Linux on the X220

[mil2]

I agree with much of what "measure" wrote above.

As to "will it eventually?", this is more of a wishful thinking than anything else. A specific example: I have an older Thinkpad, an x201, bought a year ago. When I bought it, Windows 7 would idle at 6.5-7W, Linux at 10-11W. What's the situation now, a year later? Linux idles at 11-12W. So at least for me, it has actually gotten worse, not better. From what I hear, this is a general problem that affects, e.g., the new releases of Ubuntu or Fedora.

The problem with open source is that people work on what they want, and not necessarily on what needs work. So if power management is not a cool topic, no progress will be made. I would speculate that right now few serious Linux developers care about power management in laptops.

Yes. Run powertop.

I wish it was that simple. I run powertop. I have no CPU hogs running, I have fewer than 100 wakeups per second, and powertop has no recommendations as to what else I could tweak. Powertop is a useful tool to identify some problems with your system, no doubt about it, but don't fool yourself into thinking that it will get your power consumption to the level of Windows. That will take work in the drivers of the hardware devices.

[DStaal]

Further notes: (Yes, I'm continuing to install other OS choices on this laptop, trying them for a few minutes, than blowing them away. )

OpenSUSE recognizes the fingerprint reader out of the box, and has the best default touchpad settings I found yet. However, that fingerprint recognition is odd: You enable it in one place, then go in to edit the user you want to use it with, and it's a plugin. (You have to 'Edit' the user, then switch tabs.) It recognizes one finger per user. Note that many of the password prompts you will see are root password prompts, and that's a different user. (That doesn't show up in the default list.) Also, it doesn't really prompt you for a fingerprint. The standard password prompt will come up, and you have to swipe, then hit enter. (And often, repeat.)

Also, learned from the above: Turning off the 'tap on the touchpad' makes it several hundred percent less annoying.

Oh: Getting a bootable USB for OpenSUSE isn't easy if you aren't running OpenSUSE. (Or, I suppose, Windows, as they have directions for that as well.) Unetbootin doesn't work, and OpenSUSE's instructions use software I haven't seen on any other Linux distro.

Any suggestions for other distros I should try?

[driekus]

Further notes: (Yes, I'm continuing to install other OS choices on this laptop, trying them for a few minutes, than blowing them away. )

OpenSUSE recognizes the fingerprint reader out of the box, and has the best default touchpad settings I found yet. However, that fingerprint recognition is odd: You enable it in one place, then go in to edit the user you want to use it with, and it's a plugin. (You have to 'Edit' the user, then switch tabs.) It recognizes one finger per user. Note that many of the password prompts you will see are root password prompts, and that's a different user. (That doesn't show up in the default list.) Also, it doesn't really prompt you for a fingerprint. The standard password prompt will come up, and you have to swipe, then hit enter. (And often, repeat.)

Also, learned from the above: Turning off the 'tap on the touchpad' makes it several hundred percent less annoying.

Oh: Getting a bootable USB for OpenSUSE isn't easy if you aren't running OpenSUSE. (Or, I suppose, Windows, as they have directions for that as well.) Unetbootin doesn't work, and OpenSUSE's instructions use software I haven't seen on any other Linux distro.

Any suggestions for other distros I should try?

How about Linux Mint or Debian?

[DStaal]

How about Linux Mint or Debian?

Sorry I didn't mention Mint directly: I tried several variants of it already. (XFce, Gnome, KDE, I think.) No special notes on it over Ubuntu; it works much the same, support-wise.

It does bring to mind one thing though: LiveCD images aren't quite accurate on the X220. They tend to assume a limited list of standard resolutions, and the X220's is not on that list, so things will appear distorted. (I tried a couple before installing them.)

[DStaal]

Quick note on Debian:

Do NOT use the network installer image.

It failed to recognize either interface on the X220 (to be fair, it notified me of this, asking for driver disks), and then merrily went on it's way to format the hard drive. Afterwards it failed, due to being unable to connect to a repository. Leaving me with a freshly formatted, blank, hard drive.

(In the interest of hardware lists: I have upgraded WiFi. I have the Ultimate-N 6300 card.)

I'm re-installing OpenSUSE, and then I'll download a full installer and retry.

(If I'd been thinking, I might have thought to stop when it failed to set up the network. But the installer didn't seem to think this was a fatal error, and I thought it might be able to install the base system without.)

[DStaal]

Ok, fuller notes on Debian:

I wasn't able to get the live CD image to work via USB. (Didn't try extremely hard, but did try a couple of ways. Couldn't find any docs specifically on that image, which is distributed in a different format than the rest of their images.) I wasn't sure if the DVD images would fit on my USB drive, so I went with the CD. I do like their method of making a bootable USB stick from their ISOs: 'cat' the ISO to the drive's device.

Again, no networking. The WiFi card might have been recognized, but I'm not sure, and I didn't see any way to configure it graphically.

