Lenovo T400

• It should be relatively small and handy. A battery runtime of noticeably more than 3 hours. High quality chassis. With other words: a mobile notebook.
• The screen resolution has to be noticeably higher than 1280x800.
• It will be my main computer. Therefore it should offer good performance, but not necessarily in graphics domain.
• Finally, there has to be good Linux support.

Changelog

• 2011-11-21: Clean up xorg.conf.d files
• 2011-03-26: Adding 2.6.38 kernel config, adding kernel parameters for radeon, updating xorg configuration
• 2010-11-21: Adding tempinfo.sh
• 2010-05-21: Adapting content to vga_switcheroo
• 2010-05-08: Removing '.sh' for the acpi event file names
• 2010-03-28: Update info on xorg's and AMD's driver for the ATI graphics card
• 2010-03-01: Note on switchable graphics, reviewed sleep.d and acpi scripts
• 2009-12-12: Kernel 2.6.32 config, widely distributed minor updates.
• 2009-12-10: Update xorg-conf init script
• 2009-11-08: Cleanup some notes on really old package versions.
• 2009-09-26: Update infos on keymap, xrandr, intels virtual size
• 2009-08-07: Linking to Gentoo Intel GMA site, note on KMS
• 2009-07-30: Font DPI issue
• 2009-07-28: Some notes on fingerprint sensor
• 2009-07-26: Temperature sensors
• 2009-07-24: Gzip kernel configs, note on hdaps and tp_smapi
• 2009-07-19: Info on Load_Cycle_Count problem
• 2009-07-05: Updates on ati-drivers, xf86-video-ati, and new 2.6.30 kernel config
• 2009-06-29: Linguistic improvementes
• 2009-04-24: Patch of ati-drivers for 2.6.29 kernel
• 2009-04-21: Update btn-lock.sh script and xorg-conf init script.
• 2009-04-10: Adding a new kernel config. Some intel graphic notes.
• 2009-04-07: Adding xorg-server-1.5 notes and files
• 2009-03-16: Note on transflective display
• 2009-03-05: Initial version

Specification

• Centrino 2 chipset, ICH9 family
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8600, 2.4GHz, 3MB L2 cache
• 1GHz FSB, 2GB DDR3 RAM at 1066MHz
• WXGA+ TFT, 14.1", 1440x900 pixels
• Internal graphics: Intel GMA X4500HD (IGP) max.384MB shared memory
• Discrete graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 256MB
• 250GB SATA hard disk, WDC WD2500BEVS-08VAT1
• UltraBay Slim DVD writer for CD-R(W), DVD-R(W) double layer, DVD+R(W), DVD+R double layer
• 7-in-1 card reader
• V.90 modem
• Intel WiFi 5300AGN, Intel 82567LM Gigabit Ethernet
• Firewire: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
• Broadcom ThinkPad Bluetooth with Enhanced Data Rate II
• UMTS modem: Ericsson F3507g Mobile Broadband Minicard Composite Device
• AuthenTec Inc. fingerprint sensor
• 6 cell battery with 56 Wh
• 2.13kg, 31.9 x 335 x 238 mm

Support overview

Anyhow, other test reports tell us that all the untested components from above should work. In particular, the finger print sensor is supported by the thinkfinger project. The following references provide more in-depth details:

• ThinkWiki.org: an absolute must-have for all Linux users owning a ThinkPad.
• Gentoo-Wiki an article on installing and configuring a T400 and related models.
• ArchWiki: a detailed discussion on configuring a T400 on ArchLinux.

Installing Gentoo Linux

mount -o bind /proc /mnt/gentoo/proc/
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/gentoo/dev/

# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /etc/make.conf.example for a more detailed example.
CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -march=core2"
CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"


MAKEOPTS="-j3"
FEATURES="parallel-fetch"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.mneisen.org/ http://mirror.bih.net.ba/gentoo/"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"

USE="acpi alsa bash-completion consolekit dbus exif ffmpeg fuse gtk -hal
-handbook hdaps ipv6 jpeg kde lame laptop latex logrotate mmx mp3 mpeg mplayer
nsplugin ogg opengl policykit png qt3support smp sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 unicode
vim vim-syntax wifi xinerama X"

VIDEO_CARDS="intel fglrx radeon"
#Note, if you use xorg with hal support, you only need evdev and synaptics
INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse synaptics evdev"
LINGUAS="en"

