Page 1 of 2

Ubuntu Feisty packages for ThinkPads

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:14 pm
by axiom
I built some packages to make some features working on my ThinkPad, I guess I might as well post them since they are made and are working on my T60.

http://axiomatization.googlepages.com/u ... rthinkpads

For Intel wifi, you can re-use your old daemon, firmware by sym-linking, no re-compilation needed.

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:30 pm
by mattster
Are there any caveats to using these on a T43p ?

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:56 pm
by axiom
mattster wrote:Are there any caveats to using these on a T43p ?
Should be fine.

The kernel is based on the generic feisty kernel except the cpu family being pentium-m instead of i386

Any pentium-m, core duo, core 2 duo(in 32bits) should be fine

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 5:39 pm
by Clockface
Will this work on a T20? And can it boot from a 1GB memory stick (and if so, how) in the T20's USB socket?

Sorry, I'm totally new to Linux :oops:

Thanks.



Edit: I can't log onto that page you linked to, I just get:

"The page cannot be displayed

The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.
"

Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 6:05 pm
by axiom
I am sorry, it needs at least Pentium-M class or above, so it won't work on a T20.
Clockface wrote:Will this work on a T20? And can it boot from a 1GB memory stick (and if so, how) in the T20's USB socket?

Sorry, I'm totally new to Linux :oops:

Thanks.



Edit: I can't log onto that page you linked to, I just get:

"The page cannot be displayed

The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.
"

Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:07 am
by Clockface
OK, mate. Thanks for answering.

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:12 pm
by mattster
Ok, I have the packages now. I am a relative newb, so here are some basic questions for you, if you don't mind....

1. Do I just run the packages to install them??
2. Once installed, is there anything special I need to do?
3. With regard to wireless, that worked from the first install, with no extra configuration needed, except for AP connection info. If I use this new kernel, what would I need to do, if anything?

Thanks for posting these .... hoping to get things working in the next day or so ....

Matt

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:12 pm
by axiom
What wireless chip do you have? the intel 3945?
if so, you only need to do 2 sym-links (if i recall right)
1 for the daemon, the other for the firmware
ln -s /lib/firmware/2.6.20-15-generic /lib/firmware/2.6.20.3-ubuntu1-custom
ln -s /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.20-15-generic /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.20.3-ubuntu1-custom

you just need to install, then restart, nothing much needed.
btw, I don't mean to upset you, but if you claim yourself a n00b, probably you should stay away from custom kernels. No offence.

best
mattster wrote:Ok, I have the packages now. I am a relative newb, so here are some basic questions for you, if you don't mind....

1. Do I just run the packages to install them??
2. Once installed, is there anything special I need to do?
3. With regard to wireless, that worked from the first install, with no extra configuration needed, except for AP connection info. If I use this new kernel, what would I need to do, if anything?

Thanks for posting these .... hoping to get things working in the next day or so ....

Matt

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:14 pm
by mattster
I've got the 2200BG actually. Oddly enough I haven't had any problems with it whatsoever. Runs fine in XP and Feisty..... so would I still need to follow your steps below?

No offense taken :) I am somewhat of a noob, but I am more rusty than anything. I've been messing around with linux for quite some time, but its been a while since the last time I fooled around. This is also the first time I am running Ubuntu for any length of time, other than just installing to see what works and what doesn't.

Thanks for your help so far. I'm learning at a moderate pace now :-) Reading lots of info from various sources!!
axiom wrote:What wireless chip do you have? the intel 3945?
if so, you only need to do 2 sym-links (if i recall right)
1 for the daemon, the other for the firmware
ln -s /lib/firmware/2.6.20-15-generic /lib/firmware/2.6.20.3-ubuntu1-custom
ln -s /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.20-15-generic /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.20.3-ubuntu1-custom

you just need to install, then restart, nothing much needed.
btw, I don't mean to upset you, but if you claim yourself a n00b, probably you should stay away from custom kernels. No offence.

best
mattster wrote:Ok, I have the packages now. I am a relative newb, so here are some basic questions for you, if you don't mind....

1. Do I just run the packages to install them??
2. Once installed, is there anything special I need to do?
3. With regard to wireless, that worked from the first install, with no extra configuration needed, except for AP connection info. If I use this new kernel, what would I need to do, if anything?

Thanks for posting these .... hoping to get things working in the next day or so ....

