thinkpad x120e w/ debian linux (sid)

I purchased a new lenovo thinkpad x120e recently. It arrived 3-7-2011. Be sure to back your MS Windows install up (if you really want it), using clonezilla or some other means, becuase it does not come with recovery discs. The build of this machine seems very solid. In short, its awesome. Small, powerful, low power (~15watts @ idle + lcd at its brightest), and linux friendly. I used debian sid, which has proper support for the GPU via fglrx. However, I did run into some issues.

first, the bad:

• I have no display when resuming from suspend to ram...I probably need to force unload fglrx before suspending...
• the wireless didn't work out of the box. It can be downloaded and compiled from realtek's site, but there will also be kernel support for it in 2.6.38. I will probably compile the kernel after it gets out of rc status.

the good:

• fglrx from debian sid's non-free repository works, if you follow debian's wiki instructions on how to install it.
• Two finger scrolling works great.
• The realtek ethernet controller works great (i believe this requires firmware, so I installed it with the 'firmware-realtek' package)
• cpu frequency scaling works 'out of the box', just make sure to load powernow-k8 kernel module. I used powernowd, which, by default, increases the frequency when I need it. The e-350 has three pstates, 800, 1280, and 1600mhz.
• The card reader seemed to work, although xfce seemed to be confused about the card's format. I mounted it manually with no issues.
• The webcam works. I installed cheese, and the default resolution was 1280x720 with a really low framerate. I set it to 640x480, and it looks great.
• The audio card works. Its an ATI HDA. The hdmi audio out also shows up in the mixer, but I have yet to test this on my TV.

using usb tethering for android on mac os x

my cellular provider is U.S. Cellular. my phone is a samsung mesmerize. this works on mac os x 10.5.8, i can only assume it works on 10.6 as well. only do this if you pay for the dial up service.


step one: enable wifi tethering on your android:
go to settings>wireless & networks and check 'dial up networking'.

your phone should show up as '/dev/cu.usbmodemsomenumber'. i think this number is autogenerated depending on how many times you plug it into your mac whilst in dial up networking mode, because the first time i tried to tether over usb, it assigned it the number 411. its now 621. anyway, that doesn't really matter...what matters is that it has a /dev/ entry and that the user can actually access it.

step two: set the modem up under os x:
the password is your phone number.

step three: configure the modem type:
by default, the modem type will be apple v.32, which is a fail. set it to generic. the rest of the settings just make sense. i didn't play around with them, but it worked for me.


remember to uncheck the dial up networking box when done.