Installing Gentoo 2007.0 on a ThinkPad R61

Model

Lenovo Thinkpad R61 7743-Y1B

General

This installation instruction describes the steps after a Gentoo 2007.0 base installation. Please read the gentoo handbook for installation instructions

Working:

- Keyboard, UltraNav input

- Drives

- X11 with nVidia including acceleration

- Network, wireless network and bluetooth

- Sound

- Suspend to RAM

- ThinkLight

- PCMCIA

- ACPI (Battery, CPU Frequency, Fan, Temperature, ...)

- Fingerprint scanner (includes login and screen lock)

Partially working:

- Fn Keys

Not tested:

- Firewire (should work as it is recognized, no devices for testing)

- Express Card Slot

- Harddisk protection (should work with patching)

- Docking Station (should work according to several sources)

Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M

To install and configure the nVidia driver, just emerge nvidia-driver. Tested with nvidia-driver-100.14.19, everything works fine, games run smooth.

Framebuffer works fine with vga=869 which will set the resolution to 1440x900. hwinfo --framebufer displays all supported resolutions.

The brightness can be changed with the new nvidia driver (169.04) which is a beta driver at the moment. Does not work with older drivers, only known workaround is to either use vesa / nv driver or to change the brightness on a vt.

Sound: AD1984

Did not work with older Versions of ALSA driver, works fine with ALSA 1.0.15 and should work with ALSA 1.0.14 as well. The in-kernel ALSA works since 2.6.23.

The mute button is hardwired and works, the volume up and volume down buttons work as well but you need to configure them first.

Note: After muting you have to press a volume up or down button to unmute, and the mute status is not displayed in any mixer application.

Network: Intel E1000 NIC, IPW4965abgn WNIC, Bluetooth

The integrated e1000 LAN NIC works out of the box.

For wireless you have to unmask and emerge the iwlwifi package with the ipw4965 USEFlag enabled.

Don't forget that the interface (wlan0) has to be set as up (ifconfig wlan0 up) before scanning and associating works.

Bluetooth works out of the box with blueZ. You can disable / enable bluetooth via proc, with a script similar to this one:

#!/bin/sh
bluetooth=`head -n 1 /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth | awk '{print $2}'`
case "$bluetooth" in
    disabled)
        sudo sh -c "echo "enable" > /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth"
	;;
    enabled)
        sudo sh -c "echo "disable" > /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth"
        ;;
esac
exit 0

or directly with the proc interface. This script helps you to bind it to the Fn+F5 key combination.

Note that the hardware killswitch on the front works as well, but disables both bluetooth and WLAN

Ports: PCMCIA, USB, IEEE 1394 Firewire

PCMCIA port works out of the box, tested with an audigy pcmcia. I have no express slot cards available for testing.

The left hand usb ports generate an IRQ nobody cared error from time to time, Try to boot with irqpoll in your kernel line as suggested.

A BIOS Update might help as well, it is recommended to use the ThinkVantage Software Updater for windows for a BIOS Update. The error disappeared here and USB works fine.

Firewire is untested but should work, as the port is recognized and the module loaded.

Drives

The optical drive and hard drive work out of the box, at least with AHCI disabled in the BIOS.

If you run a dualboot system with windows <= 5.1 (XP) you want to disable AHCI anyway.

Input

TouchPad

Works out of the box here, with scrolling. Have a look at my Xorg.conf section at the end

Can be disabled via synclient when using the synaptics driver, a possible solution is this script:

#!/bin/sh
touchpad=`synclient -l | grep TouchpadOff | awk '{print $3}'`
case "$touchpad" in
    1)
        synclient TouchpadOff=0;
	echo "Touchpad Enabled" | osd_cat -d 1 -c cyan --font="-*-times-bold-r-*--34-240-*-*-p-*-*-*" -A center -p bottom
	;;
    0)
        synclient TouchpadOff=1;
	echo "Touchpad Disabled" | osd_cat -d 1 -c cyan --font="-*-times-bold-r-*--34-240-*-*-p-*-*-*" -A center -p bottom
    ;;
esac
exit 0

which needs xosd to display the current state. You can make it excecutable and map it to the fn+f8 button.

Trackpoint

Works out of the box as well, with no scrolling however. Can be configured via xorg.conf, I prefer using the middle button as mouse3.

Keyboard

Works out of the box, most of the Fn Keys work.

Hardwired: Mute, Thinklight, Brightness

Generates a keycode and can be configured: Volume Down, Volume Up, Fn+F2, Fn+F3, Fn+F4, Fn+F5, Fn+F7, Fn+Arrows

Does not generate a key event: Fn+F8, Fn+F9, Fn+F12, Fn+Space Those keys do produce an acpi event, so you can modifiy your acpi configuration to bind them to commands. There is a good howto here: Gentoo Wiki but remember that you have to edit it according to the acpi events of a R61. (Use acpi_listen to get them)

Power Management

Suspend to RAM worked out of the box here, echo 3 > /proc/acpi/sleep puts the machine in suspend mode, opening it or pressing the power button wakes it up. Worked with nvidia driver and in X11. All devices came back without problems, wlan might have disconnected, but by using networkmanager, wicd or a good configuration it should reconnect after waking up. Works here with wicd.