Matt

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:30 pm
by kulivontot
I'm having trouble extracting data from these rars... my Linux archive-manager asks for a password and unpacking of them in linux gives CRC errors and says that it has come to an unexpected end of the archive. Can you download these rars and verify that they work?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:45 pm
by axiom
Glad to hear you like playing with it.

You still need to do the firmware symlink
I dont know if 2200 requires a userspace daemon or not, but it doesn't then only a firmware symlink will do.

Best
mattster wrote:I've got the 2200BG actually. Oddly enough I haven't had any problems with it whatsoever. Runs fine in XP and Feisty..... so would I still need to follow your steps below?

No offense taken :) I am somewhat of a noob, but I am more rusty than anything. I've been messing around with linux for quite some time, but its been a while since the last time I fooled around. This is also the first time I am running Ubuntu for any length of time, other than just installing to see what works and what doesn't.

Thanks for your help so far. I'm learning at a moderate pace now :-) Reading lots of info from various sources!!
axiom wrote:What wireless chip do you have? the intel 3945?
if so, you only need to do 2 sym-links (if i recall right)
1 for the daemon, the other for the firmware
ln -s /lib/firmware/2.6.20-15-generic /lib/firmware/2.6.20.3-ubuntu1-custom
ln -s /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.20-15-generic /sbin/ipw3945d-2.6.20.3-ubuntu1-custom

you just need to install, then restart, nothing much needed.
btw, I don't mean to upset you, but if you claim yourself a n00b, probably you should stay away from custom kernels. No offence.

best

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:46 pm
by axiom
There is no password
you just do
unrar x rarfile.part1.rar
then it should take care of it
kulivontot wrote:what's the password on these rars?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:41 pm
by mattster
Ok. Good news. I am running the custom kernel now. I did the symlinks and the wireless is working fine. Working my way through things now .....

I was going to tackle the video driver next, but wasn't sure if it supported the video in my T43p (128MB ATI FireGL V3200) since I didn't see it in the list of cards that were supported. Should it just work?

Is there any particular install order for the 3 packages?

I am making the assumption that once I install this driver that it will run with either kernel, correct?

Thanks for all your help so far .... :) I am very happy with Ubuntu at this point! A few more tweaks and my XP partition might just disappear hehehe
axiom wrote:Glad to hear you like playing with it.

You still need to do the firmware symlink
I dont know if 2200 requires a userspace daemon or not, but it doesn't then only a firmware symlink will do.

Best


Matt

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 10:19 pm
by axiom
among the 3 ati packages, the amdccc is useless if you think you can do everything yourself. For now, just be safe, install all 3, order doesn't matter.
after that, run aticonfig --initial (or something like that, check --help)

What's more fun is hdapsd, run it by hdapsd -d /dev/hda -b (check -h for different sensitive level) and then khdapsmonitor, then shake your laptop see how your drive get parked. :p

edit: those fglrx driver packages are kernel specific, so they only work on that custom kernel (except that useless control center)
mattster wrote:Ok. Good news. I am running the custom kernel now. I did the symlinks and the wireless is working fine. Working my way through things now .....

I was going to tackle the video driver next, but wasn't sure if it supported the video in my T43p (128MB ATI FireGL V3200) since I didn't see it in the list of cards that were supported. Should it just work?

Is there any particular install order for the 3 packages?

I am making the assumption that once I install this driver that it will run with either kernel, correct?

Thanks for all your help so far .... :) I am very happy with Ubuntu at this point! A few more tweaks and my XP partition might just disappear hehehe

axiom wrote:Glad to hear you like playing with it.

You still need to do the firmware symlink
I dont know if 2200 requires a userspace daemon or not, but it doesn't then only a firmware symlink will do.

Best


Matt

Re: Ubuntu Feisty packages for ThinkPads

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:04 pm
by ari.pad
axiom wrote:I built some packages to make some features working on my ThinkPad, I guess I might as well post them since they are made and are working on my T60.

http://axiomatization.googlepages.com/u ... rthinkpads

For Intel wifi, you can re-use your old daemon, firmware by sym-linking, no re-compilation needed.
does your kernel have any optimization for powersaving? or it the same as the ubuntu stock kernel?

