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#1 2009-10-16 11:00:39

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
Posts: 2,136
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Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Hello guys,

does anyone of you run a Thinkpad SL500 with Archlinux?

I received mine today and it's clear that Arch has to be on it. Currently Windows Vista Home Premium is running on it.

I searched the installed programs a little bit and there is a huge amount of preinstalled applications to get all the things working, from hotkeys and shortcuts, to bluetooth, hibernating, energy manager, hdd safety etc.

Personally I think one big advantage of a Thinkpad is to have all these features, in the best case also with Linux. So which applications and packages did you install besides the normal programs to get all the things working smoothly?

Besides - and that's a question to all Thinkpad users - which DE integrates very well with Thinkpads in general, or is a WM enough?

Then I would pick again DWM, otherwise I think of KDE 4.3.

Thank you for your experiences.

Best regards

orschiro

Last edited by orschiro (2009-10-16 11:01:54)

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#2 2009-10-16 12:07:30

miau
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Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 202

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

You should have a look at this site: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:SL_Series

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#3 2009-10-16 19:07:22

Infin1ty
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From: Israel
Registered: 2009-10-09
Posts: 42

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

I own a thinkpad t400 and i managed to run everything (except the fingerprint reader which i don't use at all, because they driver will work only for 32bit and not 64bit).
Starting from the hdaps (hard disk anti shock protection system) to the TPM chip that resides inside the pc.
I also found some cool gdm and grub themes to fit in smile

There's also a cool small app called "tpb" which enables all hotkeys (and you can even build scripts for them, there are some ready as well on the net) and even the OSD (on screen display).

I also installed the thinkpad fan controller to control the fan according to the cpu usage and temperature, i also find the IBM/Lenovo laptops working quiet well with arch and linux generally, you could find some nice info on ibm site as well.

Oh btw, i don't know if you own an ATI or NVIDIA gpu card, but before you do anything, disable the integrated intel graphic card and use the discrete one or else you'll ran into problems setting up the graphic card smile (you should do this from the bios)

Last edited by Infin1ty (2009-10-16 19:09:07)

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#4 2009-10-18 12:26:14

Urfaust
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From: Germany
Registered: 2009-01-30
Posts: 164

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

I run a SL500 with Arch64. The SL Series is based on IdeaPad firmware so it's not a "real" ThinkPad. As stated in the link from miau you should install this module
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=23667
to get all Hotkeys, Backlight, etc. working. Integrated graphics also works like a charm. Arch runs pretty well on this machine but there are some things I never cared about, for example the fingerprint reader.

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#5 2009-10-19 14:19:30

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Thanks for your answers.

Especially to Urfaust:

I installed the package and tried to load the module via modprobe lenovo-sl-laptop.ko, but it says module not found. Besides that - does the scroll button of your trackpoint work?

Which graphic driver did you install? Am I right that it has to be xf86-video-intel?

And finally - could you post your configs for the synaptics touchpad? By default it isn't working, just the trackpoint works.

Thank you in advance.

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#6 2009-10-19 15:56:25

sctincman
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From: CO (USA)
Registered: 2009-04-08
Posts: 85

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

take out the .ko from you modprobe line (should be just "modprobe lenovo-sl-laptop")

I haven't gotten the scroll button for the trackpoint to work. I know thinkwiki.org has a guide on configuring xorg.conf to make it work, so it should just be a matter of making the proper  xorg.conf or modifying HAL. I never use it and have not done it yet myself though.

I've been using xf86-video-intel. There's the legacy driver that was trying to reclaim performance on [most] intel cards when the new subsytem was being implemented, but I never had big performance hits with the newer one in the SL series.

I just have xorg auto-configure my pad, and it's been working fine. Have you installed xf86-input-synaptics? You might need xf86-input-evdev for hotplugging support too, not sure about that one though.

The one thing that doesn't work (and made me quite dissapointed when I found out) is that the HDAPS system doesn't work on this line (ideapad firmware and such)

For DE/WM I'd say it's a personal choice. I was using XFCE for a long time and just recently switched to XMonad to try it out. XFCE was very nice, the power manager app was very handy and you could have a working and [relatively] lightweight environment up and running fairly quickly.

