Linux on Laptops: Debian on the IBM ThinkPad x41

Hardware Details at ThinkWiki.org

Didn't work for me.

Works fine, since I had one nearby I used this method.

Works fine.

• Since the normal Debian Releases didn't support the SATA chipset nor the ethernet adapter of this notebook when I wanted to install Debian on it (12.08.2005 & 1.12.2005), I had to use one of the less stable snapshots.
• Snapshot overview
• The newest i386-netinst.iso

Note: As said above, I used the newest snapshot images available at the time I was installing Debian on my x41 (~12.08.2005), so it is very likely that the problems that I had will be fixed in future versions.

I had to use the kernel 2.6 LILO image named “linux26” or “expert26” to get the onboard network card, the SATA controller and my USB DVD drive working.

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_USERSPACE=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=y

plus

# apt-get install cpufreqd

and it worked just fine.

• Battery- and thermal sensors work without problems (acpi -V)
• Suspend-to-Disk works fine as well (I used the implementation included in kernel 2.6.14.2, not Software Suspend 2)
• For detailed instructions on getting the acpi keyevents working (and some scripts to handle them), take a look at the X41 page of Stefan Ott

Suspends, but without kernel patches it refuses to unsuspend (2.6.12) or the system crashes afer unsuspending (2.6.{12,13,14}). To fix this I applied the sata_pm patch by Jens Axboe and passed the following parameter to my kernel

acpi_sleep=s3_bios

More information on ThinkWiki: How to make ACPI work.

It appears to be a Broadcom Tigon3 and works without problems with the tg3 module (CONFIG_TIGON3=y).

It appears to be an Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller and works with the snd_intel8x0 + snd_ac97_codec modules (CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0=Y).

The on-board Intel i915gm Card is supported by the i810 driver of X.org and runs without problems, but to get DRI working you will have to download the right modules from dri.freedesktop.org/snapshots (the ones I used: common-20050718-linux.i386 and i915-20050718-linux.i386).

Also, don't forget to add DRI support to your kernel.

CONFIG_DRM=y

My /etc/X11/xorg.conf: xorg.conf

the framerates i get with glxgears

3978 frames in 5.0 seconds = 795.600 FPS
4623 frames in 5.0 seconds = 924.600 FPS
4623 frames in 5.0 seconds = 924.600 FPS
4622 frames in 5.0 seconds = 924.400 FPS

Only works with a patched version of i855crt. Once you've patched it just use the following command to enable the vga port.

# i855crt on 1024x768@60

Works fine with “EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support” (CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD).

lspci identifies it as a

0000:04:00.1 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 13)

the sdhci project should provides a kernel driver/patch for these, but i haven't tested it yet.

Works fine with the ipw2200 module (>= v1.0.6).

Not tested yet.

Not tested yet.

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. Mobile Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. Mobile Graphics Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. Mobile Graphics Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
0000:00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FBM (ICH6M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801FBM (ICH6M) SATA Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation: Unknown device 167d (rev 11)
0000:04:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev 8d)
0000:04:00.1 0805: Ricoh Co Ltd: Unknown device 0822 (rev 13)
0000:04:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)

All of the special buttons (except the “Access IBM” one) produce normal keycodes which you can capture using xev(1x). If you don't feel like mapping them all on your own, just

# apt-get install tpb && tpb --daemon

A lot of ThinkPads appear to produce strange high pitch noises when not under load, I was able to fix that by passing the following kernel parameter in my /boot/grub/menu.lst

kernel /boot/bzImage processor.max_cstate=2

My x41 kept emitting some strange clicking noises out of the air vent on its left side, which appear to be caused by the Hitachi harddisk (DK13FA, 40GB) trying to save power by parking its heads.

Note: In order to apply this workaround you will first need to patch your kernel with Jeff Garzik's libata/passthru patch (the version i used), because hdparm won't be able to handle SATA drives without.

I was able to reduce the problem by lessening the power management for this drive, using:

# turns it almost off
hdparm -B 254 /dev/hda

or

# turns it off
hdparm -B 255 /dev/hda

More information on ThinkWiki: Problem with hard drive clicking.

Sadly this alone didn't really solve the problem for me, the clicking occurs less often but is still very annoying. Using the laptop-mode (apt-get install laptop-mode-tools, more about it: 1,2) I was able to more or less stop any clicking, at the cost of a lot of disk performance (why did they have to use crappy Hitachi harddrives in a 1.700€ laptop?).

If you don't want to put up with this, Andreas Bartel reported that he got a replacement drive from IBM, free of charge.

• My current 2.6.17.5 .config: config.txt
• My xorg.conf: xorg.conf

• ThinkWiki.org: ThinkPad X41
• Linux on the IBM ThinkPad X41 Laptop
• Debian GNU/Linux on the IBM Thinkpad X41
• TuxMobil: IBM
• Linux on Laptops: IBM

Should you find any errors or have any ideas on how to improve this page, just contact me.