Thinkpads Forum

I've just installed Linux (Ubuntu 9.10 X86-64) on the T410, just thought I'd let everyone know about the compatibility. I haven't tested everything yet, but it seems that a lot of things are working great with a few minor issues.

nVidia NVS 3100m Graphics: Working perfectly with restricted drivers.
Ethernet: Working
Intel 'Ultimate N' 6300 wireless: Works with installation of linux-backports-modules-karmic
Sound: Working just fine, haven't tried the microphone.
Suspend: Works mostly, except that USB does not work on resume. When I find a workaround I will post it here.
Fingerprint Reader: Nope.
Card reader: Works, tested with 2GB SD card.
Hotkeys: Brightness, mute, volume, suspend, and everything else that I have tried work.
Bluetooth: Works.

I have to say this is a really nice machine and I'm impressed how well such new hardware works with Linux. The build quality of the T410 is impressive in comparison to my R61. The keyboard is every-bit as stiff as the R61, and I think I like its feel better. The Core i7 is blazing fast and the 500GB 7200rpm drive is great. The machine is just as quiet as the R61 and runs cool when not doing anything demanding. Although I'm not a touchpad fan, I do like the texture of this one. Also the LED backlit, WXGA+ screen is much nicer than the R61, brighter with slightly better viewing angles. I'm glad to have the extra resolution. As I test more hardware I will report back here and perhaps sometime this weekend update ThinkWiki since there is nothing on the T410 there at all.

I've installed xubuntu 9.10 on my w510. After installing the backports modules, my wireless works.

Still two problems:
- The brightness control does not work. It displays a brightness indicator that I can adjust up and down, but the actual screen brightness does not change.
- Wired ethernet does not work properly - it's always set to 10 megabit.

dcast wrote:I've just installed Linux (Ubuntu 9.10 X86-64) on the T410, just thought I'd let everyone know about the compatibility. I haven't tested everything yet, but it seems that a lot of things are working great with a few minor issues.

nVidia NVS 3100m Graphics: Working perfectly with restricted drivers.
Ethernet: Working
Intel 'Ultimate N' 6300 wireless: Works with installation of linux-backports-modules-karmic
Sound: Working just fine, haven't tried the microphone.
Suspend: Works mostly, except that USB does not work on resume. When I find a workaround I will post it here.
Fingerprint Reader: Nope.
Card reader: Works, tested with 2GB SD card.
Hotkeys: Brightness, mute, volume, suspend, and everything else that I have tried work.
Bluetooth: Works.

I have to say this is a really nice machine and I'm impressed how well such new hardware works with Linux. The build quality of the T410 is impressive in comparison to my R61. The keyboard is every-bit as stiff as the R61, and I think I like its feel better. The Core i7 is blazing fast and the 500GB 7200rpm drive is great. The machine is just as quiet as the R61 and runs cool when not doing anything demanding. Although I'm not a touchpad fan, I do like the texture of this one. Also the LED backlit, WXGA+ screen is much nicer than the R61, brighter with slightly better viewing angles. I'm glad to have the extra resolution. As I test more hardware I will report back here and perhaps sometime this weekend update ThinkWiki since there is nothing on the T410 there at all.

Yes, I'm having the same problem with brightness, which I noticed after more testing. I haven't really tried the ethernet much at all since my place is wireless. I'm still working on a solution for the screen brightness. Perhaps I'll file a bug report after my midterms are done.

I can force the ethernet to 100 megabit:
ethtool -s eth0 speed 100 duplex full autoneg off

but this doesn't seem like a very good solution. It works for now until I figure out a proper fix.

dcast wrote:Yes, I'm having the same problem with brightness, which I noticed after more testing. I haven't really tried the ethernet much at all since my place is wireless. I'm still working on a solution for the screen brightness. Perhaps I'll file a bug report after my midterms are done.

I'd be interested in knowing how well the nVidia graphics works with the nouveau (reverse engineered open-source) driver in 2d/3d. Apparently 2d should be pretty much done and 3d (compiz) experimental. Fedora 12 live CD would be an easy way to test.

Personally, I'd rather buy an IGP than deal with the binary driver (especially since I dont play computer games on my laptop).

I haven't got a Fedora 12 Live CD, although I can tell you that the installer DVD gets no graphics when left to defaults.

A quasi-workaround has been posted over on the Ubuntu forums, just switch virtual terminals - eg ctrl + alt + f1, from there you can change the brightness with the hot keys, then switch back - ctrl + alt + f7.

I have a few questions on Ubuntu 9.10 . I received a G41 with this OS.
1. Hibernation is flaky.
2. linux drivers for the AC97 modem - can't find
3. movieplayer does not like DVDs
4. VLC for Ubuntu followed instructions and it does not work
otherwise everything else seems to work.
update
installed libdvdcss2 and now VCL works
Fn + home/end work the brightness level without the "bars" on the screen
sound level buttons do not work