[NCLUG] linux latops

[Chad Perrin]

On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 04:29:15PM -0600, Michael Milligan wrote:
> Unfortunately, Thinkpads and newer Lenovo stuff requires fiddling.
> Really, I don't know of any major brand that doesn't require fiddling.
> Large vendors, Lenovo/IBM included, put forth pretty much zero effort to
> support Linux, and those that have supported Linux seem to have given up
> because they couldn't make money.
> 
> In the Lenovo/IBM case, there is a cabal of non-IBM heroes that work
> hard to make Lenovo/IBM stuff work with Linux without getting any spec
> details from Lenovo.  And you will find some comments and code from me
> sprinkled about the ThinkWiki site in this regard.  I also really like
> the Thinkpads and their "tank"-like construction, the keyboards are the
> best I've used.  I still have a T40p and T60p that still work fine just
> left running older already-fiddled OS versions (maybe Ubuntu 9.04).  I
> fiddle with a Macbook Pro these days.
> 
> If you want an idea of how much "fiddling" is still going on with Lenovo
> hardware, take a look at the IBM ACPI mailing list at
> http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=ibm-acpi-devel

On the other hand, I installed Debian plus a package or two on a ThinkPad
T510, and boom, all the power management stuff appears to work perfectly.
It suspends and resumes without a hitch; I get good battery life; it
recognizes when power is unplugged and it starts drawing battery power,
so it dims the display and pushes CPU usage down; it shows accurate
battery life stats; et cetera.

This is of course thanks to the "heroes" to which you referred, who pour
uncountable hours into making sure ThinkPad hardware is well supported
with little or no help from the vendor.  Still, from the user's
perspective, there was no fiddling required to get ACPI working on at
least one new ThinkPad this year.  Your mileage may vary.

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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