• Kernel 2.6.38 config
• Kernel 2.6.36 config
• Kernel 2.6.34 config

• For some reasons related to udev my fresh installed system caused extremely long delays while booting. I solved the problem by removing the files `/etc/udev/rules.d/70-*`. They will be restored correctly after a reboot. However, this could also be related to the installation of baselayout-2 and openrc.
• Deactivate switchable graphics before installing Linux. See the note below in the Graphics section.
• The 64bit support under Linux is very good. Even java and flash-plugins have been made available for 64bit Linux systems.
• You can make use of the multiple cores when compiling the kernel by calling "make -j 3".
• For all config files KMS has been activated per default
• It is sometimes reported that the parameters 'radeon.audio=0 radeon.modeset=1' should be passed to the kernel in grub.conf

Graphics, xorg

Intel chip

ATI chip

• xorg's driver: Currently, I have xf86-video-ati installed which is pulled in when adding 'radeon' to VIDEO_CARDS in /etc/make.conf. (I had reoccuring problems when updating to new kernel versions and AMD had not updated their proprietary driver already.) The xorg driver has good working 3D support and performance is getting better from version to version.

  You may want to visit the RadeonFeature and the Radeon 3D acceleration Portal sites of xorg.

• AMD's driver: I once had the package ati-drivers installed by adding 'fglrx' to VIDEO_CARDS in /etc/make.conf. The proprietary driver from AMD has currently a much better 3D performance but is constantly incompatible with new kernel versions. Nevertheless, the proprietary drivers undoubtely exhibits the better performance.

xorg-server

Summarizing, I placed the following files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

10-hdaps.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "ThinkPad HDAPS blacklist"
        MatchProduct "ThinkPad HDAPS accelerometer data"
        Option "AutoServerLayout" "on"

        Option "Ignore" "on"
EndSection

80-synaptics.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "touchpad-all"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        Option "AutoServerLayout" "on"

        Driver "synaptics"

        Option "SHMConfig" "true"

        Option "TapButton1" "1"
        Option "RTCornerButton" "2"
        Option "RBCornerButton" "3"
        Option "VertEdgeScroll" "true"
        Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "true"

        Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "true"
        Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "true"
        Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "97"

EndSection

90-keyboard.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "keyboard-all"
        MatchIsKeyboard "on"
        Option "AutoServerLayout" "on"

        Driver "evdev"

        Option "XkbLayout" "de"
EndSection

And finally, these are my actual xorg.conf files, which are quite short once one uses xorg.conf.d-files to manage input devices. Note that the actual xorg.conf is generated by my script vga_switch.sh by concatenating, say xorg.conf.intel, with xorg.conf.common, see below.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.intel

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option "DefaultServerLayout"  "LayoutIntel"
EndSection 

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.radeon

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option "DefaultServerLayout"  "LayoutRadeon"
EndSection 

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.common

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "LayoutIntel"
	Screen      	0  "ScreenIntel" 0 0
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "LayoutRadeon"
	Screen      	0  "ScreenRadeon" 0 0
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "LVDS"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "LVDS2"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "VGA2"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "CardIntel"
	Driver      "intel"
	BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "CardRadeon"
	Driver      "radeon"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "ScreenIntel"
	Device     "CardIntel"
	Monitor    "LVDS2"

	DefaultDepth 24

	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "ScreenRadeon"
	Device     "CardRadeon"
	Monitor    "LVDS"

	DefaultDepth 24

	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Mode         0666
EndSection

Performance

KMS (Kernel mode setting)

Please note that I have activated KMS for the Intel card per default in my 2.6.30 kernel config. So if you use my kernel config you either disable this option, our you use at least xorg-server-1.6.

Automatically switching xorg.conf

/etc/init.d/xorg-conf

#!/sbin/runscript
# Stefan Huber <shuber2@gmail.com>

description="Sets xorg.conf according to the used graphics adapter"

depend()
{
	before xdm
	need localmount
}

start()
{
	if [ "`lspci | grep VGA | wc -l`" -ge "2" ]
	then
		einfo "Both graphic adapters activated."
	fi
	
	/usr/local/bin/vga_switch.sh --off
	/usr/local/bin/vga_switch.sh --autoset-xorg

	return 0
}

rc-update add xorg-conf boot

Switching graphics at runtime

I configured acpid to execute 'vga_switch.sh --gui' when pressing Fn+F3. A gui using kdialog pops up and asks to which adapter one wants to switch to. You can select one adapter and then the kernel waits until you logout and X is restarted. After that kdm reappears and X is up with the selected graphics adapter. Calling 'vga_switch.sh' without an argument tells you the current powering state.

