Linux on the X220

Typing this on an x220 running kernel 3.0.1... I've also run 3.0 and 3.1-rc1. I haven't had any problems with shifted screen under X, so I don't know what to tell you. For a sample kernel config file for X220, see, e.g., Installing Gentoo on a ThinkPad X220 - ThinkWiki

 

Thanks for the tips on picking out the x220. i7 with SSD is running fine out of the box with ubuntu natty. I haven't done a proper battery test but it seems to quote me about 8hrs with wifi and full brightness and 9V battery. plan to take on a cross country flight so should hold up for the flight...

One question I had is hooking it up to a TV with the display port. I got a DisplayPort -> HDMI adapter and hooked it up to my TV. It detected the TV fine but there were two issues

(1) When connected to the TV it only gives the option of 16:9 formats as opposed to 16:10 making the top slightly clipped - is there a way to force a 16:10 configuration?

(2) My sound still comes from the laptop. my understanding is that displayport should transfer sound so is there a way to get the sound to come out of the TV?

The only other issue I've encountered is that after configuring two figure scroll with gpointing it sometimes stops working and I need to click two finger scrolling off and then back on to get it going. kind of a nuisance if anyone has a fix for...

thanks,

bg

 

So I think I spoke too soon with everything working fine. After connecting to the TV my suspend is no longer working properly - as it doesn't wake up. Seems to be similar problem in this thread:

[ubuntu] Cannot resume from suspend Ubuntu 10.10 - Ubuntu Forums

and tried most of the fixes to no avail. Curious if it's possible the connecting to an external monitor messed stuff up in the graphics card? Or just a coincidence...Either way curious if anyone has a fix for either issue...

bg

 

Why would you want a 16:10 configuration? Your laptop is 16:9, and so is your TV, unless you have some really weird one.

If your TV crops the top of the screen, I suggest that you play with your TV settings. You might need to manually shift the computer output on the TV screen, or there might be an "autoadjust" option in your TV menu. Check the manual of your TV.

Can't help you with this one as I haven't tried that myself. Does it work under Windows? I've seen threads in the past with information that some DP->HDMI adapters transfer audio and others don't.

I would guess it might be a driver issue, specifically with xf86-input-synaptics. I'm running 1.4.0 on my Gentoo install and with that version the two-finger scroll works out of the box. So either try finding a newer version somewhere, or wait for two months until the next Ubuntu version comes out, which hopefully will include the newer driver.

 

using arch with kernel 3.0. seems mighty fine so far.

 

So this issue seems resolved (for now) with kernel 3.0. That also seems to have helped the cropping issue...

yes I was being a bit dense with screen size. I had that number in my head...

still need to play with sound but that is more of a minor issue...fortunately don't have windows to test in

 

I believe that's a bug in gpointing-device-settings.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=650559

Here is a workaround for the trackpoint. Could probably be modified for the touchpad.
Alternative to gpointing-device-settings - FedoraForum.org

See thinkwiki for more info.
How to configure the TrackPoint - ThinkWiki

 

Is there on linux some utility which allows you to set battery charging settings like lenovo power manager? I mean - start charging when below 80%, stop charging at 90% etc.

 

check for the tm_smapi in the thinkpad wiki

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi

 

Note also that the information there is not completely up to date. x220 is (partially) supported, provided that you use the forked 0.41 release. It's a work in progress though, e.g., stop_charge_thresh works on x220, but start_charge_thresh does not.

 

Hello!
I have the following issue which I cannot find in the internet:
I'm running ArchLinux with latest kernel(3.0.4) and have some problems with i915 and wine. If you run something in wine, even native like winecfg, when it loads i915 driver constantly tries to read edid from hdmi port without luck and at that time X freezes. Better to watch a video from the following bugs created by me:
WineHQ Bugzilla – Bug 28107 – Wine makes system very slow
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40191
Disabling HDMI fixes this, but that's not a good workaround.
Can anybody test this bug on their laptops?
Thanks!

 

I have noticed that the mouse freezes a little on login and when starting MS Office under CrossOver Office (I don't know about any other Wine apps, since I don't use any). Since in my case the issue resolves itself within a few seconds, I'm not bothered by it.

 

Does anyone knows how to update de BIOS in a Linux only system?

 

If I'm not mistaken, there's a ThinkWiki page that explains how to do it.

 

yes, there is. I followed it and had not the desired results so I'm asking here. If someone managed to do it following the thinkwiki page the error is probably on me. If not...

thanks for the tip, anyway.

 

I've updated a number of X-series' BIOSs using the instructions there. It's always worked great for me.

 

I was also having problems updating my BIOS too. I wish I could say I found a method for it to work but honestly I got too frustrated and went and picked up an external USB cd/dvd drive.

Then just burnt the .iso using cdrecord and off I went.

Now my problem is (that I haven't even begun to tackle) how to update the Intel ME firmware... that you can't turn off

 

The X220 specifically? Can you just make a small test for me? Can you loop mount the latest BIOS update iso image? (just mount, don't need to do anything with it). I'm trying the GRUB2 instructions but it gives me a "filesystem" not found kind of error.

thx and sorry for the trouble.

