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56% (14)
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36% (9)
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Lenovo 3000 N500

Introduction

This is a compatibiltiy guide to running Linux with the Lenovo 3000 N500 laptop.

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

This page is just for discussing using Linux on the Lenovo 3000 N500. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the Lenovo 3000 N500 page on LapWik.

Editing This Page

If you would like to edit this page please first view our Editing Guidelines.

Specifications

For full specifications see the Lenovo 3000 N500 specifications page.

NameLenovo 3000 N500
ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo
Screen15.4” WXGA Widescreen
RAM1GB to 4GB
HDD160GB to 320GB
Optical DriveDVD-ROM/CD-RW or DVD+-RW
GraphicsIntel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M
NetworkEthernet, Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN 802.11abgn
Alternate WiFi / Ethernet Some units have Broadcom Ethernet and Broadcom WiFi - which needs the wl kernel module

Linux Compatibility

DeviceCompatibilityComments
Processor64 bit ubuntu 8.10 tested OK
ScreenOK
HDDOK IDE & AHCI
Optical DriveOK
GraphicsOK
SoundOK
EthernetOK
WirelessOKdo not work with iwlwifi for kernel <2.6.27, work well on 2.6.27 with Ubuntu 8.10 without any patch
56K ModemNot Tested
USBOK
Card ReaderOK
ExpressCard SlotNot Tested
CameraOK
Ubuntu 10.04 32 and 64 bit Operating SystemDeviceCompatibilityComments
Processor32 and 64 bit ubuntu 10.04 tested OK
ScreenOK
HDDOK IDE & AHCI (SATA)
Optical DriveOK
GraphicsOK
SoundOK
EthernetOK
WirelessOKHardware Drivers must enable “Broadcom STA Wifi” drivers and reboot to work.
56K ModemNot Tested
USBOK
Card ReaderOK
ExpressCard SlotNot Tested
CameraOK

Notes

You can enter any specific notes with running Linux on the Lenovo 3000 N500 here.

I've tested the installation of kernel 2.6.24 with Ubuntu 8.04 but it didn't recognize intel wifi driver; i tested to manually install iwlwifi (as mentioned by official intel website) but it didn't work (card is identified but can't manage to connect to any available wifi spots)

Ubuntu is one of the few - if ONLY - 64 bit version of Linux which will boot with this laptop because other distros do not supply the SATA drivers for 64 bit version of Linux.

All things went well with new kernel and ubuntu 8.10.

With Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx both 32 and 64 bit versions work excellently. The only thing not working is the 56k Modem which is a Win Modem. When enabled by going to Menu / System / Administration / Hardware Drivers - Broadcom STA Wireless Driver - works perfectly for the N500's wifi system.

It's a really good experience with that laptop.

Debian also works but it is more work to obtain and compile the Broadcom STA kernel modules. Beginners or those not willing to compile kernel modules should stick with Ubuntu except if they want a console system.

Ubuntu

8.04

Dificulties with intel open wifi drivers (iwlwifi-5000); all things work except wifi.

8.10

All work fine.

9.04

Everything works.

9.10

Everything works. Occasional kernel panics in some cases (possibly from wireless driver?). Sometimes doesn't respond to clicks properly after suspend.

Debian

Lenny-(5)

All things work fine except intel open wifi drivers; Lenny comes with the 2.6.26 kernel and things seem to go well by compiling kernel above (2.6.27+)

Here a nice guide to solve the problem : http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn

For the N500's using Broadcom Wifi see: http://wiki.debian.org/wl

Other stuffs :

* Compiz

If you want to use compiz, you'll need to download the unstable packages instead of stable ones (Lenny) and do the necessary : aptitude install compiz-gnome/unstable

* sound

You can install alsa and alsa-utils or re-install them, then reboot.
I don't manage to remove system beep.

* graphic

backup then edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add in device section:

Driver “intel”

Fedora

12 (x64)

Install was painless, sound, webcam and SD card reader worked with no extra configuration. Have been able to connect to my phone via Bluetooth, but failed when copying files across (it's an older phone though, so may be an issue at that end). Had to enable RPMFusion repo and yum install kmod-wl to get the WiFi to work. Kernel used: 2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64

Summary

You can enter a summary of how well the Lenovo 3000 N500 works with Linux here.




Discussion

Pauloat, Sunday 05 of December, 2010 [09:30:11]

Hello, I just installed Ubuntu 10.10 and was perfect for several hours.

but i press Fn + F12 and crash the sistem. restart and it did not recognize the drives of the modem.

What I can do?

thxs

@pauloat

David J. Ring Jr., Sunday 05 of December, 2010 [13:00:27]

This is NOT the forum to discuss problems - only to report them.