I'm not sure if there's much else that's SL exclusive with regards to applications or setup. Honestly it's been a while since I set it all up I can't remember exactly what I had to change :x

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#7 2009-10-19 21:38:05

Urfaust
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From: Germany
Registered: 2009-01-30
Posts: 164

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Basically everyting what sctinman said. :D
Load the module without .ko. Modules array in /etc/rc.conf should look like

MODULES=(... "lenovo-sl-laptop control_backlight=1" ..)

With quotation marks because the readme here said so -> http://github.com/tetromino/lenovo-sl-laptop, maybe it works without the control_backlight=1 but I never tested that.

I'm using the xf86-video-intel driver, too. And i have xf86-input-synaptics and xf86-input-evdev installed. Scroll button doesn't work here either but that's another thing I don't care about. Sorry for not having better infos... :)
The touchpad worked out of the box and I am using Gnome. Lately I'm thinking about switching to OpenBox standalone...
Besides that I think many common applications for notebooks work, like cpufrequtils and the like...

Last edited by Urfaust (2009-10-19 21:39:08)

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#8 2009-10-20 15:23:44

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

take out the .ko from you modprobe line (should be just "modprobe lenovo-sl-laptop")

That works. Does the module have to be loaded twice? Once with the additional control_backlight command and once without it?

I know thinkwiki.org has a guide on configuring xorg.conf to make it work

Allright, I'll have a look on it, because it's a nice thing to have.

Have you installed xf86-input-synaptics? You might need xf86-input-evdev for hotplugging support too, not sure about that one though.

Well, I installed them and the touchpad works now too.

With quotation marks because the readme here said so -> http://github.com/tetromino/lenovo-sl-laptop, maybe it works without the control_backlight=1 but I never tested that.

So it's enough to simply load it? The readme explains some other points regarding acpi I have to care about to get that working.

With quotation marks because the readme here said so -> http://github.com/tetromino/lenovo-sl-laptop, maybe it works without the control_backlight=1 but I never tested that.

Means you have them installed? I'm currently thinking about some other useful apps especially for notebooks that seems to be a must have on each mobile system.

Some other questions.

1. Does the brightness can only be adjusted in two levels?
2. The fan is not really noisy but also not really quite. Is that normal or is simply some driver missing?
3. The integrated wlan device needs the iwlwifi500 firmware right?
4. Where can I find the kensington lock? Is it the small thing right besides the s-video?
5. Does your hotkeys to increase/decrease/mute volume work?

Last edited by orschiro (2009-10-20 15:30:44)

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#9 2009-10-20 17:57:16

Urfaust
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From: Germany
Registered: 2009-01-30
Posts: 164

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

The module doesn't have to be loaded twice. You can load in in your /etc/rc.conf either with

MODULES=(... "lenovo-sl-laptop control_backlight=1" ..)

or with

MODULES=(... lenovo-sl-laptop ..)

But I never tested the second option.

I can adjust brightness through FN-keys in 7 levels (means pushing the button seven times and the screen always gets a bit darker or brighter) but the screen doesn't go completely black. If you can't control brightness correctly try to load the module with the control_backlight=1 option as stated above and edit your menu.lst and add  acpi_backlight=vendor to the kernel line, so it will look like this:

kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/aaaaaaaaaa-bbbbb-xxxxx-yyyy-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ro acpi_backlight=vendor

All sound hotkeys work for me.
I can't say much about wlan, the notebook has its usual place where I always use a wired connection.
The fan is not loud here too, mhh maybe you could try to scale your CPU frequency with cpufrequtils and see if this brings some effort?

Hope this helps a little bit. smile

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#10 2009-10-20 22:48:43

sctincman
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From: CO (USA)
Registered: 2009-04-08
Posts: 85

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

orschiro wrote:

I know thinkwiki.org has a guide on configuring xorg.conf to make it work

Allright, I'll have a look on it, because it's a nice thing to have.

Sorry I couldn't be more descriptive, I haven't looked at it a long while :/

While we have Ideapad firmware, these laptops still have a bit in common with the thinkpads, making thinkwiki a decent source of info for non-firmware related stuff :P

Urfaust wrote:

The module doesn't have to be loaded twice. You can load in in your /etc/rc.conf either with

MODULES=(... "lenovo-sl-laptop control_backlight=1" ..)

or with

MODULES=(... lenovo-sl-laptop ..)

