[PLUG] T61 piece of crap.

Wed Dec 5 01:16:04 UTC 2007

Quoting John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net>:

> On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:11:31 -0800 (PST)
> john morgali <aarghj at yahoo.com> dijo:
>
>> Just a shot in the dark here, as I have no real hands
>> on experience with the t61 in question...
>>
>> My t42 has a control button that seems to work no
>> matter which OS I am running, which turns the wireless
>> and bluetooth on and off.  For me its Function key +
>> F5.  Might it be something like that?
>
> Indeed. I bought my T61 from a local dealer on a Saturday, and   
> waited until our local Linux user group's monthly Linux Clinic on   
> the followng Sunday to install Linux on it. I started with a fresh   
> Gutsy x86_64 DVD that I had burned previously. The first thing I did  
>  was wipe out the NTFS and FAT32 partitions and install Gutsy.   
> Everything was recognized and worked perfectly, except the wireless   
> and the bluetooth. Those two lights never came on. The local Linux   
> gurus (several of whom have T43s) scratched their heads. After about  
>  20 minutes of installing this, reinstalling that, one of them   
> noticed that the switch on the front of the machine was not on. We   
> turned it on, the bluetooth light came on, and wireless worked. Duh!
>
> Having said that, I later discovered a problem with the wireless. It  
>  works great when it works, but I get suddenly disconnected. It's as  
>  though the connection to the antenna was intermittent, or the local  
>  provider was pulling the switch. This will happen anywhere from   
> immediately after booting to an hour after being online. At first I   
> was afraid I was going to have to send the machine in for repair,   
> but then I discovered others with the same problem. One place it has  
>  been discussed is here:
>
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3839319&highlight=T61+wireless#post3839319
>
> And if you search on Ubuntu forums (Advanced search) for keywords   
> "T61" and "wireless" you will get several additional threads.   
> Evidently the problem is the Intel driver, which Intel knows about   
> and is apparently trying to resolve.
>
> Regarding bluetooth, that is working flawlessly. I am now using a   
> Logitech V270 bluetooth mouse. I was completely new to bluetooth so   
> I had to google for a bit to educate myself. Ultimately I discovered  
>  Blueman (sorry, didn't bookmark the link). It is not in the Ubuntu   
> repositories, but you can download either a .deb or .rpm and install  
>  with whatever installer you prefer. It is the missing bluetooth   
> utiity that Linux has been needing. I just turned on the mouse, hit   
> the Scan button in Blueman, and it found the mouse. Then I clicked   
> on Bond, Blueman popped up a window asking for the key, I entered   
> 0000, and Blueman paired it right up. Ever since it "just works." I   
> reboot the computer and there it is.
>
> I also bought a pair of Sony DR-BT50 headphones. These are serious   
> audiophile bluetooth headphones. Again, Blueman paired them up with   
> the same ease as it did the mouse. All I have to do is turn them on   
> before launching a multimedia app and the sound comes out of the   
> headphones instead of the speakers or the headphone jack. That is,   
> every app except RealPlayer. Of course, RealPlayer is the one app I   
> really need, dammit. But that's a problem with Helix, not the   
> bluetooth driver or ALSA.
>
> And regarding Alsamixer, I know little of its settings, but there   
> are some configurations in Preferences or Settings or something   
> where you can enable more stuff. And in my efforts to get RealPlayer  
>  working with bluetooth I have scoured Synaptic searching on "sound"  
>  and similar keywords. I note there are a lot of additional   
> utilities. Perhaps you don't have all of the right ones installed.
>
> I can't offer any suggestions at all about the card reader. I have   
> no devices that use the card reader, so I have never looked at it. I  
>  don't know if mine is working or not.
>
> A friend in our local LUG also recently bought a T61 and reported   
> that he has the finger thingy working. I never bothered.
>
> There is a problem (a bug report filed some time ago) with the USB   
> ports on the right rear corner. They work fine when you first boot,   
> but if you ever remove a device from either one of them, they both   
> die. The one in the middle of the left side works perfectly,   
> however. And I bought a docking station that has four USB ports in   
> the back. They all work perfectly.
>
> There was a problem at first with the volume controls. Flashing the   
> BIOS to the latest (a couple weeks ago) fixed them. However, even   
> after flashing the BIOS, I thought they were not working. That was   
> because I did not understand how they worked. I assumed the mute   
> button (on the left) was a toggle. But it does not unmute the sound   
> if you are muted. It is only a mute button. Once you are muted you   
> unmute by pressing the volume up button. It would be nice if it had   
> occurred to Lenovo to include a little user guide with this thing.
>
> Brightness (Fn+Home and Fn+Ed) do not work at all. I don't know of   
> anyone who has gotten them working with Ubuntu. I have read that   
> they do work in Linux if you shell out to a command line first   
> (Ctrl-Alt-F1), but then you can't see what it is doing. And even   
> that didn't work for me. Luckily, I don't really care. The screen is  
>  permanently on its brightest setting, and that is where I want it.
>
> I haven't tried any of the other Fn or special buttons. I've pressed  
>  the thinkVantage key now and then, but it appears dead. But then,   
> since there is no user guide, I don't know what it's supposed to do.  
>  Except I did discover that it gets me into the BIOS during the   
> initial boot process. Once Ubuntu is up, it does nothing.
>
> I'm not very good at Linux, so I probably can't offer much in the   
> way of troubleshooting advice. But at least I can relate my   
> experience so everyone knows that it is possible to get some of this  
>  stuff working.
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>

I have a T61 working with Gutsy without much hassle at all.
Following the Thinkwiki guide to installing and configuring,  
everything works (sound, usb, wifi, card reader).
The only problem I have is that Compiz has some hardware overlay  
issues with the Intel GMA3100 video, which will hopefully be resolved  
in a driver update.

All volume controls, mute, brightness, Media keys (next track, pause,  
etc), special functions buttons like Sleep, Monitor Mode, Lock, and  
EasyJect all work as well with zero configuration.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Ubuntu_7.10_%28Gutsy_Gibbon%29_on_a_ThinkPad_T61

The T61, despite some minor driver issues which are mostly resolved,  
has been pleasent to use under Ubuntu

 From the Wiki though, it looks like those with Nvidia cards, and the  
N wireless adapters still have some small issues.

Brent Jones
brent at servuhome.net

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