[ltp] T60, Gutsy, woes!

[Micha Feigin]

On Sun, 2 Dec 2007 09:03:09 -0800
John Jason Jordan <johnxj@comcast.net> wrote:

> On Sun, 02 Dec 2007 11:31:04 +0000
> Phil <phil@stairbridge.org.uk> dijo:
> 
> > OK, against my better judgement I upgraded my T60 to Gutsy. 
> 
> > 1) Wireless is much worse than before. I've got an Intel Corporation
> > PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, and browsing on the net there's lots of people having
> > problems and not a lot of good solutoins. In the end I got it working by
> > removing network manager, and running the following (several times, first
> > time didn't work): modprobe -r ipw3945 modprobe ipw3945 iwlist scan
> > iwconfig eth1 essid <my network essid> dhclient eth1
> > 
> > I'd love to get network manager running again, but most stuff I've read
> > seems to imply it's the cause of the problem.
> 
> I have issues with network manager on Gutsy x86_64 on my brand new T61. I
> have the 4965AGN and it suddenly stops working, although everything says I am
> still connected. There are quite a few comments on Ubuntu forums about flaky
> wireless with Intel chips on Thinkpads, although as far as I know, the only
> ones having problems are the x86_64 users.
> 

It's not working for me either with debian. wlassistant works but for wpa2 to
connect I usually also need wpa-gui to run in parallel for some reason
(possibly a timing issue). For me it just fails to connect.

x86_64 as well.

> I cannot think of anything to help, except that I did find that Wifi-Radar
> was a good tool. It's much faster than network manager and seems to work
> better at getting me connected. It's in Synaptic.
> 
> > 2) Gnome fails on startup - I can only run in safe session mode. Looking
> > in .xsession-errors I see the following:
>  ...
> > /etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
> > Checking for nVidia: not present.
> 
> I wonder why it is looking for nVidia if your video is ATI. Maybe the upgrade
> mis-detected your video?
> 
> > Fatal server error:
> > no screens found
> 
> >From past experience, "no screens found" means it couldn't find a display
> >that could handle the resolution it was trying to use.
> 
> > safe session works fine, but I'm not sure what's blowing me up. XGL? What
> > should I do about this? I'm using the ATI fglrx driver (latest version
> > pulled of AMD's site) - I've got an  ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility
> > X1400
> 
> Sounds as though xorg.conf is seriously messed up. First thing I would do is
> open it up in gedit and see what it says. I have nVidia video and when I made
> a fresh install on this T61 it failed to detect the video. I had to copy and
> paste the string from lspci into xorg.conf and also edit the resolutions,
> then update x. It took several attempts before I got it working right. Ubuntu
> has never been as good as Fedora at detecting and setting up video, but I'm
> surprised that an upgrade would not recognize the existing setup and just
> keep it.
> 
> > 3) On battery, the display brightness drops very low (ignoring the gnome
> > power manager setting). If I up the brightness using the keyboard Fn-Home
> > key it gets brighter, but after a few minutes something kicks it back down
> > again.

Don't know what changes that, but if there is also a bios switch to change
brightness based on whether you are plugged in, they may be interfering with
each other.

> 
> None of the brightness controls work on my T61 at all. It is permanently on
> the brightest setting. Some have said that the Fn keys work if you shell out
> before using them (guessing at what you want because you have no X then), but
> even that doesn't change the setting for me. I haven't messed with it because
> I'd just as soon have it on the brightest setting anyway - I don't spend much
> time on just battery power.
> 
> I also found comments that other Fn keys that didn't work on the T61s finally
> worked after upgrading the BIOS. I did so and that got the volume keys
> working. Even though you have a T60, it might be worth checking to see if you
> have the latest BIOS, just on general principles.
> 

With the previous bios I could switch to console, I believe that you were
supposed to use some driver options though don't recall though if it was for X
or dri module.

to get the brightness to work with nvidia, appart from upgrading the bios you
should also download the beta nvidia driver for X (IIRC 164.04), that will
get your brightness keys going.

> I probably haven't been much help, but maybe I have generated some thought
> processes.