# Lenovo ThinkPad X200

The Lenovo ThinkPad X200 is a wonderful high-quality laptop featuring a 12.1" widescreen WXGA monitor, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (2.26 - 2.66GHz), an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD and up to 4GB of RAM whilst still maintaining impressive battery life.

While Arch Linux is running flawlessly on this laptop there are a few things you have to configure manually. This article will aid you in configuring your system and will provide additionally hints to make your ThinkPad X200 experience even better.

## Setup

### Wireless

The ThinkPad X200 has a Intel PRO/Wireless 5100 AGN wireless adapter included. In order to make it work you have to install the iwlwifi-5000-ucode package when you install from a 2010.05 snapshot in order to get the firmware, by now the package is included in the linux-firmware package.

Now you can choose whatever network configuration programs you want to use. If you do not already know which network manager you want to use, we highly recommend netctl.

If you experience connectivity problems such as a slow connection or aborts, especially when connected to an (Enterprise) WPA2 network, then try to load the iwlwifi module with the options `11n_disable=1`, `11n_disable=2`, `swcrypto=1`, `bt_coex_active=0`. There is no clear recommendation which of these options to be used as for some users `11n_disable=1` already solves the problem sufficiently, for others `bt_coex_active=0`. Thus, play around with each of them. Example:

    modprobe iwlwifi 11n_disable=2

If some of them work out for you, then make the options permanent by creating the file `/etc/modprobe.d/wireless.conf` and adding the following:

    options iwlwifi 11n_disable=2
    # Disable blinking LED wireless light
    options iwlwifi led_mode=1

### Graphics

The graphics card is supported by the xf86-video-intel driver package from the extra repository. The Xorg server makes use of this automatically. There's no need for a Xorg configuration file.

    # pacman -S xf86-video-intel

### Audio

Audio is supported out of the box after installing the necessary alsa packages from the core repository.

    # sudo pacman -S alsa-lib

See Alsa for more information.

### Fingerprint Reader

See fprint.

## Configuration

### GRUB kernel parameter

Many kernel parameters usually recommended in the past to increase performance and battery conservation are obsolete or already implemented in the kernel by default. As such the actual kernel line in `/etc/default/grub` can look very minimal:

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="acpi_osi=Linux zswap.enabled=1 zswap.compressor=lz4 resume=/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-Swap"

`acpi_osi=Linux` is required to make the mute button working and `zswap.enabled=1` as well as `zswap.compressor=lz4` will increase the speed on resume from hibernation.

### Disable bluetooth at boot

In order to disable bluetooth at boot you just need to add the following line to a newly created /etc/tmpfiles.d/disable-bluetooth.conf file. Please note, that there is no longer support for a /etc/rc.local file.

    w /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth - - - - disable

### Enable tap to select

You can enable the double click through tapping on your track point. Create a `/etc/tmpfiles.d/enable-tap-to-select.conf` with the following content:

    w /sys/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/press_to_select - - - - 1

### Hard Disk Shock Protection

The ThinkPad X200 comes with an integrated 2-axis accelerometer providing the possibility of parking the hard drive's disk heads preventing from data loss due to heavy shocks.

First you'll have to install tp_smapi and hdapsd from official repositories (Community). Then you have to load the hdaps module provided by tp_smapi with the option invert=7 passed. This will correct the orientation of the accelerometer's axises. If you are using systemd, create a file `/etc/modules-load.d/tp_smapi.conf` with the following line:

    # Load tp_smapi at boot
    options tp_smapi invert=7

Then you need to start the hdapsd daemon:

    # systemctl enable hdapsd
    # systemctl start hdapsd

Now check your log files with `journalctl` if you see any parking/unparking entries which indicate that hdapsd is successfully configured.

For full information see: HDAPS

Note: If you experience parking / un-parking events when not moving your hard disk, then you might use the wrong invert value. Install and run hdaps-gl and check whether it shows your machine in the correct orientation when turning the machine. If not, you need to change the invert value. Alternatively to reloading the module you can also directly write a value between 0 and 7 to `/sys/devices/platform/hdaps/invert`.

