Ich habe hier einen Thinkpad R50e und verwende darauf erfolgreich Linux. und zwar ursprünglich Knoppix 3.6 und seit kurzem nun Debian Linux vom Karlsruher Linuxtag 2004 welche man dort für eine kleine Spende kaufen konnte.

Damit auch Mitmenschen aus dem Ausland diesen Artikel lesen können, verfasse ich ihn in Englisch.

This page is work in progress, so give me some feedback if you want to know anything. js add dune2 dot de

WARNING: The descriptions here are brief notes based on my personal experiences setting up the system with Debian. This is not a step-by-step guide. DO NOT attempt anything similar to the steps described here unless you completely understand what you're doing. You risk losing all your data and may even destroy your notebook if something goes wrong during installation. I'm hoping that this information will help experienced users in getting started, and maybe someone who has more free time than I do will be able to provide more detailed instructions.

hardware: lspci 

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Host Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 855GM/GME GMCH Memory I/O Control Registers (rev 02)
0000:00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 855GM/GME GMCH Configuration Process Registers (rev 02)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
0000:00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)  
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01) 
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB 2.0 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 81)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM LPC Interface Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4) Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
0000:02:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1510 PC card Cardbus Controller
0000:02:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)
0000:02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 81)

Contents

first steps

The knoppix installation, with the knx2hd script, worked super! with no problem i had a running system which supported everything except full duplex audio and wireless lan because the ipw2200 driver wasnt included right out of the box.

what is working out of the box:

CDRW

CDRW cd burner worked out of the box, even with k3b (knoppix not debian) with debian in needed a bit tweaking but burning as root worked

For some unkown reason there was no /dev/hdc device on SuSE Linux 10, so I had to do this as root: 

mknod hdc b 22 0 
mknod hdc1 b 22 1 
mknod hdc2 b 22 2
mknod hdc3 b 22 3

DVD

It now reads all my films and the debian installation cd (from which i installed from). You need to install xine-ui, kaffeine, mplayer and the special software to be able to look dvds, just google around

Playback of audio

It is working. But like most low cost soundcards there are limitations. Working with KDE I like to have systemsounds which usually is done via artsd, but having artsd running blocks the only virtual software audio input for other programs which don't have support for arts audio output.

So xmms and xine will have some reconfiguration until you can listen to music and watch a film. (That's just an example, I don't do this really)

usb mouse

and internal psaux mouse worked like a charm.

PCMCIA

it was working out of the box

ACPI

(POWER DOWN is working, didn't test SUSPEND TO DISK or SUSPEND TO RAM yet)

what is working out of the box:

  • The CDRW cd burner worked out of the box, even with k3b
  • dvd reads all my films and the debian installation cd (from which i installed from)
  • playback of audio is nice (but due only one input you have to use arts/jack/esd to playback serveral audio sources at once. But you can also stop XMMS and then start XINE which isn't so nice because then you can't hear the nice kde sounds.
  • usb mouse and internal psaux mouse worked like a charm. It can pluged/unplug as desired.

what was NOT working out of the box

wlan-networking with ipw2200

But why? Yes this is simple, I dind't have a precompiled image of the kernel with support for ipw2200 modules. You can get the source for the ipw2200 modules here: [1]. But to get this working you might have to compile your own kernel first. Next after you have loaded your new kernel image you can compile the modules youself.

More about ipw2200 and power management in linux: 

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Ipw2200

You might also be interesed in this: http://rfswitch.sourceforge.net/ which lets you toggle of you wlan hardware. But I didn't find a deb package for it yet.

If you don't like or simply can't compile the kernel youself, read on:

Hey there is now an kernel image, I've found it trough http://apt-get.org etc/apt/sources.list

Also note that for most applications in linux like kismet there is no rfman support for the ipw2200. (Version 0.13 of the ipw2200 tools) maybe this changes due a better support in the driver in the near future. As long I'll buy a diffrent card, consider:

Because the ipw2200 doesn't support rfmon yet i've bough a Orinoco classic gold card which does the kismet job quite nice.

Entrasys Orinoco Classic Gold

Here the output of the Orinoco card compared to the output of the ipw2200: 

root@DieKiste:/# iwpriv eth1
eth1      Available private ioctl :
         force_reset      (8BE0) : set   0       & get   0
         card_reset       (8BE1) : set   0       & get   0
         set_port3        (8BE2) : set   1 int   & get   0
         get_port3        (8BE3) : set   0       & get   1 int
         set_preamble     (8BE4) : set   1 int   & get   0
         get_preamble     (8BE5) : set   0       & get   1 int
         set_ibssport     (8BE6) : set   1 int   & get   0
         get_ibssport     (8BE7) : set   0       & get   1 int
         get_rid          (8BE9) : set   0       & get 1024 byte

here the output of ipw2200: 

root@DieKiste:/# iwpriv eth2
eth2      Available private ioctl :
         set_power        (8BE0) : set   1 int   & get   0
         get_power        (8BE1) : set   0       & get  80 char
         set_mode         (8BE2) : set   1 int   & get   0
         get_mode         (8BE3) : set   0       & get  80 char

The driver: I didn't use the driver comming with the kernel. There were some strange things by the way but after installing the new one it's working quite nice. Kismet is now up and running well.