Do NOT use Fn+F12. There is a known problem with hibernation with this machine that has already been reported. Hibernation causes machine to shutdown instead of hibernate, then when it restarts, networking is turned off. Go to the network connect icon at the bottom right of the screen, right click with the mouse, and choose “enable networking” and you will be OK.

DR

kamran ali, Thursday 09 of September, 2010 [15:46:53]

dear sir

kindly chek my laptop my camra not celear visan back geraoung brightnis is not celear

noureen, Tuesday 01 of June, 2010 [15:12:48]

i have a proplem with my webcam i can't find it in the pc but when i open the device manager i find there but the proplem that the device manager doesn't open programmes only shows them any help here?

David, Thursday 29 of July, 2010 [01:38:19]

Device Manager is a Windows applet. This discussion is for Linux Laptops. But the cure for your problem is to go to the manufacturer's web site and install the webcam driver for your computer.

D

Peter, Thursday 04 of February, 2010 [18:05:29]

On Ubuntu 9.10 hibernation and suspend do not works proper. I have 4GB (2x2GB) and when I get out one RAM bone problem disappear. RAM tested!.

awa, Tuesday 02 of February, 2010 [05:24:37]

i have got N 500 and installed ubuntu jaunty on it, and everything worked fine (i thought).
i installed virtualbox and then found out that just 2GB of RAM is working.(mine has 4GB).
i have a win7 installed and there 4GB is working perfect.
anyone faced the problem too?
every hint would be great


thanks awa

awa, Tuesday 02 of February, 2010 [05:28:12]

oh and like bix, i have also problem on hibernation in jaunty.
thanks awa

bix, Sunday 03 of January, 2010 [11:36:36]

Hibernation does not work. Laptop prepares for hibernation, seems to save data to disk, but does not go offline and restarts instead.

Backlight buttons do not work. Known problem.

When switching monitors with Fn+F7, sometimes you can get stuck with black non-responsive screen. System hangs, neither ALT+Fx combinations nor CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE work.

Battery beep can be disabled until next restart via modprobe.

HDMI sound has to be redirected via sound properties. For normal sound, it has to be redirected again. Working, but it is confusing.

Little annoyances, I guess, but even with them, Ubuntu is most stable and reliable system I had on this laptop so far. Preinstalled Vista was simply a nightmare.

David, Saturday 26 of December, 2009 [16:54:24]

I get occasional kernel panics with Ubuntu 9.10. With 9.04 it was definitely related to the wireless driver, not positive if it's that or something else causing problems with 9.10.

I also have problems where I come out of suspend and the panel and a few other things won't respond to clicks. I have to reboot to fix it.

seicean, Sunday 08 of November, 2009 [10:35:31]

I see that I'm not the only one with the “battery beep” issue. Problem not resolved in Ubi 9.10… maybe next one :)

lapaj, Sunday 11 of October, 2009 [12:03:38]

Turn off the touchpad while typing by manually, or use this tutorial to turn it off automatically: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticsTouchpad

Zahid Khan, Saturday 05 of September, 2009 [09:21:12]

When I type, my key is all over the place, it jumps and goes to any other place, I am fed up of this problem. Can anyone suggest any solution for this problem?

marines, Wednesday 28 of July, 2010 [23:36:22]

disable touchpad ;)

dawian, Saturday 13 of June, 2009 [10:29:11]

does not work on LENOVO 3000 N500 4233-3AG, BIOS 1.6 can not even boot live cd, boot hangs, error message Starting bluetooth … all dead, tried with BT switch ON/OFF - NADA! in windoze, everything works like charm.

gretchena, Saturday 13 of June, 2009 [11:46:33]

same here, N500 doesn't start with ubuntu 9.04. ubuntu 8.10 works fine so far

lalala, Friday 23 of October, 2009 [10:04:27]

for 9.04 append a kernel boot option: mem=4096m is required, in case you have 4GB RAM

Jehnsen, Tuesday 09 of June, 2009 [09:45:51]

The laptop works well for me (the volume control buttons don't work though). But has anyone experienced the harddrive clicking sometimes as much as every 15-20 seconds? This is concerning me.

Botron, Wednesday 24 of June, 2009 [05:09:08]

Use hdparm to prevent the clicks which will eventually kill your HD. Lots of info on the internet on this one.

anni, Friday 29 of May, 2009 [21:11:55]

Everything worked flawlessly out of the box for me, running ubuntu 9.04 on the 3000 n500. Even wireless works extremely well (with intel wireless driver), much better than under vista where I had problems. Fn buttons and trackpad work too, and the CPU which used to whine under vista is silent in ubuntu. I'm extremely satisfied!

