which Linux for a W530 lenovo thinkpad laptop ?
 

Hi ppl :)

L0Ng tim3 no see... :)

I have purchased a lenovo thinkpad W530...

I am planning to install linux on it...

There was an awesome webpage in thinkwiki org about installing debian squeeze on a prevoius model, but it seems that thinkwiki.org is no longer accessible...

AFAIK there are some issues about the two GPUs in the laptop... the intgrated one and the Nvidia quadro...

So... what would you advise me to install in this laptop, to get a functioning system with the least hassle..?

is debian squeeze allright...?

BRGDS

Alex

Hi Alex.

Since Wheezy is already in the frozen state it may be better to jump into that instead of Squeeze. This will give you better support for the integrated Intel graphics. Don't forget that you need Bumblebee to get the switching between video chips working.
If you are not limited to Debian something more cutting edge may be even better, but Debian should run fine.

Hi TobiSGD

Thanks for your answer :)

I am now in the process of creating repair/Backup disks for W7... but backup DVDs are a lot... so i ask : what do i need to completely restore my laptop to factory settings..?

Is the repair disk enough... ? or do i need more disks ??

BRGDS

Alex

Sorry, but I don't know much about Windows 7. I personally would backup the disk with clonezilla or something similar to be sure to have a complete and working backup.

Agree... Clonezilla is the way to go.. I'm sure you probably don't want to go back to the factory reset with all the bloatware and such that those factory discs often come with.

Just pop in a SSD
 

I would recommend to just buy an SSD, screw open the hatch on the bottom, pop out the disk and slide in the other one.

I just did this, I am evaluating a W530 and popped the SSD from my trusty old T61 in it and this rocks... unbelievable. If they think they can get this evaluation device back, they're seriously mistaken...

seriously, ubuntu 12.04 64bit edition works perfect, the only thing I found so far which is not working is the fingerprint reader.

Thx snamellit :)

Any news on Debian squeeze...? I wouldn't like to have to recompile and repackage all the packages i have built for Squeeze, to have them installed in Ubuntu... they do not exist in the repos... :(

BRGDS

Alex

Allrighty... i'm going for Kubuntu 12.04 LTS in my Thinkpad W530... after much research, i found out that the Nvidia drivers, the ethernet card driver , and the WiFi card driver were not compatible with the kernels of the Current Slackware 1337, and Debian 6.0.0...

S0, UbUn7u, here i go...

Is the bumblebee project for dual Video cards reliable already...?

How does one install Ub 12.04 with Nvidia driver...?

One boots and installs with Discreet selected in Boot options, and installs the binary driver from nvidia...? or do i need to boot and install Ubuntu with the integrated intel driver...?

BRGDS

Alex

slackware 13.37 on a thinkpad W530
 

Hey,
I got a W530 about a week ago ... 32G memory 500G drive, k1000 Graphics w7 professional

I added a 32G msata card ... 32G because I am cheap! I use this card as my boot drive.

Here is what I did to put Slackware 13.37 on this machine. You may need to do a little research
for the uuid bit.

1. Changed bios settings:-
display .. discrete graphics
boot ..... moved the msata card to boot before all the other hdd's
this is a VERY nice thing to be able to do

2. Removed the 500G drive ... avoids confusion when you first install

3. Installed Slackware 13.37 off the 64bit DVD:-
a. partition the msata drive into 2 equal partitions
b. format the first partition as ext3 for use as root filesystem
c. install all the packages!
d. lilo in the mbr
e. set up the network
This is all standard stuff; just follow the instruction!

4. Reboot

5. Change lilo to boot from the generic (smaller, almost everything is in modules) kernel and
an initrd (follow the README in /boot), run lilo and reboot

6. Now comes the tricky bit ...
change lilo.conf to use /dev/disk/by-id for the boot entry
and the UUID (from /dev/disk/by-uuid) for the root entry
change /etc/fstab to use uuid entry for /
run lilo and reboot

Here is my (edited) lilo.conf:-
#
# Start LILO global section
# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append=" vt.default_utf8=0"
boot = /dev/disk/by-id/ata-M4-CT032M4SSD3_000000001225033FB7B5

# Boot BMP Image.
# Bitmap in BMP format: 640x480x8
bitmap = /boot/slack.bmp
# Menu colors (foreground, background, shadow, highlighted
# foreground, highlighted background, highlighted shadow):
bmp-colors = 255,0,255,0,255,0
# Location of the option table: location x, location y, number of
# columns, lines per column (max 15), "spill" (this is how many
# entries must be in the first column before the next begins to
# be used. We don't specify it here, as there's just one column.
bmp-table = 60,6,1,16
# Timer location x, timer location y, foreground color,
# background color, shadow color.
bmp-timer = 65,27,0,255