### Mute button

If the mute button on your keyboard is not working, then be sure to add acpi_osi="Linux" to your boot parameter in /etc/default/grub.

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet acpi_osi=Linux"

### Screen calibration

If you experience your stylus to be working very imprecisely, then you might need to calibrate it first. Install xinput_calibrator and run the following command:

    sudo xinput_calibrator --device "Serial Wacom Tablet WACf004 stylus"

After calibration you need to create the file called `/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-calibration.conf` with the settings provided by xinput_calibrator.

### Loading the correct ICC colour profile

Download TPLCD.ICM and move it to `~/.color/icc`. Load the profile with xcalib as follows:

    $ /usr/bin/xcalib -d :0 ~/.color/icc/TPLCD.ICM

### Screen rotation

The screen rotation hardware button does not work by default. First you have to assign this button to a free keycode. In order to find out an unused keycode, you can use the command `xmodmap -pke | less`.

    # File: /etc/systemd/system/setkeycodes.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Assign each hardware button to a free keycode on boot

    [Service]
    Type=oneshot
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/setkeycodes 0x67 184 0x6c 185 0x68 186 0x66 187

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note: Commands like xmodmap, xev, showkey, dmesg, setkeycodes can help you.
Here is a very good tutorial for adding extra keys : Extra Keyboard Keys

Then you can assign the script for screen rotation to that button.

    # File: /usr/local/bin/screen_rotation.sh

    #!/bin/sh

    # Find the line in "xrandr -q --verbose" output that contains current screen orientation and "strip" out current orientation.

    rotation="$(xrandr -q --verbose | grep 'connected' | egrep -o  '\) (normal|left|inverted|right) \(' | egrep -o '(normal|left|inverted|right)')"

    # Using current screen orientation proceed to rotate screen and input tools.

    case "$rotation" in
        normal)
        # rotate to the left
        xrandr -o left
        xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet WACf004 stylus" rotate ccw
        xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet WACf004 eraser" rotate ccw
        ;;
        left)
        # rotate to normal
        xrandr -o normal
        xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet WACf004 stylus" rotate none
        xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet WACf004 eraser" rotate none
        ;;
    esac

The assignment of the keycode to the script depends on your desktop environment. For Gnome the assignment can be easily done in the Keyboard preferences of custom shortcuts. If you are using another desktop environment (such as XFCE, LXDE, Fluxbox ...) you can always use the program xbindkeys.

### Screen auto-rotation

The auto-rotation of the screen does not work by default. First you have to install the HDAPS package so as to get the values worked out by the integrated 2-axis accelerometer of the Thinkpad X200. Then the following script will enable you to use the accelerometer's data to automatically rotate your screen :

    #!/bin/bash

    # (To have the exact names of these devices you should type the command : xsetwacom --list devices )
    stylus="Serial Wacom Tablet stylus"
    eraser="Serial Wacom Tablet eraser"

    function rotate {
        if [ $# -lt 1 ]; then  # error ...
    	exit 1
        fi

        case "$1" in
            up)
                nextRotate="none"
                nextOrient="normal" ;;
            down)
                nextRotate="half"
                nextOrient="inverted" ;;
    	right)
                nextRotate="ccw"
                nextOrient="left" ;;
    	left)
                nextRotate="cw"
                nextOrient="right";;
        esac

        # Rotate the screen
        xrandr -o $nextOrient

        # Rotate the tablet
        xsetwacom set "$stylus" Rotate $nextRotate
        xsetwacom set "$eraser" Rotate $nextRotate
    }

    while true; do
        # 1) We extract data about the actual position
        position=$(cat /sys/devices/platform/hdaps/position)
        x=$(echo $position | sed -n "s/(\([-0-9]*\),\([-0-9]*\).*)/\1/p") # most of time contained in [350,650]
        y=$(echo $position | sed -n "s/(\([-0-9]*\),\([-0-9]*\).*)/\2/p") # most of time contained in [-650,-350]

        # 2) We work out the x value (= left and right inclination) (always between
        if [ $x -lt 400 ]; then
    	rotate left
        elif [ $x -gt 600 ]; then
    	rotate right
        fi

        # 3) We work out the y value (= front and back inclination)
        if [ $y -gt -400 ]; then
    	rotate down
        elif [ $y -lt -600 ]; then
    	rotate up
        fi

        # 4) wait before checking the value again
        sleep 0.5
    done

Then you can run this script at the startup in order to make your screen automatically rotate when you need it. For instance, you can use the file ~/.fluxbox/startup on fluxbox, or the command : gnome-session-properties if you are using Gnome 3).

