Lenovo E145 with Archlinux

Because of the purportedly long battery live I recently purchased the Lenove E145 notebook as an occasional travel companion. I replaced the 500Gb HDD with a Crucial M550 SSD.

Archlinux Installation

Download archlinux iso.

Copy it to a USB stick

sudo dd bs=4M if=/media/sw/linux/archlinux-2015.02.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdc && sync

Boot with the USB stick.

Then create the partitions:

gdisk /dev/sda

• 34-2047 bios boot (ef02)
• +4G linux swap (8200)
• rest linux filesystem (8300)

Make file system.

mkswap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3

Note

Check for TRIM capability.

hdparm -I /dev/sda | grep TRIM

Positive. One should later on regularly do

fstrim /

The archlinux base system

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
arch-chroot /mnt

with basic Configure

echo E145 > /etc/hostname
hwclock --systohc --utc
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Vienna /etc/localtime
#Uncomment the needed locales in /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF8 > /etc/locale.conf
#
#this has escape where capslock was
#/usr/share/kbd/keymaps/i386/qwerty/myus.map.gz
cat >> /etc/vconsole.conf << "EOF
KEYMAP=myus
FONT=lat2-14
EOF

Replacing keyboard with sd-vconsole in the HOOKS list produced strange glyphs in XTerm. I had to revert it later.

mkinitcpio -p linux #ignore the warnings
passwd

Install grub and reboot

pacman -S grub
#in /etc/default/grub: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet resume=swap_partition"
grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

Add user

useradd -m -g users -G audio,lp,optical,storage,video,wheel,games,power,scanner -s /bin/bash <user>
passwd <user>

Check hardware and kernel modules:

lspci
lspci -k
lsmod

E145 lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Root Complex
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Kabini [Radeon HD 8240 / R3 Series]
00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Kabini HDMI/DP Audio
00:02.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Function 0
00:02.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Functions 5:1
00:02.3 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Functions 5:1
00:02.5 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Functions 5:1
00:10.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB XHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 39)
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 39)
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB OHCI Controller (rev 39)
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH USB EHCI Controller (rev 39)
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 3a)
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller (rev 02)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 11)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 16h Processor Function 5
01:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43142 802.11b/g/n (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 07)
04:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5229 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)

Install yaourt from AUR using the Archlinux Build System (ABS):

pacman -S abs
#download yaourt 1.5 from AUR
cd ~/abs/yaourt
makepkg -s
pacman -U yaourt-1.5-1-any.pkg.tar.xz

Other utilities:

pacman -S gvim, sudo, git

Network

Ethernet works straight away.

Wireless

I had read that there are problems with broadcom-wl-dkms, but so far it worked for me:

yaourt -S broadcom-wl-dkms
depmod -a
modprobe wl

/etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-wl-dkms.conf:

blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist ssb
blacklist bcm43xx
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist bcma

/etc/systemd/system/network.service:

[Unit]
Description=Network Connectivity
Wants=network.target
Before=network.target
BindTo=sys-subsystem-net-devices-<nic>.device
After=sys-subsystem-net-devices-<nic>.device

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=ip link set dev <nic> up
ExecStart=ip addr add <ip address>/24 dev <nic> #CIDR notation
ExecStart=ip route add default via 192.168.1.1
ExecStop=ip addr flush dev <nic>
ExecStop=ip link set dev <nic> down

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I use netctl and made a static setup for ethernet and a dynamic for wireless.

/etc/netctl/sen:

Description='static ethernet connection'
Interface=enp3s0
Connection=ethernet
IP=static
Address=('192.168.1.107/24')
Gateway='192.168.1.1'
DNS=('192.168.1.1')
ExcludeAuto=no

/etc/netctl/dwl:

Description='dhcp wireless home'
Interface=wlp1s0
Connection=wireless
Security=wpa
IP=dhcp
ESSID='whateveryouressid'
Key='whateveryourpassphrase'

wifi-menu -o can be used to scan for wifi and to generate a profile.

Audio

pacman -S alsa-utils
pacman -S mplayer
pacman -S pavucontrol

Alsa configuration files:  ⁄ usr ⁄ share ⁄ alsa ⁄ alsa.conf includes  ⁄ etc ⁄ asound.conf and  ⁄ .asoundrc .

Commands for testing

#check loaded kernel modules
lsmod | grep snd
#check indices
cat /proc/asound/modules
#cards, devices, ...
cat /proc/asound/cards
aplay -l
aplay -L
arecord -l
arecord -L

#testing
arecord -r 48000 test.wav
aplay test.wav

and the alsa configuration file:

/etc/asound.conf:

pcm.dmixed {
    ipc_key 1025
    type dmix
    slave.pcm "hw:1,0"
}

#one called "dsnooped" for capturing
pcm.dsnooped {
    ipc_key 1027
    type dsnoop
    slave.pcm "hw:1,0"
}

#and this is the real magic
pcm.asymed {
    type asym
    playback.pcm "dmixed"
    capture.pcm "dsnooped"
}

#a quick plug plugin for above device to do the converting magic
pcm.pasymed {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "asymed"
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "asymed"
}

defaults.ctl.!card 1;

#a ctl device to keep xmms happy
ctl.pasymed {
    type hw
    card 1
    device 0
}

#for aoss:
pcm.dsp0 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "asymed"
}

ctl.mixer0 {
    type hw
    card 1
    device 0
}

pcm.jackplug {
    type plug
    slave { pcm "jack" }
}

pcm.jack {
    type jack
    playback_ports {
        0 alsa_pcm:playback_1
        1 alsa_pcm:playback_2
    }
    capture_ports {
        0 alsa_pcm:capture_1
        1 alsa_pcm:capture_2
    }
}

Somewhere I had found that position_fix would help for the crackling microphone.

