Installing Fedora 16 on a ThinkPad T410

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NOTE!
This is based on the x86-64 version of Fedora 16 with the default GNOME desktop. Your experience with the 32bit version and/or KDE may be different.
Help needed
Not all models of this ThinkPad are equal, you may have a different WiFi adapter or graphics, or some options I did not have. If you tested them, please add their status down below.

New in this release

New in this Fedora release, with regards to this model ThinkPad is the following;

  • Better out of the box support for Undock
  • Better video performance for Intel graphics

Regressions;

  • Intel WiFi (iwlwifi) is unstable after suspend, fixed in 3.2 kernel from the Updates repo
  • Harmless Intel DRM error messages in log ([drm:ironlake_update_pch_refclk] *ERROR* enabling SSC on PCH), fixed in 3.2 kernel from the Updates repo

Success Chart - Out of the box experience

The SMOLT profile for the T410 used for testing Fedora 16 is here.

Item Working Notes
Installation Local CD/DVD install yes
Network Installation yes
USB Installation yes
Display - Intel HD Graphics Laptop Screen yes
VGA yes
Displayport unknown
DVI yes Requires a dock or Displayport to DVI adapter
Display - NVidia Laptop Screen unknown
VGA unknown
Displayport unknown
DVI unknown Requires a dock or Displayport to DVI adapter
Power Management Software Suspend (hibernate) yes
Suspend to Memory (ACPI sleep) yes
Audio yes
Wireless WiFi - Intel 6200 yes
WiFi - Intel 6300 yes
WiFi - Realtek unknown
Bluetooth yes
WWAN with GPS 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
Fingerprint reader unknown
Ports Ethernet yes
Modem no May work with the binary Conexant HSF modem drivers.
USB yes
ExpressCard unknown
Smartcard Reader unknown
5-in-1 MultiCard Reader partial Reads SD and SDHC, but not MemoryStick
eSATA unknown
Firewire 400 unknown
Harddisk Active Protection no Fedora ships the hdapsd rpm, but not the tp_smapi kernel module, which is required to read the motion sensor bugzilla
Ultrabay device hotswap partial see below, use with caution out of the box
TPM yes tpm_tis is automatically loaded. After installing the tpm-tools rpm, and starting the tcsd service, the tpm_* commands seem to work.
Docking partial Events work partially, not as complete as older generation ThinkPads

Tested and Verified on Fedora 16

Information in this section has been tested and verified using Fedora 16.

Installation

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

Configuration

Kernel

You may want to consider editing /etc/default/grub and adding pcie_aspm=force to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line, and running # grub2-mkconfig. This will force enable PCIe ASPM power saving functions, which are getting disabled because the BIOS claims not to support it, but it does work and it makes a significant difference in battery life. A potential downside is that if the system really does not support it, you could experience system freezes, but I have not noticed any (YMMV). This issue is resolved in the upstream 3.3 kernel release.

Likewise you may also want to add the option i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 which will allow the Integrated (Intel) graphics to enter a lower power state, and save yet some more power. Again this could cause problems on certain implementations, but I have not noticed any negative effects.

The kernel does log one error message on this ThinkPad, regardless of the above parameters;

[drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] *ERROR* failed to get supported _DSM functions

This error seems to be a BIOS ACPI bug that Lenovo has so far failed to fix. It does not cause any problems so the warning can be ignored. However, printing the error does cause a modeswitch during boot which breaks the seamless graphical boot.

X Server - Intel HD Graphics

Works out of the box.

Instructions for locating the correct colour profile for your ThinkPad LCD can be found on the Colour profile page.

External VGA and DVI (through a Dock) displays work, DisplayPort has not yet been tested.

X Server - NVidia

?

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
FnF2 lock screen thinkpad_acpi yes yes
FnF3 battery thinkpad_acpi yes yes
FnF4 suspend acpi button yes yes
FnF5 wireless thinkpad_acpi yes partial Works as a radio kill switch, kills WiFi but not Bluetooth
FnF6 video conference thinkpad_acpi yes partial No default action, but can be associated in the Gnome keyboard settings
FnF7 videomode thinkpad_acpi yes yes
FnF8 mouse input select thinkpad_acpi yes yes
FnF12 hibernate acpi button yes yes
FnHome brightness up acpi video yes yes includes on-screen display of brightness level
FnEnd brightness down acpi video yes yes includes on-screen display of brightness level
FnPgUp thinklight - no yes no OSD.
FnSpace zoom thinkpad_acpi yes no Known Xorg limitation, scheduled to be fixed with the new XKB2 extension, whenever that may be.
VolumeUp Volume Up ? yes yes
VolumeDown Volume Down ? yes yes
VolumeMute Volume Mute ? yes yes
MicMute Mic Mute ? no no
ThinkVantage Vendor key thinkpad_acpi yes partial No default action, but can be associated in the Gnome keyboard settings
NextTab Browser Next tab standard keyboard driver yes yes
PreviousTab Browser Previous tab standard keyboard driver yes yes
Fn Up Stop standard keyboard driver yes yes
Fn Left reverse standard keyboard driver yes yes
Fn Right forward standard keyboard driver yes yes
Fn Down play/pause standard keyboard driver yes yes
Power Power button acpi button yes yes Need to press button for ~1 second to trigger a Suspend event.
Lid Lid button acpi button yes yes Triggers suspend event
Dock Dock eject - yes partial Events work partly
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. linux 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.