 

No, the last one that I updated via GRUB was an X200. I don't own a more recent X series machine.

I did update my T420, but I did that via a CD as it has an optical drive.

 

How do you guys think this laptop would hold up with Gentoo? Is it possible to disable turbo on the i5's for lower temperatures?

 

Wow. From reading this thread, it doesn't look like this laptop is linux friendly at all.

 

It's more like linux is generally not very friendly to notebooks :-(

 

I guess I'm forgetting the initial struggles I had with my vostro 1400. It works perfectly (well...98%) now, but it was ages before the kernel and drivers caught up with it enough for everything to work as it should.

 

Really? 'cause with the exception of the GPU, Debian worked just great on my T420. And support for the GPU was easy too once I used a newer kernel (which I'd expect, since Sandy Bridge was released long after Debian 6.) I've also run Linux on most every ThinkPad made after 2001, and my experience, though limited, certainly doesn't make me think that "linux is generally not very friendly to notebooks".

 

I'm running Gentoo on an x220 with i7. Works fine. These Intel CPUs can be power hogs though when you push them, e.g., I do see thermal/power throttling warnings from the kernel in the log files when I compile. So yeah, disabling turboboost can be beneficial for battery life. It's easy: all you need to do is reduce /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq by one level.

 

Ubuntu and openSUSE both worked perfectly. The big drawback with linux is high power consumption compared to Win.

 

Well, one big issue for me is power consumption - battery life is shorter and notebook is noticeably hotter (which is not comfortable when I have it on my lap).

Then, linux does not have real alternative for power manager - there is some utility with which you can set things like start charge at 60% and stop at 90% but its usage is not really for newbies and X220 is not supported right now. This is also ThinkPad only ...

Then, AFAIK mic mute button on new ThinkPads still does not work.

And remember that ThinkPads are quite possibly best supported laptops in Linux, support for others is probably worse ... :-/

 

options i915 i915_enable_rc6=1 i915_enable_fbc=0 semaphores=1 lvds_downclock=1
pcie_aspm=force

My laptop running 6-7 hours on 6-cell battery.

tp_smapi & laptop-mode-tools

 

The X220s I've used running Linux haven't seemed "noticeably hotter" than their Windows-running counterparts. Perhaps you didn't enable CPU frequency scaling?

Huh?

There are a couple different power management tools that offer power profiles, plenty of configuration options, etc. in a nice graphical utility. What features are you missing?

Actually, about the only bit that doesn't work on the newer ThinkPads is one of the two charging thresholds. Everything else (power-wise) works fine.

I wouldn't know. I leave the mic disabled in the BIOS, so I assumed that the fact that it wasn't sending any keypress events was due to that.

 

Be careful. There are very good reasons that some of those flags are off by default. Example:

Revert "drm/i915: enable rc6 by default"

Also, i915_enable_fbc=0 does nothing:
[Intel-gfx] [PATCH 1/2] drm/i915: add fbc enable flag, but disable by default

(sempahores you may want, but I'd bet you probably don't...)

 

Do we need to keep the efi partition on the hard drive? Also, is there a "legacy" option or something where you can use bios instead of uefi?

 

Only if you want the pain/fun of getting UEFI booting working.

Yes. It's labeled as such in EFI menu.

 

I don't want UEFI booting - I'll be using Gentoo so I'll be using the "older" grub. Is it fine to just delete the efi partition then? Also, is there a way to restore the partition & files in the future if for some reason I changed my mind?

 

Yep. Delete away!

You could dd it and save the image somewhere if you wanted, but I wouldn't bother. You can always create a new partition for EFI boot when you need one.

 

Oh, so the EFI can recreate its own files if I create a vfat partition for it?

 

Err... sort of. That'd actually be for the OSs benefit, not the EFI implementation, but yes -- you can recreate a partition later. (Or rather your OS installer typically will.)

 

I've tried many Linux distributions on this laptop.

This is the best laptop I have ever owned, but let's just say that Linux support so far is absolutely dreadful. I don't know if it's par for the course as far as Linux laptop support goes, perhaps most laptops are only workable after many months of drivers and updates.

Anyway I found out that anything that includes Canonical's Unity (even in 2D) or KDE will start glitching out with crazy flickery video errors and random lockups. The lockups occur to me especially when I use programs like Truecrypt and LottaNZB, but they occur in other situations as well.

I can't even install Ubuntu 11.04, it always locks up before completion. I installed it once and it worked, but I could never re-install it afterward. Ubuntu 11.10 doesn't let me use Ubuntu 2D, and ends up with the same crazy video glitches and lockups as well.

From my experience though, it seems that when a distribution uses XFCE, LXDE or non-Canonical iterations of GNOME, things are fine.

Distributions which I've used and ended up glitching like mad on me (All 64-bit) :

-Ubuntu 11.04
-Ubuntu 11.10
-Fedora 15 KDE
-Linux Mint 11 Ubuntu edition
-OpenSUSE

Distributions which were glitch-free

-Fedora 15 LXDE
-Lubuntu 11.10 beta 2 (11.04 doesn't find my wireless network card)
-Xubuntu 11.10 beta 2
-Linux Mint 11 Debian edition

I'm running Mint Debian edition as of this writing, and it doesn't seem to have any of the same problems as the Ubuntu edition. I'll keep using it, and report back if things start going haywire.

