Ubuntu on IBM R40

pvtwillis · 06-29-2008, 08:12 PM

I am new to Linux and have installed Ubuntu 8.04 on an IBM ThinkPad R40. I am having several problems.

1) The IBM R40 has the ATI/Radeon 7500 video card, which is supposed to be supported by drivers in X11. However, my xorg.conf file does not list the ATI/Radeon card or driver.

The entire contents of the xorg.conf file are listed below.

Quote:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

Yet, when I do "lshw" from the terminal, the following is listed under display

Quote:

-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]
vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 66MHz
capabilities: agp agp-2.0 pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=66 mingnt=8

I ran the command to updated the xorg.conf file and it remained unchanged.

When I go to Screen Resolution, there are three basic settings, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 all at 60hz. I am sure that the ATI/Radeon 7500 supports more resolutions that this.

2)Ubuntu does not recognise my Belkin F5D7010 (ver 5000) wireless PCMCIA card.

When I run pccardctl from Terminal, with the card in the slot I get no response. It's as if nothing is in the slot.

lshw yields:

Quote:

*-pcmcia
description: CardBus bridge
product: PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
vendor: Texas Instruments
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pcmcia bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=176 maxlatency=3 mingnt=192

I have installed the ndisgtsk package to run ndiswrapper from a GUI interface. It will not load the Belkin .inf file that I copied from the Belkin install Cd or a copy of Windows 2K, where the card has worked. It keeps telling me that the BLKWGN.INF file is invalid. I tried running ndiswrapper from terminal but still no success. I know the card works and according to documentation in the Ubuntu forums, it should work out of box with Ubuntu.

3)Ubuntu does not recognize the sound card. It keeps telling me that there are no GStreamer or plugins and/or device found. I have changed settings in the sound preferences and none of them work. I have looked in package manager and there are several GStreamer packages already installed.

I have tried installing Ubuntu from both the “Live CD” and the “Alternate CD versions”.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

stress_junkie · 07-08-2008, 05:30 PM

Have you gotten a pop up window saying that your display would work better with restricted drivers?

I think what you need to do is to enable the restricted drivers repository in Adept or Synaptics, whichever you prefer. Then install the ATI proprietary drivers.

pvtwillis · 07-11-2008, 12:51 PM

stress junkie said:

Quote:

Have you gotten a pop up window saying that your display would work [better with restricted drivers?

Actually, under Ubuntu 8.04, that window would appear periodically when I would boot up the system. The inconsistent way that Ubuntu 8.04 worked in this laptop was very frustrating. However, the most frustrating thing was that Ubuntu 8.04 would take, on average, 3' 38"(and yes I timed it with a stop watch) to load every time I booted or restarted the system.

I dumped Ubuntu 8.04 and went with Ubuntu 7.10. Funny thing, when I loaded Ubuntu 7.10, everything worked fine.

Had I done a bit more research on my particular IBM R40, I would have learned that my model only supports 1024x768 on the laptop screen.

Thanks for you help though

pvtwillis
Linux

XavierP · 07-11-2008, 02:19 PM

I have an R40 and searching the specs told me that it does indeed only go to 1024x768. I also think that there is not a proprietary Linux driver for the video card - lots of searching and trying told me that the xorg drivers are as good as it gets.

On the other hand, it's an excellent laptop and well supported by all distros.

r00tb33r · 07-11-2008, 08:25 PM

Your xorg.conf is missing all options. There isn't even a video driver chosen on your system. You either need to run "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" or manually make a new one.

I know for sure that 1400x1050 is supported on 7500 on Linux.
There are certain N600c notebooks that have the above native resolution that give you that resolution with the radeon driver.
That was back on Ubuntu Dapper I believe.

pvtwillis · 07-12-2008, 07:50 PM

rootb33r said:

Quote:

I know for sure that 1400x1050 is supported on 7500 on Linux.

This is true. However, the ThinkPad R40 had two different 15" displays using the ATI Radeon 7500. One supported 1400x1050 and the other 1024x768. Unfortunately, the R40 that I have only goes to 1024x768.

Thanks for the input. However, now that I dumped Ubuntu 8.04 in favor of Ubuntu 7.10, everything is working fine. I even got my Belkin PCMCIA card to work.

pvtwillis
Linux