Lenovo T400/T500 Linux Compatability

[theZoid]

T400 is a great value. I'm looking at Asus U6V refresh model for work though...that should be OK

[Morning]

hi

I have T500 and want to install any version of linux.
Currently I installed Fedora 9 on it and I only got X windows and sound.

The wifi or ethernet doesnt work.

CAn please someone tellme how to configure Ubuntu or Fedora in T500 so that it detects at least wifi.

I really need it toget my works going.

THanks in advance

Morning


Following is the configuration for my hardware

2081CTO THINKPAD T500
44C1917 VBB INTEGRATED CAMERA
44C1934 SBB 160GB HDD,5400RPM
44C1931 SBB DVD REC8XMAXDUL.ULT.S.SATA
42X6311 SBB EXPR.CARDSLOT/SMARTCSLOT
62P6054 VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PAN
44C2615 SBB THINKPAD 11B/G WLAN PCI 3
44C1928 SBB INTWIRELESSWIDEAR.NETW.UPG
41W1508 SBB 6 CELL LI-ION BATTERY
39T6442 SBB COUNTRY PACK NORTH AMERICA
44C1941 SBB LANG.PACK US ENG.
42X6335 SBB INT.CORE2DUOPROCP8400
44C2011 SBB 15.4"WSXGA+,+BT,+CAM+WWAN
43Y3956 SBB 56K V.92 DESIG. MODEM
43Y4032 SBB BASE2ND TOUCH FOR HYBRID
42X1702 SBB BLUETOOTH SCREW
44C1316 SBB BLUETOOTH W/ANTENNA
44C2027 SBB CL.PLATET500WLANNWWANNBL.
42X2659 SBB ENERGY STAR 4.0 PACK
44C2023 SBB EXPR.CARDSLOTNSMARTCARD
42V9665 SBB FCC, LABEL
42W7002 SBB FCC-ID/LABEL FOR WWAN
42V8012 VBB MS WIN VISTA HOME BASIC
43Y3629 SBB GEO LBL US,WLAN,BLUETOOTH
44C1994 SBB INTEGRATED CAMERA MODULE
44C1988 SBB INTEGR WRLSS ANTENNA 15.4"
44C2036 SBB MT 2081 SYSTEM LABEL
44C2053 SBB MECH MISC PARTS
42V7973 SBB MS LABEL (VISTA BASIC)
44C2603 SBB NEW INT LBL 2008 CORE2 DUO
44C1997 SBB STLCD COV/BEZ15.4W/CAMERA
44C1990 SBB UWB MISC PARTS NO CR HF H1
43Y3625 SBB WLAN MISC PTS-1X2 HALF(H2)
44C1269 SBB GEN WIN VIS HOBAS 32 US E
43Y3624 SBB WAN MISCPTSVDFATNTFULL(F1)
44C1991 SBB WWAN MP-READY FULL F1
44C6783 SBB ODD SW FOR DVD REC, VISTA
44C6776 SBB AMD M86M GRH256MB FRU LBL
42T6638 SBB PACK. US, 15.4"
42X6342 SBB 2GBPC3-8500 1067MHZMEM
41C9170 THKPLUS TP 3YR PICKUP DEPOT
40Y9135 THINKPLUS TS AND CS
44C1924 SBB 15.4 WSXGA+ TFT
44C1921 SBB AMD M86M HYBRID 256MB
42X6306 VBB 2GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ1DIMM
42X6355 SBB KYB US ENGLISH
44C1927 SBB ULTNV(TR.P.+TOUCHPAD)+FIN

[Rognon]

First, make sure you've got 2.6.27 kernel installed. Then, download the intel 5000 microcode form here and extract it in your firmware folder (usually /lib/firmware). You should also have those modules loaded :

iwlagn and iwlcore for the wireless NIC.
e1000e for the wired NIC.

If it doesn't work, you might want to post the output of dmesg.

Hope it helps!

[lucks]

Good news, i think i've just solved suspend/hibernation problem.

I cant paste url here, but on lkml Jassie Barnes wrote about similar issue:

"On many machines, we've found that re-POSTing the video device is incompatible with the i915 driver's suspend/resume functionality. So things like s3_bios and vbetool shouldn't be used if the i915 driver works by itself."

After deleting vbetool i have absolutely no problems with suspend and hibernation .

[Morning]

I finally got my Ubuntu to work with madwifi driver.

But the problem persists.

My school network uses PEAP and I cannot connect to it, I tried different kind of configuration in NetworkManager. The school also has a website on how to set it up in 8.04, but it doesnt work for me.

I can connect my other T60 laptop running CentOS 5.0 to the schools network and even can connect my T500 to my wifi router at home seamlessly.

Anyone else having trouble setting up PEAP in school network ?

Morning

[Charr]

What version of Madwifi are you using? I found that 0.10.5.6 works better than 0.9.4. However, I haven't used it to connect to an EAP protected network though.

[srunni]

In case anyone's interested, I got my T400 a few days ago, and on Kubuntu 8.10, WiMax support was available by default.

What worked for me OOTB: sound, wired network connection, WiMax
What didn't work: graphics card, wireless network connection

However, it is possible to get both 3D graphics and wireless working. I have just installed Gentoo, and I will report back on what works when I am done setting up everything on it.

[dakor]

Rognon:

I just ordered my T500, and I also plan on installing Archlinux. Would you mind sending me your xorg.conf and any other config files specific to the T500.

[Rognon]

What kind of graphics will you use ? My intel graphics used to work flawlessly with the xorg.conf generated with "X -configure" and no tweaking at all, but one day, X crashed for no reason and I can't get it working again, even with the vesa drivers. Right now, I'm using xf86-video-ati and it's working just fine, except for the fan that wont shut up and the poor battery performances (about 2h30). I tried fglrx. It fixed the fan power usage, but window resizing is painfully slow with any compositing enabled. As for radeonhd, it wont detect my external screen.

Here's my xorg.conf. As you can see, there's nothing fancy.

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
#	RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "dri"
    load  "drm"
#	Load  "record"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "GLcore"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "xtrap"
	Load  "freetype"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Group        "video"
        Mode         0666
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "AutoAddDevices" "False"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option	    "XkbRules"	"xorg"
	Option      "XkbModel"	"pc104"
	Option      "XkbLayout" "ca(fr)"
#	Option      "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	#DisplaySize	  300   190	# mm
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "LEN"
	ModelName    "4036"
	Option	    "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "radeon"
    Option      "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true" 
    Option      "DynamicClocks" "on"
    VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
    BoardName   "Unknown Board"
    BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     1
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     4
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
    	Viewport   0 0
		Depth     8
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     15
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

What other config files would you want ?

[CkoTuHa]

I have T400 with 5300 and Gentoo with latest kernel 2.6.28-rc5 with firmware from intellinuxwireless.org gives kernel panics...there is a bug number in bugzilla I believe, so no linux on T400 here