] ThinkPad X121e [AMD E-350]

[utillich]

Hi,

I just got this Laptop today (w/o operating system).
I immediately tried ubuntu 11.04 from a live usb stick and everything seemed to work just fine so I rebooted to install.
I set everything up (50gb / partition; 260Gb home (encrypted); 8Gb Swap); install went smoothly. However after install the laptop wont boot from the HDD, it always says "operating system not found". I did check and it is set up to boot from HDD as first priority.
Booting from the USB Stick still works and the partitions seem to have been created correctly by the system...

Any Help would be much appreciated.


Thanks

[utillich]

So I made some progress, hopefully this will be usefull for other (future) x121e owners:

I installed ubuntu 11.04 again but letting the system wipe the drive and create all partitions manually. After installation the system booted in to ubuntu fine, everything seemed to be working, including most Fn buttons.
I checked the Disk utility and noticed that the automatic installation made an 20mb "efi" partition ot the beginnig of the drive. Also all my partitions were supposedly misaligned which the utility said would strongly impact performance (Is that really the case with HDDs?).

I decided to reinstall manually setting my partitions as before, but adding an 100mb efi partition at the beginning. after installation the system booted perfectly! Disk utility still complained about my disks being misaligned however...
The system asked to do some partial upgrades. These included an update for GRUB, which asked where to install the bootloader (options where /sda & /sda1). I picked /sda. After a reboot the system only booted to grub rescue mode.

I then then tested 11.10 alpha, which seems to work fine except for wireless (worked on 11.04), and it also shows misaligned partitions.


Does someone know what to do at install time so the partitions are aligned (as far as I know they should be aligned automatically by the installer)?

Also I would rather not install 11.10 yet. Should I have selected /sda1 at the update (I might reinstall and try this later today anyway)? Or just blacklist the update?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[utillich]

Ok, found the problem.
With the partial upgrade grub-efi-amd64 was removed and grub-pc installed instead. This is a bug which has already been fixed in Oneiric, see here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/811913
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...pt/+bug/800910

The solution is to do the partial upgrade, not install grub-pc anywhere when asked, and then reinstalling grub-efi again afterwards (sudo apt-get install grub-efi-amd64 ).

Hopefully my 3 post monologue will help someone else...


A solution for the alignment problem would still be much appreciated.

[utillich]

Now that I have had some time to test the laptop I can highly recommend it!

Almost everything works out of the box. The performance is also really good for this price range (390€ with 8gb ram). I can play graphic intensive games such as ETQW or Trine without problems.

what works:
-wlan
-bluetooth
-all Fn-Keys except mute-micophone, camera and headphones
-webcam
-speakers
-suspend
-multitouch on touchpad
-microphone
-headphone jack

what doesnt work:
-hybernate


The only open question is how to properly align the partitions.

[pibach]

Thanks for the quick review, much appreciated. Thinking of ordering that Thinkpad too.
How do you like the touchpad with multitouch? I am a trackpoint user, BTW, but maybe this is a nice addition. And how is the display? The Edge 13 hat very dull displays, expecting the x121e 's is better overall, is it?

[utillich]

How do you like the touchpad with multitouch?

The touchpad is really nice, it has a slight texture which I really like. The whole pad can also be clicked down, which might be nice for some, but I prefer the dedicated buttons.
I only use the multitouch for two finger scrolling. I have no idea if it able to handle more complex stuff like gestures.

And how is the display? The Edge 13 hat very dull displays, expecting the x121e 's is better overall, is it?
I have never handled the edge 13 so I cant make a direct comparison, but i really like the display. It is a matte display, so there is no reflections (which was an important criteria for me), so it is probably not as bright as some other displays. It is more than bright enough for me though, I am currently using it at 50%.



One last thing I noticed that my wireless connection sometimes slows to a crawl, but its fine again after a couple of seconds. This might be a problem with my router though (wired on my destop-PC doesn't get lags), I'll test it at work tomorrow...

[walt.smith1960]

Thank you for the review, utillich. Do you know what changed between the X120e and the X121e? shop.lenovo.com in the U.S. has shown the X120e out of stock for a while so I expect a model change is under way.

[_absurd]

Thanks for all those useful hints utillich. I've got my X121e (AMD E-350) last weekend, too and tapped into the same pitfalls.

I've found out a solution to the partition alignment problem and posted it to the mentioned thread.

I didn't do any updates at all for now, as I ran into the grub rescue> screen as well, in one of my previous attempts. How did you reinstall grub-efi exactly? Did you need to boot from usb again?

One additional thing I noticed: The Wifi-Card "sees" all 2,4GHz-band WLANs around but my 5GHz router doesn't show up at all even when I sit next to it. I'll try out more soon (switching to 2,4GHz, although that's not a solution: I've bought a 5GHz-router because the 2,4Ghz-band is just packed around here.
Maybe I should use another driver?
Compile one?
I would be glad to hear some suggestions.


@walt.smith1960:
I've read something (although I don't remember where, I think there was something on Lenovo's facebook page) about the X121e not coming to U.S. at all (at least not soon). It seems that's the same thing for you now as it was some months ago with the X120e: That model was never released in Western Europe (only U.S. and Eastern Europe) and there where some discussions in various German Thinkpad-forums on this. So I was happy and surprised to see the X121e in Western Europe first, although that does not make Lenovo's product policy more understandable to me.

[walt.smith1960]

@walt.smith1960:
I've read something (although I don't remember where, I think there was something on Lenovo's facebook page) about the X121e not coming to U.S. at all (at least not soon). It seems that's the same thing for you now as it was some months ago with the X120e: That model was never released in Western Europe (only U.S. and Eastern Europe) and there where some discussions in various German Thinkpad-forums on this. So I was happy and surprised to see the X121e in Western Europe first, although that does not make Lenovo's product policy more understandable to me.

Thanks. I've seen similar with printers and such. I'm sure there's logic in there somewhere. . I see different model #s on very similar shop machines sometimes but always figured it was due to different motors -- 50 Hz vs. 60 Hz.

[utillich]

I've found out a solution to the partition alignment problem and posted it to the mentioned thread.

Awesome, thanks for your help, I will try it this weekend.

I didn't do any updates at all for now, as I ran into the grub rescue> screen as well, in one of my previous attempts. How did you reinstall grub-efi exactly? Did you need to boot from usb again?

1. Just do the partial upgrade as suggested by the system,
2. when he asks where to install grub uncheck all checkboxes so its not installed anywhere
3. After the upgrade finishes, but before restarting reinstall grub efi which was removed during the upgrade by running

   sudo apt-get install grub-efi-amd64

   in the terminal. (or grub-efi-ia32 if you installed 32 bit ubuntu)

One additional thing I noticed: The Wifi-Card "sees" all 2,4GHz-band WLANs around but my 5GHz router doesn't show up at all even when I sit next to it. I'll try out more soon (switching to 2,4GHz, although that's not a solution: I've bought a 5GHz-router because the 2,4Ghz-band is just packed around here.
Maybe I should use another driver?
Compile one?
I would be glad to hear some suggestions.

Apparently the driver for the Realtek RTL8188CE has some problems. Installing newer drivers should help, as described here. Note that I haven't tested this myself.

To find out if you also have this card installed run

sudo lshw -C network

in the terminal. If you are lucky you might have a broadcom card instead, apparently both are possible.