That 'can't configure it graphically' in fact kinda sums up the entire Debian system: I got a very basic Gnome desktop, and no way to do much of any configuration graphically. I get the feeling from their website that if you have the patience to build the system by hand at the command line, you should be able to get it just about any way you like, but...

Notables: Again, the ethernet card was not recognized. No package-manager, the screen didn't detect the correct resolution, and the trackpad came up as a generic mouse. (Not even as a touchpad.)

I didn't try to get the fingerprint reader working, nor did I do much beyond poke around.

Not recommended for anyone who doesn't want to tinker.

I'll see if I can get to Fedora tomorrow night.

[measure]

mil2: You are right, my answer was perhaps more black-and-white than I meant for it to be. An example where Linux does (most likely) match windows is my x40. It idles at 4-7W, which is unreal! My T410 idles at 11-15W, which is not great. What you say is true; but this is also the beauty of the Linux. If you really want something done the documentation is out there for you to get it done (you just have to have a lot of time).

To keep this a bit on topic, what is likely an issue here is that Intel is making new mobile platforms more and more frequently. The platform of your X201 and my T410 only stuck around for a year. There's not much motivation to put a lot of time into such a platform. The platform for the X220 will likely be the same, and might suffer from the same problem.

DStaal: What exactly do you want out of a distribution that you aren't getting out of Ubuntu, since you seem to not want to deal with the command line? All of the distributions still basically use the same desktop environments: Gnome, KDE of Xfce. The only differences will be the themes applied by default and perhaps the graphical tools provided to configure the system. Just for the record, Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian.

Furthermore, this discussion of these distributions is a bit out of place here I think. I really suggest you go to the Linux form at Linux Compatibility and Software. As far as the wireless being a problem, this is strange. Intel wifi is well-supported by Linux. I am fairly sure this only happened because you ignored the instructions/weren't willing to use the command line.

[Amn]

Intels own LessWatts.org - Saving Power on Intel systems with Linux would help anybody looking to minimize power consumption of their laptop with Linux.

[DStaal]

DStaal: What exactly do you want out of a distribution that you aren't getting out of Ubuntu, since you seem to not want to deal with the command line? All of the distributions still basically use the same desktop environments: Gnome, KDE of Xfce. The only differences will be the themes applied by default and perhaps the graphical tools provided to configure the system. Just for the record, Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian.

Furthermore, this discussion of these distributions is a bit out of place here I think. I really suggest you go to the Linux form at Linux Compatibility and Software. As far as the wireless being a problem, this is strange. Intel wifi is well-supported by Linux. I am fairly sure this only happened because you ignored the instructions/weren't willing to use the command line.

I think you misunderstand me slightly. I'm not planning on running any linux distribution on my X220 long-term. This is a way for me to play with my new toy while I'm waiting for parts to arrive. Once they arrive, I'll be installing FreeBSD. (I don't want to install it ahead of time because of the config I'm planning. I'd have to reinstall anyway.)

So my main goal here is just to try different linux distributions, and see how they differ. For running them, I'll agree once you've got things set up they should all be similar. I was just trying to see how easy/hard it is to configure them to support this laptop in particular. (As a way to gauge how their configuration tools work, and how their package selection/installers work.) For that there are significant differences.

I thought since I was doing this, I might as well post some of my notes here. I'm trying to specifically discuss only things that are relevant to this hardware in particular, and that appear to differ significantly. Which has been the Trackpad and fingerprint reader.

I know Mint is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian. And, for this, Mint and Ubuntu were essentially the same. Debian, as I mentioned, wasn't. I only really went into the detail I did on Debian because it had been requested specifically, and because it differed so radically from the experience of all the other installs.

For the wireless (and wired) ethernet being a problem: It was only on Debian, and it's only because their installer doesn't include the drivers. If you go to the Debian site, finding which driver package you need is fairly easy. It's just hard to get without having the drivers already. (I did read and follow the instructions.)

I'm not completely command-line adverse, but since I'm not planning to stick with any of these distros I didn't see the need to spend the time to learn a new command-line package system. (Which I'm not going to use again in the near future.) (I should note that my planned FreeBSD install will be heavily dependent on command line, as I'll be using some -CURRENT patches that the installer doesn't know about yet.)

I hadn't really looked around beyond the Lenovo section of this website, so I wasn't aware of the other section. If my experiences are wanted here, I can take a look over there. (Though I'm mostly just keeping an eye out for issues that people are noting on the X220 since it's new.)

[measure]

DStaal: You are right, I did severely misjudge your intentions. Perhaps I have not read far enough into your posts, but you were coming off as perhaps the most fickle distribution hopper in history. I apologize, I reread my comments and they seemed a bit rude; It was late and I was a bit tired.

Anyway, hopefully people newer to Linux get something out of your work. I've had fleeting interest in BSD, but would be curious to hear how that goes. It is my understanding that BSD does not usually support new hardware (which is I guess why you will be applying copious amounts of patches).

Thanks (and sorry again),
Ryan