T400 and Linux

[emeraldgirl08]

I'm wondering if anyone has found an distro for the T400 w/ Intel X4500HD that works. I've tried Crunchbang and Ubuntu so far and found the 3D graphics disappointing.

I would like to have my T400 double-booting but all the tweaking gets a little old after awhile. I mean the X4500HD has been out for almost two years now and no one has developed a solution for this? I mean this card can dish out 1080P video so what's the big hold-up with Linux?! I love Linux and will keep it on the R51e but with the T400 I'd just like to know if someone has found a distro that is running great with the Intel X4500HD? One that can also do "sleep" with no resume problems also.

Linux is awesome because it's free and open-sourced! I love_love_love the community and spirit but the hardware incompatibility drives me nuts!

[maciejs]

Hi,

Which version of Ubuntu did you try? I use fully up to date Karmic on my X200s (which I believe has the same GPU as T400s) and I don't really have any problems, neither with graphics nor with anything else...

[Adda]

Ubuntu 9.10 and Linux Mint 8 runs extremely well on my T500 using the GMA X4500MHD.
With Ubuntu 9.04 this was not the case.

Thinkwiki is your friend:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Install_U ... nkPad_T400

[emeraldgirl08]

@ Adda- as long as I stay within the realm of 2-D I think things are okay. I've been busy and swamped with schoolwork and things so installing and reinstalling another OS isn't very appealing right now. Doesn't mean I've given up and hmmm... almost time for the next LTS Thanks for the Thinkwiki link

@ maciejs- I installed Karmic 64-bit two days ago and updated it right after installation. I ran "glxgears" to compare the T400's framerate to my R51e. I also run

Code: Select all

/usr/lib/xscreensaver/glblur -window -fps

to get a number for my laptops graphics performance.

Maybe I'm just expecting too much??? I realize it's still integrated graphics but it's a long way from Intel 900.

I have Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion running on my XP Pro partition at "dumbed-down" resolution and graphics settings That's my gauge. Oblivion isn't the most recent game but it can sport some great polys if your system can handle it! I ran some scripts to check on the ability of my X4500HD and can say the least that it will do the middle setting of effects in appearances with Ubuntu. It is also able to play my MKV files. I think I'll just leave the gaming to XP Pro. Linux still is awesome and I will use that partition for web browsing and non-gaming things.

[maciejs]

i think you should have a look at this

i'm not sure how to describe the performance that i'm getting on my machine but one thing for sure - i find it satisfactory, i never did any benchmarks cause i think they're pointless but for the fun of it i tried and i get around 300fps on glxgears q: and 30 something on glblur, tested with numerous other windows opened (for a comparison) but i can tell you that i've no problem using desktop (compiz including) with two 1920x1200 screens connected, everything is pretty smooth and very pleasant to use;

720p movies also play smooth (1080p are skipping sometimes but it could be due to a slow hdd); haven't really tried playing many games, i played quake live once - it run fine but i don't know how many fps it was clocking

do you actually find your system running too slow or simply thought it would be faster?

[emeraldgirl08]

i think you should have a look at this

i'm not sure how to describe the performance that i'm getting on my machine but one thing for sure - i find it satisfactory, i never did any benchmarks cause i think they're pointless but for the fun of it i tried and i get around 300fps on glxgears q: and 30 something on glblur, tested with numerous other windows opened (for a comparison) but i can tell you that i've no problem using desktop (compiz including) with two 1920x1200 screens connected, everything is pretty smooth and very pleasant to use;

720p movies also play smooth (1080p are skipping sometimes but it could be due to a slow hdd); haven't really tried playing many games, i played quake live once - it run fine but i don't know how many fps it was clocking

do you actually find your system running too slow or simply thought it would be faster?

I actually thought it would be doing things like...um cooking breakfast me

I can use wobbly windows and am tempted to install compiz manager so I can spin the cube and show the boys in class this girl is puter savvy

I think that there are solutions for my concerns. I would like a better Power Manager for Thinkpads. I do like the fact that there is a hard drive spinning down feature with the GUI. I haven't seen this in any other Linux distro yet. I'm sure it's a matter of downloading and installing packages. It's a nice learning experience but sometimes I just feel I want something to work!

[whizkid]

I run Fedora 12 on my T400, and it works great. I have switchable graphics, and F12 uses the radeon driver. Wobbly windows, spinning cube, dual monitors, sleep and resume, it all works. Haven't tried hibernate though.

[Dead1nside]

I also run Fedora 12, mainly with the Intel graphics but it works fine with the open source radeon driver too.

3D performance with the Intel driver is alright, can play Quake Live, can do Compiz's wobbly windows. However there are a lot of graphical glitches when I try and run quite simple 3d games through wine (at least I think it's the driver's fault).

Interestingly there's been some progress on supporting switchable graphics and it should be included, in rudimentary support in a new kernel soon.

[Volker]

The intel driver went through some rewrite to work with the new kernel mode setting (KMS) stuff, thats why there were some not-so-great driver releases last year. Fedora has been very active in getting the KMS working on Intel and ATI cards. I'm running Fedora 12 and am finally pretty happy with the 3d support on my X3100. So I suggest you give it a spin and see if it resolves your graphics issues. Ubuntu is a little bit behind in that regard right now. I also found suspend/resume to be very stable (X61).