Installation notes for Debian GNU/Linux on an IBM T40p 2373-G1G

If you'd like to read old news, go here. The recent stuff is on this page, I won't repeat the long way to get here, this is just how to get the Thinkpad running. Parts are specific to my 2373-G1G

The kernel

I'm running Linux 2.6.12-rc3-mm3, using Andrew Mortons mm patches to test recent features, and to use reiser4fs which is amazingly fast. The config and a dmesg output is here, too.

I'm using ACPI, which works quite well. You need to unload the usb modules before suspending. Suspend to disk works, too.

You need Madwifi for a working WLAN.

If you'd like to use a bluetooth headset, BTSCO alias bluetooth-alsa does the trick.

Irda

NEW:
Irda works. For FIR (4mbps) mode, just add something like alias irda0 nsc-ircc
options nsc-ircc dongle_id=0x9
pre-install nsc-ircc /bin/setserial /dev/ttyS1 uart none
to /etc/modutils/irda-utils and rerun update-modules

XFree

You'll need a recent XFree or better X.org version. 4.4/6.8 is fine. You need the synaptics driver for the touchpad. I haven't TV-Out and external monitor working, but there are positiv reports on the linux-thinkpad mailing list. You can get my X-config here, and the corresponding logfile

USB

You may need to disable USB BIOS Support in the BIOS.

Harddisk

I burned the recovery part of the harddisk onto a DVD (You need to disable the recoverypart in the BIOS). This gave me 3GB more space.

Tuning

To get the thinkpad faster I used quite some tricks:

• Use Linux 2.6
• Use reiser4fs
• Accerlate harddisk: hdparm -q -A1 -q -c1 -q -d1 -q -m16 -q -u1 /dev/hda early at boot
• Don't start unnessecary deamons: I start only these: (You can use sysv-rc-conf to configure them)
  acpid, alsa, bluez-utils, fam, irda, logging, pcmcia
• Boot KDE early

  This was a bit tricky, but really saves time. I have a script, kdealex, that starts my kde session. It is run as S09kdeales, this is quiet early, but X takes enough time to start for the other deamons kde needs to be started.The script is just:

  			#!/bin/bash
  			echo "Starting KDE..."
  			su - alex bash startx > /var/log/kdealex 2>& 1 & 
  			

  You need a ~/.xinitrc and ~/.xserverrc for this to work. I use .xinitrc:

  			#!/bin/bash
  			xset m 2 10 & 
  			killall gpg-agent
  			eval "$(gpg-agent --daemon)"
  			xmodmap /home/alex/.xmodmap & 
  			export KDE_IS_PRELINKED=1
  			export KDE_NO_IPV6=true
  			exec startkde
  			

  And .xserverrc:

  			#!/bin/bash
  			exec /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 -dpi 100 vt7
  			

• Prelink you system (debian package prelink>

Scripts

As I roam between different networks (Home, Work, WLAN, WLAN-VPN etc), I'm using quite sophisticated scripts to quickly and easily switche between the different locations. You can download them here. They are built up of several parts:

• al,alone,home,ipt,ipt_www,mops and wlan all go to ~/bin/location. They are executed by a user account for selecting the network.
• in ~/bin/location/parts/ (ath0down,cups,eth0down,killssh,knews,kpilot,termssh,tunnelhome) some tasks are located that are need by the scripts mentioned before. These scripts are just sourced.
• The other directories in ~/bin/location/ contain the configuration-files for different enviroments(cups,kioslace,kmail,kpilot,resolv.conf)
• /usr/local/sbin/mops is a (modified) script from Jens Liebchen for our VPN.
• /etc/sudoers gives my useraccount the rights to exceute some commands as root (Mind the comment in it. DO NOT COPY MY FILE, use visudo.
• some files in /etc/ (resolv.conf, cups/client.conf, /cups/cupsd.conf, userconfig/ath0 , userconfig/eth0) have changed permission, to allow my useraccount to write them. I basically setup a group admins and put my account in it. The files in etc are writable by this group.
• /usr/local/sbin/map-scheme is used for /etc/networking/interfaces to change the network configuration. See man 5 interfaces for details.
• mkpbkeyaccess enables you to easily setup passwordless, public key authentication for ssh This is needed for all tunnels, if you don't want to enter the password everytime.

Downloads

kernel config
XFree Configuration
dmesg output (all for 2.6.12-rc3-mm3)
Networking scrits