Tag Archives: lenovo

Karmic Koala Beta on ThinkPad T61 (continued)

After the latest updates, enabling touchpad on/off key (fn-f8) is now working. There are some annoying gdm random restarts without a trace in the logs. I suspect it’s the nvidia proprietary driver and I hope it will be fixed soon.
Here is a better approach to enable the Active Protection System in your ThinkPad:

Thinkpad HDAPS in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty

One of the cool features in a Thinkpad is IBM Active Protection System.
The system consist of two parts. The driver that enables reading the acceleration data and some sort of userspace software that does the actual parking of the harddrive heads, usually hdapsd.
The hdaps driver is part of the kernel but the driver maintainers actually recommend using the tp-smapi driver instead. So that’s what we’ll do.
Make sure you have the necessary tools installed:

The tp-smapi is in the package repository (universe):

This will fetch and install the tp-smapi-source package, unpack the source and then compile and install the kernel module.

Try loading it:

The kernel log should show something like this:

For some reason some configuration for udev is missing. Fix this by running:

Now for the userspace stuff. First let us test if APS is actually working.

This will install hdaps-pivot or hdaps-gl which you can use to verify that the sensors are working.
You can also test this by running this in your terminal (stop it with pressing CTRL + C):

Next we need to update the hdapsd. The one provided in Jaunty is old. There is a PPA with newer versions.

Add the PPA key:

Update the package list and install the package:

Install gnome-hdaps-applet (optional).
There is a PPA for this. You can add it like this:

Add the key:

Update the package list again and install the packages:

Enjoy!

Ubuntu 8.10 on Lenovo ThinkPad T61

Just installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my T61. Works great!
I hated that bloated Vista Business!

Items that work out of the box:
– Nvidia: 2D works, 3D requires the installation of the proprietary drivers (nVidia Quadro NVS 140)
– Wireless: Atheros card
– Bluetooth keys
– Brightness keys
– Network Card Intel 10/100/1000
– Firewire
– Wireless switch
– 4-in-1 card reader

Worked with some simple tweaking:
– fingerprint reader for login and sudo

1. Install latest thinkfinger packages:

2. Update the pam configuration files:

3. Restart computer
4. Enroll your fingerprint (creates $HOME/.thinkfinger.bir)

5. Check fingerprint enrollment