Lenovo IdeaPad (3000) Y410 Model 7757 and Linux
Getting Linux to run on Lenovo 3000 Y410 is not so hard. However, there are some issues with the Wireless and Sound. The main problem is the Wireless RF kill switch is somehow on and you can’t turn it off even with the hardware switch. It seems that the hardware switch is the same as the Fn-F5 + Fn-F6 keys because that’s how it seems to me. However, I’ve an inkling where the problem lies and I think it’s because some of the Fn keys are not properly initialized during boot. Read on for what I’ve tried.
I’ve installed openSUSE 10.3, Ubuntu 7.10, Mandriva 2008.1, and tried to install Debian Etch. Debian couldn’t detect the Broadcom Extreme ethernet card – even after I forced it to use the tg3 driver (which is used by Ubuntu).
With openSUSE, Compiz won’t run properly until I upgraded to kernel 2.6.22.17 and Xorg 7.3. With Ubuntu, just can’t get the desktop effect to work, even with the restricted drivers. Mandriva 2008.1 works like a charm, well almost… with a problem common to all the distros I tried except MS Windows. The common problems are two: Sound and Wireless.
It seems that the sound won’t work. I managed to make it work with openSUSE by updating to ALSA xx16 (don’t remember the xx part) and setting model to Auto. Still, the subwoofer doesn’t work. If I set model to acer (i think), subwoofer works as a mono speaker, but front speaker won’t work. In almost all model options tried, none is perfect but Auto is not so bad. And yet, once rebooted, I may or may not get the sound. Same in Ubuntu.
As for the wireless, lspci shows it is detected and properly too but can’t be used because all the linux distro says that the hardware RF kill is on (which is not). I tried overiding the rf_kill value but that is for software kill switch and won’t work – especially in Ubuntu with that kernel bug (still not solved as of today) where you can’t even write to the rf_kill file… confusing. And in Mandriva, it works at first, or sometimes and I think I know why now.
Here’s what I discovered that is the ONLY workaround available in all the linux I tried – I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE on the Internet after searching like crazy for a whole week (sleepless… 20 hours a day on this).
For anyone having the same model, here’s the workaround to get Wireless and Sound to work and it’s actually easy. Actually, two ways but the second one is more reliable if your distro suspends properly.
Method 1: During boot up, at Grub (or in BIOS boot), press Ctrl-Alt-Del for warm reboot. If during the warm reboot the wireless light turns red, you have a chance that the RF kill switch is now off. If not, Ctrl-Alt-Del again. Still, it’s just a chance. To increase your chance, try also to increase the sleep time between modprobe of the ipw driver and the loading of the ipw daemon (in /etc/modprobe.d/ipw3945 — there’s the sleep 0.5 parameter, change to sleep 2 or more).
Method 2: This is more reliable if your distro suspends reliably. Simple actually and I have tested in Mandriva and Ubuntu. Just press Fn-F1 to go to sleep mode and then wake it up. Now, the Fn-F5 (Wifi) and Fn-F6 (Bluetooth) just works! At the same time, so is the sound! (not the subwoofer, though)
If only I’ve tried suspending it earlier, I would have more sleep. I never tried Fn-F1 (suspend) before as I read that it might have trouble waking up. Instead, it actually repairs the keyboard map for the Fn key.
So now, here’s my idea which I don’t know how to do: make the same script that run on wake-up also run during boot. So, does anyone know how? Please, if anyone know how to put the wake-up script also into boot, then I think the bug can be fixed in ALL these distros.
All in all, Mandriva 2008.1 works out of the box (even the webcam and desktop effects) – you just have to press Fn-F1 to enable wifi RF Kill key and sound (same in Ubuntu). openSUSE is still the best for it but I am yet to try the workaround there. I suspect it will work.
I will continue to investigate and I hope all you Linux people out there can also contribute some ideas. Thanks in advance.
Is it because of driver issue or just laptop features issue?