Hope this helps anyone looking for a reliable Linux distro to use on their shiny new x220.

Edit: Wooops! Just as I was writing this, I switched to another window and there was some weird colored bar in the center of the other window I switched to. There's a glitch. Let's see whether things will go downhill, or whether it will just remain a minor and harmless occurence.

 

Try Mageia 1 KDE. Works pretty good on this X220. Only major issue was Network Mangler. Uninstalled that and am using kppp.

https://forums.mageia.org/en/

 

I was watching a movie while writing this, and it locked up on me.

Seems like anything with GNOME needs to be scratched off the list.

Jabbar, how long have you used it? Was it 32 or 64-bit? And do you ever notice any video glitches or random lock-ups?

Also is there an option to smooth out the fonts? I have a lot of trouble using any Linux distro where there aren't heavy font anti-aliasing options.

 

I am also using Fedora 15 Gnome (I prefer Classic Gnome with Compiz over the Gnome 3 shell). In both Mageia KDE and Fedora 15 Gnome I installed 64-bit. I have better video results in Fedora than Mageia. In Fedora I installed libva (for accelerated video) and in Mageia it was vaapi (for accelerated video). Here is a link to the procedure as best I recall (sorry that the link to the guide within that post is dead).
http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/575569-linux-x220-17.html#post7739480

For Fedora fonts I use the guide from Infinality:
Subpixel Hinting and Other Enhancements for Freetype & Fedora 15 RPM Packages | infinality.net

For Mageia I did the following: Installed lib64freetype6-2.4.4-5.1.mga1.tainted and enabled sub-pixel rendering RGB with hinting set at slight

For the MS core fonts I use the following:
Optimal Use of Fonts on Linux

EDIT: Gnome's Network Mangler caused the X server to crash in Mageia on my X220. Try uninstalling Network Manager and using something else.

 

I've tried a Gentoo livedvd on this thing, and everything worked perfectly except for the touchpad. Only the left click works, and that only if you click on the extreme bottom edge.

Has anyone got the touchpad fully functional on the x220? Multitouch, both left and right click and all?

Otherwise, it seemed like everything worked fine (and this was using kde's compositing as well). That to me is pretty impressive, coming from computers that have all had nvidia cards. Sound was fine, and fan control was fine as well. I did not test the external monitor support, but even in KDE's display control panel, there were entries for the displayport and vga out. Impressive!

The livedvd I used was Gentoo's latest amd64 (multilib), although I don't remember what the version number is offhand. I'm looking forward to actually putting linux on one of these - my current one has a defective screen so I'm waiting for its replacement.

Current one, as tested:
i3-2310m, IPS screen, 4gb ram, intel N-1000 (?) wifi.

edit: full list of things NOT tested-
Actually using an external monitor
Audio out on displayport
webcam
hibernate/suspend (I was using a livedvd and couldn't test this even if I wanted to)
Ethernet
PCMCIA/Expresscard slot (whatever it is)
SD card reader

Once I get my replacement in (assuming it is defect free) I will post back here some more about compatibility.

 

Were you running a kernel version >= 3.0?

If not, it wasn't GNOME, but a known kernel issue. Upgrade to a more recent kernel and it will likely disappear.

 

Right click doesn't work for me either. I don't really miss it all that much though, since there are always the buttons above the touchpad. Multitouch works though. I use two-finger scrolling and it works just fine.

From your list of things not tested, I have tested using an external monitor, webcam, suspend, and Ethernet; they work. The only thing from your list that I tested and that didn't work for me was the SD card reader -- apparently it's a pretty crappy model that is not compatible with at least some cards (both under Linux and Windows).

 

xf86-input-synaptics-clickpad for touchpad. ArchLinux x64, everything is fine except cardreader(random panics with divide-by-zero)

 

I've installed Ubuntu 32-Bit a few days ago. It installed perfectly. And I haven't had a single glitch since then.

I don't understand.

 

I have been using Ubuntu Linux besides Windows on my Thinkpads for years. Ubuntu works very well on every Thinkpad that I have used and am using, including T6X, W510, X220.

 

ubuntu seems to work well with the x220. I still prefer arch though. rolling releases ftw.

 

11.10? [10 char]

 

Started playing with Arch on my X220. Chose the Xfce desktop environment and SLiM display manager and got them working. Got eth0 and wlan0 working. Trackpoint and touchpad working as in other distros. Still got a few issues to sort out.

 

OK, I got this *ALMOST* working

Update your BIOS using Linux only.

My machine has debian and grub2, by the way. Running "testing" but I think squeeze will give the same results...

Dowload iso file from lenovo website. It will something called 8duj11uc.iso

apt-get install syslinux grub-imageboot
mkdir /boot/images
cp /usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk /boot

copy 8duj11uc.iso to /boot/images

run update-grub

reboot

and you can boot from the added line.

current status: it boots the bios update program but when I strike "enter" to update firmware it just hangs in there, apparently doing nothing...