Comments on: Lenovo T61p + 64 bit Ubuntu 8.04

By: stewart

stewart — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:14:23 +0000

Also, if you want to hook up an external monitor, run nvidia-settings in the console or run bar, and then go to ‘X Server Display Configuration’, Detect Displays, and a ‘disabled’ screen should appear. Click it, tell it to go to Twin View, place it in the position you want (directly over your primary screen for cloning) or set it to the primary, and click apply. And the Docking Station is definitely worth purchasing; if you have the money, makes life much easier.

A caveat, however; it has been my experience on Linux that if you use an external monitor with an Nvidia card, the external monitor tends to have scan line problems. Nothing usually noticeable, but if you are playing a movie or something, occasionally portions of the movie will update faster than others. A minor annoyance, but it may turn you off of it.

By: stewart

stewart — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:10:01 +0000

Just thought you might want to know, the beep noise is an artifact of the BIOS settings. Go into your BIOS and you should find a setting that turns the beep off, as by default it is set to beep on any change in power status. This means that when you start up your computer or resume from hibernate/suspend, it should beep. Has nothing to do with your operating system.

By: linuxguy

linuxguy — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:21:33 +0000

added, im starting to see a lot of pre-installed linux systems flooding around…look at dell

By: linuxguy

linuxguy — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:20:36 +0000

Now-a-days, things are coming pre-installed and solid. Still, there’s something to be said about getting your hands dirty by working ground up

By: harrison

harrison — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:41:44 +0000

if you have a problem with the nvidia config software you should try running it under root.

nice write-up!

By: Shane Legg

Shane Legg — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:29:34 +0000

Dave: Yeah, sometimes now I look something up on Google only to see an entry on my own blog

By the way your photo “Kunsthistorisches at Night” is pretty cool.

By: Dave Feltenberger

Dave Feltenberger — Fri, 30 May 2008 01:22:27 +0000

Funny: just ran a search again on Google re: T61p+Ubuntu 64 bit+hardware, and your blog came up again. I finally received the laptop and as you said everything worked out of the box.

Anyway, thought the coincidence (or semi-sort-of-but-not-really coincidence) was enough to post again.

By: Shane Legg

Shane Legg — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:43:36 +0000

Dave:

I haven’t had any problems with desktop effects that I can think of.

Every few months I do have X crash however. It seems to happen when I’m playing flash video, though it’s rare enough that I can’t say for sure – and I play plenty of flash video. It logs me out and I have to log back in again and restart any applications that were running. Linux itself doesn’t crash. I’ve been told that this is due to bugs in the closed nVidia graphics drivers.

By: Dave Feltenberger

Dave Feltenberger — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:28:32 +0000

Hi Shane -

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my T61p, and going to install Ubuntu on the second hard drive. I had a couple questions about your experience with the combo.

My current work laptop (a Latitude Core 2 Duo) has Ubuntu 7.10 32 bit, and there were some hassles with Wifi and quite often desktop effects would just die. You mentioned hardware etc. works out of the box, which is great – glad to hear it, especially with 64 bit. How is your experience with desktop effects? In my experience with 7.10 and the nVidia closed-source drivers, after a few hours of use the desktop effects would crash, leaving me with toolbar-less applications (I have to go into the Appearance menu and turn off effects to get it back to normal). I ended up turning off the effects completely, despite a legit gain in productivity while using them (mostly in switching between apps). I suspect part of the issue may be the external monitor. Anyway, curious what your experience is with it.

Dave

By: mike

mike — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:32:07 +0000

Thanks Shane, sounds great. I will try later.

By: Shane Legg

Shane Legg — Sun, 18 May 2008 17:15:30 +0000

Mike:

Yeah, suspend is a bit of a tricky one. It depends on your wifi card and drivers and stuff. Have a look at thinkwiki, or just Google for it. I donâ€™t know about hibernation as I always just suspect.

Itâ€™s quiet. Yeah there is a slight fan noise but even under full load it doesnâ€™t get very noisy. Far quieter than my office mateâ€™s MacBook Pro under full load. Heat: cool on top but can get pretty hot under the bottom under load.

Power management features seem to work fine. Screen dim on idle, or suspectâ€¦ however ever I configure it it seems to work fine.

About using an external monitorâ€¦ I donâ€™t know. Probably. But itâ€™s easy and fast, just click yes when Ubuntu asks you after install and it takes care of the restâ€¦ then you have fast 3D as well. Then just going to the nVidia X server settings application and that will set up the external monitor for you.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:26:14 +0000

Great work!
Now just wondering how following things work under Ubuntu 8.04:
1. suspend and hibernation. Could you please give more detail how to modify configure files?
2. fan noise and heat
3. power management
4. from you article, do I need to update nVidia driver to drive external monitor?

My T61P is 14.1” 4:3 ratio, with a Samsung 216BW, works great with Windows server 2003.
Many thanks

By: Shane Legg

Shane Legg — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:25:49 +0000

Steve: Very quiet. The hard disk turning usually makes more noise than the CPU fan. Under load it makes more noise, but it’s still much quieter than most other laptops. Apparently they used something to do with the shape of the wing of an owl in the newest Thinkpads in order to make the CPU fan extra quiet.

By: steve

steve — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:21:35 +0000

How is your new laptop with regard to fan noise etc? I’m in the market for a new laptop and the Lenovo T61P seems to fit the bill but I don’t like working to the sound of a jet airplane.

By: Shane Legg

Shane Legg — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:20:15 +0000

According to the Lenovo website for the US, there they can only get low res screens. I have no idea why…