Thinkpads Forum

Hey there,
After raving reviews, I decided to upgrade to hardy RC1 (now upgraded to final) and wanted to share some of my experiences, since there are a couple of things not working so well. If anyone got similar problems or suggestions to any of these, feel free to elaborate!

1) The thinkvantage button is not recognized anymore, so, I'm not able to assign anything to it (I used it to start the terminal). This seems to be some kind of kernel bug, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/199502 . However, the other hotkeys work fine.

(fixed) 2) Wifi. I am aware of the new iwlwifi driver and (after I encountered the first problems) used the guide at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... 4965/gutsy to ensure it's really enabled. The logs tell me the wifi chip is recognized and running. However, I am not able to connect to any wireless network (using network manager). The wifi led doesn't even light up. Further investigation pending..!

(fixed) 3) ethernet. The ping times are horrid (~1000ms). I had similar problems using 7.04, but those got fixed after a while.. I am not sure if that's a general network bug or ethernet only.. see 2.

4) I'm thinking this is a software issue, but whatever: My saved server shortcuts (the ones that get created using places>connect to server) have vanished from the desktop and somehow I am not able to create them again permanently - they keep disappearing after reboot.


The good news: Standby is finally working again! Which was my main reason for upgrading. Oh well..

The network manager won't connect to hidden ssids automatically. Other than that, I haven't had any issues with my wireless. I did a clean install, however.
I know it's a pain to do a clean install especially when you have all your settings the way you want them.
According to this site:
http://www.intellinuxwireless.org/
The LED is supposed to work now. I'm not sure if we need to be using a more updated driver than the one with Hardy. I'd like my LED to work as well.
I'm sorry you're having such trouble. Let me know how things are going.

Thanks for your help.
I just downloaded and booted from the live cd, to test how things might change with a clean install, but, in livecd mode, all of the problems persist (I couldn't test (4), since that involves rebooting). So i'm thinking that a clean install may not be the way to go.
How is your network encrpyted? wpa/wpa2?

WPA2. I haven't had any problems except for the hidden SSID.

These 2 posts may be of help:
Show LED light:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=733054
Show hidden SSID: (use WICD instead of network manager)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... sid&page=4
I haven't had time to try them but if you have luck, let me know.

I use BootItNG to image my hard drive. You could image your 7.10 install and then do a fresh install of Hardy to try it out.

Incidentally, I purchased BootItNG and use it for my boot manager as well instead of using grub as my boot manager. Seems to work fine.

Progress!
See the message of oliver fritz:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... +bug/42572

So.. after upgrading the bios from 2.12 to 2.21 ethernet works again in it's old, blazing fast glory. I seriously don't know when this was fixed, since in the list of changes between 2.12 and .21, there are no ethernet fixes indicated.

I'd really like to write a comment about that both into the bug report and thinkwiki.org, but I don't have an account for either of them. So, if anyone could do this, it'd help quite a few people out there, I think.

--

Anyway, still no news from the wifi side. I tried wicd without luck, also after the bios upgrade.

frankausmtank,
Thanks for trying WCID. It's too bad it doesn't make a difference in the hidden SSID issue.
You can create an account at Thinkwiki and at Launchpad. Feel free to update the Thinkwiki with any expansion as you feel appropriate.

Ah, the joy of firmware updates. My router manufacturer just released a new firmware binary (no changelog available) and after flashing, wifi is now running fine (except the led) and I can connect to my wpa2 network within 5 seconds .. using the standard network manager.
I observed I still get the occasional hiccup using ethernet, but the wireless pings are great (until now, atleast).
It seems my thinkpad is finally turning into a usable machine again.

I got mixed feeling about this.. If my router manufacturer had not released that update, I'd be stuck with the problem, unable to fix it ever. Having to depend on the bios/firmware updates, people with older hardware or less than satisfactory customer support might get a whole lot of problems with this release.

good news to all my T60 Hardy friends. Here are some present from me for those who want to see their T60 wireless LED works again

Thanks to linuxtechie...yeayyy