Linux on the X220

[nomad9]

For some reason, I still can't get the external monitor to work reliably under Ubuntu Natty. If a permanent fix for this isn't released soon, looks like I'll have to "upgrade" it to 10.04LTS.

Anyway, after weeks of trial and error, I finally found a sweet spot for thinkfan settings for x220. The key is to maintain the temp within ~50c range and maintain fan speed at 2000rpm or lower. (2000+ rpm, and the fan starts to annoy me.)

It can only stay at 2000rpm under normal usage, however. If you open flash-laden website, or watch YouTube, or do some heavy lifting (3VMs running concurrently), the fan will need to gear up to maintain the CPU temp.

You can always increase temperature threshold for 2000+ rpm, but under constant load 2000rpm fan cannot keep up with the generated heat and temperature will spike up pretty quick.

Next steps ::
- Re-apply thermal paste. Properly applied thermal paste could reduce the temp 5-10c under no load.
- If the consensus is that replacing the fan fixes noise problem. I might be ordering a replacement assembly or send it back to Lenovo for a replacement under warranty.

In the meantime, here's my thinkfan settings ::

sensor /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input
#fan off
(0, 0,  45) 
#fan ~2000 rpm max
(1, 42, 55) 
#fan ~3000 rpm 
(2, 48, 59) 
#fan ~3500 rpm, anything from 3 and above is too loud under quiet environment.
(3, 55, 63) 
(4, 56, 65) 
(5, 59, 66) 
(7, 63, 32767)

[mil2]

For some reason, I still can't get the external monitor to work reliably under Ubuntu Natty. If a permanent fix for this isn't released soon, looks like I'll have to "upgrade" it to 10.04LTS.

Actually, that might not be an option. As far as I know, none of the mainstream 2010 distros had a full support for SandyBridge. Unless that support was added in 2011 through kernel and X updates, 11.04 might be your only choice.

Anyway, after weeks of trial and error, I finally found a sweet spot for thinkfan settings for x220. The key is to maintain the temp within ~50c range and maintain fan speed at 2000rpm or lower. (2000+ rpm, and the fan starts to annoy me.)

It can only stay at 2000rpm under normal usage, however. If you open flash-laden website, or watch YouTube, or do some heavy lifting (3VMs running concurrently), the fan will need to gear up to maintain the CPU temp.

For what it's worth, on my x201i with i3 the fan is *always* on, at 2000rpm, and it does ramp up to at least 3500 when CPU is in use. The difference is, however, that in x201 that fan spinning at 2000rpm is pretty much inaudible.

If the consensus is that replacing the fan fixes noise problem. I might be ordering a replacement assembly or send it back to Lenovo for a replacement under warranty.

A colleague of mine got an x220i (a pre-built model from the store). I had a look at it and while the fan in his unit did appear to run more eagerly than in my x201i, it certainly didn't produce any annoying high-pitched sounds.

[nomad9]

Actually, that might not be an option. As far as I know, none of the mainstream 2010 distros had a full support for SandyBridge. Unless that support was added in 2011 through kernel and X updates, 11.04 might be your only choice.

Thanks for pointing that out. It reminds me why I opted to install the just-released 11.04 in the first place. With the direction Canonical is heading, looks like I'm hosed and have to start using other distro.

For what it's worth, on my x201i with i3 the fan is *always* on, at 2000rpm, and it does ramp up to at least 3500 when CPU is in use. The difference is, however, that in x201 that fan spinning at 2000rpm is pretty much inaudible.

X220/Linux/i7 fan is always running at 3500rpm minimum. 2000rpm is pretty much inaudible & no high-pitch noise as well.

A colleague of mine got an x220i (a pre-built model from the store). I had a look at it and while the fan in his unit did appear to run more eagerly than in my x201i, it certainly didn't produce any annoying high-pitched sounds.

Thanks for the info. I don't have time to go through all x220-related posts, but I have an impression that this problem *might* be limited to x220 /w i7. From maintenance manual, x220 has 2 types of fan assembly with one being for ULV. --- While i3 is not exactly ULV, but I suspect that it's using different type of fan because of lower TDP.

[akavlie]

I've been away from this forum for a while. I've been using the X220 very heavily over the past few weeks on a web development gig, running Ubuntu Natty. Typically running SpringSource (a modded Eclipse), vim, Chrome/Chromium, Firefox 4.0, MySQL, Gimp, terminal... often all at once. The machine grinded to a halt on the stock 2 gigs of RAM (thanks to Eclipse and the Java stack), but it's very happy after upgrading to 8 gigs.

