Thinkpad Edge AMD impressions

1. I don't know. I haven't actually tried the webcam out yet. I don't think Windows has built-in software for it, so you have to use something like Skype or GChat video. You may want to check the Lenovo website and see if they have any drivers/software for download.

2. I've only used external speakers so far and haven't noticed anything. Perhaps you have to check if you are also capturing microphone input, which usually causes some noise.

3. I was thinking along the lines of Guild Wars, Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Age of Empires II... nothing that graphically intensive. I haven't tried anything else out, but you can use this website for reference:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Radeon-HD-3200.9591.0.html


Hope that helps.

 

Thanks, very helpful, indeed.

 

If it's not much trouble please do provide the DSDT file and the pkgbuild.

 

This mini-review highlights so well what the problem of Linux is IMHO. Even if I consider myself to be quite a geek who likes to play around with "toys", when it comes to using an operating system/computer I prefer something that just works. I have other things to do than trying to have the basics (wireless, power management, etc) working.

I am not saying it is something that rests purely on the shoulders of the Linux community, but also on the manufacturers, who do not give proper support for their products to be usable under Linux.

It was nice reading how well pnutzh4x0r managed to make the notebook working under Linux. Hopefully you can give help to others who are interested - because the process doesn't sound too easy

 

Alot of the linux distro's (eg ubuntu, fedora, sabayon) work out-of-the-box now. You might have problems with some "unusual" hardware but for alot of people who enjoy linux it's fun trying to get things to work with the helpful forums, google, etc.
You can check HCL (hardware compatibility lists) to make it easier on yourself. Also, certain rules of thumb such as choosing nvidia over ati for GPU for example. The Nvidia proprietary driver works great in all the distro's I've tried and it allows for 3D acceleration, while the nv opensource driver doesn't.
Better power management (battery life) is the only thing I'm missing from Vista.

 

I think if I had gotten the Intel box, everything, except for the jack sensing would have worked out of the box (driver supports it, but you have to specify some configuration, as noted above). However, ATI on Linux has generally been a problem, though improving, with Intel and NVIDIA providing much better support.

In terms of the CPU power management thing... that goes to the manufacturer. Lenovo shipped with a broken ACPI table. This is probably because this is Lenovo's first AMD Thinkpad and so they don't have much experience with it, and hopefully a future BIOS update will remove the need for me to run a custom DSDT table. Had I gotten an Intel version, I would guess that this wouldn't be a problem.

In general, I'd shy away from new hardware (< year old) with Linux. After the hardware has been available for more than a year, drivers should be appear and be ready. In this case, however, I wanted a new machine, so I bit the bullet and got the Edge and was fortunate enough to work out most of the problems.

Overall, though, I agree with lenardg. Linux isn't very everyone. It is, however, for me. Just like how some people use Chrome or Firefox or Opera or Internet Explorer. Whatever floats your boat.

 

DSDT and PKGBUILD please

 

I basically took the kernel26 PKGBUILD in core and added some lines to make sure we include the custom dsdt. Everything is in the zip, I'm attaching. Hope that helps.

 

Hi, i'm also trying to get linux running on this laptop and have the same problems you describe solutions for. Thank you

I'm curious how you were able to deduce the correct values for the "pstates"?

I diffed your dsdt.dsl with one extracted from my system and noticed a number of differences that didn't seem related to this fix so I'm thinking you might have had a different system configuration. If it isn't too much trouble would you mind posting the baseline dsdt from your system.

BTW, did you notice the microphone doesn't seem to work under linux? Since you had some success with the sound config I wondered if you had any idea on how to config the mic.

Thanks,

 

Some parts of my DSDT are to fix warnings and errors in the stock DSDT. Things like AFN[0-5] not returning a value or something. If you compile your stock DSDT, you'll probably see a bunch of warnings... I cleaned that up.

I also added some additional stuff like making sure the brightness button works (_BQN I think).

I was able to deduce the values for pstates through googling and some magical guessing . I read up pstates and modifying dsdts and then used the AMD technical reference specs to find the correct values and put them together. They seem to work, but my numbers may not be perfect or absolutely correct. They work though. The document I used is:

http://support.amd.com/us/Processor_TechDocs/32559.pdf

One neat thing is you can modify the pstate table to undervolt the CPU. I think I picked conservative values here, so it should be fine.

I haven't tried the microphone yet, so I can't help you there.