Comments on: Lenovo ThinkPad X61s and Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

By: Larkin

Larkin — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:24:55 +0000

I have been opening and closing the lid a lot recently and it works every time, suspending and un-suspending. USB devices work on the right- and left-hand sides. The only annoyance I have now is that the wireless does not come back up when the lid is opened, but it just takes a few seconds to enter the password and uncheck / re-check the box next to the wireless connection.

I have yet to try the external display option. I have a Sony TV that takes VGA directly, so I’ll test that.

With Compiz working and almost everything else (and maybe more soon via patches), Ubuntu on the X61 has exceeded my expectations.

By: Linxucity

Linxucity — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 07:44:35 +0000

There must be some patch to the system. I can feel the system is a lot cooler now than before. There was a couple of updates, so I’m not sure if those fix the warm palm issue. It can be put to suspension, but after CTRL ALT F1 then F7, the wireless message and needed to restart the computer.

By: Brian Behlendorf

Brian Behlendorf — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:10:16 +0000

Ugh, *lots* of problems with this laptop and Ubuntu.

The only idiot-me one was not realizing the WLAN card had an external switch to “turn it on”, just below the front of the keyboard (it looks like the latch that opens the laptop). Once that was flipped, wireless reception improved (it was working before, but dying all the time), and bluetooth stopped dying, but wireless reception and reliability is still far below what it was with the X40 and what Apple laptops can get.

Otherwise, things that still don’t work, even with the 1.08 BIOS rev that required windows to update:

suspend - getting that dreaded “inu” in yellow that others have. No combination of kernel flags appeared to make a difference, nor did uswsusp. But as others reported, diddling with cntrl-alt-F1 and F7 a bunch (in no discernable pattern) appears to bring it back, so far each time I’ve tried. Still a long way from the reliable suspending that the X40 had.

external video - again, something that worked out of the box on the X40 but not at all here. Looks like the “intel” video driver doesn’t know how to use a second screen yet? I tried using the “i810″ one but it would often leave the laptop in a bad state, downgrading to 640×480 and reverting the driver to “vesa”. All I want is to mirror the LCD to the video out, not even any Xinerama fanciness, but no deal. Anyone else?

I’ve got a USB thumb drive that isn’t recognized in the USB ports on the right hand side, only the one on the left. odd.

I’m considering downconverting to an X40 so this can become a machine usable for travelling and presenting again.
Brian

By: Larkin

Larkin — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:08:59 +0000

Compiz is mostly working from me. In the file /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager, I just added the line:
SKIP_CHECKS=yes

I installed the packages compiz-fusion-plugins-main and compiz-fusion-plugins-extra

System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effects shows all the fancy desktop and wndow options such as wobbly windows, cube rotation, etc. The majority of these work fine. There are issues with a few, such as minimize effects which leaves some artifacts on the desktop.

Vista doesn’t come close in the desktop effects department IMHO.

By: rapidoda » Blog Archive » Lenovo ThinkPad X61s and Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:36:41 +0000

[…] more here […]

By: Larkin

Larkin — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:31:35 +0000

Definitely issues with suspending the laptop. Works sometimes and not others. I have seen the wireless card stop working also. Have to go into the network settings and untick then tick the box next to my wireless connection to restart it.

Another slight issue is when you go to battery power and the backlight dims. If you brighten it manually, a few seconds later, it will dim automatically back to the power save setting. To get it brighter, you have to lower the percentage dimming in the power management preferences.

If the Wifi LED is the one on furthest left, then mine is working. It blinks when acquiring its ip address, then stays on full-time when established.

These don’t make Ubuntu unusable for me, but they are a bit of an annoyance. But weighing it up against the performance of Vista, I’ll stick with Ubuntu for the most part and hope to get those issues resolved.

By: Linxucity

Linxucity — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:48:49 +0000

I have been using Gutsy 7.10 on Thinkpad X61s for a couple weeks now. I run into these problems:
1. Wireless card may go dead after idling for awhile (Intel 4965)
2. Got blank screen after putting to suspension. Ctrl Alt F1 then F7 works some time.
3. The palm rest area around the fingerprint is extremely warm (not happening in Windows)
4. Fingerprint is not working out of box (I read Thinkkiwi for thinkfinger, but still doesn’t work)
5 Sound may not corresponding to Thinkpad volume keys (google for the work around solution).
6. I cannot play some embedded online music (Youtube is okay).
7. Wifi LED is not showing.

Those are the issues that I can think of off my head now. I hope these issues can be resolved soon with.