Unfortunately it's not been as stable as I'd like -- I've run into a lot of random crashes; in some cases I can recover to a login screen after an Alt-PrtSc-K, but most of the time only a hard restart (via power button) will work. This has happened twice when unplugging the DisplayPort cable; other times it happened at random while working. Sometimes the mouse cursor just freezes up, while a couple of times I've experienced a sudden terminal text dump on the laptop screen.

Once I closed it and put in the sleeve to take home, assuming it had gone to sleep. When I took it out, it was burning hot, and crashed to boot -- apparently something had stuck burning the CPU and heating up the case way beyond normal operating temps.

I'd be interested to hear if others have similar experience with Ubuntu, or know of some ways to make it more stable.

[driekus]

Thanks for the heads up akavlie.
Im planning to install linux mint 11 on mine, will let you know my experiences. Im hoping that mint is more stable, given they have gone to Unity or Gnome 3.

[ThinkRob]

Unfortunately it's not been as stable as I'd like -- I've run into a lot of random crashes; in some cases I can recover to a login screen after an Alt-PrtSc-K, but most of the time only a hard restart (via power button) will work. This has happened twice when unplugging the DisplayPort cable; other times it happened at random while working. Sometimes the mouse cursor just freezes up, while a couple of times I've experienced a sudden terminal text dump on the laptop screen.

Let me guess... you're running either the Centrino 1000 card or the 6205.

[akavlie]

Let me guess... you're running either the Centrino 1000 card or the 6205.

I'm on the 6205. Are there known issues with the Linux driver?
I thought all the Intel stuff had good driver support.

[UNIXgod]

I've been away from this forum for a while. I've been using the X220 very heavily over the past few weeks on a web development gig, running Ubuntu Natty. Typically running SpringSource (a modded Eclipse), vim, Chrome/Chromium, Firefox 4.0, MySQL, Gimp, terminal... often all at once. The machine grinded to a halt on the stock 2 gigs of RAM (thanks to Eclipse and the Java stack), but it's very happy after upgrading to 8 gigs.

Unfortunately it's not been as stable as I'd like -- I've run into a lot of random crashes; in some cases I can recover to a login screen after an Alt-PrtSc-K, but most of the time only a hard restart (via power button) will work. This has happened twice when unplugging the DisplayPort cable; other times it happened at random while working. Sometimes the mouse cursor just freezes up, while a couple of times I've experienced a sudden terminal text dump on the laptop screen.

Once I closed it and put in the sleeve to take home, assuming it had gone to sleep. When I took it out, it was burning hot, and crashed to boot -- apparently something had stuck burning the CPU and heating up the case way beyond normal operating temps.

I'd be interested to hear if others have similar experience with Ubuntu, or know of some ways to make it more stable.

wow. install gkrellm and follow your temp. Every now an then there is a xrun which will ping the cpu hard on my machine when in kde. I usually leave X and return an it's gone. If it's unkillable I just reboot because I'm to lazy to really investigate.

core temp on the i7 is 100c. I have compiled Funtoo over itself a couple times and have no issues. At idle the box is around 35c and eventually will hit it's equilibrium at around 45c. when compiling it will easily shoot up to 60c - 90c and occasionally hit the tjunction and throttle.

I want to add I also don't have the same problem as others do with the fan. Though I hear it when on idle here and there I really don't notice it or find it distracting in any way.

[ThinkRob]

I'm on the 6205. Are there known issues with the Linux driver?
I thought all the Intel stuff had good driver support.

There are some firmware issues on recent cards. There seems to be some bizarre bug on some of the recent 2.6.35+ kernels in combination with the latest microcode.

Honestly, your best bet is to report it to your distro, as they'll be better equipped to deal with debugging/patching the specific kernel version that they use.

I know that with stock 2.6.38.x, the 1000 N will cause hard locks when used with anything but the latest experimental microcode.

[akavlie]

There are some firmware issues on recent cards. There seems to be some bizarre bug on some of the recent 2.6.35+ kernels in combination with the latest microcode.

Honestly, your best bet is to report it to your distro, as they'll be better equipped to deal with debugging/patching the specific kernel version that they use.

I know that with stock 2.6.38.x, the 1000 N will cause hard locks when used with anything but the latest experimental microcode.

I'm never sure how to report an issue like this. OK great, the machine crashed... that's not very helpful for those who need to investigate and fix the issue. What sort of info do they need about the crash? And how can I confirm that the wifi driver was the cause?