/etc/modprobe.d/audio_powersave.conf:

options snd_hda_intel model=thinkpad position_fix=3 power_save=1

It maybe helps a little bit, but the actual way to tackle this is via alsamixer, F4, capture to maximum and the other two bars down to zero.

Video

pacman -S xorg-server
pacman -S xorg-init
pacman -S xorg-utils
pacman -S xorg-xmodmap #because I have .Xmodmap file

#video
pacman -S xf86-video-ati

Mouse

#mouse pad
pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

Window Manager

I use xmonad, but the choices are many ...

pacman -S xmonad
pacman -S xmonad-contrib

Special Keys

The special keys of the E145 are turned on by default. So you have to press Fn to get to the Fx keys. Enter BIOS at boot and set them to legacy to have F1 through F12 directly.

The special keys are then available via Fn+Fx. They don't work out of the box, but are mapped to X events already. These X events can be mapped to commands via xbindkeys.

pacman -S xbindkeys

~/.xbindkeysrc:

"amixer -D pulse sset Master 5%+"
    XF86AudioRaiseVolume

"amixer -D pulse sset Master 5%-"
    XF86AudioLowerVolume

"amixer -D pulse set Master toggle"
    XF86AudioMute

"amixer -D pulse set Capture toggle"
    XF86AudioMicMute

"echo `cat /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness` -10 | bc | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness > /dev/null"
    XF86MonBrightnessDown

"echo `cat /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness` +10 | bc | sudo tee /sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness > /dev/null"
    XF86MonBrightnessUp

#not mapped
#XF86Display , XF86AudioNext , XF86AudioPlay , XF86AudioPrev , XF86WebCam , XF86WLAN

Use xbindkeys -v for testing. xbindkeys is started via ~/.xinitrc:

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi
setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp
xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
xbindkeys
exec xmonad

Note

Xbacklight didn't work and trying all the other tools would have meant learning about all of them and investigating problems for all of them, so in the above .xbindkeysrc I went for directly writing to /sys/.../brightness. To overcome the permission denied I did

visudo
#add line: <myuser> ALL=NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/tee,/sys/class/backlight/radeon_bl0/brightness

Fan

When I had turned on the E145 for the first time, I was disappointed about the fan noise. The fan started very frequently. Luckily this can be solved using the fancontrol service.

pacman -S lm_sensors
sensors
cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/temp1_input

/etc/modprobe.d/fancontrol.conf:

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

The fancontrol configuration file can be generated by pwmconfig. I edited it afterwards to these values:

/etc/fancontrol:

INTERVAL=10
DEVPATH=hwmon0=devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon
DEVNAME=hwmon0=thinkpad
FCTEMPS=hwmon0/device/pwm1=hwmon0/device/temp1_input
FCFANS= hwmon0/device/pwm1=hwmon0/device/fan1_input
MINTEMP=hwmon0/device/pwm1=70
MAXTEMP=hwmon0/device/pwm1=100
MINPWM=hwmon0/device/pwm1=30
MAXPWM=hwmon0/device/pwm1=255
MINSTART=hwmon0/device/pwm1=32
MINSTOP=hwmon0/device/pwm1=30

systemctl enable fancontrol
systemctl start fancontrol

Fancontrol stops after returning from sleep, i.e. after having had the lid closed. The following helps

/etc/systemd/system/sleep.target.wants/onsleep.service:

[Unit]
Description=sleep hook
Before=sleep.target
StopWhenUnneeded=yes

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStop=-/usr/bin/systemctl restart fancontrol

[Install]
WantedBy=sleep.target

Battery on command line.

pacman -S acpi
acpi

I use Oh-my-zsh and there I tweaked the kiwi theme.

~/.oh-my-zsh/themes/my.zsh-theme:

PROMPT='%{$fg_bold[green]%}┌[%{$fg_bold[cyan]%}%D %T%{$fg_bold[green]%}]-(%{$fg_bold[white]%}%2~%{$fg_bold[green]%})-$(git_prompt_info)$(svn_prompt_info)$(battery_pct_prompt)
└> % %{$reset_color%}'

ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_PREFIX="[%{$reset_color%}%{$fg[white]%}git:%{$fg_bold[white]%}"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_SUFFIX="%{$fg_bold[green]%}]-"

ZSH_THEME_SVN_PROMPT_PREFIX="[%{$reset_color%}%{$fg[white]%}svn:%{$fg_bold[white]%}/"
ZSH_THEME_SVN_PROMPT_SUFFIX="%{$fg_bold[green]%}]-"

~/.zshrc:

export ZSH=$HOME/.oh-my-zsh
export EDITOR=vim
test -r ~/.profile && source ~/.profile
bindkey -v

#my = kiwish changed to %D %T
export ZSH_THEME="my"
eval `dircolors ~/.dircolors`
plugins=(battery git mercurial vi-mode)
source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh

Note

The battery installed is not supported by this system and will not charge. Please replace the battery with the correct lenovo battery for this system. Press the ESC key to continue.

On my model this message appeared on startup after a few boots. First I thought it was a wrong warning, but it turned out, the battery was completely discharged: the notebook went black. I removed and reattached the battery and plugged in the notebook and luckily the message didn't appear any more.

Suspend

Suspend to mem works (mem > /sys/power/state). When closing the lid this state is automatically entered.

Hibernate did not work for me.

The resume kernel option

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet resume=70d8aac3-344d-434d-b607-e48447692734"

did not help here. The GUID is my swap partition.

I stopped investigating regarding this, because the default sleep is just fine for me.