Linux drivers for Lenovo 3000 N100

I just finished installing Ubuntu 6.0.6 on my Lenovo 3000 N100 - in a
dual boot configration.

(actually it is multi-boot, since Ubuntu was able to discover the
Restore & Recovery partition that became hidden to the F11 key after I
did an XP clean install).

It looks great - and very user friendly. It even detected the WiFi
device on the laptop.

However, sounds is still not working - and the screen resolution is
fixed at 1024x768 (instead of the max 1280x800 available to Windows
XP).

Now... knowing IBM and its Linux strategy, it is hard for me to believe
that they wouldn't release drivers for Linux.

Yet, if you go to the Lenovo/IBM support web site, you will discover
that ironically the only downloadable software for Linux is...
"Software Installer for Windows 98/SE/Me/NT/2000/XP"

See for yourself: http://tinyurl.com/lnm8n

Anyone knows whether it is possible to utilize available Lenovo 3000
N100 hardware in Linux?

Any Lenovo plans to release drivers for this poor laptop? Or is it
something that is only reserved for the higher end ThinkPads (albeit
containing the same exact electronics)?

Thanks,
Alex

If I am not mistaken, the Lenovo 3000 N100 is strictly Lenovo's baby.
It is not a ThinkPad. Lenovo was building computers in China before
they bought IBM's PC division. As such, the non-ThinkPad laptops have
no reason to conform to former IBM standards. It is the consumer line.
And generally speaking, consumers don't run Linux. How many laptops
in Best Buy, Circuit City, or WalMart do you see running Linux?

wrote:
> I just finished installing Ubuntu 6.0.6 on my Lenovo 3000 N100 - in a
> dual boot configration.
>
> (actually it is multi-boot, since Ubuntu was able to discover the
> Restore & Recovery partition that became hidden to the F11 key after I
> did an XP clean install).
>
> It looks great - and very user friendly. It even detected the WiFi
> device on the laptop.
>
> However, sounds is still not working - and the screen resolution is
> fixed at 1024x768 (instead of the max 1280x800 available to Windows
> XP).
>

Regarding the screen resolution:
1. Open a terminal and run: sudo /sbin/telinit 3
Note: This will close X windows
2. Log in on console and as root (so use sudo) edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Note: I prefer vim, but a lot of people like nano
3. Change the line:
Modes "1024x768"
to
Modes "1280x800" "1024x768"
4. Save your changes and run: sudo /sbin/telinit 5

X should launch with the new resolution, but if not, open
gnome-control-center and see if the new resolution is listed under
Screen Resolution.

> Now... knowing IBM and its Linux strategy, it is hard for me to believe
> that they wouldn't release drivers for Linux.
>
I'm guessing you're new to Linux; there's actually a reason you're not
seeing Linux drivers. The vast majority of drivers (and almost
certainly everything on your N100) are included in the kernel itself,
and furthermore, it's generally considered bad form when companies only
offer a closed binary driver. I'd be willing to bet there's a
compatible sound driver already installed (there's even a chance the
sound works and is muted, which isn't your fault it's a stupid default
in ALSA).

Post the results of: lsmod|grep snd

You might also want to run the "Multimedia Systems Selector" in
gnome-control-center

GomJabbar wrote:
> If I am not mistaken, the Lenovo 3000 N100 is strictly Lenovo's baby.
> It is not a ThinkPad. Lenovo was building computers in China before
> they bought IBM's PC division. As such, the non-ThinkPad laptops have
> no reason to conform to former IBM standards. It is the consumer line.
> And generally speaking, consumers don't run Linux. How many laptops
> in Best Buy, Circuit City, or WalMart do you see running Linux?

GomJabbar, have you read this article?

http://hardware.slashdot.org/hardwar.../0415221.shtml

Is it really true that Lenovo is going to dump ThinkPads too?

Also, my Lenovo 3000 N100's electronics is basically the same the T60
described here (except for the amount of memory, fingerprint reader the
processor speed): http://www.sbellon.de/t60.html

Can the same procedure work for my Lenovo?

I will try that and report back here. :-)

Alex

Nicholas Andrade wrote:
> Regarding the screen resolution:
> 1. Open a terminal and run: sudo /sbin/telinit 3
> Note: This will close X windows
> 2. Log in on console and as root (so use sudo) edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
> Note: I prefer vim, but a lot of people like nano
> 3. Change the line:
> Modes "1024x768"
> to
> Modes "1280x800" "1024x768"
> 4. Save your changes and run: sudo /sbin/telinit 5

Unfortunately I have already found my etc/X11/xorg.conf with "1280x800"
entries and no "1024x768" at all. It seems that Ubuntu properly
detected my hardware, as can bee seen from the following excerpt:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Intel Corporation Mobile Integrated Graphics Controller"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x800"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x800"
EndSubSection
EndSection

However, the monitor section shows:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Could that be the problem?

> X should launch with the new resolution, but if not, open
> gnome-control-center and see if the new resolution is listed under
> Screen Resolution.

