This guide is intended to provide you details on how well this laptop works with Linux and which drivers you need to configure. For details on how to actually install and configure the required drivers have a look at our guides section for distribution specific instructions.

Page Contents Authors Introduction Editing This Page Specifications Linux Compatibility Notes Related Resources Summary

If you are looking to purchase this laptop you can visit Lenovo's ThinkPad X series page.

Authors

Bill Giannikos (bill2 at giannikos.com.au)

Introduction

This is a guide to running Linux with the IBM-Lenovo Thinkpad X60s laptop, model 170225M.

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Specifications

Name	IBM-Lenovo Thinkpad X60s
Processor	Intel Core Duo L2300 1.5Ghz
Screen	12.1"
RAM	512MB
HDD	60GB
Optical Drive	None
Graphics	Intel GMA950
Network	10/100/1000 Ethernet + Intel 3945 802.11g Wireless
Other	Fingerprint reader, 3 x USB2.0

Linux Compatibility

Device	Compatibility	Comments
Processor	Yes
Screen	Yes
Graphics	Yes	Use i810 driver
Sound	Yes	Use snd_hda_intel drver
Ethernet	Yes
Wireless	Yes	Use ipw3945 driver
56K Modem	Not Tested
Fringerprint Reader	Not Tested
USB	Yes
PCMCIA	Not Tested

Notes

You should use a distribution which uses kernel version 2.6.15 or greater, such as Fedora Core 5 or Ubuntu Linux 6.06 for best compatibility with the X60s.

On Fedora Core 5, the i810 X.org driver will not work out of the box and you will have to use the vesa driver for basic operations, but this will not let you connect to a "beamer" (lcd projector) or any kind of second monitor as the VGA port will not work. Fn-F7 will do nothing. To use the VGA port, you must install the updated driver from Fedora. (In updates-testing as of August 15th, 2006). Once you have done this, you still need to do some hand editing of the xorg.conf file to get things working. The following seems to work, but your mileage may vary:
(only the Device section needs editing)

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
Option "MonitorLayout" "NONE,LFP+CRT"
Option "DevicePresence" "true"
Option "CheckLid" "false"
VendorName "Lenovo"
BoardName "Intel Corporation Mobile Integrated Graphics Controller"
EndSection


On Sound, the playback seems to work fine but recording is a bit strange in Fedora Core 5, at least as far as I can tell. It seems that "arecord" does not work, while both audacity and skype work fine, as long as you select the "Front Mic" using alsamixer as the recording device.

Related Resources

Preparing your laptop for Linux
Configuring the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 & 950
Configuring the ipw3945 driver for the Intel 3945ABG wireless controller
Increasing battery life

Summary

Fairly trouble free and easy installation on this notebook. As long as you use a recent Linux distribution you shouldn't have too many problems.


Have you installed Linux on this laptop? If so how about leaving a comment about your success in the comments section below.