Latest (>= 0.15) Orinoco drivers support monitor mode. No patch required :)

Here is a nice manual if you want to install the orinoco card: 

http://tipsybottle.com/technology/wireless/Fedora-Kismet-HOWTO.shtml
http://airsnort.shmoo.com/orinocoinfo.html
http://ozlabs.org/people/dgibson/dldwd/

Tips i got for puchasing a wlan card this time kismet compatible

The ipw2200 is now fully supported by kismet. Just download a newer driver 1.0.4 for example.

http://users.linpro.no/janl/hardware/wifi.html http://hostap.epitest.fi/ On irc.kde.org #kismet i asked which card to buy, they said: 

11:57 < werror> prism2, 2.5, 3 are ok
11:57 < werror> orinoco are ok
11:57 < werror> atheros are ok
11:58 < werror> well, actually atheros is pushing a new chipset on the market, don't know it
11:58 < werror> i'm sure d-link520+ pci card
11:58 < werror> which you can buy for about 30 euro
11:58 < werror> works on linux with acx100 drivers, acx100.sf.net
11:59 < werror> rfmon works
11:59 < werror> but I don't know if you will not be able to use other tools to exercise on w-lan weakness
12:00 < werror> and I'm thinking at tools to inject traffic in the air, void11, file2air
12:00 < werror> well, I'm actually afk now, I'm sorry, hope this help
12:00 < werror> good luck && afk

Volume Menu

tpb - program to use the IBM ThinkPad(tm) special keys
With this program you can see the volume values of your PC indicated as in windows. You need to start this program every boot, but read the manual and you should get it working. I don't use it anyway.

PROBLEMS or BUGS

There is a really annoying bug in the 3D driver (see card below). 

0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)

Description:

Using xfree86 not xorg. When you press FN+F7 your VideoOUT mode is changed and the output is not on the LCD screen anymore it is directed to the VGA out (on the right of your laptop) which you want to use to connect your Laptop to an beamer or external monitor.

You can read in this manual who you can use both LCD+CRT at once. 

http://www.cweiske.de/howto-laptop/allinone.html#id2435002

Bug after Fn+F7:

But most of the time I get an area of wasted pixels which as far as I know are displayed on the wrong position on the screen. The whole buffer is written two cm off the top side of the LCD display resulting in a misslocation of the mouse beause you have to point 2cm above the button you would like to click. You could also think that the area is filled with randomn noise. I couldn't make a screenshot (I'll do it later with my digicam)

Workaround:

You should install "xorg" or do this: Press CTRL+ALT+F1 to get into the real console and then go back with CTRL+F7 into XWindow mode (to your KDE or Gnome session) and the bug is gone. The problem is that you can't use your laptop with a beamer because all the time you switch the display to VGA out you get the error (from above) and once you try the workaround you get back to LCD out and have to cycle into CTRL+F7 again which (You might have guessed it) results in the pixeled area bug.

A better workaround is to disable the 3D output of your card. This is done in two steps. First you might have to edit "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4". You have to find two entries:

first entry in Section "Device"

Here you should change Driver "i810" into Driver "vesa" 

Section "Device"
       .... (here was more)
       Identifier  "Card0"
       #Driver      "vesa"
       Driver      "i810"
       VendorName  "All"
       BoardName   "All"
       ... (here was more)
EndSection

second entry in section Module

As I already did, you have to disable all these modules: dri, glx, GLcore If you can't find all (so if they are not there) don't mind, simply go on. 

Section "Module"
       Load  "ddc"  # ddc probing of monitor
       #Load  "GLcore"
       Load  "dbe"
       #Load  "dri"
       Load  "extmod"
       #Load  "glx"
       Load  "bitmap" # bitmap-fonts
       Load  "speedo"
       Load  "type1"
       Load  "freetype"
       Load  "record"
EndSection

Now save the file and restart your computer, it should work then. Please write IBM a mail that this driver needs to be fixed.

solution

Use the xorg xserver and the problem is gone.

