Ubuntu T42p Video
New laptop. New OS. Everything (including suspend, wifi) works out of the box... except full motion video is bit sluggish:
rubys@rubypad:~$ glxinfo | grep direct direct rendering: No OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
glxgears shows about 320 frames per second.
I’ve tried installing and building a number of alternatives (both open and proprietary) without much luck.
Update: I've got it working
GLX is what you need for 3D acceleration. Video is accelerated by XV. Type xvinfo and see if you have support.
It should look like this:
X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
Adaptor #0: “ATI Radeon Video Overlay”
number of ports: 1
<snip>
Also if playing from DVD, make sure you have DMA turned on for your DVD player. Check the ubuntu wiki.
Posted by Tristan Tarrant atAfter thinking I had tried all of these combinations, I tried again, and things seem to be working. glxgears is reporting a respectable 1920 fps. I can suspend and resume. I did once see a flicker, but that went away by switching to the console and back (Ctrl-Alt-F1, Ctrl-Alt-F7).
Here’s what I did from a clean Breezy install:
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
Apply the following to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
--- xorg.conf.bak 2005-10-24 09:04:07.000000000 -0400 +++ xorg.conf 2005-10-24 09:23:44.000000000 -0400 @@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ Section "Module" Load "GLcore" - Load "i2c" Load "bitmap" Load "ddc" Load "dri" @@ -72,7 +71,7 @@ Section "Device" Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. FireGL Mobility T2 (M10 NT)" - Driver "ati" + Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection
Apply the following to /etc/modules:
--- modules.bak 2005-10-24 10:22:20.000000000 -0400 +++ modules 2005-10-24 10:00:44.000000000 -0400 @@ -6,3 +6,4 @@ lp mousedev psmouse +fglrx
Apply the following to /etc/acpi/prepare.sh:
--- prepare.bak 2005-10-24 10:19:14.000000000 -0400 +++ prepare.sh 2005-10-24 10:19:35.000000000 -0400 @@ -77,10 +77,10 @@ chvt 12 # And then try to save some video state -#if [ x$SAVE_VBE_STATE = "xtrue" ]; then -# VBESTATE=`tempfile` -# vbetool vbestate save >$VBESTATE; -#fi +if [ x$SAVE_VBE_STATE = "xtrue" ]; then + VBESTATE=`tempfile` + vbetool vbestate save >$VBESTATE; +fi # Now source everything in /etc/acpi/suspend.d/ for SCRIPT in /etc/acpi/suspend.d/*.sh; doPosted by Sam Ruby at
I’m jealous. :)
Is this one of the new ThinkPads sold under the Lenovo name? If so, has much changed besides the addition of a Windows key? I really loved my A32p, and I’m seriously wanting to buy another TP, but I haven’t heard much feedback about the new ones.
Anyhow, I think it’s really cool that everything works. That’s extremely impressive. You mentioned suspend, but does it hibernate, too? (Not that I ever used that feature in Windows on my old ThinkPad.)
Thanks for posting the details of how you got it working. That will certainly prove useful.
Posted by Scott Johnson atThe T42P looks virtually identical to the T40 it is replacing. No Windows key.
I suspect that the terms “suspend” and “hibernate” map to specific Windows actions, whereas the Ubuntu equivalents aren’t an exact match. Looking at /etc/default/acpi-support, it appears that what I was referring to as “suspend” is actually doing is suspending to disk. The reason why I didn’t use hibernate so much when I ran windows is that resuming after hibernate was almost the equivalent of a reboot whereas I appear to be up and running in about a second after a suspend to disk on Ubuntu.
Posted by Sam Ruby atStellarium
Mmm, this Stellarium Astronomy Software is the kind of exciting gadget for all you geeky APOD lovers out there (well, it is for me) I’ve discovered it as an easy to add package on my Ubuntu Breezy Badger distribution. Which......Excerpt from Marc, himself, his blogs, and you reading them. at
I tried switching to the “fglrx” driver. I got the same increase in FPS, but I couldn’t get that driver to display on my external monitor. The monitor claimed “no signal”. So I went back to the “radeon” driver.
Posted by Norman Walsh at
Seems like I have the same setup as you, Breezy Ubuntu, T42p
Have you or any of the readers had any luck of extending the desktop on two screens, eg. having a web browser open on the laptop monitor and a programming IDE on the external monitor?
Posted by Arne And atNexenta
Nexenta [via Dave Johnson and Tim Bray] Download. Unzip. Burn. Boot. I’m to the login prompt on a T42P ThinkPad in under an hour. I didn’t initially know where to find the user and password despite the fact that Tim had directly link... [more]Trackback from Sam Ruby at
Mobility FireGL T2 on Ubuntu
How to get direct rendering from ATI Mobility FireGL T2 on Ubuntu can be found here....Excerpt from Knut Urdalen at
Mobility FireGL T2 on Ubuntu
How to get direct rendering from ATI Mobility FireGL T2 on Ubuntu can be found here....Excerpt from Knut Urdalen's Blog at
how would the changes need to be modified to work on a ibm tp t41? the graphics card is a ati radeon mobility 9000. thanks.
Posted by Reed Kerr at
I got everything working--- dual monitor/single monitor fglrx + suspend + hibernate all working on my Ubuntu install for my t42. I will work on other laptops as well. If you want to check it out its at [link]
Hope this helps someone!
-Aaron Snyder
links for 2008-01-08
Laptop (IBM Z60m) with External Display using RandR 1.2 - Ubuntu Forums (tags: linux ubuntu dual-monitor ATI) Tips for Gutsy Xrandr compiz radeon driver dual screen - Ubuntu Forums (tags: linux ubuntu dual-monitor ATI) Thinkpad Ubuntu video (tags:...Excerpt from oneafrikan.com at
Hey Sam,
In theory, the fglrx drivers are what you need for acceleration/direct rendering on that card. Check if the fglrx kernel module is loaded using lsmod (I think mine autoloads either in hotplug or when the X server starts, but load it manually anyway to see if it supports your card). You might need to install the ‘linux-restricted-modules-2.6.12-10-386’ (or similar, I’m not quite at Breezy yet) package first.
Then you should be able to tell Xorg to use the fglrx driver when you ‘dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg’. You might need to install the ‘xorg-driver-fglrx’ package first.
Once up and running (it seems to fall back to the ‘ati’ driver if things break), ‘fglrxinfo’ can be used to confirm everything is good.
Good luck,
Neil
Posted by Neil Blakey-Milner at