IBM ThinkPad T30

Extensive information about Linux on the T30 can be found at [1]. What follows here are details specific to Arch Linux.

Configuration

Modules

udev in Arch does a pretty good job of detecting the T30's hardware. I modified the MODULES line in /etc/rc.conf as follows:

MODULES=(!usbserial !acpi_cpufreq !p4-clockmod !powernow-k6 !powernow-k7
 !powernow-k8 !cpufreq-nforce2 !speedstep-smi !hostap !hostap_pci 
 orinoco_pci snd_intel8x0 fuse)

cpufreq Drivers

This blacklists most of the cpufreq drivers so that only speedstep-ich will be loaded. It's not clear to me that the speedstep-ich driver is actually doing anything on this laptop, but it does appear to load and operate correctly.

Wireless Drivers

For T30s with the Intel 802.11b mini-PCI wireless adapter, either the hostap or orinoco driver modules should work. I've blacklisted hostap and forced the orinoco wireless driver to be loaded. ThinkWiki talks about some possible problems with the orinoco driver, but I've seen no issues on my T30 with the stock Arch kernel.

Sound Drivers

For whatever reason, udev wasn't able to get the right ALSA drivers loaded automatically. Simply forcing the load of the snd_intel8x0 resolved the issue so I didn't debug further.

Networking

The asignment of interface names to the wired and wireless ethernet adapters is a function of the order in which the modules load and complete their initializtion. This can make network configuration difficult because on one boot cycle the wireless may be eth0 but on the next boot it may be eth1. It should be possible to rename the interfaces through udev rules, but I had little success with that.

I solved the problem using the nameif utility. nameif uses the file /etc/mactab to associate ethernet adapter MAC addresses to interface names. My /etc/mactab is as follows:

eth0 00:09:6B:90:31:D4
wlan0 00:05:3C:04:B9:A0

Obviously you need to change the MAC addresses to match your hardware.

In addition, a small change to /etc/rc.d/network is necessary to run the nameif command prior to configuring the interfaces. The following excerpt from /etc/rc.d/network shows the lines that need to be added. This change simply checks for the existance of the /etc/mactab file and if it exists executes nameif to assign interface names.

               stat_busy "Starting Network"
               error=0
               ##### begin nameif change #####
               # set names
               if [ -n /etc/mactab ]; then
                 /sbin/nameif
               fi
               ##### end nameif change #####
               # bring up bridge interfaces
               bridge_up
               # bring up ethernet interfaces