4 ms·

Got a T510 here (with the extra-high-res 1920x1080 display) and it's great. Everything works in Ubuntu 10.04 (I don't have any problems with suspend-to-RAM or

Got a T510 here (with the extra-high-res 1920x1080 display) and it's great. Everything works in Ubuntu 10.04 (I don't have any problems with suspend-to-RAM or -to-disk). I spent a while looking into MBPs and it seems the Linux support is still fairly laughable - the latest models won't even boot it, and even the older ones require a kernel recompile to get sound working. I'd buy an MBP without hesitation if I wanted to run OS X, but not as a Linux machine with a nicer case.

Symmetry 16y ago
I think the reason suspend didn't work for me was that I had the new version of Intel graphics whereas with a 510 you probably had NVidia graphics. Still, given that the new Intel graphics system had only been out for a few months when 10.04 came out I'm not really complaining too much.
pocoloco 16y ago
Same here. I got mine about two months ago. I also installed 10.04. I love the trackpoint (the red pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard) and the mouse buttons just below the space bar (don't have to leave the keyboard to use the mouse). The only major issue that I have now is the inability to control the backlight. This seems to be due to a bad driver by nvidia [1]. The backlight controls work if you use non-nvidia drivers. This will shorten your battery charge considerably. Other than that, everything works out of the box. I use the 64-bit version. [1] http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=150069 http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=150069
- samstokes 16y ago
  Yes, the backlight is the only thing that doesn't work so well. I can control the backlight - I think I had to tweak some setting that I found on Google, but I don't remember which - but its auto-darkening on inactivity is pretty broken. When I move the mouse or type a key, the screen brightens again, but only about halfway back to what it was before the auto-darken, so I then have to manually jack the brightness up each time this happens. Hoping some new driver release will fix this some time, but it's only a minor irritation. BTW, your link [1] seems to be broken? I love the trackpoint. I've disabled my touchpad completely.
  - pocoloco 16y ago
    Yes, the forums' website is down. Here is the google cache [2]. The link [1] entitled "NVIDIA Quadro NVS 3100M on Lenovo Thinkpad T510: NVIDIA Backlight Control Causes Buzz" is the first result in the search for "t510 backlight" [3]. The issue has also made it to Canonical's launchpad [4]. The link [1] is mentioned in comment #27 [5]. [2] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4dJW3r_kZRIJ:www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php%3Ft%3D150069+t510+backlight&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4dJW3r_... [3] http://www.google.com/search?q=t510+backlight http://www.google.com/search?q=t510+backlight [4] Bug #562005: Backlight controls of laptops with NVIDIA NVS and Quadro FX 880M GPUs no longer function while using proprietary drivers https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/562005 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-dr... [5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/562005/comments/27 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-dr...
khandelwal 16y ago
Is there a particular wireless chipset I should choose that works better with Ubuntu? Options seem to be: ThinkPad bgn Wireless and then various Intel Centrino variants.
- pocoloco 16y ago
  When I got mine, I had an option for "Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN". That's what I selected and it works flawlessly. I don't know about the others.
  - mgedmin 16y ago
    Intel wireless cards should be a safe choice. Broadcom wireless cards ought to be avoided at all costs (except they finally saw the light and released an open driver for their latest 802.11N, yay, but likely it's not integrated in any distro yet). I've no idea what "ThinkPad wireless" actually is.

Symmetry 16y ago

I think the reason suspend didn't work for me was that I had the new version of Intel graphics whereas with a 510 you probably had NVidia graphics. Still, given that the new Intel graphics system had only been out for a few months when 10.04 came out I'm not really complaining too much.

pocoloco 16y ago

Same here. I got mine about two months ago. I also installed 10.04. I love the trackpoint (the red pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard) and the mouse buttons just below the space bar (don't have to leave the keyboard to use the mouse). The only major issue that I have now is the inability to control the backlight. This seems to be due to a bad driver by nvidia [1]. The backlight controls work if you use non-nvidia drivers. This will shorten your battery charge considerably. Other than that, everything works out of the box. I use the 64-bit version. [1] http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=150069 http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=150069

samstokes 16y ago
Yes, the backlight is the only thing that doesn't work so well. I can control the backlight - I think I had to tweak some setting that I found on Google, but I don't remember which - but its auto-darkening on inactivity is pretty broken. When I move the mouse or type a key, the screen brightens again, but only about halfway back to what it was before the auto-darken, so I then have to manually jack the brightness up each time this happens. Hoping some new driver release will fix this some time, but it's only a minor irritation. BTW, your link [1] seems to be broken? I love the trackpoint. I've disabled my touchpad completely.
- pocoloco 16y ago
  Yes, the forums' website is down. Here is the google cache [2]. The link [1] entitled "NVIDIA Quadro NVS 3100M on Lenovo Thinkpad T510: NVIDIA Backlight Control Causes Buzz" is the first result in the search for "t510 backlight" [3]. The issue has also made it to Canonical's launchpad [4]. The link [1] is mentioned in comment #27 [5]. [2] http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4dJW3r_kZRIJ:www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php%3Ft%3D150069+t510+backlight&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4dJW3r_... [3] http://www.google.com/search?q=t510+backlight http://www.google.com/search?q=t510+backlight [4] Bug #562005: Backlight controls of laptops with NVIDIA NVS and Quadro FX 880M GPUs no longer function while using proprietary drivers https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/562005 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-dr... [5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+bug/562005/comments/27 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-dr...

khandelwal 16y ago

Is there a particular wireless chipset I should choose that works better with Ubuntu? Options seem to be: ThinkPad bgn Wireless and then various Intel Centrino variants.

pocoloco 16y ago
When I got mine, I had an option for "Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN". That's what I selected and it works flawlessly. I don't know about the others.
- mgedmin 16y ago
  Intel wireless cards should be a safe choice. Broadcom wireless cards ought to be avoided at all costs (except they finally saw the light and released an open driver for their latest 802.11N, yay, but likely it's not integrated in any distro yet). I've no idea what "ThinkPad wireless" actually is.