But I never tested the second option.

The second option works, but be sure to add this to /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf

options lenovo-sl-laptop control_backlight=1

and like Urfaust said, add "acpi_backlight=vendor" to your kernel line.

3. The integrated wlan device needs the iwlwifi5000 firmware right?

yup, :P

5. Does your hotkeys to increase/decrease/mute volume work?

The sounds keys "work," but in XFCE they need to be configured to do what you want them to do. For volume controls, just go to settings->keyboard and tab over to application shortcuts. You'll have to go through and hit "Add" and then type in the following commands, and then hit the appropriate button to link them together

amixer -q sset Master playback 5%+

to raise volume

amixer -q sset Master playback 5%-

to lower volume

amixer -q sset Master playback toggle

to mute/unmute

As for the playback control keys, you can do the same as above for a specific app, however some apps (Exaile for example) automatically, or through a plugin, will listen for those buttons

2. The fan is not really noisy but also not really quite. Is that normal or is simply some driver missing?

The lenovo-sl-laptop driver is suppose to expose the fan control, so I imagine it should be whatever standard way linux controls it. Mine has never been too loud, so I haven't looked into it, sorry :/

and as Urfaust said, cpufrequtils are your friend :D Very nice wiki article here http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cpufrequtils

Hope this is all helping :]

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#11 2009-11-14 21:53:50

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
Posts: 2,136
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Well thank you two for your great help. Sorry that I answered them not earlier but I hadn't enough time to deal with it.

So the brightness works as it should now, that's the positive. smile

But I still have to manage my hotkeys for the sound. What keycodes do they have? Could I simply create a keybinding, for example in dwm, that uses the amixer command above?

And some other strange thing: My laptop always peeps once a time when I type in "shutdown -h now". Is that normal?

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#12 2009-11-15 10:36:12

Gather
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From: Poland, Konin
Registered: 2007-07-07
Posts: 8

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

hmm I also have SL500.
Thx to lenovo-sl-laptop.ko brigthness and other Fn function works. But bar which display actual brightness don't change when i pressing brigthnes + or -, do you have the same problem ?

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#13 2009-11-20 19:39:30

sctincman
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From: CO (USA)
Registered: 2009-04-08
Posts: 85

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Gather: When I was using XFCE, I noticed that happening. The bar would eventually set itself to the right spot, but I would never see it change while I was changing the brightness.

I never looked into it (even less motivated now that I'm not using xfce anymore) but I imagine it has to do with using the non-standard acpi interface.

Orschiro: Try running xev and hitting the different sound buttons, it should pop up the right keycodes/whatever you need to bind them to commands. I haven't used dwm, but I think you need to use xbindkey or something along those lines, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ext … to_actions

and oh yeah! The beeping! It drove me crazy, you just need to unload the snd-pcsp and/or pcspkr module http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dis … eaker_beep

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#14 2009-11-20 19:57:55

Gather
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From: Poland, Konin
Registered: 2007-07-07
Posts: 8

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

@sctincman - it's happen under Gnome 2.28

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#15 2009-11-21 08:18:57

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
Posts: 2,136
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

sctincman wrote:

Orschiro: Try running xev and hitting the different sound buttons, it should pop up the right keycodes/whatever you need to bind them to commands. I haven't used dwm, but I think you need to use xbindkey or something along those lines, http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ext … to_actions

and oh yeah! The beeping! It drove me crazy, you just need to unload the snd-pcsp and/or pcspkr module http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dis … eaker_beep

Thank you. Both things are working now, except the key for mute/toggle. I can't mute my channels, not via amixer, not via alsamixer. Do you have this problem too?

Ah and just for interess - so is somebody of you using cpufrequtils or something else to reduce fan speed? Currently I'm using none of these programs, just the experimental driver, and fan seem still very loud to me.

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#16 2009-11-22 01:10:10

sctincman
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From: CO (USA)
Registered: 2009-04-08
Posts: 85

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

I am using amixer, just like the command I have above, but I do have trouble sometimes. Sometimes the mute works, sometimes it doesn't hmm More often than not it does mute, but I don't do much sound related tasks on this laptop so sadly I haven't looked into it.

