Ubuntu 11.04 on a Thinkpad T420

[mejo]

Connected directly via VGA cable. Both with and without the "additional drivers" driver. Although oddly when I go into additional drivers now the driver is listed as just "nvidia_current" (I thought it said a version number last time I used one) and it says "This driver is activated but not in use".

I've disabled Optimus in the BIOS and am just using discrete. Had to do this previously on my T410/Maverick when it worked fine. This also worked with Windows so I know the cable and monitor are okay.

Did you try to use the integrated intel graphics instead of nvidia? As written above, in my case the intel graphics controller at least detects the external VGA monitor, but the display is broken in the upper 1/5 of screen.

Greetings,
jonas

[robin.nightingale]

I got also Problems with the external Monitor with intel Graphics. The intel graphics controller detects the external VGA monitor and i can see the main panel and the mouse arrow but all windows on the external screen stay black.

[Wlo]

Have tested with internal graphics set. On classic (non Unity) mode I can get my external monitor to work, just at a low res (1024x768 I think).

[donniezazen]

Does Intel HD graphic card work by default on T420? What driver do you use for Intel HD?

Is Bumblebee stable enough to use on productive machine? Any good tutorials. Do i have to set Optimus as my graphic card and 'detection enabled' if i install Bumblebee.

How is battery life of T420 on Ubuntu?

Thanks.

[mejo]

integrated intel graphics work out of the box. even unity works like a charm.

here is what I just posted in thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...2#post10909862:

for me, nearly everything worked out of the box with natty narwhal on my t420. here's a list (from memory) of issues i remember:

- need to disable nvidia optimus in BIOS. either choose internal intel graphics (saves power, satisfying for me) or discrete nvidia graphics. work is in progress though, to support optimus for linux. see [1].

- the fan runs all the time. you need to install thinkfan and manually add newer temperature sensors to its config file in order to make it work on the t420. See [2] (german) for further information

- battery lifetime was very short without tweaks. with integrated intel graphics, thinkfan running, and tlp installed and configured, i get up to 7,5 hours now.

- the microphone mute button doesn't work. didn't find a solution for that one yet. [3] [4]

- both speakers mute button and wireless hotbutton behave in an unexpected way. for the wireless hotbutton that seems to be a feature (see [5]), for the speakers mute button I hope a fix is found soon.

- issues with external monitor. regardless whether I use the docking station or directly plot my monitor into the vga connector, the screen is somehow broken and cluttered. hope this will be fixed with kernel & video driver update soon.

all in all I have to say that I'm pretty satisfied with ubuntu 11.04 on my t420, given that it's pretty new hardware.

also see the following thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=10886666

greetings,
jonas

[1] https://github.com/MrMEEE/bumblebee
[2] http://thinkpad-wiki.org/Thinkfan#Ke..._Kernel_2.6.38
[3] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/751471
[4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/408903
[5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/773558

[donniezazen]

yes, it's possible to switch the fn and ctrl keys in bios on a t420.

and about the fan control: i got thinkfan working on my t420:

1. install thinkfan package
2. add kernel module 'coretemp' to /etc/modules
3. load kernel module 'coretemp'
4. add the following three sensor entries to /etc/thinkfan.conf just before the temperature levels:

sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input
sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.2/temp1_input
sensor /sys/devices/virtual/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input

5. add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/thinkfan.conf:

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

6. reload kernel module 'thinkpad_acpi'
7. set START="yes" in /etc/default/thinkfan
8. start thinkfan: /etc/init.d/thinkfan start

9. check whether it works: cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan

if level has a value between 0 and 7, and changes by times, your thinkfan daemon works.

I found the solution in the thinkpad wiki (only german) at http://thinkpad-wiki.org/Thinkfan#Ke..._Kernel_2.6.38


I didn't give bumblebee a try yet, though it looks promissing.

other (minor) issues with t420 and ubuntu natty are:

- Microphone mute key does not function (Bug #751471)
- HDAPS not working by default
- issues with graphics: sometimes freezes, sometimes login doesn't work. didn't discover these issues lateley, but at the beginning I had problems, and some bugreports do exist as well.

greetings,
jonas

The fan is definetly annoying. I am unable to follow thinkwiki. Can you explain point 2,3 and 6?

2. add kernel module 'coretemp' to /etc/modules
3. load kernel module 'coretemp'

and

6. reload kernel module 'thinkpad_acpi'


I am stuck at the second step in thinkwiki

sudo modprobe -rv thinkpad_acpi && sudo modprobe -v thinkpad_acpi
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/options, it will be ignored in a future release.
rmmod /lib/modules/2.6.38-10-generic/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/options, it will be ignored in a future release.
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.38-10-generic/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.38-10-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko fan_control=1 fan_control = 1
FATAL: Error inserting thinkpad_acpi (/lib/modules/2.6.38-10-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

Thanks.

[drende]

Do you install ubuntu 32bit or 64bit on the 420s?

[mejo]

The fan is definetly annoying. I am unable to follow thinkwiki. Can you explain point 2,3 and 6?

2. add kernel module 'coretemp' to /etc/modules
3. load kernel module 'coretemp'

and

6. reload kernel module 'thinkpad_acpi'

all right, lets see:

you add a kernel module to the list in the config file /etc/modules if you want your system to load the kernel module automatically during the boot process. You can add it by either editing the file with you favourite text editor (gedit, vim, ...), or with the following command:

$ sudo echo "coretemp" >> /etc/modules

afterwards you need to load the kernel module manually, as it's only loaded automatically beginning with the next reboot. load the module the following way:

$ sudo modprobe coretemp

that's it, now the module 'coretemp' should be loaded (check with '$ lsmod')

now about step 6. you reload a kernel module with 'modprobe -r':

$ sudo modprobe -r thinkpad_acpi

I am stuck at the second step in thinkwiki

sudo modprobe -rv thinkpad_acpi && sudo modprobe -v thinkpad_acpi
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/options, it will be ignored in a future release.
rmmod /lib/modules/2.6.38-10-generic/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
WARNING: All config files need .conf: /etc/modprobe.d/options, it will be ignored in a future release.
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.38-10-generic/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
insmod /lib/modules/2.6.38-10-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko fan_control=1 fan_control = 1
FATAL: Error inserting thinkpad_acpi (/lib/modules/2.6.38-10-generic/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

First, what's the content of /etc/modprobe.d/options? This file should not exist at all on recent systems. Please post the content of this file.

Second, according to the error message, you load the kernel module thinkpad_acpi with the options 'fan_control=1 fan_control = 1'. I guess that the second option (fan_control = 1) with the spaces between option and value produces the error.

You should check, where these options are set. Post the output of the following:

$ grep -ri thinkpad /etc/modprobe.d/

[mejo]

Do you install ubuntu 32bit or 64bit on the 420s?

i run ubuntu 64bit on a t420

[donniezazen]

i run ubuntu 64bit on a t420

I have amd64 bit version installed.