Dual head, mirroring

If you want to set up the Fn-key combinations appropriately, you may want to setup ACPI properly. (See later section for that.) I use the following configuration:

/etc/acpi/events/btn-fn7

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001007
action=/etc/acpi/actions/btn-vga.sh

/etc/acpi/events/btn-fn9

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001009
action=/etc/acpi/actions/btn-vgapause.sh

/etc/acpi/actions/btn-vga.sh

. /usr/local/bin/getXenv.inc

STATEFILE="/tmp/vgastate"

function vgaoff()
{
    logger "No VGA1 connected: putting LVDS1 to standard setup"
    xrandr --output VGA1 --off \
        --output LVDS1 --mode 1440x900 --scale 1x1
    echo "off" > $STATEFILE
}

function vgamirror()
{
    logger "Mirror LVDS1 to VGA1"
    xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 \
        --output LVDS1 --same-as VGA1 --mode 1024x768
    echo "mirror" > $STATEFILE
}

function vgarightof()
{
    logger "Putting VGA1 right of of LVDS1"
    xrandr --output LVDS1 --auto --mode 1440x900 \
        --output VGA1 --auto --right-of LVDS1
    echo "right-of" > $STATEFILE
}


if [[ -z `xrandr | grep "VGA1 connected"` ]]
then
    vgaoff
else
    case `cat $STATEFILE 2> /dev/null` in

        mirror)
            vgarightof
        ;;

        *)
            vgamirror
        ;;        
    esac
fi

/etc/acpi/actions/btn-vgapause.sh

. /usr/local/bin/getXenv.inc

logger "Disabeling VGA"
xrandr --output VGA1 --off
echo "off" > /tmp/vgastate

/usr/local/bin/getXenv.inc

getXuser() {
        user=`who| grep -m1 " :$displaynum " | awk '{print $1}'`
        if [ x"$user" != x"" ]; then
                userhome=`getent passwd $user | cut -d: -f6`
                export XAUTHORITY=$userhome/.Xauthority
        else
                export XAUTHORITY=""
        fi
}

#Find the right XServer to be configured.
for x in /tmp/.X11-unix/*; do
   displaynum=`echo $x | sed s#/tmp/.X11-unix/X##`
   getXuser;
   if [ x"$XAUTHORITY" != x"" ]; then
       export DISPLAY=":$displaynum"        
   fi
done

Multimedia keys

As a shortcut you may want to add the following file:

/etc/X11/Xmodmap

keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext
keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 162 = XF86AudioPlay
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 233 = XF86Forward
keycode 234 = XF86Back

By the way, the ThinkLight which illuminates the keyboard with a led on the top of your display works via BIOS mechanisms and has not be setup. Also the kmilo plugin for KDE works for me. It display via an OSD changes in brightness of the display or volume settings. Also the power button works out of the box. However, it took me a week to find out that I have to press the button about a second for a shutdown. My old notebook reacted instantly. But be aware that if you press the button several seconds then the notebook will simply be powered off, without shutting down cleanly.

Font sizes

/etc/X11/Xresources

Xft.dpi: 96

As an alternative one could also set this value via the "Fonts" properties in 'kcontrol'. Anyhow, the solution above is much cleaner, since it applies also to non-KDE environments.

Framebuffer

Transflective Display

Energy consumption, suspend/hibernate

On the T400 both, suspend and hibernate, works without the tuxonice patchset. While KDE's klaptop applet was already able to trigger suspend and hibernate, I installed sys-power/pm-utils for making that available from command line. The most important commands are pm-hibernate and pm-suspend and they worked out of the box. A short 45' experiment reveals about 390mW power consumption in suspend mode. If you use pm-utils, you can place scripts in /etc/pm/sleep.d/ which are called after resume, suspend, hibernate, et cetera. In particular, I use the following scripts:

/etc/pm/sleep.d/90vga_switch

#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in
        hibernate|suspend)
                /usr/local/bin/vga_switch.sh --on
                ;;
        thaw|resume)
                /usr/local/bin/vga_switch.sh --off
                ;;                                                                      
        *) exit $NA                                                                     
                ;;
esac

/etc/pm/sleep.d/20lockscreen

#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in
    hibernate|suspend)
        /usr/local/bin/lockkde.sh
        ;;
esac

