Installing Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) on a ThinkPad Z61m

Installing from USB stick

If you already use Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic, installing Ubuntu 10.04 from USB stick is very easy. Just download the latest ISO, plug the USB stick in and run System-->Administration-->Create a USB startup disk. Load the downloaded ISO and hit "Make Startup Disk". For more information check this page. After that reboot your Thinkpad and press F12. This will allow you to boot from USB stick and start the installation routine.

Tested Configuration

• Lenovo ThinkPad Z61m (9450-H9G)
  • Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1,66 GHz, 2 MB L2, 667MHz FSB)
  • 2 GB RAM (2x 1 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz)
  • 15.4" wide-screen TFT WXGA 1280x800
  • Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
  • Seagate Momentus 7200.3 ST9160411ASG (160 GB SATA 7200 RPM) reflashed to Dell OEM Firmware
  • Ultrabay Enhanced DVD±RW Burner (GMA-4082N, FRU 39T2723)
  • Intel HD Audio with AD1981HD codec
  • Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000)
  • ThinkPad Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate (BDC-2)
  • Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter
  • IrDA 1.1 (FIR - 4Mbps)
  • 4-in-1 digital media reader (MultiMedia Card, MemoryStick, SD)
  • Integrated Fingerprint Reader
  • ThinkLight
  • UltraNav
  • CardBus slot (Type 2)
  • ExpressCard slot (54 or 34)
  • UltraBay Enhanced
  • 3x USB 2.0, Firewire, VGA out, S-Video out, Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack
  • Built-in Microphone

Hardware Support

Device / Function	Works?	Comment
Suspend & Hibernate	yes	out of the box
Intel GMA950 2D and 3D	yes	out of the box
Intel 3945ABG WiFi	yes	out of the box
Bluetooth	yes	out of the box
Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet	yes	out of the box
DVD±RW Burner	yes	out of the box
Ultrabay Hotswapping	partial	hotswapping optical drives (like DVD±RW) works out of the box, for HDD hotswapping look here
Intel HDA Sound	yes	out of the box, modem must be enabled in BIOS
PCMCIA	yes	out of the box
Express Card	unknown	not tested
Firewire	unknown	not tested
USB	yes	out of the box
IRDA	unknown	not tested
Docking	unknown	not tested
Fingerprint Reader	unknown	thinkfinger seems to be broken in Lucid. fprint and UPEK's proprietary driver haven't been tested yet
VGA out	yes	out of the box
S-Video out	unknown	not tested
Modem	unknown	not tested
Microphone	yes	both internal and external mics work out of the box, but are muted by default. See bellow
Headphones	yes	out of the box
Touchpad	yes	out of the box
Trackpoint	yes	out of the box, to enable middle button scrolling see bellow
Multimedia Card Reader	yes?	works out of the box with all kinds of SD cards. No other cards have been tested
FnFx, FnPageUp, FnHome, FnEnd	yes	out of the box, except of FnF9 and FnSpace
FnUp, FnDown, FnLeft, FnRight	partial	depends on the player, works out of the box with Rhytmbox but not Audacious. Thus, needs additional configuration
ThinkVantage	yes	does nothing by default, but can be easily mapped to something useful. See bellow
Volume up, Volume down, Volume mute	partial	the volume buttons work but don't affect the software (Pulse Audio) mixer. See bellow

HOWTOS

Setup the Middle Button Scrolling

Start a terminal and run

sudo gedit /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-trackpoint.conf

paste this

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier      "Trackpoint"
    MatchProduct    "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    Option          "EmulateWheel" "true"
    Option          "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
    Option          "EmulateWheelTimeout" "200" 
    Option	    "Emulate3Buttons"	"false"
    Option          "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
    Option          "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
EndSection

and save. Reboot.

Configure Trackpoint and Touchpad

The most convenient way to do this is to install GPointing Device Settings via

sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings

After that you will find it in System -> Preferences -> Pointing Devices

GPointing Device Settings, however, can't configure such important Trackpoint settings as sensitivity, speed and press to select. To do this, open a terminal, run

sudo gedit /etc/init/trackpoint.conf

paste

description "Trackpoint-Settings"
env TPDIR=/sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio3
start on virtual-filesystems
script
  while [ ! -f $TPDIR/sensitivity ]; do
	sleep 2
  done
  echo -n 200 > $TPDIR/sensitivity
  echo -n 150 > $TPDIR/speed
  echo -n 1 > $TPDIR/press_to_select
end script

and save. This will set sensitivity to 200, speed to 150 and activate press to select. Replacing "echo -n 1" by "echo -n 0" in the file will deactivate press to select. To find the right speed and sensitivity values, you should do some tests before by issuing

sudo sh -c "echo -n 200 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio3/sensitivity"
sudo sh -c "echo -n 150 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio3/speed"

in the terminal and using different numerical values between 0 and 255. The default values are 128 for sensitivity and 97 for speed.

If you get an error message like

sh: cannot create /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/serio3/sensitivity: Directory nonexistent

then you should run

ls /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/

to get the correct name (like serio2 or serio1). After that replace serio3 by the correct name in all related commands and in trackpoint.conf

Setup External Monitor or Beamer (VGA)

Connect your monitor/beamer to VGA port and go to System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution. For quick access to those settings it might be useful to acivate "Show displays in panel".

Help needed

Can someone replace this by a similar image from an English Ubuntu Lucid?

Power Management

Fix the hard drive clicking bug

If you don't know what the hard drive clicking bug is, read this. Although this bug was apparently fixed in Ubuntu Karmic, Lucid seems to be affected.

ATTENTION!

Here is a solution that worked for me. It's a bit dirty and turns off the power management of your HDD. This will slightly decrease your battery life but greatly improve your drive's lifetime.

Hint:

If you have a better solution, be sure to share it here

To fix the bug open a terminal and run

sudo cp /usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/95hdparm-apm /etc/pm/power.d/
sudo gedit /etc/pm/power.d/95hdparm-apm

Insert "hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda" after "resume_hdparm_apm" so that the appropriate section looks like this

case "$1" in
	thaw|resume|true|false) # true and false for power.d
                resume_hdparm_apm
                hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda
                ;;
           *)
                exit 254
                ;;
                esac

To test the fix try suspending/resuming and plugging/unpluging AC power. After each process run

sudo hdparm -B /dev/sda

hdparm should always report

/dev/sda:
 APM_level	= 254

External Sources

• [1] Trackpoint Configuration