ThinkPad X120e/AMD fusion?

[mochalkin]

Hello all!

Just a small note from a guy trying to install Ubuntu on x120e but fails..

I've just received my x120e with AMD E-240 processor, all stock. I'm having some hard times installing Ubuntu and Xubuntu 11.04 on the laptop - yesterday I had some crashes during installation (installer just crashed for no reason, I was dropped to console and laptop simply freezed). I tried all variants - i386 version, amd64. Finally somehow I managed to install Ubuntu 11.04 amd64 and even booted it fine. First thing I ran was system update and reboot afterwards and guess what, after system reboot system is not working anymore - I just see a blank black screen, monitor lid is ON. Nothing helps - I cannot get to GRUB prompt (I believe due to UEFI stuff).

So today I decided to give a try for Xubuntu 11.04 i386. I unpacked the installation ISO to USB flash drive (pen drive) I'm using to boot off installation process. The installation process began, and all seemed good, but near the end of process I got a pop-up saying that Ubiquity crashed. I opened console window (system was still running) and checked messaged in /var/log/partman and /var/log/syslog, I can't recall exactly what was there, but what I remember is that root filesystem (/) was mounted with "aufs" filesystem and it was 100% full (124mb), I could not create any file in /root for example.
Now I'm sitting here and trying to restart Xubuntu 11.04 installation, but it simply fails (but somehow it worked 20 minutes ago!). After booting I choose "English" as a language and then I'm choosing "Install Xubuntu", I see Xubuntu logo and then I get a console message:

Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
Pid: 1, comm: init Not tainted 2.6.38-8-generic #42-Ubuntu
Call Trace:
... blah blah ..


How is it possible that same distro, same hardware, same usb pen drive, etc worked several minutes ago and now it is not?

I'm not willing to give up on this!

[mochalkin]

I was able to install Xubuntu finally - I had to recreate the USB flash drive from the iso image and install it once again. So far it works fine. Some problems with Fn keys thought, will have to dig around it.

[jankyHellface]

Some problems with Fn keys thought, will have to dig around it.

I don't use the multimedia function keys, but volume keys were important. In order to set them, go into settings >> Settings manager >> Keyboard >> Shortcuts tab. map these shortcuts to your volume buttons:

Mute: amixer -c 1 set Master toggle
Volume down: amixer -c 1 set Master 5- unmute 
Volume up: amixer -c 1 set Master 5+ unmute

[bill_mchale]

Sorry if I missed it earlier (this thread *is* 30 pages, though )

Is there anyone here who has had success configuring ubuntu on the substantially similar Lenovo Ideapad S205?

Given the size of this thread, it seems like the safe move would just be to go for the x120e. Lenovo has some nice deals on the fusion-equipped Ideapad S right now, though...

I am interested in this laptop as well (4Gb of ram plus 750Gb harddrive). It also looks like it will be available considerably sooner than the x120e.

So far, the only issue I have seen is that it doesn't play well with grub2 but does work ok with grub version 1.

Overall, I would bet that there should be no unsolvable problems, but I would love it if someone besides me was to evaluate it .

--
Bill

[link141]

So far, the only issue I have seen is that it doesn't play well with grub2 but does work ok with grub version 1.

Grub 2 works fine, I'm using it right now (grub-pc, one install) with 3 linux distros. The only issue with grub2 is the initial configuration. The efi-boot feature of the bios confuses the installer and tends to load the wrong version of grub. This can be fixed by manually booting the fresh install, removing the grub efi package, and installing grub-pc. Alternatively, you can disable efi-boot in bios. However, I can't vouch for using grub-efi in efi boot mode since I use grub-pc.

Overall, I would bet that there should be no unsolvable problems, but I would love it if someone besides me was to evaluate it .

The only major issue I have with Ubuntu and Kubuntu on this machine is the wireless driver causing system lock-ups. However, there are a few workarounds I haven't tried that may fix this.

I'm using Arch Linux right now and it doesn't have this problem with the latest stock drivers. There are a few minor annoyances that I've run into, but I've already fixed most of them. So overall, I would rate the x120e as having very high compatibility with Linux.

If you need help with any specific issues, I be glad to try and help .

[bhspencer]

I am also having the random freezing that is apparently caused by the rtl8192ce wireless driver. I am getting at least 2 hard crashes a day. If anyone finds a solution to this problem I would love to know about it.

[bhspencer]

With the current hard lock caused by the wireless driver I think it is fair to say that ubuntu 11.04 out of the box is not compatible with the X120e. Currently I have not yet found a solution to this hard lock issue. Please, anyone...

[link141]

With the current hard lock caused by the wireless driver I think it is fair to say that ubuntu 11.04 out of the box is not compatible with the X120e. Currently I have not yet found a solution to this hard lock issue. Please, anyone...

Relax. This version of the wireless driver does not work very well. Considering this is very new hardware, Ubuntu works very well. With the latest stock version of the realtek driver on Arch (which should make it's way to ubuntu at some point) I do not experience any freezing what so ever.

If you look (search) at previous posts in this thread, you will be able to see what some others have done as work-arounds. So far (if I remember correctly) I have read that some people have it working on natty with a special version of the driver via ppa (after disabling the bad one). You may also want to try downloading the driver directly from realtek's website and compiling from source. I did this on Maverick, and the wireless behaved fairly well. I'm not sure if this will prevent the freezing on Natty though.

Take a look at this page. There is at least one work-around listed in the comments that may solve this problem.

[jankyHellface]

Relax. This version of the wireless driver does not work very well. Considering this is very new hardware, Ubuntu works very well. With the latest stock version of the realtek driver on Arch (which should make it's way to ubuntu at some point) I do not experience any freezing what so ever.

If you look (search) at previous posts in this thread, you will be able to see what some others have done as work-arounds. So far (if I remember correctly) I have read that some people have it working on natty with a special version of the driver via ppa (after disabling the bad one). You may also want to try downloading the driver directly from realtek's website and compiling from source. I did this on Maverick, and the wireless behaved fairly well. I'm not sure if this will prevent the freezing on Natty though.

Take a look at this page. There is at least one work-around listed in the comments that may solve this problem.

Also, take a look at this bug as the x120e bug posted earlier is now marked as a duplicate of the newer bug. Specifically, they mention that using the pre 2.6.34 compat diver on the realtek page makes for a more stable system.

I just installed it today after 3 crashes. Fingers crossed that it provides more stability.

[bhspencer]

Was it necessary to uninstall the stock driver before installing the pre 2.6.34 driver? If so how did you uninstall the stock driver?