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Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
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No small task?
Posted Feb 19, 2008 18:08 UTC (Tue) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]
Thinkpads have long been considered good with Linux. I thought that historically the only thing that Linux had trouble with on Thinkpads was the modem.
No small task?
Posted Feb 19, 2008 18:23 UTC (Tue) by mgb (subscriber, #3226) [Link]
The T61's audio wasn't supported until 2.6.23. If using the non-free NVidia drivers you'll also need a recent Xorg. In the Debian world, only Unstable/Sid meets these requirements. It's possible to work with mostly Testing/Lenny mixed with some packages from Unstable/Sid but it's a bit of a pain. Kudos to SLED for supporting the T61 out of the box, and for now making it possible to avoid the Microsoft tax on Linux thinkpads.
No small task?
Posted Feb 19, 2008 19:04 UTC (Tue) by jebba (subscriber, #4439) [Link]
I have a T61 and my version has Intel video: 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c) http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:T61 It's the best laptop I've had. -Jeff
No small task?
Posted Feb 20, 2008 11:06 UTC (Wed) by maks (subscriber, #32426) [Link]
> Kudos to SLED for supporting the T61 out of the box, and for now making it > possible to avoid the Microsoft tax on Linux thinkpads. Lenovo refunds you 30 euro if you certify not to use Windows and send them back the license sticker. Very much straightforward. Just needs a support call to open the issue. Just got mine back from an August X61s buy (I asked in late December for refund).
Lenovo's business practices
Posted Feb 21, 2008 4:51 UTC (Thu) by jaa (subscriber, #14170) [Link]
I tried the same here in Colorado (USA), and basically Lenovo said that I can return my OS license, but to do so, I have to return the whole laptop and they are going to charge %15 restocking fee ($163) if I do so. In my opinion, they were financially extorting me to accept the license terms which I found unacceptable. The only way to proceed further would have been by litigation, which I haven't done. Based on this experience, and the way Lenovo handled my case, I can not recommend them.
Lenovo's business practices
Posted Feb 21, 2008 10:23 UTC (Thu) by maks (subscriber, #32426) [Link]
> I tried the same here in Colorado (USA), [..] Sorry to hear that. Thinkpads are much fun to work on and Linux support is very decent (even modem works nowadays). Refund procdure in Europe is best described here (german): http://www.heise.de/open/news/foren/S-Lenovo-nimmt-Window... The guy was saying that you have to insist and ring them several times until you reach a guy capable of understanding the case. In my case it seems i was lucky as one telephon call to support worked out.
No small task?
Posted Feb 20, 2008 7:37 UTC (Wed) by BackSeat (subscriber, #1886) [Link]
Thinkpads have long been considered good with Linux. I thought that historically the only thing that Linux had trouble with on Thinkpads was the modem.I bought a Z60t for precisely that reason, and spent a long time trying to get the wifi card working with no good, consistent results. In the end, I used ndiswrapper because I need the laptop to work. Incidentally, there are multiple wifi cards available for the Z60t, and some of the others seem to work well with OS drivers.
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 19, 2008 18:18 UTC (Tue) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]
By the way, I didn't RTFA because TFA is because a ChannelInsider ad screen that wants to place a cookie before continuing. Since I won't accept their cookie, I can't get to their article.
oops
Posted Feb 19, 2008 18:19 UTC (Tue) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]
s/is because a/is behind a/
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 19, 2008 19:10 UTC (Tue) by johnkarp (subscriber, #39285) [Link]
Summary: They seem to like it overall, for example they liked that it
booted much faster than Windows, but complained about some features
documented to be missing:
* ThinkVantage Active Protection System.
* ThinkVantage Access Connections for SUSE Linux
* ThinkPad Configuration for SUSE Linux
* ThinkPad Power Manager for SUSE Linux
* Wireless WAN Adapter
* ThinkVantage Button
* (Intel Graphics System) DVI Output
And they couldn't get Xen to work.
I found SUSE as an option on their custom builds a week ago, with a
four-week delay, but it has since disappeared, even though their T-series
blurb mentions it being an option still. It was an option alongside
windows in the customization, and it was the least expensive OS option.
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 19, 2008 19:26 UTC (Tue) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link]
So, how much of that "proprietary ThinkPad technology" is supported by open source drivers? If I were to get this laptop and want to install Fedora or Ubuntu on it, would I be stuck?
