireless activity.
+By default the Wi-Fi indicator flashes whenever there is activity, which I found to be quite annoying and distracting.  You can change its behavior so that it will be on steady whenever the radio is powered on and off when the radio is off by adding "'''options iwlcore led_mode=1'''" to ''/etc/modprobe.d/w520.conf''.  Setting '''led_mode=0''', the default, will cause the indicator to flash whenever there is wireless activity.
 == Misc notes ==

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 == Audio ==
-Because I mainly use this notebook at home, I have an external LCD capable of HDMI video and audio attached via a DisplayPort to HDMI cable that allows me to not only display video, but also audio.  To enable the HDMI audio, I needed to add the following to ''/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf''
+Because I mainly use this notebook at home, I have an external LCD capable of HDMI video and audio attached via a DisplayPort to HDMI cable that allows me to not only display video, but also audio.  To enable the HDMI audio, I needed to add the following to ''/etc/modprobe.d/w520.conf''
 '''options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=0 probe_mask=0xffff,0xfff2'''

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:42, 17 July 2011
Line 35:		Line 35:

	{{xorg.conf}}		{{xorg.conf}}
		+
		+	== Audio ==
		+
		+	With an external LCD capable of HDMI video and audio, I used a DisplayPort to HDMI cable that allows me to not only display video, but also audio. To enable the HDMI audio, I needed to add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
		+
		+	'''options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=0 probe_mask=0xffff,0xfff2'''

	== Networking ==		== Networking ==

Installing Slackware 13.37 on a ThinkPad W520 - Revision history

Dimm0k at 01:13, 22 July 2011

Dimm0k: /* Misc notes */

Dimm0k: /* Video */

Dimm0k: /* Audio */

Dimm0k: /* Networking */

Dimm0k: /* Audio */

Dimm0k: /* Networking */

Dimm0k: /* Audio */

Dimm0k at 22:42, 17 July 2011

Dimm0k: â†Created page with '== Installation == Slackware 13.37 64-bit installed like a breeze on a hot, humid day! For the most part all of the essentials to get the system up and running on the W5...'

Dimm0k: â†Created page with '== Installation == Slackware 13.37 64-bit installed like a breeze on a hot, humid day! For the most part all of the essentials to get the system up and running on the W5...'