user0815, Thursday 21 of May, 2009 [00:47:04]

forgot few things:
improper touchpad:
8.10: very strange speed. have to raise it to max to make it usable but it is really annoying that way… i just dont get a proper sensitivity for it.
9.04 it's hard to not click always on it when e.g. scrolling a webpage. it's not really controllable how double-clicks works and double-click–>move-window is a pain in the as5 and not really adjustable. and there are sometimes malfunctions, e.g. right clicks instead of normal click,…

the n500 3000 (the one i own) is really made for vista. it runs very good on xp but there you can't disable the beeps except muting sound completely. it runs very smooth on vista. win7 is the same crap but it should also work fine with it i think.
some problems are known bugs, others caused by bad drivers (intel gfx) but all in all it doesnt really run out of the box with ubuntu. it runs, but surely not perfect and i still try to fix some issues.

perhaps i'll try other distributions on it..

user0815, Thursday 21 of May, 2009 [00:33:51]

i own n500 3000 (4233-5fg). with (x)ubuntu 9.04 there are several problems.
- can't really disable beep when plugging in ac adapter
- can't disable battery warning beep
(tried to blacklist almost everything)
- adjusting brightness not working properly: it doesn't save settings and is almost too bright
- adjusting brightness also not working perfect via hotkeys. instead of 11 choices there are only 5-6
- sound volume: you can't hear anything until half volume, the upper half of the volume then raises it very quick
- intel graphic is not working correct. e.g. you have to force adobe flash player to use hardware via a small config
- showing battery status not working correct. with xp/vista it is +4 hours. with ubuntu 9.04 its perhaps 2h30m max, tried several tools and each showed something else around 2-2,5 hours. on the other hand, time doesn't fly. the real duration with a battery is more than these 2,5 hours. just wrecked up. also it shows about 6 hours to load an empty battery…

marines, Tuesday 19 of May, 2009 [08:28:18]

everything works perfectly out of the box. great thing for linux user. :)

entee, Tuesday 05 of May, 2009 [19:56:19]

Hi,

I've installed an ubuntu 9.04 and the suspend and hibarnate don't work.

Mike, Thursday 16 of April, 2009 [16:36:03]

Hi,

Ubuntu 8.10 is working really fine on my N500 exept the 56K modem. Has anyone experiences with installing the modem?

David, Monday 30 of March, 2009 [02:21:29]

It cost me $130 to put in a dual core cpu and upgrade the memory to 4 GB on the N500, so consider that, the SL500 has the dual core cpu bigger hard drive and 1 GB of memory more - plus a cool fingerprint thing.

g00se, Saturday 28 of March, 2009 [11:03:28]

CPU flags indicate that it doesn't support virtualization at the core level. Pity

Dan, Friday 13 of March, 2009 [18:02:10]

Anyone get the integrated camera to work? Could you do an lsmod and see what driver you're using for it? Thanks.

(I have a 3000 N500 also labeled “Type 4233-63U” on bottom. Fedora 10 is working nice now that I got broadcom-wl from rpmfusion.net for the wireless card).

Dan, Friday 13 of March, 2009 [18:21:34]

Never Mind! It Works! Whoo-Hoo! BTW, the base driver seems to be uvcvideo (which videodev is dependent on). Some application called “Cheese” works with it. I'm sure there are others.

David, Wednesday 11 of March, 2009 [22:02:10]

My laptop works except wifi - what is the secret of getting the wifi to work? Also I can't seem to run 3D acceleration in video driver - any hints?

Thanks!

David

Dan, Friday 13 of March, 2009 [18:24:38]

The wireless driver is proprietary and called broadcom-wl. Your distribution might not include it because it's proprietary, but you should be able to work around that and get it anyway. There's an old open-source broadcom driver too called b43 something.

Brony, Wednesday 01 of April, 2009 [03:39:37]

Wireless works fine with newer kernels. I 2.6.27.7 is enough, but earlier ones might also work.

marm, Sunday 22 of February, 2009 [15:29:17]

Sound through HDMI seems to be impossible in ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04.

Jacques, Monday 09 of March, 2009 [12:58:02]

Has anyone any update about sound output via HMDI ?
Could anyone get this working ?

Thanks
Jacques

marm, Tuesday 10 of March, 2009 [13:07:42]

An update in the intel driver, i think, made it work again. Running Ubuntu 9.04

Christian Brenner, Saturday 21 of February, 2009 [11:47:45]

Hi,
has anyone expierence with Fedora running on the N500 NS75PGE model? I assume that I am fine when the distro uses a 2.6.27 kernel or above? Cause Fedora 10 uses the 2.6.27.5 kernel.

Thanks,
Christian “Jenope” Brenner

Dave, Friday 20 of February, 2009 [14:24:50]

In my experience, and I wrote the previous comment hours before I ended up installing back Winxp; is that there are random crashes all the time. No functioning of LAN wireless and touchpad, and I did not even test the web cam. It is not something due to not pressing a button on the computer, the hardware was not properly detected. I would have leave it installed anyway, if not for the crashes. Such a pity!