### Power consumption and fan control

Note: There is a useful blog post describing possible measures to reduce power consumption of a X200T to almost 7 Watt.

You might notice a beeping whilst your system is running. This is due to missing fan control. Install the tlp package from AUR to enable extensive fan and power consumption control.

You can further disable the nmi-watchdog by creating the file `/etc/tmpfiles.d/disable-nmi-watchdog.conf` with the following line:

    w /proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog - - - - 0

This will disable the watchdog at startup.

Additionally you might want to define different brightness level and automatically dim your screen when you are running on battery. A DE and WM independent solution is the usage of pm-utils. Detailed instructions can be found here. They are tested to work with a X200T.

### Suspend to RAM / hibernate

Suspend to RAM and hiberantion are working out of the box with the standard Arch Linux kernel using systemd.

    # systemctl suspend
    # systemctl hibernate

Note: Very seldom after resuming the backlight won't come back on. The following page on ThinkWiki might provide information on how to solve this issue: Problem with display remaining black after resume.

## Tips & Tricks

### Power consumption

Power consumption of an X200T can be reduced to as much as ~6.5W. This can be achieved by installing and configuring TLP and reduced monitor brightness. A detailed guide how to implement a simplistic power saving environment can be found here. Actual power consumption can be measured by Powertop and powerstat-git.

## Troubleshooting

### failed to execute '/usr/sbin/inputattach'

If you see the above error in your logs, copy `/usr/lib/udev/rules.d/70-wacom.rules` to `/etc/udev/rules.d/70-wacom.rules` and comment out SUBSYSTEM of inputattach.

### System feels unresponsive

If your system feels unresponsive and lagging, you can try creating a file called `/etc/modprobe.d/drm_kms.conf`:

    options drm_kms_helper poll=N

### PM device: Resume from hibernation error: Failed to restore -19

This is likely to be related to the tpm_tis and tpm modules not being properly unloaded before hibernation. These modules are required by the device listed in the error as 00:0a:

    # dmesg | grep 00:0a
    [    0.377877] pnp 00:0a: Plug and Play ACPI device, IDs PNP0c31 (active)
    [   10.746742] tpm_tis 00:0a: 1.2 TPM (device-id 0x1020, rev-id 6)
    [   10.746751] tpm_tis 00:0a: Intel iTPM workaround enabled
    [   10.866734] tpm_tis 00:0a: TPM is disabled/deactivated (0x6)

To unload the module create the following executable file called `/usr/lib/systemd/system-sleep/tpm.sh`, assuming the use of the systemd hibernation procedure:

    #!/bin/sh
    case $1/$2 in
      pre/*)
        echo "Going to $2..."
        modprobe -r tpm
        modprobe -r tpm_tis
        ;;
      post/*)
        echo "Waking up from $2..."
        modprobe tpm
        modprobe tpm_tis
        ;;
    esac

### mei_me 0000:00:03.0: suspend

If you are seeing this error, a workaround is to blacklist the `mei` and `mei_me` modules. More information can be found here.

### pciehp 0000:00:1c.1:pcie04: Cannot add device at 0000:03:00

See #mei_me 0000:00:03.0: suspend.

### Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 30.

The Thinkpad X200 is known to report the following error on resume from hibernation or suspension:

    Uhhuh. NMI received for unknown reason 30.
    Dazed and confused, but trying to continue
    Do you have a strange power saving mode enabled?

In this case you can disable the high precision event timer (HPET) by adding "nohpet" to your GRUB kernel parameter line.

## See also

- Thinkwiki: X200 Overview
- ThinkWiki: How to reduce power consumption

Category:

- Lenovo