Integrated Fingerprint Reader

Emerge the thinkfinger package, add a user with the tf-tool. Then you have to edit the /etc/pam.d/system-auth file by adding

auth sufficient pam_thinkfinger.so

between pam.unix and pam.env.

Read the Gentoo-Wiki to use it with xscreensaver, there is a good solution over there

Note: kdm has problems with thinkfinger auth and might crash. There are patches, but I didn't test them yet. gdm works fine here.

Hard Drive Active Protection

The integrated harddrive active protection acceleration meter can be used as a joystick or to get information about movements of your thinkpad.

Emerge the hdapsd (which includes a kernel module you have to load) which will generate a joystick and an event device.

It could as well be used to protect your harddisk from damage, but I have not tested this and I wont, as I can't be arsed to use my backups just because I did some experimenting with my hdd.

Thinklight

The thinklight works out of the box with the Fn+PgUp key, but it can be controlled as well via the proc interface.

So you can write a nice script, which you can bind to events, such as incoming emails, to let the light flash.

A possible solution is this small script:

#!/bin/sh

if [ -z "$1" ]
then
	echo "IBM ThinkLight Control script." 
	echo "2007 by Christian \"Fuchs\" Loosli."
	echo ""
	echo "usage: lightctl on | off | blink"
	echo "blink takes two arguments: times and time"
	echo "defaults (5 times, 0.5 seconds) are used if not specified"

else 
	if [ $1 = "on" ]
	then
    	       sudo sh -c "echo on > /proc/acpi/ibm/light"
	fi
	if [ $1 = "off" ]
	then
   	       sudo sh -c "echo off > /proc/acpi/ibm/light"
	fi

	if [ $1 = "blink" ]
	then

		times=$2
		time=$3

		if [ -z "$2" ]
		then
			times=4 
		fi

		if [ -z "$3" ]
		then
			time=0.5 
		fi

    	for i in `seq 1 $times`;
    	do
    		sudo sh -c "echo on > /proc/acpi/ibm/light";
    		sleep $time;
    		sudo sh -c "echo off > /proc/acpi/ibm/light"
    		sleep $time;
    	done    
	fi
fi
exit 0

which can be called to let the light blink or switch it off or on. The blink part is nice for setting to events such as incoming messages or emails.

(note: the thinklight is a LED, so it should not care on how fast and often you let it blink. But I am not responsible if this script damages your thinklight. Use at own risk.

Configuration Files

xorg.conf

Note that I use the XFont Server, you might have to change the font path.

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "single head configuration"
	Screen         0 "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer" 
        inputDevice    "Touchpad" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	FontPath     "unix/:-1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "fbdevhw"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "pc102"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "ch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier	"Touchpad"
    Driver	"synaptics"
    Option	"Protocol"	"auto-dev"
    Option	"Device"	"/dev/input/mouse0"
    Option	"Emulate3Buttons"	"no"
    Option	"ZAxisMapping"	"4 5"
    Option	"LeftEdge"	"1700"
    Option	"RightEdge"	"5300"
    Option	"TopEdge"	"1700"
    Option	"BottomEdge"	"4200"
    Option	"FingerLow"	"25"
    Option	"FingerHigh"	"30"
    Option	"MaxTapTime"	"180"
    Option	"MaxTapMove"	"220"
    Option	"VertScrollDelta"	"100"
    Option	"MinSpeed"	"0.02"
    Option	"MaxSpeed"	"0.28"
    Option	"AccelFactor"	"0.0010"
    Option	"SHMConfig"	"on"
    Option	"UseSHM"	"true"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"
	Option	    "buttons" "7"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Flat Panel 1400x950"
	Option	     "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "nvidia"
	VendorName  "NVIDIA"
	BoardName   "NVIDIA GeForce FX (generic)"
	Option      "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
	Option      "RenderAccel" "true"
	Option	    "Backingstore" "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier   "Screen0"
	Device       "Videocard0"
	Monitor      "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth 24
	Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport  0 0
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1440x900" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport 0 0
		Depth 16
		Modes	"1440x900" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	        SubSection "Display"
	        Viewport 0 0
		Depth 8
		Modes   "1440x900" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
		EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group        0
	Mode         0666
EndSection

xmodmap

Note: you have to xmodmap /path/to/file this file in your autostart. You might have different keycodes, use the application xev to display them.

! Volume keys (note that mute is hardwired) 
keycode 233 = F20
keycode 234 = F21

! Fn+Fx keys
keycode 146 = F22
keycode 241 = F23
keycode 223 = F24
keycode 243 = F25
keycode 214 = F26
keycode 215 = F27
keycode 101 = F28
keycode 212 = F29

! Fn+Arrow keys (Mediaplayer control) 
keycode 144 = F32
keycode 162 = F33
keycode 153 = F34
keycode 164 = F35