Rex, Monday 07 of March, 2011 [22:31:48]

Just installed linux mint (based on ubantu). Everything works perfect, except the camera. Still doing research on it, will post how to when fixed. I have a broadcom wireless the driver comes with the os, just enable the sta driver and disable ipv6.

Porter Smith, Saturday 14 of February, 2009 [21:50:25]

Ubuntu works for me as aswell, with video in Skype in addition to the Xfce desktop environment.

system Stupefactions

Lenovo 3000 N500 4233-54U

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz

Memory: 2G or (2048MB)

SDA: 250GB

topgun17@B707:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts pni monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips : 4322.42
clflush size : 64
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16GHz
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 1024 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts pni monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips : 4322.55
clflush size : 64
power management:

Matilda, Saturday 14 of February, 2009 [12:53:16]

Ubuntu 8.10 works fine on my N500. No problems at all with webcam, wifi or card reader. Volume control buttons and other shortcuts on the keyboard didn't work out of the box but that was easily fixed under the keyboard shortcuts setting.

Dan Searle, Saturday 14 of February, 2009 [04:23:52]

All hardware works “Out Of the Box” with Ubuntu 8.10 intrepid ibex, would highly recommend.

Barry, Friday 13 of February, 2009 [21:33:48]

I'm having freezes as well, but it seems to have started after I compiles my custom kernel on Slackware 12.1. Everything else seems to work out-of-the-box except:
1) camera
2) wlan – haven't tried it!

Has anyone made an discoveries on the lockups?

rob, Tuesday 10 of February, 2009 [10:29:56]

installed 8.10 yesterday, really ootb, everything works, feels like OEM nearly, even “the sensor keys” work - a great experience really!

Before that I tried openSuse 11.1. and got lots of problems with sounds, powermangement, Xorg and more.

The only thing missing is the rotation feature within the display control panel. I'm using an second 24” pivot display for editing portrait formated fotos.

Hardware: Lenovo 3000 N 500, Celeron M 575@2 Ghz and 2 GB RAM, Onboard Video

phil, Friday 06 of February, 2009 [21:02:34]

running debian lenny kernel 2.6.26:
everythings fine, except wlan. i'm still working on it but i did't manage it yet.

DrHannibal, Saturday 07 of February, 2009 [22:43:43]

I had Intel 5100 AGN work under lenny, but with kernel 2.6.28, using the method described there: http://wiki.debian.org/iwlagn

Then, in order to have what I needed to use the nvidia drivers, I had to use the linux-kbuild-2.6.28 from sidux from there: http://sidux.com/debian/pool/fix.main/l/linux-kbuild-2.6/

Now, everything seems OK.

David, Saturday 31 of January, 2009 [18:29:41]

I totally coincide with Black-sheep. It crashes Randomly. I've installed the last version of the kernel in Ubunto 8.10. No wireless and the touchpad does not work at all. Please e-mail me or post here if anyone solves these problemes. Anyway it is great to find, at least, one result associated with lenovo 3000 n500 and linux. Thanks. -Argentina-

michael evard, Saturday 24 of January, 2009 [15:52:14]

Same results on N500 38G with suse 11.1 / 64 KDE 4 (every thing fine)/ modem not tested

Black-Sheep, Friday 19 of December, 2008 [11:45:18]

Nothing works for me.

I got the N500 and tryed both Kubuntu 8.10 and ubuntu 8.10
while kubuntu (KDE4.1) runs fast & smoth, ubuntu crashes (freezes) randomly.
on both the touchpad does not work, nor does wireless Lan.

seb, Saturday 20 of December, 2008 [17:26:07]

Found a solution for touchpad and wlan:

There are hardware switches for both. For wlan (and bluetooth) at the front edge and for touchpad on the right side above the keypad (kind of sensor).

matt, Monday 13 of April, 2009 [01:40:26]

hey seb, i have this computer and i hve that problem where is the switch?

masterches, Tuesday 02 of December, 2008 [21:44:41]

great experience with this laptop under ubuntu or debian; easy instalation, hardware entirely recognized with 8.10 version for ubuntu with last kernel (2.6.27).

T_bone, Sunday 29 of March, 2009 [17:17:27]

Hi,

I am interested in purchasing either the Lenovo N500 or Lenovo SL500. I am intending to install Debian Lenny (kernel version 2.6.26) on it. There seem to be a mixture of reviews in regards to the OS working “out of the box” and would like to know which would be recommended? Obviously the cheaper is the better for me as the spec between the two dont bother me so much but just want to ensure linux compatibility

N500: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159354

SL500: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154658

Any help appreciated

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lenovo+3000+n500.txt · Last modified: Wednesday 13 of October, 2010 [15:21:43] (external edit)
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