Installing Fedora 12 on a ThinkPad T60

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NOTE!
This is based on the x86-64 version of Fedora 12 with the default GNOME desktop. Your experience with the 32bit version and/or KDE may be different.

Success Chart - Out of the box experience

The SMOLT profile for the T60 used for testing Fedora 12 is here.

Item Working Notes
Installation Local CD/DVD install yes
Network Installation yes
USB Installation yes
Display - Intel 945GM Laptop Screen yes
VGA yes
DVI yes
Display - ATI Laptop Screen Template:CYes
VGA Template:CYes
DVI Template:CYes
Power Management Software Suspend (hibernate) yes
Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) yes
Audio yes
Wireless WiFi - Atheros AR5414 yes problems connecting with low signal strength
WiFi - Intel Template:CYes
Bluetooth yes
WWAN - Verizon unknown
WWAN - Cingular unknown
Input Keyboard yes
TrackPoint yes Install gpointing-device-settings rpm for full configuration capabilities
TouchPad yes Install gpointing-device-settings rpm for full configuration capabilities
Extra keys partial see ThinkPad Extra keys section below
Ports Ethernet yes
Modem no Requires closed-source driver. May work with the slmodem rpm from the 32bit rpmfusion-nonfree repository. Not available for 64bit.
Serial yes Requires port-replicator or dock
IrDA no Device is detected, but does not work.
PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse yes Mouse tested, Requires port-replicator or dock
Parallel unknown (should work) Requires port-replicator or dock
USB yes
PCMCIA/Cardbus yes
Harddisk Active Protection no There is now a hdapsd rpm, but it is not installed by default, and neither is the hdaps kernel module getting automatically loaded. And even after install it is not started automatically. Starting it manually (modprobe hdaps; hdapsd), does not seem to work, as hdapsd complains it cannot find the input device. bugzilla
Ultrabay device hotswap partial see below, use with caution out of the box
Fingerprint reader unknown
TPM (security subsystem) unknown Not brave enough to mess around with it. May work with the tpm-tools rpm.

Tested and Verified on Fedora 12

Information in this section has been tested and verified using Fedora 12.

Installation

Installation is straight forward; you can follow the generic Fedora install instructions.

Configuration

X Server - Intel 945GM

Works out of the box, including Compiz and external displays (VGA and DVI). Can switch between displays with Fn-F7.

What does not work though is the combination of Compiz and extended desktop. Doing so freezes the system [1] - With upstream fixes the system no longer freezes, but Compiz still crashes.

X Server - ATI

?

DPI

On the 1400x1050 (and 1600x1200) LCD Fedora comes up with a DPI (Dots per Inch) of 124 (or higher). While this is correct for the physical screen size, it waists a lot of screen real estate.

To change to the more typical 96 DPI, go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance. Now in Appearance Preferences select the Fonts tab and press the "Details ..." button. Here you can change the dots per inch to 96. Of course, many things will shrink, but that is what you wanted, after all.

OSD

By default OSD (On-Screen-Display) will only function for the brightness keys, not for other functions such as Volume.

For this you can install the 'tpb' package from the standard Fedora repository

yum install tpb

But afterwards, you need to edit /etc/tpbrc and change

#OSDBRIGHTNESS OFF

to (remove the #)

OSDBRIGHTNESS OFF

Otherwise you will get two OSDs when using the brightness keys, one from gnome-power-manager and the other from tpb.

Atheros AR5414 WiFi

Atheros was tested and works, but it seems that there are some problems connecting when the distance between ThinkPad and WiFi AP/Router increases (low signal strength).

Intel WiFi

?

ThinkPad Extra keys

ThinkPad keys are handled by a mixture of the thinkpad_acpi, acpi button, acpi dock and acpi video drivers.

Key Function Handled by Event Works Notes
Fn-F2 lock screen thinkpad_acpi HAL yes
Fn-F3 battery thinkpad_acpi HAL yes
Fn-F4 suspend acpi button HAL yes
Fn-F5 wireless thinkpad_acpi HAL partial Works as a radio kill switch, kills WiFi but not Bluetooth
Fn-F7 videomode thinkpad_acpi HAL yes Cycles through LCD only, external only, both (mirrored), and both (extended desktop)
Fn-F8 mouse input select thinkpad_acpi HAL partial No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties
Fn-F9 undock thinkpad_acpi HAL partial No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties
Fn-F12 hibernate acpi button HAL yes
Fn-Home brightness up acpi video HAL yes includes on-screen display of brightness level
Fn-End brightness down acpi video HAL yes includes on-screen display of brightness level
Fn-PgUp thinklight - no yes no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround.
Fn-Space zoom thinkpad_acpi HAL no Known Xorg limitation, scheduled to be fixed in Xorg 1.8 with the new XKB2 extension in 2Q 2010
VolumeUp Volume Up - no yes no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround.
VolumeDown Volume Down - no yes no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround.
Mute Mute - no yes no default OSD. Install the tpb rpm as a workaround.
ThinkVantage Vendor key thinkpad_acpi HAL partial No default action, but can be associated with gnome-keybinding-properties
NextTab Browser Next tab standard keyboard driver HAL yes
PreviousTab Browser Previous tab standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Fn-Up Stop standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Fn-Left reverse standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Fn-Right forward standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Fn-Down play/pause standard keyboard driver HAL yes
Power Power button acpi button HAL yes Need to press button for ~1 second to trigger event. Causes a dialog asking you what to do.
Lid Lid button acpi button HAL yes
Dock Dock eject button acpi dock udev yes causes a flurry of udev remove/change events. Does not restore video to LVDS only. Press Fn-F7 after undock as a workaround
Ultrabay Ultrabay eject switch acpi dock udev no Missing handler, see Ultrabay instructions below
Radio switch Radio kill switch thinkpad_acpi udev yes

Ultrabay

The Ultrabay has some glitches out of the box with respect to hotswapping. It is possible to lock the machine when pulling out devices, even the CD/DVD device.

The culprit is that the Ultrabay pre-eject switch is not hooked into anything useful. It does cause udev events, but nothing is listening for them. When a device that has a mounted partition or CD is actually pulled out it is too late to do the right thing. Fedora 11 will usually just complain, sometimes bitterly, but may also lock up for some unknown reason, even if just pulling out a CD/DVD device with a mounted CD.

Manually unmounting before removal will help. Manual powering down may also be required for correct performance.

A better solution is to set up a udev rule and script to handle the pre-eject switch event for Ultrabay devices that have mountable things in them as in How to hotswap Ultrabay devices.

IrDA

IrDA is detected, but does not work. Part of the problem is that the default Fedora configuration expects to find the IrDA port at /dev/ttyS2, while it should use /dev/ircomm0 instead. This can be fixed in /etc/sysconfig/irda after which the irda service can be started (# service irda start).

However, even after this communication with other devices fails. irdadump does not show any output when something like a mobile phone with IrDA is sending data.

Untested on Fedora 12

The following options have not been tested yet. If you try it with Fedora 12, please update the table.

  • ATI Graphics
  • Intel WiFi
  • WWAN
  • parallel port
  • Fingerprint reader
  • TPM security system