Ubuntu on a Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

Stephanie’s brand new ThinkPad X100e arrived today, so I got to have some fun tonight and set up Ubuntu on it for her.

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

Installation via memory key

This was the first time I’d installed Ubuntu via memory key. Means I might not need my portable CD-ROM drive anymore…

  1. Downloaded the latest Ubuntu AMD64 Desktop ISO using BitTorrent
  2. Ran usb-creator to copy the ISO to my 2GB USB memory key (based on these instructions: Installation From USB Stick)
  3. Got the “DBus error” like the instructions anticipated, so ran the following command to format my memory key: 
    sudo mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdb1
  4. Then I reran usb-creator
  5. Plugged the memory key into the X100e, booted it up, and installed Ubuntu

Getting wireless to work

Of course, bane of Linux, wireless didn’t work out of the box. This tends to be expected with brand new hardware, and it took me a while to piece together the right steps to get it working.

  1. Basically run exactly these commands (even sudo su): 
    sudo apt-get install build-essential
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/34090404/rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1012.2009_64bit.tar.gz
sudo tar -xvzf rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1012.2009_64bit.tar.gz
cd rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1020.2009_64bit
sudo su
make
make install
  2. Then reboot and you have wireless

Note: If you run the Update Manager and it contains a new Linux kernel, you’ll need to rerun make install in ~/rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1020.2009_64bit to reinstall the wireless drivers. So don’t get rid of the rtl8192se… directory. Hopefully this will cease to be a problem in the next release of Ubuntu.

Getting the TrackPoint scroll button to work

Apparently xorg.conf is a thing of the past, which kind of obsoletes my previous TrackPoint “scroll button” instructions. Oh well. This is how you do it now.

  1. Install and run gpointing-device-settings 
    sudo apt-get install gpointing-device-settings
gpointing-device-settings
  2. Select TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint on the left
  3. Check “Use wheel emulation”
  4. Select button #2
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 12:52am
Tech

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38 comments

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Geli

2/3/10 9:37pm

you should life close to me ;-) … i was not tuff enough to bye my last computer without windows :-((. perhaps the next one.

lau

2/4/10 1:40am

I m using Ubuntu 9.10
I see ‘No bluetooth adapter present’ under the
System -> Preference -> Bluetooth.

Therefore the system cannot detect any bluetooth signal.
How can I solve this problem?

Aputsiaq

2/4/10 3:28am

Great post! Just activated my scroll button on a Z61P – and I’m happy knowing what to do with the wifi when my X100e arrives.

justin

2/4/10 11:54am

Lau, sorry, I didn’t order the X100e with Bluetooth, so I don’t know.

Brian

2/6/10 3:42pm

Thank you for the post!

Jack

2/7/10 8:35pm

Is your microphone working? It seemed to work when I ran a live session off the USB and then following install I cannot get it to work!

Brian

2/8/10 7:56pm

After working for a day, my x100e stopped recognizing the wireless card. So now I’m trying the 32 bit version. So far so good.

justin

2/8/10 10:11pm

Jack, it’s actually my girlfriend’s laptop, so I haven’t had a chance to try out the microphone. Were you using the built-in mic, or the combined headphone/mic port?

Brian—did you perhaps recently update Ubuntu? Anytime you get a new Linux kernel in the update, you’ll need to rerun the following in the rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1020.2009_64bit directory:

sudo su
make install

Brian

2/8/10 10:48pm

RIght on, thanks Justin!

Jack

2/9/10 11:52am

I was trying with the built in mic. I don’t have an external mic to try out.

Chris

2/12/10 3:23pm

Thanks so much for the info! My X100e should be here next week (it’s in Alaska right now, I’m in Florida ;]) and this helps a bunch.

hamazy

2/13/10 4:31am

i’ve got a x100e today, and this post really helped. thank you.

agus

2/14/10 3:46am

thanks a lot, just purchased x100e yesterday. TrackPoint button works well. wireless is not tested yet..

hAgiNara

2/17/10 1:27am

thank you. track points works well for x200 too

lau

2/17/10 9:45pm

The kernel 2.6.31-19 update is causing my system not stable (wifi and usb ports not usable after a certain period) .. thinkpad x100e user pls beware!

josh

2/18/10 10:44am

thank you so much, any idea of how to get the USB Port replicator with DVI to work?

justin

2/18/10 3:56pm

josh, sorry I don’t have a USB Port replicator, so I’m not sure…

josh

2/19/10 6:56pm

No problem Justin, I’ll keep pounding and provide some info if i get it working. My wifi is really flaky? seems to go off and on, sometimes after a reboot i get a red screen with white squares… Have you experienced the same?

josh

2/19/10 8:35pm

FYI… been following https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/401126?comments=all and installed rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0014.0115.2010

redid sudo su, make, make install and it has been up for almost an hour now. still a bit slow, but it works.