# Wait until the timeout to boot (if commented out, boot the
# first entry immediately):
prompt
# Timeout before the first entry boots.
# This is given in tenths of a second, so 600 for every minute:
timeout = 120
# Override dangerous defaults that rewrite the partition table:
change-rules
reset
# Normal VGA console
vga = normal
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
image = /boot/vmlinuz.generic
initrd = /boot/initrd.gz
root = "UUID=9bae4e20-652c-4e89-bbad-7f9a0c3de28e"
label = Linux
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends

The reason for booting this way is to make lilo and the boot independent of the disk naming.
Using /dev/sda etc doesn't work if (like me) you may sometimes use a second harddrive in the ultrabay

7. Put back the 500G harddrive. reboot

8. Partition the 500G into 2 partitions:-
64G swap
the rest!

Format and add the swap partition to /etc/fstab .. I also use the UUID format for this entry
Create a single volume group with the other (436G) partition.

The /etc/fstab entries for / and swap are:-

UUID=9bae4e20-652c-4e89-bbad-7f9a0c3de28e / ext3 defaults 1 1

UUID=192a0978-6f45-4608-a0f0-d5be06d06f98 swap swap defaults 0 0

Now I used the volume group to provide LV's for /tmp, /var, /home, /usr/local, /opt.
So now (hopefully) the content of my msata drive will be essentially read-only and I have the second
partition on the msata drive to use when I install Slackware 14 .. it's coming!

9. Get the latest NVIDIA code from their website ... http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html
Unpack the download using the -x option which will extract the files from the run bundle but will not install
anything. READ the README!

Then do nvidia-installer

Now you can start Xwindows and life is a lot easier

10. Download the latest soundcard drivers from Realtek ...
Google realtek drivers and use the 4th result from the top. The URL is:-

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j..._x3CK2Yr1HAG3g

What a mouthful! .. anyway, choose:-

Computer Peripheral ICs->PCAudio Codecs->Hig Definition Audio Codecs-> Software

Accept the legal fluff and the Linux drivers are at the bottom of the next page.
I chose the Linux 3 (rather than 2.6) on the grounds that they were a later driver
They unpacked, compiled and installed without a hitch.

11. Reboot to load the drivers and I found that I had THREE sound cards:-
card0 ... pcspkr
card1 ... hda_intel
card2 ... nvidia
and no usable sound because the pcspkr kept getting in the way
I dont know WHY I had the pcspkr there because the pcspkr module was blacklisted and I could not see it
in lsmod but anyway I added the following to rc.local:-

/etc/rc.d/init.d/alsasound stop
modprobe snd_hda_intel

and then I got :-

card0 ... hda_intel
card1 ... nvidia

and Joy of Joy's, sound burst forth from audacious!

12. Everything else seemed to work out of the box except for Bluetooth. Support for the Broadcom Bluetooth chip
is in the 3.2 kernels but not in the 2.6 kernels ... roll on Slackware 14 :-)
I have not used the fingerprint dodad so I cannot comment on support for that.

13. I use VirtualBox to host Windows 7 as a guest machine. I used a Windows 7 Professional iso image to install w7
on my guest, and I used the product key off the COA (which is under the battery!). I had to use the automated
phone line to get it activated ... tedious but very straight forward.

14. I installed the multilib packages from Eric Hameleers website in order to run 32-bit binaries .. skype 4!

Thats about all ... Obviously I added all my favourite things but there is nothing unusual about those.

All-in-all, the W530 is VERY NICE and Slackware runs a treat ....

**** blatent plug alert ****

I have been using Slackware since it first came out, and for me, it cannot be beaten.
I have, over the years, used Redhat, Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse and none of them suit me better than Slackware

As usual YMMV!

cheers
pete

pete hilton
San Jose, CA

saruman@ruvolo-hilton.org

IsaBella --- ICE Explorer #1070

More on the W530
 

Hey,
Having run my W530 now for a week or so, the only things that REALLY annoy me are the lack of Fn key support and the lack of capslock indicator.

This has prompted me to assemble a little program that will put an icon in the system tray to track the state of the capslock key. It has borrowed heavily from the indicator-keylock app written by Scott Barnes and really is just a pared-down version of that code. It uses GTK-2 and works a treat under xfce .. YMMV with other window managers.

If anyone is interested I will post it somewhere.

The lack of Fn key support means that the display (LCD screen) runs very saturated which is tiring on the eyes.

cheers
pete

pete hilton
San Jose, CA

saruman@ruvolo-hilton.org

IsaBella --- ICE Explorer #1070

I have a similar problem with the FN keys on my HP laptop, I just made keybindings that call xbacklight to adjust the brightness.

I have not yet installed Kubuntu 12.04 LTS in this lappy... I am waiting for Slackware 14... should be coming soon, according to Distrowatch...