Backlight with Ubuntu 8.10 and Lenovo X300

A recent kernel upgrade broke the backlight control on my X300 (along with a lot of other laptops, according to what I find with Google). To fix it, I'm running the following every time I log in:

sudo xrandr --output LVDS --set BACKLIGHT_CONTROL legacy

External Monitor Key on the X300

Out of the box, the external monitor key (Fn-F7) on my Lenovo X300 didn't work. I found a great post on the ThinkWiki that described how to do it. I followed the instructions up to and including the "set permissions and restart acpi" section.

There was one small problem with the bash script that you put in /usr/local/sbin/thinkpad-fn-f7. Lines 39 and 40 didn't get the right values when one of the monitors was off, but still connected. I changed them to:

INTERNAL_STATE=$($SU xrandr | sed -n "s/${INTERNAL_OUTPUT}\Wconnected\W\([0-9]\+[xX][0-9]\++[0-9]\++[0-9]\+\).*/\1/p")
EXTERNAL_STATE=$($SU xrandr | sed -n "s/${EXTERNAL_OUTPUT}\Wconnected\W\([0-9]\+[xX][0-9]\++[0-9]\++[0-9]\+\).*/\1/p")

and all was good.

I posted my experience to the ThinkWiki discussion on the topic, so hopefully by the time you read this the fix will have been made there.

Upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid

I upgraded my laptop (Lenovo x300) to Ubuntu 8.10 a few weeks ago. The rumour was that power management was better, and I was longing for a kernel that handled the sound on the x300 without a re-compile of the driver every time I updated the kernel.

The upgrade went smoothly, although it took a very long time. The default Ubuntu mirror for Canada seems to be very slow these days. (I've since switched to http://gpl.savoirfairelinux.net/pub/mirrors/ubuntu. It seems a lot faster.)

Two things I've had to work on. First, suspend and resume screws up the wireless until you add a line to /etc/pm/config.d/00sleep_module. First, you have to figure out which driver you're using for wireless. Do

lshw | more

Look for the line that says "wireless" by typing "/wireless" to the more prompt. Then look for the next line with "driver" in it. In my case it says "driver=iwlagn". So now edit the file and add the required line:

sudo gedit /etc/pm/config.d/00sleep_module

Add the following at the very end:

SUSPEND_MODULES="iwlagn"

The other problem was more mysterious. CBC Radio's website wouldn't play after upgrading to 8.10. It had worked for my in 8.04 after some fooling around, but I couldn't get it to work. I had given up after wasting almost a whole day on the problem. After a few software upgrades, it started to work. For the record, I'm using gnome-mplayer to play Windows Media Player material.

Synching a Dell Axim X30 with Ubuntu

I have an old (?) Dell Axim X30 PDA that I use mainly as an address book and MP3 player (I added a memory card so I can listen to podcasts while walking the dog). Now that Ubuntu is my primary desktop OS, I wanted to be synching contacts and sound files with Ubuntu.

The SynCE project has done this. The documentation is pretty good, but as usual I managed to make it hard for myself. Here's what I did:

1. Make sure the X30 is not plugged in to the computer
2. sudo apt-get install synce-hal librra0-tools librapi2-tools
3. Plug in the device
4. synce-pls

The last line should show what's in the top-level directory of the X30.

Note that I was already running kernel 2.6.24-19, so I didn't have to rebuild the modules as described in the documentation. If your Ubuntu 8.04 is up-to-date, you'll be running at least this kernel.

My problem: All the installation instructions warn you to blacklist the ipaq module if you have connection problems. So I went ahead and blacklisted it before I even started. Then I fumbled around for a few hours trying to connect unsuccessfully and searching for information.

The X30 only supports Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. I don't know all the technical details, but I know it means it used a somewhat different protocol for connecting. In my search for answers, I found enough examples of people successfully connecting to X30s that I kept going. I also found enough references to the "old protocol" or "serial protocol" that I finally realized I should try allowing the ipaq module. I removed the blacklist and, presto, it worked.

Sound with Ubuntu on Lenovo x300

One of the known issues with Ubuntu on a Lenovo x300 is the sound (up to and including Ubuntu 8.04). There are a few links out there that point to solutions. The one that worked for me is this one in Mikko's Blog. One very important note: Check which version of the kernel you're running before you start.

uname --release

Then substitute your kernel version in the rm command. I also got a bit confused by the statement under the "Sound" heading that said to remove the old sound modules. I eventually figured out that he must have been referring to the rm command in his script, rather than actually removing the running modules.

FYI: My rather short list of Ubuntu and Lenovo x300 links is here.

Lenovo x300 and Ubuntu

I'm writing this from my new Lenovo x300 on which I installed Ubuntu 8.04. It was way too easy -- just pop in the CD, answer a few questions, and wait. I'll give more reviews in the days to come.