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 19, 2008 19:37 UTC (Tue) by mgb (subscriber, #3226) [Link]
Thinkwiki.org will tell you what software versions are needed. You need to check which version of your favorite distro has those software versions. Thinkwiki.org also has reports on installations of various distros. Thinkwiki.org is wonderful - I wouldn't have dared invest in a couple of T61's for Debian without it.
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 19, 2008 20:35 UTC (Tue) by leoc (subscriber, #39773) [Link]
I don't know about what model they are selling, but my T61 (7659) works wonderfully under Fedora 8.
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 20, 2008 5:04 UTC (Wed) by wtogami (subscriber, #32325) [Link]
My T41 (Radeon 7500) and T60 widescreen (Intel 950) both work wonderfully in Fedora too, with fully open drivers.
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 21, 2008 15:04 UTC (Thu) by SiliconSlick (subscriber, #39955) [Link]
I recently installed CentOS 5.1 on the bosses X60s and, for the most part, it just works (at least well enough for him, which isn't always easy). However, CentOS didn't come with tp_smapi or the configure-trackpoint packages from http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/ so I had to add those afterwards (along with an init script to rebuild tp_smapi module on kernel upgrades). The only thing not currently working is hard disk parking via HDAPS due to the needed kernel patch (I'd prefer to stick with the latest CentOS kernels for security updates and I won't necessarily have time to patch the kernel RPM with the disk parking code each time an update is released). http://ThinkWiki.org ROCKS! Couldn't have accomplished the install in a timely manner without them.
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 21, 2008 15:10 UTC (Thu) by SiliconSlick (subscriber, #39955) [Link]
Oh yeah... (remembering one other item)... I also snagged/rebuilt the thinkfinger RPM from Fedora Extras that wasn't included with CentOS, but that was mostly trivial.
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 19, 2008 20:52 UTC (Tue) by gsancosme (guest, #40110) [Link]
I am running a T61 from last year (it came with windows xp originally) with OpenSuse10.3 . Everything is standard out of the distribution, except the nvidia driver that comes from the nvidia site. Everything works fine, even the powersave, wlan, sound etc.. I had no trouble to install just put the openSuse10.3 DVD into the reader start the laptop and follow the instructions on screen. As if it where a standard desktop PC.
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 22, 2008 14:00 UTC (Fri) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646) [Link]
I own 6 thinkpads, and I'm about to buy the 7th one. All of them run Linux. My first Thinkpad with Linux on it was the 701CS, aka Butterfly, bought back in 1996, one of the coolest notebooks ever produced. This is the one where the keyboard slides to the side to give a full-sized keyboard for a subnotebook, see http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:701CS for a picture. And the best: it's still (yay!) running (Slackware) Linux, with its whooping 32 MB main memory and 360 MB hard disk. Of course, hand-tailored, no modern distribution is content with such miniscule sizes any more. My last installation of Ubuntu was just two weeks ago, on a T41 that ran previously openSUSE. The main gripe I have with the Ubuntu install is that it doesn't get the framebuffer modes right while booting, the vga kernel parameter doesn't work. (It worked with SUSE.) Probably a problem with missing modules in initrd or so; I didn't bother to work it out and simply boot it in basic screen mode. Ubuntu supported the T41 hardware rather good; WLAN, bluetooth, CPU powersave mode etc., worked out of the box; laptop mode is activated. (I started to hate NetworkManager, though.) For support of sleep/hibernate, I needed to install a Thinkpad-specific package (tbp), Ubuntu did not do so automatically. Then the Fn-keys worked. That package had a small configuration error that prevented the lid-close event to trigger suspend, easy to resolve if one knows a bit about acpid. openSUSE was a bit better to support these stuff automatically, also without any proprietary kernel modules. I expect that I'll need to tune my power consumption, but that's the case for all Linux laptops. I don't play games on the system, this is for working. Thus, the open source graphics drivers are sufficient for me. YMMW. Best, Joachim
Lenovo Launches Linux Laptop and Leaves Lots of Questions (eWeek)
Posted Feb 20, 2008 16:32 UTC (Wed) by sjayaraman (subscriber, #48013) [Link]
Yes, I agree Thinkpads have been always nice to Linux compared to other vendors. I recently bought a Lenovo Y410 and I'm surprised to get my Chicony USB 2.0 Webcam worked out of the box on OpenSUSE 10.3.