/usr/local/bin/lockkde.sh

# See above for file listing
. /usr/local/bin/getXenv.inc

if [ -n "$user" ]; then
	su $user -c "dbus-send --session \
	    --dest=org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver \
	    --type=method_call --print-reply \
	    /ScreenSaver org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver.Lock"
fi

Load_Cycle_Count problem

The problem can sometimes be recognized by click-sounds from the hard disk. You can simply check if your system is affected by calling

$ smartctl --all /dev/sda | grep -E "^(193|  9) "
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       1516
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   136   136   000    Old_age   Always       -       193014

To temporarily this problem you can call

$ hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep -m 1 Advanced
	Advanced power management level: 128

$ hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda

You want to check if the settings work by monitoring the idle notebook (no IO performing tasks running) with the following command:

$ while true; do smartctl --all /dev/sda | grep 193; sleep 10; done
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   136   136   000    Old_age   Always       -       193014
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   136   136   000    Old_age   Always       -       193014
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   136   136   000    Old_age   Always       -       193014
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   136   136   000    Old_age   Always       -       193014
...

ACPI

/etc/acpi/events/btn-fn2

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001002
action=/etc/acpi/actions/btn-lock.sh

/etc/acpi/events/btn-fn3

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001003
action=/etc/acpi/actions/btn-battery.sh

/etc/acpi/events/btn-fn4

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001004
action=/etc/acpi/actions/btn-suspend.sh

/etc/acpi/events/btn-fn12

event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00001004
action=/etc/acpi/actions/btn-hibernate.sh

/etc/acpi/actions/btn-lock.sh

#!/bin/sh
# See above for file listing
/usr/local/bin/lockkde.sh

/etc/acpi/actions/btn-suspend.sh

#!/bin/sh
pm-suspend

/etc/acpi/actions/btn-hibernate.sh

#!/bin/sh
pm-hibernate

/etc/acpi/actions/btn-battery.sh

#!/bin/sh
/usr/local/bin/vga_switch.sh --gui

Temperature sensors

1. CPU neighbourhood: This value is identical to the one reported by '/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM0/temperature'. However, ACPI reports that THM1 is the CPUs temperature. Both strongly respond on launching CPU consuming tasks, where THM1 does this even faster. However, this value also responds on hot air at the cooling gill.
2. Ultrabay: Blowing hot air at the dvd drives location leads to a response on this sensor.
3. Express card: Blowing hot air at the express card location leads to a response on this sensor.
4. ATI graphics: Choosing discrete graphics in BIOS changes this value from -1 to a reasonable value which responds on launching fgl_glxgears. If you have no ATI card installed, you get -128.
5. Main battery: Value changes to -128 if battery is removed. However, this value is almost always at about 50 and only sometimes changing. On the other hand I heard of T400 with a 9 cell battery having values around 34.
6. Ultrabay battery? At thinkwiki.org there is a conjecture for the T500 that this could be the corresponding value to sensor no. 5 for the ultrabay battery. I have no such battery, so I could not test this.
7. Main battery: Value changes to -128 if battery is removed. This value correlates much better with '/sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/temperature'.
8. Ultrabay battery? See the note above.
9. Hard disk: Blowing hot air at the hard disks location leads to a response on this sensor. However, the value is a few degrees below the one reported by 'smartctl --all /dev/sda'. The reason might be that SMART reads the hard disks sensor which is inside the hard disk. This corresponds to the observation that the SMART value is responding much slower.
10. Intel graphics: This value strongly responds on calling 'gtkperf' if integrated graphics is selected in BIOS. Even if ATI graphics card is selected in BIOS, this value is provided.
11. Heatsink? This conjecture is due to the entry for the T500 at thinkwiki.org. Nevertheless, this value responds on CPU load and hot air at the cooling gill, but much slower than value no. 1.

Modules tp_smapi and hdaps

I recommend to set the hdaps use-flag such that the hdaps module is installed too. Further, the module thinkpad_ec needs the parameter "force_io=1". Therefore, my /etc/conf.d/modules file contains the lines

modules_2_6="$modules_2_6 thinkpad_ec tp_smapi hdaps"
module_thinkpad_ec_args="force_io=1"

Battery profiles

$ whoami
root
$ cd /tmp
$ wget www.sthu.org/files/batprofile.tar.bz2
$ tar -xvf batprofile.tar.bz2 -C /
$ rc-update add batprofile default
$ vi /etc/conf.d/batprofile