[Previous article of the Journey: Installation and first impression]
When it comes to installing an OS on your machine, you expect to get the functionalities provided by your hardware translated into the OS. This statement is true for any OS, would it be XP, Vista, Ubuntu, or something else.
My laptop is a Thinkpad R61i 8932-GNG (full hardware details here)
What worked by default after the install:
- Wifi : although the wifi light is not working.
- Sound (althought the loudness seems lower than when running with Windows XP
- 4in1 integrated card reader (at least for SD cards)
- Webcam and its led indicator
- Mute, volume up and down buttons
- Lock fn key (Fn+F2)
- Battery fn key (Fn+F3): it pops up Power Information infobox
- Suspend fn key (Fn+F4) : although when it returns from suspend mode the brightness is set to max.
- Radio fn key for wifi/bluetooth(Fn+F5) : it cycle thought different state wifi=on+bt=off, wifi=on+bt=on, wifi=off+bt=on, wifi=off+bt=off
- Easy eject fn key (Fn+F9)
- Brightness fn keys (Fn+Home and Fn+End)
- Thinklight fn key (Fn+PgUp)
What I did not tested:
- Network connection (RJ-45).
- Modem (RJ-11).
- Fluetooth.
- Firewire.
- Connecting an external screen and the screen switcher fn key (Fn F7).
- S-video connector.
- Expension slot (for docking).
- PCI slots.
What doesn’t work :
- ThinkVantage button : nothing associated to it.
- integrated fingerprint reader.
- Integrated microphone : IntMic is link to the external Mic connector.
- Ultranav/touchpad fn key (Fn+F8).
- multimedia fn keys (fn+Up, Fn+Down, fn+Left, fn+Right).
- magnifier fn keys (Fn+Space).
- The Lenovo Active Protection System: it seems that API exists with “ugly packages” to handle the info generated by the accelerometer but nothing for bundling the accelerometer and locking the heads of the HDD. I guess this will come…. one day.
- The Fan is always on: not that it isn’t working but I would expect it to work only when the heat of the system requires it and so provide a quieter machine with longer autonomy.
What worked but after some tweaking or manual steps
- special keys next to the arrow keys : they needed to be configured.
- Euro sign : I had to configure it in the Keyboard preferences.
Other aspects:
- The Autonomy also is surprisingly small that with XP. I guess that the driver for the processor on XP are better and so consume less power when you try to max out the autonomy of the laptop.
In Conclusion : Is the hardware support a success for my case ? Yes about right. The peace that really lacks is the internal microphone. The Fan is annoying for the noice and the reduced autonomy is slighly disappointing. I feel also bizarre for the APS and the fingerprint reader but they are not going to ruin my experience with Ubuntu.
I haven’t given up yet with the non-working internal microphone but at the time of the writing this is still an open issue. It looks like there is not solution for having the internal microphone working with Ubuntu 8.04. 1 word come to my mind: disappointed.
I hope that with time fingerprint reader and APS will be supported on my machine.