CPU FREQ 

cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 13
model name      : Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor         1.30GHz
stepping        : 6
cpu MHz         : 1296.032
cache size      : 1024 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 2
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe
bogomips        : 2572.28

The Celeron M is a budget processor based on the Pentium M. Compared to the Pentium M it has only half the L2-Cache and lacks the SpeedStep feature (excl. Banias family).

Read on here: http://www.mk-stuff.de/artikel/linux_on_an_ibm_thinkpad_r50e/#freq

Using VGA out and LCD out simultanious

I've tried it several times but the results weren't that good so I have to state: this could have been made better.

2005-11-25: After all I've managed to get it working and it's really working great.

  • First install i810switch, use this command " 
 joachim@Kahn:~
 $ i810switch -h
usage: i810switch [crt on/off] [lcd on/off] [probe]
  crt: enables/disables the output to the CRT display
  lcd: enables/disables the output to the LCD
  probe: dumps the video chipset registers
  no options: displays the current output status

Now we check if the crt is enabled: 

joachim@Kahn:~ 
$ i810switch
CRT: off
LCD: on

We enabled it with: 

joachim@Kahn:~
$ i810switch crt on
Enabling CRT display...
  • The result doesn't look good eh? To set the right output resolution with the correct Hz setting we use: i855crt-0.4 
 joachim@Kahn:~ 
$ i855crt on 1024x768@60

This will set the vga out to 1024x768 at 60Hz which will work on most devices. If not try different values.

You can find better or "more complete" help here: 

http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/2004-October/020419.html
http://www.chronox.de/x40_linux/linux_on_x40.html
http://modular.fas.harvard.edu/t42/
http://www.musall.de/techdocs/linux/dell/i8600linux.html
http://www.linuxmafia.com/~rick/inspiron7000.html
http://pof.eslack.org/blog/2004/01/06/40/
http://soft.zoneo.net/Linux/x40.php?lang=en
http://linux.highsphere.net/howtos/b100b.php

Sound with alsa

Sound with alsa: cat /proc/asound/cards 

root@Kahn:/usr/src/linux# cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [Modem          ]: ICH-MODEM - Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem
                    Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem at 0x2400, irq 11
1 [I82801DBICH4   ]: ICH - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
                    Intel 82801DB-ICH4 at 0xd0100c00, irq 11

have installed the alsa tools 

apt-get install alsa-utils alsa-oss alsa-base

and next configured them with: 

/etc/init.d/alsa-autoconfig start

after starting i had even the modem in the list - whatever!?

Wireless lan

This can be skipped if you use the fiasko kernel image, you'll find the installation manual here etc/apt/sources.list.

Install ipw2200 as described here: ipw2200.sf.net but place the flash files not in the directory as described in the readme. place it here: /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/

wlan error with wep encryption

It didn't work even after hours of testing! For my luck I found this entry in the /var/log/syslog log file. 

ieee80211_crypt_wep: could not allocate crypto API arc4

eth1: could not initialize WEB: load module ieee80211_crypt_web.o

After all I couln't google anything so I included the arc4 algorithm into my kernel and it worked - magic isn't it?

Here how i did it (in detail):
I forgot to include the arc4 algorithm into the kernel: 

root@Kahn:~# cat /var/log/syslog
ieee80211_crypt_wep: could not allocate crypto API arc4
eth1: could not initialize WEP: load module ieee80211_crypt_wep.o

Go to Cryptographic options: 

<*> ARC4 cipher algorithm       CONFIG_CRYPTO_ARC4=y

Now Recompile and install the kernel, reboot and it should be working!

using wep

Better not using wep because it's not secure at all. There are some interesting articles you should read: search for weplab or airsnort and you find interesting drawbacks on wep

using wpa

if you want to use wpa you have to install wpa_supplicant which is working very good with the ipw2200 and the ibm notebook. I'm using it all the time at home at work at my flat.

Tools

modem

The modem (Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M)) was a surprise because it didn't work. This can be because it's debian ....

I found some installation instructions for the driver but that' didn't work fore me, too. After a few hours I gave up and hate my debian system for a lack of functionality.

Hint: I changed my mind and now I don't hate my Debian system for a lack of funcionality anymore. I hate firms which don't provide good quality drivers as it is done with this device.

First look here for the package: http://www.apt-get.org/search.php?query=sl-modem-source 

apt-get install sl-modem-source sl-modem-daemon ppp 
module-assistant a-i sl-modem

Then you'll have to configure ppp accordingly (I suppose you're using a dial-up internet connection. I used kppp. I could get pppd only working if run kppp root (pppd needs to be run as root when using noauth option and kppp doesn't seem to be running it as root, even if the kppp executible is setuid root).

Links 

http://pof.eslack.org/blog/2004/01/06/40/
http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-thinkpad
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