I have an x60s and I was wondering if it is possible to get with ubuntu the same battery life i get from winxp (about 8.5h when just writing, vs. 6h in ubuntu feisty)
thanks

Re: Ubuntu Feisty packages for ThinkPads

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:54 am
by axiom
What kernel power saving optimization you have in mind? powersaving is a userland job, the kernel provides appropiate layer for userland to read data then tell the kernel what to do. like acpi. What's added in terms of power management for this kernel is a smapi module, which controls the bios batery management feature in thinkpads, but you still need userland 'work' to tell smapi what to do.
but anyway, in short, linux as whole gives a slight worse battery than winxp, I don't know why at this moment. For my t60p under Linux, my absolute min use is 15w, moderate use is 19w. I don't know concretely how much power it will drain under winxp, but I am guessing less. And for Feisty, you do need to manually tell it to enable laptop mode so it will save you power

hope it helps
ari.pad wrote:
axiom wrote:I built some packages to make some features working on my ThinkPad, I guess I might as well post them since they are made and are working on my T60.

http://axiomatization.googlepages.com/u ... rthinkpads

For Intel wifi, you can re-use your old daemon, firmware by sym-linking, no re-compilation needed.
does your kernel have any optimization for powersaving? or it the same as the ubuntu stock kernel?

I have an x60s and I was wondering if it is possible to get with ubuntu the same battery life i get from winxp (about 8.5h when just writing, vs. 6h in ubuntu feisty)
thanks

Re: Ubuntu Feisty packages for ThinkPads

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:13 am
by ari.pad
axiom wrote:What kernel power saving optimization you have in mind? powersaving is a userland job, the kernel provides appropiate layer for userland to read data then tell the kernel what to do. like acpi. What's added in terms of power management for this kernel is a smapi module, which controls the bios batery management feature in thinkpads, but you still need userland 'work' to tell smapi what to do.
but anyway, in short, linux as whole gives a slight worse battery than winxp, I don't know why at this moment. For my t60p under Linux, my absolute min use is 15w, moderate use is 19w. I don't know concretely how much power it will drain under winxp, but I am guessing less. And for Feisty, you do need to manually tell it to enable laptop mode so it will save you power

hope it helps
ari.pad wrote: does your kernel have any optimization for powersaving? or it the same as the ubuntu stock kernel?

I have an x60s and I was wondering if it is possible to get with ubuntu the same battery life i get from winxp (about 8.5h when just writing, vs. 6h in ubuntu feisty)
thanks
Thanks for your answer. Yes I enabled laptop-mode and it works. I also enabled WiFi (ipw3945) powersaving and this noticeably lowered the temperature under the palmrest. I also shut down unnecesary devices (IRDA, sometimes usb and pcmcia). Still, I can't go lower than 10.5W. WinXP, in the same conditions, works at 7.6W.

I was wondering if lowering the kernel HZ, or using the new "tickless" (or whatever is called) feature of 2.6.21 can help linux match or improve xp power consumption.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really amazed about how well feisty runs in this machine. And I run feisty on my office and home desktops. However I bought the x60s for personal use, and battery life is what matters most. So I'm disappointed I can't get what I want with linux, because I really love it.

Any suggestion?
Thanks!!

Re: Ubuntu Feisty packages for ThinkPads

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:04 pm
by axiom
ari.pad wrote:
axiom wrote:What kernel power saving optimization you have in mind? powersaving is a userland job, the kernel provides appropiate layer for userland to read data then tell the kernel what to do. like acpi. What's added in terms of power management for this kernel is a smapi module, which controls the bios batery management feature in thinkpads, but you still need userland 'work' to tell smapi what to do.
but anyway, in short, linux as whole gives a slight worse battery than winxp, I don't know why at this moment. For my t60p under Linux, my absolute min use is 15w, moderate use is 19w. I don't know concretely how much power it will drain under winxp, but I am guessing less. And for Feisty, you do need to manually tell it to enable laptop mode so it will save you power

hope it helps
Thanks for your answer. Yes I enabled laptop-mode and it works. I also enabled WiFi (ipw3945) powersaving and this noticeably lowered the temperature under the palmrest. I also shut down unnecesary devices (IRDA, sometimes usb and pcmcia). Still, I can't go lower than 10.5W. WinXP, in the same conditions, works at 7.6W.

I was wondering if lowering the kernel HZ, or using the new "tickless" (or whatever is called) feature of 2.6.21 can help linux match or improve xp power consumption.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really amazed about how well feisty runs in this machine. And I run feisty on my office and home desktops. However I bought the x60s for personal use, and battery life is what matters most. So I'm disappointed I can't get what I want with linux, because I really love it.