This is exactly what I used to view available resolutions. It lists
only one: 1024x768

> I'm guessing you're new to Linux; there's actually a reason you're not
> seeing Linux drivers. The vast majority of drivers (and almost
> certainly everything on your N100) are included in the kernel itself,
> and furthermore, it's generally considered bad form when companies only
> offer a closed binary driver. I'd be willing to bet there's a
> compatible sound driver already installed (there's even a chance the
> sound works and is muted, which isn't your fault it's a stupid default
> in ALSA).
>
> Post the results of: lsmod|grep snd
>

Here they are:

snd_hda_intel 18964 1
snd_hda_codec 142640 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm_oss 53664 0
snd_mixer_oss 18688 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 89864 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 25220 1 snd_pcm
snd 55268 8 snd_hda_intel, snd_hda_codec,
snd_pcm_oss, snd_mixer_oss,
snd_pcm, snd_timer
soundcore 10208 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 10632 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm



> You might also want to run the "Multimedia Systems Selector" in
> gnome-control-center

I run gnome-control-center but there is no "Multimedia Systems
Selector" in there. Instead, there is an applette name "Sound". It
lists "HDA Intel" as the default sound card, but no sound emits from
the speaker. The amazing thing is that the Lenovo specific keys on the
panel (not part of the keyboard) that are responsible for the volume
and mute, display nice graphics when pressed. I am saying amazing,
because for Windows XP that came preloaded with this laptop I had to
install special OSD/hotkey driver to make these button work. Linux
supported those out of the box. The big question now is - where is the
sound?

Thanks,
Alex

wrote:
> However, the monitor section shows:
>
> Section "Monitor"
> Identifier "Generic Monitor"
> Option "DPMS"
> EndSection
>
> Could that be the problem?
>

Sure enough, I added thre more lines to that section to come up with
the following:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 28-64
VertRefresh 43-60
Modeline "1280x800@60" 83.91 1280 1312 1624 1656 800 816
824 841
EndSection

And now I can select any of 3 resolutions: 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480
(instead of the single 1024x768).

Not the 1280x800 resolution that I know my laptop's LCD is capable of,
but at least I know that I am in the right direction. I will keep
looking...

Alex

wrote:
> Sure enough, I added thre more lines to that section to come up with
> the following:
>
> Section "Monitor"
> Identifier "Generic Monitor"
> Option "DPMS"
> HorizSync 28-64
> VertRefresh 43-60
> Modeline "1280x800@60" 83.91 1280 1312 1624 1656 800 816
> 824 841
> EndSection
>
> And now I can select any of 3 resolutions: 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480
> (instead of the single 1024x768).
>
> Not the 1280x800 resolution that I know my laptop's LCD is capable of,
> but at least I know that I am in the right direction. I will keep
> looking...
>

Well, it turned out that the xorg.conf file was not the right
direction.

Wanna know what the right direction is? :-)

Here it is - and specifically for the Lenovo 3000 N100 (just like mine)

http://tinyurl.com/l5r93

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=190237

Man I am telling ya this Linux thing rocks. :-)

Alex

xp_new...@yahoo.com wrote:
> Wanna know what the right direction is? :-)
>
> Here it is - and specifically for the Lenovo 3000 N100 (just like mine)
>
> http://tinyurl.com/l5r93
>
> http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=190237
>

And just so that this wonderful method is documented in more than one
place on the Internet, here are the steps that I performed to gain the
glorious 1200x800 resolution:

Using "Start Menu", selected System | Administration | Synaptic Package
Manager
> Settings | Repositories [Add]
> Community maintained (Universe) [Add]
> Reload, download and Install the "915resolution" package.

Then I started a terminal and in there typed:
sudo 915resolution -l

My Lenovo's 1200x800 @ 32 bit mode came out "5c".

Then I edited that file:

sudo gedit /etc/default/915resolution

and replaced mode from "auto" to "5c" and filled XRESO=1280, YRESO=800.

Saved the file, Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, X starts again - and bingo!
1200x800 at its glory.

Man I am telling ya Linux rocks! :-)

Alex

Angry American wrote:

> Quality of components, thats the key, you do not have a thinkpad, not even
> close.

Who needs quality when running Virus XP SP2? ;-)

And more seriously, I doubt that a laptop bought today will not be
obsolete in a year or two, which means - it will need to be replaced.
Why pay twice?

I have a very well built, durable and reliable ThinkPad 600e. I can't
really use it for any productive work. Not even web surfing (it's
running Windows 2000 SP4).

Regards,
Alex

wrote:

>>
>> Post the results of: lsmod|grep snd
>>
>
> Here they are:
>
> snd_hda_intel 18964 1
> snd_hda_codec 142640 1 snd_hda_intel
> snd_pcm_oss 53664 0
> snd_mixer_oss 18688 1 snd_pcm_oss
> snd_pcm 89864 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
> snd_timer 25220 1 snd_pcm
> snd 55268 8 snd_hda_intel, snd_hda_codec,
> snd_pcm_oss, snd_mixer_oss,
> snd_pcm, snd_timer
> soundcore 10208 1 snd
> snd_page_alloc 10632 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
>
>
Well it looks like you got your video card set, which is good, now as to
sound. As I suspected, the module is detected and (assuming it's
correct) I believe your sound is just muted. Instead of using the
laptop's hardware keys, run the command: alsamixer. From there make
sure both Master and PCM are not 0 and not muted (to select or
in/deccrease an item use your arrow keys, to toggle mute press m, to
save and exit press escape). Chances are the laptop's hardware keys
simply control either the master volume or the PCM, not both. If you'd
prefer a GUI for some reason, you can use kmix if KDE is installed or
install aumix-gtk.

One other thing you might want to do is add the following line to your
kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst: vga=791. This will give you XGA
resolution when you're on a real console (sorry, WXGA isn't supported
there). To access a real (or virtual) console, press ctrl-alt-f[1-6] to
return to X press ctrl-alt-f7. This is what's known as a kernel
parameter so it won't take affect until the next reboot.

One last thing, I should preface that although I do run one machine at
work with Ubuntu, I don't know that distro (or Debian in general) that
well. I am quite familiar with Red Hat (mostly Fedora) and Gentoo, but
most of concepts carry over.