I’m going to follow it and see if a good driver results from it.

justin

2/19/10 9:43pm

josh, actually it’s my girlfriend’s laptop, and she hasn’t informed me of any wifi issues. Was watching hulu.com earlier tonight without any problems.

lau

2/20/10 6:59pm

I did get this problem too..after a reboot i get a red screen with white squares.. :(

josh

2/21/10 8:24pm

hi lau, my squares have seemed to vanished after the latest driver i posted. all is good, but wireless only works on when power is on.

lau

2/22/10 3:36am

hi josh,i installed the new driver and yes u r correct, wifi only works with power mode and NOT battery mode.

lal

2/23/10 2:28am

trackpoint scroll: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_configure_the_TrackPoint#Hal_.28soon_to_be_deprecated.29

helen

2/23/10 10:42am

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 (32bit) on my x100e, but the fan is runing all the time. I read about problems with the temperature control when using Linux on Thinkpads. Do you not have that problem?

justin

2/23/10 10:51am

I don’t think I’ve noticed that. I’d highly recommend installing the amd 64bit version of Ubuntu though, as the processor is 64bit, and will allow you eventually to address over 3GB of memory.

daniel

3/4/10 9:32pm

I’ve installed 9.10 on my x100e, and the problem is when i plug my earphone on it, the speakers won’t turn off. Do you have this problem ?

c00ld00d

3/5/10 5:34pm

I’ve installed rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0014.0115.2010 and am able to connect to my wireless AP. However I cannot go to any websites or ping anything. Any suggestions? TIA

tk

3/6/10 6:17am

First off, thanks so much for sharing extremely helpful information!

I have the same problem as Daniel wrote above. When I plug in headphones, the main speakers won’t mute. When I try to turn down the volume, the sound from headphones goes down as well. Ext. mic works fine.

This could be an Alsa mixer issue, but don’t know how I can get this fixed… Any suggestions?

josh

3/12/10 10:11pm

@cooldood

See my post on https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/401126/comments/261

and download the latest driver from https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/401126/comments/260

Hope this helps, it is working fantastic for me on 64 bit

josh@josh-laptop:~$ uname -a
Linux josh-laptop 2.6.31-20-generic #57-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 8 09:02:26 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Adee

3/13/10 9:21am

hi Justin, nice article

I’m gonna to purchase this machine and yes i’ll put Ubuntu 9.10 on it. But as Joh said above wireless only works on when power is on, and this what i concern about.

1) Did you got the same problems on yours?
2) Did the wifi problem stay when we’ve update the BIOS? ( http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-74275.html )

Thx, i’ll wait for your reply

justin

3/13/10 4:44pm

Adee, my girlfriend has had no problem with wifi using Ubuntu 9.10 on the X100e. We haven’t touched the BIOS. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you run the Update Manager and it contains a new linux kernel, you’ll need to rerun the “make install” from the “rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0010.1020.2009_64bit” directory to reinstall the wireless drivers. Hopefully in the next Ubuntu release, this will no longer be necessary.

Adee Riswan

3/14/10 9:37pm

Hi Justin, thanx for the quick reply
That’s great, i’ll get mine on the few next week. And I hope u don’t mind if i’ll ask you some question if i face some problems on it since i barely new on Ubuntu:-)

Thx a lot bro

webler

3/16/10 2:40am

For those of you trying to utilize the bluetooth adapter: The only way I could figure out to enable the adapter was to boot the pre-installed Windows 7 and enable the adapther through Fn+F5. Bluetooth works like a charm now (I use it for tethering). Sadly, I couldn’t figure out any way to do this from linux, because the “/proc/acpi/ibm”- or “/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/” hierachy is completely missing on my system (Mint 8, 64bit). Any ideas would be appreciated :)

rizal

3/16/10 6:49am

i have problem on wireless. after stanby mode, my wireless cant connect again. I need to reboot ubuntu first, and wireless will working. how can i fix this problem?

webler

3/16/10 9:49am

@rizal: are u using Realteks latest driver version (015)? It’s working fine here, even on 64bit system. Installation method was the same as described by justin.

rizal

3/17/10 4:24am

@webler: i try realteks rtl8192se_linux_2.6.0015.0127.2010. i think this is latest driver i use..

rizal

3/17/10 8:40am

i find how to wireless after standby mode. i just edit /etc/default/acpi-support

# Add services to this list to stop them before suspend and restart them in
# the resume process.
STOP_SERVICES=”networking”

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