Update: 16 October 2011 – Ubuntu 11.10 works better. http://wp.me/p9bZ0-1Q
I recently got a Lenovo E420 laptop, and I just went ahead and installed Ubuntu 11.04 on it. Few are some of the things that may help those who’re facing issues with it. I got 4 GB RAM on Core i5. It’s 64bit processor, so I preferred 64bit Ubuntu instead of 32bit pae kernel.
Wireless
The machine has rtl8188ce chipset, and the Realtek drivers available from Realtek’s website don’t work well. You just need to blacklist acer_wmi module
Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and add
blacklist acer_wmi
Save and reboot. This won’t work if you’ve compiled Realtek drivers and installed them. It’ll work only in the default install. Here’s more detailed link – http://askubuntu.com/questions/53625/wireless-on-thinkpad-edge-e420s
Random screen lockups
I am not sure why it occurred – due to the kernel or due to the compiz settings. I did both. Installed Kernel 2.6.39 from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.39-rc4-natty/
Also, I installed CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) from Ubuntu Software Center, and then disabled this option
General -> OpenGL -> Sync to VBlank (uncheck this)
Reboot. The system may not hang. http://www.preshweb.co.uk/2011/05/ubuntu-11-04-x-freezing-after-screensaver-active-laptop-lid-closed/
Update 26 July 2011: There are still instances of system hanging 😦 Unable to identify the cause as yet. However, this time the system just hangs with no mouse movement at all. This behavior I experienced in 32bit-pae kernel too and usually happens when system has gone through more than a few standbys. Will diagnose and update further.
Update 2 – 30 July 2011 : I updated the BIOS to v1.16 (earlier it was 1.10), but it didn’t do any good. The system still got hung. It is not due to standby also as I disabled the “Suspend” option from Power Management section and rebooted the computer and used it for around 3 hours after which I got a Kernel Panic. Realtek has put a new version of their drivers for rtl8188ce chipset – I’ve just installed those and rebooted and it seems to be working. Will update later if it has cured the hanging problem.
Update 3 – 31 July 2011 : After installing the realtek rtl8188ce drivers as mentioned in the post above, I’ve not rebooted the machine since more than 24 hours. Had suspended it more than a few times, and did various experiments which earlier eventually led to a freeze. But I’m happy to report that till now all has been good and it has not yet hung. I’ll keep working on it for next few days and see if there has been a proper resolution.
Indicator icons for unsupported apps
I installed gnome-do and I was unable to see the indicator icon for that. Installed dconf-editor from Ubuntu Software Center.
Got the name of the application from .xsession-errors file (TrayChild). Opened dconf-editor and added ‘Do’ in there. Logged out and logged back in and all is well.
Don’t set systray-whitelist to “all” as that may lead to the icons in indicator being unclickable.
To be honest, it was horrendous to use Ubuntu 11.04 due to severe productivity issues for the first week. I installed 32bit pae kernel so that the 4GB RAM could be supported. But I couldn’t upgrade it to 2.6.39 as no pae kernel was available for 2.6.39. I rather installed 64bit Ubuntu, and updated it immediately and rest did what I mentioned above. No more hangs till now, and life has been happy.
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