Comments on: Thinkpad T61

By: steffen

steffen — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:33:55 +0000

If you consider chroot an alternative to Xen/KVM, lguest might be worth a try.

I only use KVM to launch some windows app. Running debian unstable with selfcompiled latest vanilla kernel, the only problem I have with KVM is jumping mouse cursor and SDL_VIDEO_X11_DGAMOUSE=0 not helping. And VNC sometimes crashes KVM(wtf..)

By: Vulpes Foxnik

Vulpes Foxnik — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:05:14 +0000

I also own the laptop in question, however I run it using Squeeze. I have the nvidia quaddro NVS 140M, but the smaller version of the screen. I don’t have the problems in video that you are having with the proprietary drivers. Also I would like to point out Nouveau has even worse performance on average, and that it does not actually support our chipset. If you have nvidia-settings installed, you can turn your settings to performance, which greatly increased my framerates. Also be aware that the chipset throttles from level 0 (100mhz)to level 2 (600mhz). You can control the throttling modes in your xconf, or live via the nvidia-settings utility.

Also be sure to set your charge rates. I managed to kill my battery fairly quick because they weren’t set.

By: Benjamin Seidenberg

Benjamin Seidenberg — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:35:57 +0000

Oh, I forgot, regarding sound, my T400 is the same. I have this in my .fluxbox/keys:

None XF86AudioLowerVolume :ExecCommand /usr/bin/amixer sset ‘Master’,0 unmute && /usr/bin/amixer set ‘Master’,0 1-
None XF86AudioRaiseVolume :ExecCommand /usr/bin/amixer sset ‘Master’,0 unmute && /usr/bin/amixer set ‘Master’,0 1+
None XF86AudioMute :ExecCommand /usr/bin/amixer sset ‘Master’,0 mute

By: Benjamin Seidenberg

Benjamin Seidenberg — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:32:17 +0000

I have a T400 which is a later version of the T series. I also have a much older Z series thinkpad. On both of them, bluetooth just works(tm) with Debian. I like the blueman suite myself. /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth lets you turn it on and off.

I got my T400 with the smart card reader instead of the SD slot. The Z60m has one, it shows up as /dev/pcmmcblk0 or something like that, but also Just Works(TM).

By: Marius Gedminas

Marius Gedminas — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:48:57 +0000

I’ve had a T61 (6466-66G) for a couple of years. It’s a fine machine, although not as pretty as older Thinkpads. Mine has Intel video (yay fully-functional 3D accel out of the box with open drivers!), with a 1280×800 screen. AFAIU all the higher-resolution models come with NVidia :(

My SD card reader works only if I’m careful not to push the card in too deep. Apparently the slot is a bit too, well, deep, and if I push a card all the way in, the contacts no longer touch, or something.

I’ve never had problems with sound — maybe Ubuntu has some tweaks that haven’t been upstreamed yet, or maybe mine has slightly different hardware? The volume keys are mapped to the appropriate X11 keysyms out of the box, so GNOME reacts, applies the change and shows a pretty volume bar. I miss hardware volume keys, though — it’s silly being unable to mute the speaker just because some app opened a popup menu and therefore has an active server grab.

Bluetooth should Just Work, mostly. I don’t know exactly what software I use — GNOME shows a Bluetooth applet in my systray on login, right-clicking it I get options to browse or send files. There are command-line tools too, e.g. obexftp.

By: etbe

etbe — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:46:03 +0000

Kristjan: Thanks for the link. They get it wrong by claiming that the T61 can only support 4G of RAM so I’ll take their stuff with a grain of salt. The section on getting Debian working with Bluetooth says “My Logitech Bluetooth mouse works” which isn’t very helpful.

[1207898.101560] mmc0: unrecognised SCR structure version 12
[1207898.102573] mmc0: error -22 whilst initialising SD card

Anon: The above is the error message I get when I insert the only SD card that is available to me. The card in question is the one that I use for /home on my EeePC 701, it’s worked on all Debian/Unstable kernels since an EeePC 701 was still a relatively current model. So I conclude that the card is not failing because of a Linux kernel issue or a card issue. So it must be the Thinkpad.

Jo: Thanks for the information. Fortunately I can watch TED talks in high resolution without XVideo, and as that’s the only visually demanding application I really care about for this machine I’m relatively satisfied. I do have access to a nice system with an Intel 82945G/GZ that runs SuperTuxCarts and TuxRacer quite nicely.