Any suggestion?
Thanks!!
"tickless"?? That sounds very interesting. I wonder how it works, what does it have to do with real-time patches...
but for the custom kernel I built, I in fact set it 1000Hz, I just think that a laptop should be the most responsive personal computers ever, I don't know if it will give a hit on powerlife or not, but I doubt it.

You are getting 10w on Linux, that's really pretty amazing. 15w is really my absolute min on my t60p, unless I disable features that I in fact need to use. but I think I would be happier to sacrafice that little power life to stick with linux.
Why winxp does a better job on power consumption is really a mystery to me, but I am GUESSING it comes from its integrity.
Given how well windows is integrated as 1 piece, it lets you imagine every piece of work features some sort of powersaving, unlike linux, each individual program requires its own thinking to incorporate powersaving. For instance, alsa recently added a idle mode to let the sound chip idle during inactivity. I imagine this kind of feature exist long in windows already, while linux is "just getting into" it. It's just my guess. No proof.
:p

Re: Ubuntu Feisty packages for ThinkPads

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 12:14 pm
by ari.pad
axiom wrote:
"tickless"?? That sounds very interesting. I wonder how it works, what does it have to do with real-time patches...
but for the custom kernel I built, I in fact set it 1000Hz, I just think that a laptop should be the most responsive personal computers ever, I don't know if it will give a hit on powerlife or not, but I doubt it.

You are getting 10w on Linux, that's really pretty amazing. 15w is really my absolute min on my t60p, unless I disable features that I in fact need to use. but I think I would be happier to sacrafice that little power life to stick with linux.
Why winxp does a better job on power consumption is really a mystery to me, but I am GUESSING it comes from its integrity.
Given how well windows is integrated as 1 piece, it lets you imagine every piece of work features some sort of powersaving, unlike linux, each individual program requires its own thinking to incorporate powersaving. For instance, alsa recently added a idle mode to let the sound chip idle during inactivity. I imagine this kind of feature exist long in windows already, while linux is "just getting into" it. It's just my guess. No proof.
:p

http://kerneltrap.org/node/6750

I'm keen on trying this thing on the x60!!

Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:33 pm
by mattster
Ok .... video driver is installed and working without any issues!! Clipping right along here ....

I'm not quite sure what to do with the hdapsd. I looked around at some of the tutorials, but I'm scratching my head over this one. There appears to be a gnome applet for this as well (hdaps-gl) according to the config doc on ThinkWiki ....

I got the fingerprint installed also, but I get an error "Could not claim USB device". Could this be because I already have fingerprints registered? Everything I have done with that so far I did through Windows ....

I am interested in enabling the Wifi Powersaving mode, as my touchpad does get a little bit warm. Would this be an easy process?

Still learning ..... should have a nice set of instructions for my system when I get done with all of this .....

Thanks!
Matt

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 8:44 pm
by axiom
for the hdapsd, you just need to run it as root with flag -d /dev/hda -b then it will take care of the parking.
I am on kde, so I don't have the gnome gui compiled, but under gnome, you should be able to get thinkfinger fully working.
That thinkfinger package works very well under console for me, I am not aware of any "Could not claim USB device" issue, can't help you on this.
About the wifi powersaving, there is a detailed article on ubuntuforum.org, just do a search, you will find it.

Best
mattster wrote:Ok .... video driver is installed and working without any issues!! Clipping right along here ....

I'm not quite sure what to do with the hdapsd. I looked around at some of the tutorials, but I'm scratching my head over this one. There appears to be a gnome applet for this as well (hdaps-gl) according to the config doc on ThinkWiki ....

I got the fingerprint installed also, but I get an error "Could not claim USB device". Could this be because I already have fingerprints registered? Everything I have done with that so far I did through Windows ....

I am interested in enabling the Wifi Powersaving mode, as my touchpad does get a little bit warm. Would this be an easy process?

Still learning ..... should have a nice set of instructions for my system when I get done with all of this .....

