Debian GNU/Linux on the IBM ThinkPad 570

Note

I no longer own my ThinkPad 570, thus all the information you find here is very outdated.

Software

I’m using Debian GNU/Linux “sarge” (3.1) with a custom kernel 2.6.11.6-bootsplash (configuration) and the thinkpad modules installed.

ACPI

I use ACPI or APM for power management (boot option). ACPI doesn’t work as nicely as APM does: I can’t currently put the system into hibernate mode, sometimes it just won’t suspend when I close the lid and very rarely the keyboard layout is messed up after resuming.

To get the full ACPI experience you should install acpid as well as the ibm_acpi module (the one currently in the kernel doesn’t work with the ThinkPad 570). You can find a tarball containing my ACPI scripts in the configuration section – just uncompress it into /etc.

Sometimes when using ACPI (so far it only happened after suspending and resuming the system) the power LED stays dark. If you’re using the ibm_acpi module it’s quite simple to turn it back on. Just type the following command:

echo 7 on > /proc/acpi/ibm/led

This is also done in the ACPI sleep script.

APM

Normally I use APM (instead of ACPI) which works just fine – even hibernating.

Graphics

Use XF86′s “neomagic” driver @ 60hz (configuration).

Hibernate

I used IBM’s Hibernation utility diskette to create a hibernation partition (type A0, “IBM Thinkpad hibernation”). You will need some version of DOS (like DOSEMU with FreeDOS) to extract the disk.

Thanks to Petr Malat for telling me about lphdisk, a tool which allows you to prepare the hibernate partition from a running system without the need to boot off some floppy disk. I haven’t tried it, though, as my partition is working just fine.

Note: This doesn’t work with ACPI

IrDA

I can transfer files via IrDA using ircp and the openobex apps irxfer (for win9x, AFAIK) and irobex_palm3.

I also managed to sync my PDA (Sony Clié PEG-S300/E, PalmOS 3.5.2) with J-Pilot using IrDA:

  • Install the irda-utils package, select device type “native” and FIR chip type “nsc-ircc” (module options “dongle_id=0×08″)
  • Install pilot-link, make sure the /dev/pilot symlink points to /dev/ircomm0
  • Load the kernel modules: make sure the following kernel modules are loaded: irtty-sir sir-dev irda. I’m using a script to load them and activate the IR port on demand (see Configuration files).

Note: I had to exclude IRQ 3 from being used by PCMCIA (in /etc/pcmcia/config.opts), otherwise IrDA wouldn’t work when the WLAN card was plugged-in.

Laptop Mode

Laptop mode is a Linux kernel feature that allows your laptop to save considerable power by allowing the hard drive to spin down for longer periods of time. This allows the ThinkPad to stop the annoying little fan quite often which makes it pleasently quiet. And it extends my not-so-fresh battery’s life to almost 4 hours.

Modem

Doesn’t work. Rumors say it’s a Lucent WinModem so I tried the ltmodem drivers which, however, didn’t appear to find the modem. I don’t have a phone line so I didn’t invest too much time in this.

Mouse

Device /dev/psaux and protocol PS/2.

NumLock

In order to get the NumLock key to work, I had to add the following command to my X startup script (eg. ~/.xsession):

xmodmap -e "keycode 77 = Num_Lock"

PCMCIA

I’m using the kernel’s PCMCIA drivers (yenta_socket) which work just fine (don’t forget to install pcmcia-cs). You might want to prevent PCMCIA from using IRQ 3 (see IrDA).

Sound

The integrated Cirrus Logic sound chip works with the “Crystal SoundFusion (CS4280/461x)” driver (snd_cs46xx).

ThinkPad buttons

The TPB program has support for the ThinkPad 570: It displays the current state on a cute little OSD whenever you press fn-F7 (toggle external screen) or fn-F8 (HV expansion). It’s not too useful but I like it.

ThinkPad modules

You need to download, compile and install the thinkpad-source (needs a “good” kernel tree) package in order to use ntpctl (package tpctl) – the “Ncurses ThinkPad Configuration Tool” – which allows you to change quite a lot of mostly power-management-related settings. For some aspects, however, you need the IBM Configuration utility for DOS (you’ll need some version of DOS – see hibernate).

USB

Use the UHCI driver (usb-uhci or uhci-hcd, depending on your kernel version).

WLAN

I own a Netgear MA-401 PCMCIA WLAN card which works just fine with the kernel’s orinoco_cs driver.

Configuration files

Sources