As the x61t is a Core 2 Duo you can install Arch x86_64 on it.

Preparation of machine for Linux installation

make backup of 1st primary partition if possible. this is the recovery tools from Lenovo/IBM - do not remove it... with grub you can later set it to be accessible!
resize NTFS partition with MS Windows Vista or remove it completely from drive ... make space at the end of the hard drive for Arch Linux (in my case 80 GB hard drive 24GB Linux / and /home)

No optical drive installation

As I do not have an optical drive and the x61t has no optical drive itself, the installation was done from an external USB storage device (hard drive or USB key).

Download Arch's latest installation img from your local mirror. Insert an empty or expendable USB stick and determine its path. Then dd the .img to the USB stick like this:

dd if=archlinux-2008.06-[core_or_ftp]-i686.img of=/dev/sdx

where if= is the path to the img file and of= is your USB device. Make sure to use /dev/sdx and not /dev/sdx1.

Note: This will irrevocably delete all files on your USB stick, so make sure you do not have any important files on the stick before doing this.

Continue with Boot USB harddrive on thinkpad x61t

Boot USB harddrive on thinkpad x61t

Press F12 on the keyboard when you see the Thinkpad logo post screen. Then select the USB key from menu.

proceed with installation as you wish

see for details Official_Arch_Linux_Install_Guide

Specific Hardware Setup

Sound

Used to work out of the box - following modules were loaded automatically

[damir@Apollon Arch]$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_seq_oss            32896  0
snd_seq_midi_event      7808  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                55680  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7956  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_hda_intel         347940  4
snd_pcm_oss            44576  0
snd_pcm                82568  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              22536  3 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          8720  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss          16896  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd                    57064  14          
snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
soundcore               7968  1 snd

However, lately, one must set the model of the sound system to thinkpad in the file: /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf Create that file, and set the contents to:

 options snd-hda-intel model=thinkpad

Firewire

works out of the box

USB

works out of the box

Power Management

suspend machine

pm-suspend

works (keyboard, mouse, stylus, sound, network) with one detail: when in X, the display lamp is not turned on. workaround: ctrl-alt-f1 to switch to vesa frame buffer turns the lamp on and when switching back to ctrl-alt-f7 the X has then the lamp turned on as well. no idea why this happens.

Wireless network device

~~get packages~~

pacman -S iwlwifi iwlwifi-4965-ucode

arch loads the module

iwl4965

~~and wireless works fine~~

//edit - there is no iwlwifi anymore, but wifi seems to work fine out of the box on my new x61t

Xorg

works with xf86-video-intel

Stylus

Is a wacom on serial. install xf86-input-wacom from Arch repository and it should work. By default it doesnt work very well on the sides of the screen, but you can adjust it using xsetwacom.

xsetwacom --list

to find out what is the name and number of your wacom and then

xsetwacom set [name_or_number] Area 0 0 24576 18432

you can find out your defaults with get Area instead of set and if you break something just use

xsetwacom set 12 ResetArea

AUTOMATIC ROTATION (added by bbs) -- for automatic rotation consider the script found here -- thanks to Luke -- this script works well.

please note you must update your handler.sh for the acpi events to properly call this script -- contact unk.nown [at] unix [dot] net -- if you have any questions

Trackpoint

Press to Select

Press to Select allows you to tap the control stick which will simulate a left click. You can enable this feature by typing the following in to a terminal (you may need to be root):

echo -n 1 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/press_to_select

If you want to enable Press to Select at boot then add the previuos line to /etc/rc.local.

Disable it in a similar manner:

echo -n 0 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/press_to_select

Sensitivity & Speed

Adjusting the speed and sensitivity of the TrackPoint requires echoing a value between 0 and 255 into the appropriate file. For example, for a speed of 120 and a sensitivity of 250, type the following into a terminal:

echo -n 120 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/serio2/speed 
echo -n 250 > /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio0/serio2/sensitivity

SD card reader

Works out of the box.

sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver
sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman
sdhci: SDHCI controller found at 0000:05:00.2 [1180:0822] (rev 21)

Device is located at:

/dev/mmcblk0

Fingerprint Reader

USB ID 0483:2016

Works fine with the ThinkFinger binary drivers version 0.3. i will include the thinkfinger pkg in [extra].

CPU Frequency Scaling

See the CPU Frequency Scaling article.

Bluetooth

Works after following Bluetooth page. (If you have this option installed)

#lsusb
   Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0a5c.2110 Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller

To deactivate bluetooth:

echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/bluetooth_enable

or to enable:

echo 1 > /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/bluetooth_enable

Lenovo ThinkPad X61T

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