Thanks!
Matt

Re: Ubuntu Feisty packages for ThinkPads

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 6:36 pm
by axiom
I am looking forward to it too
According to the test results here http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a ... =651&num=1

It drops the power usage by 2w during idling and 1w at load. This is quite impressive!
ari.pad wrote:
axiom wrote:
"tickless"?? That sounds very interesting. I wonder how it works, what does it have to do with real-time patches...
but for the custom kernel I built, I in fact set it 1000Hz, I just think that a laptop should be the most responsive personal computers ever, I don't know if it will give a hit on powerlife or not, but I doubt it.

You are getting 10w on Linux, that's really pretty amazing. 15w is really my absolute min on my t60p, unless I disable features that I in fact need to use. but I think I would be happier to sacrafice that little power life to stick with linux.
Why winxp does a better job on power consumption is really a mystery to me, but I am GUESSING it comes from its integrity.
Given how well windows is integrated as 1 piece, it lets you imagine every piece of work features some sort of powersaving, unlike linux, each individual program requires its own thinking to incorporate powersaving. For instance, alsa recently added a idle mode to let the sound chip idle during inactivity. I imagine this kind of feature exist long in windows already, while linux is "just getting into" it. It's just my guess. No proof.
:p

http://kerneltrap.org/node/6750

I'm keen on trying this thing on the x60!!

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 9:55 pm
by foofightrs777
Hey, first off thanks for the great packages. I have been using your custom kernel and so far it''s been great. I am however having trouble with hdapsd. I first tried the method you listed and it seems like no matter what i do it's requiring me to run it with root privileges.

I even complied it myself from source using the command: gcc -o hdapsd hdapsd-*.c and then attempted to run it with: ./hdapsd -d sda -s 12 -a

But again, no luck...still requires root.

Am I dong something wrong here?

Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 10:10 pm
by axiom
foofightrs777 wrote:Hey, first off thanks for the great packages. I have been using your custom kernel and so far it''s been great. I am however having trouble with hdapsd. I first tried the method you listed and it seems like no matter what i do it's requiring me to run it with root privileges.

I even complied it myself from source using the command: gcc -o hdapsd hdapsd-*.c and then attempted to run it with: ./hdapsd -d sda -s 12 -a

But again, no luck...still requires root.

Am I dong something wrong here?
Yes, that's normal. You do need to be root to run that parking daemon.
That's the way it should be, don't worry. You can put it in /etc/rc.local to execute it during boot up
If you REALLY want to run it as a normal user, you can try to add your user to the group "disk"
Hope it helps.

By the way, the -a flag now becomes -b, check the its help page.

Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 2:43 pm
by foofightrs777
Yep, it runs well as root besides spitting out: open: No such file or directory while the drive is parked. I'm guessing this is normal behavior though.

i tried to run it at startup from /etc/rc.local and it worked for a few reboots but has since stopped. I'm not exactly sure why..going to have to investigate a bit.

Also, some people in the thread have been complaining about power usage/heat. How dificult would it be to add this to the kernel:
http://www.nabble.com/2.9-linux-PHC-pat ... 25907.html

Only reason i ask is that I have never (successfully) patched a kernel myself.

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 7:59 pm
by Alexander Heß
@Axiom:

Will you build packages for the -16-kernel?

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:15 am
by axiom
Alexander Heß wrote:@Axiom:

Will you build packages for the -16-kernel?
I am still observing people's response to -16 kernel.
so far I see lots of people falling back to -15 rather due to numerous issues, so if I don't go to -16, probably I won't build it.

Is there something in -16 that you need?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 11:48 pm
by cwf
kulivontot wrote:I'm having trouble extracting data from these rars...unpacking of them in linux gives CRC errors and says that it has come to an unexpected end of the archive.
Same problem here.

CRC failed. :-/

Nice packages...would like to use them :)

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 1:02 pm
by axiom
I am sorry for taking so long to realize the file corruption problem.
I rar'd the deb and uploaded them again, they now work.
I don't know the cause of the file corruption, would be good to find out, but anyway hope it doesn't happen again.

kulivontot wrote:I'm having trouble extracting data from these rars... my Linux archive-manager asks for a password and unpacking of them in linux gives CRC errors and says that it has come to an unexpected end of the archive. Can you download these rars and verify that they work?

Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 1:03 pm
by axiom
thanks for finding out
cwf wrote:
kulivontot wrote:I'm having trouble extracting data from these rars...unpacking of them in linux gives CRC errors and says that it has come to an unexpected end of the archive.
Same problem here.

CRC failed. :-/

Nice packages...would like to use them :)