I'd be interested if someone else has a better mute/unmute option. I tried toggling the PCM channel instead of master, but sadly doing that also sets the PCM volume to 0 for me

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#17 2009-11-22 14:53:57

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
Posts: 2,136
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Hmm yeah the sound problem is a bit annoying. Perhaps Urfaust knows some better commands to deal with it.

But could you please answer my other question regarding fan speed? It would be nice to know whether your fan works quietly out of the box.

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#18 2009-11-22 15:56:58

sctincman
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From: CO (USA)
Registered: 2009-04-08
Posts: 85

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

sctincman wrote:

2. The fan is not really noisy but also not really quite. Is that normal or is simply some driver missing?

The lenovo-sl-laptop driver is suppose to expose the fan control, so I imagine it should be whatever standard way linux controls it. Mine has never been too loud, so I haven't looked into it, sorry hmm

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#19 2009-11-22 18:31:12

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
Posts: 2,136
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Oh sorry, haven't seen this.

Well that's enough of questions for the first time. Thank you all for your contributions to help running Arch smoothly on that great laptop. smile

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#20 2009-11-22 19:07:17

bgc1954
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From: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Registered: 2006-03-14
Posts: 1,160

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

If you're still looking to get the trackpoint scroll button to work try to add this /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi

<match key="info.product" string="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint">
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheel" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelButton" type="string">2</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelTimeout" type="string">200</merge>
 <merge key="input_x11_options.ZAxisMapping" type="string">4 5 6 7 </merge>
</match>

It works on my old t21 laptop.  I much prefer the IBM/Lenovo trackpoint to any sort of touchpad.  I hate using my daughters Dell laptop for that reason alone.

Last edited by bgc1954 (2009-11-22 19:10:23)


Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

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#21 2009-12-22 10:04:45

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
Posts: 2,136
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

sctincman wrote:

I am using amixer, just like the command I have above, but I do have trouble sometimes. Sometimes the mute works, sometimes it doesn't hmm More often than not it does mute, but I don't do much sound related tasks on this laptop so sadly I haven't looked into it.

I'd be interested if someone else has a better mute/unmute option. I tried toggling the PCM channel instead of master, but sadly doing that also sets the PCM volume to 0 for me

I could limit the problem. It occurs only when speakers/headphones were plugged in via the headphones port. I haven't find the correct solution so far, but as I understand you have to load the correct codec driver in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf. I tried several entries, but none of them is working correctly:

options snd-hda-intel model=lenovo
options snd-hda-intel model=laptop

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#22 2009-12-30 15:43:57

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
Posts: 2,136
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Another thing. Have you guys ever tried to mount a xD-Picture-Card?

How do you do this? SD-Cards can be access pretty well with the right udev rule, but how xd-Cards?

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#23 2010-01-10 14:07:59

Locri
Member
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: 2005-02-22
Posts: 55

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

I hope I'm not resurrecting too old of a thread (it's only a week and a bit old though, so I suspect this is ok).  I've finally got around to trying to install Arch on my SL500 and I'm getting stuck right off that bat.

I'm using the latest Arch64 install iso for an FTP install.  I can set up the network via eth0 just fine on the install boot, but as soon as I'm done installing and I reboot for the first time the network card stops working.  I think it might be an ACPI issue of some sort because although I have the right modules loaded the lights on the ethernet jack just won't light up so I suspect it isn't turning on the jack for some reason.

Anyone have any ideas as to how I can fix this or has anyone run into something similar?

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#24 2010-01-10 14:30:44

orschiro
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Registered: 2009-06-04
Posts: 2,136
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Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Did you try a "ifconfig eth0 up"?

If this solves your problem I would pick it up in a netcfg profile to activate the card on start up.

By the way, could anyone of you test the card reader with a xD-Card. I haven't found any solution so far.

Last edited by orschiro (2010-01-10 14:31:36)

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#25 2010-01-10 14:37:09

Locri
Member
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: 2005-02-22
Posts: 55

Re: Arch on a Thinkpad SL500

Yes, I have tried to up eth0... sorry, should have mentioned that in the last post.  I can get wlan0 "working" but I can't connect to my network because of WPA issues so I know the network stack in general is working, just that the jack doesn't seem to be on.

Unfortunately I only have SD cards, so I can't help out with your problem sad

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