Round 2: Ubuntu

These are my notes on getting Debian running on the IBM x40, but in the end I took the easy solution: I installed Ubuntu.

I got most of the the features of my laptop to work with Debian, sortof - it was never as polished as I would wan't it and every now and then something would break. Debian is great and flexible but it has a low point of entry when it comes to Laptop features.

To be specific, my biggest annoyance was software suspend - I never got this to work quite as well as I would like to, which in turn gave me all sorts fun with kernel versions.

No suspend w. Debian kernels

I was unable to get suspend/resume to work with the stock Debian kernels. The features included in the kernel simply didn't do anything, and the software suspend 2 patch blew up on my laptop as well. Without a patched, polished kernel from Debian I went with the vanilla kernels which is troublesome to say the least - bearing in mind that not a lot of time goes into making the 2.6 series stable.

I was lucky to get 2.6.11.4 flying for some time, but not perfectly:

• ipw2200. I had some trouble of matching an ipw2200 version (and related modules) with vanilla kernel versions
• ibm-acpi - the newest version did not compile with kernels > 2.6.11
• USB breaks after suspend - after suspend
• resuming from suspend-from-mem froze the laptop
• Every now and then suspend-from-disk would blow up and crash the laptop

Installing Debian Linux on IBM x40, kerel 2.6.11.4

In the following are my notes on installing a Debian Linux on an IBM x40, for the most part it is distribution independent. I used the new Debian Sarge installer (RC2) which takes care of resizing the NTFS Windows partition.

What I tried: Buttons, Bluetooth, Wireless LAN, Ethernet, Audio, X11, Audio What I din't try: IrDa, Modem, SD card reader, FireWire, Framebuffer

I would like to write that installing Debian on the X40 was a breeze and that everyting is working just dandy. Unfortunately I can't. It has taken me some headakes and I'm still not sattisfied.

Ranting about the X40

While this is not suppose to be a review, I'm going to use the chance to say a few words about what I think about the X40. I'll start with what I like about the X40. I got three batteries the small built-in, the big built-in and the external life extenender. With these three I get extremely good lifetime. The screen is very clear and the formfactor/weight is very good.

Now for the bad.

• First there is the noise. When comparing to other more powerfull laptops it not that bad, but there is deffinately room for improvement espcially comparing to my old HP Omnibook 500. The laptop has a hard time keeping cool without the fan turning on - it regulates the speed, but it is running and it is annoying.

  Next is the harddrive. It seems that the ultra-small harddrive of the x40 is unable to archive the level of noise most 2.5'' drives it is clearly audible and has a distinct squeequing noise every now and then. Again I bought a Hitashi drive for the HP, which clearly outperformed the one comming with the X40.

  Finally there is the keyboard it has an annoying clicking noise that only reminds me of those old fashion IBM-keyboards that are loved by some.

• The layout of the keyboard is plain wrong. The only reason for the layout of keyboard, that I can only think of, is to satisfy loyal IBM costumers. Coming from a plain-PC keyboard, and the one on my old HP OmniBook 500 it can only be described as wrong. Crtl and Fn are swapped, F1 is where Esc should be and esc/del/pageUP/pageDn are oddly placed.swap this i a pain. I use a 10-digit system and my pinky is the finger that use to press ctrl. In order for this to happen I have to twist my hand just enough that the rest of my hand looses its position on the keyboard. I practise this means that I hit Ctrl-s when I want Ctrl-d all the time. Sigh.

  One suggestion is to use xmodmap to change CAPS-Lock to Ctrl, but I more fetch my soldering iron an fix the darn thing
• To round up my complaints it was a pain to get all the nifty features of the laptop to work (sleep, suspend, WLAN-kill, etc.), but in particular it was troublesome to get the external VGA (CRT) plug to work as expected.

Installing drivers

Kernel

resume=/dev/xxx

 acpi_sleep=s3_bios

IBM ACPI extras

tar zxfv ibm-acpi-0.11.tar.gz
cd ibm-acpi-0.11
make
su
make install
echo "ibm_acpi experimental=1" >> /etc/modules
cp -R config/etc/acpi/* /etc/acpi/
rm /etc/acpi/events/ac # laptop-mode has a better one

CPU freq scaling g1overner

Volume and Brightnesscontroll

apt-get install tpb

Wireless Drivers

apt-get install hotplug
tar zxfv ipw2200-1.0.1.tgz
cd ipw2200-1.0.1
make
make install
cd 

XFree86

        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "Native panel mode"
        EndSubSection

Display shifts after susped

chvt 1; chvt 7

External VGA output

./i855crt on 1024x768@85
./i855crt off

Configure ACPI

Most of the IBM extra features are controlled by ACPI which makes them quite easy to control. Some scripts come with the laptopmode and ibm_acpi packages, but most of them don't do what I don't exactly what I want. In the following are my modifications and additions to these examples.

ibm_acpi comes with the following examples: battery.sh, blank.sh, dock.sh, eject.sh, radio.sh, rescan.sh, undock.sh, video.sh

laptop-mode-tools comes with: lm_ac_adapter.sh, lm_battery.sh, lm_lid.sh

Battery

The battery seems to generate a few events while discharging. If you look at the battery info file /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info there are a few limits set up. For me they are 3086 mWh and 619 mWh.

In any case, what I wan't is for the laptop to enter hibernation rather than die when close to the limit. The script that comes with the laptop mode package doesn't do that - it simply disables laptop mode when close to the limit which makes a little, but not at lot of sense.

IBM function keys

Suspend to mem on lid-close

ACPI event codes