Lenovo ThinkPad X120e

CPU

The AMD CPU used on the X120e is microcode-upgradeable. To enable this functionality install the amd-ucode packages (available on extra) and add microcode to the MODULE list on /etc/rc.conf.

Video drivers

Users have the choice between the open source ATI video driver or the closed source Catalyst video driver.

In order to use the open source driver you must have at least kernel 2.6.38.

The open source ATI driver has flawless performance (including suspend). Gnome 3 works well with the open source ATI driver.

The Catalyst drivers do offer better 3D performance but usually have various minor issues (such as suspend support). As of kernel 3.2.6.2, suspend appears to work fine with this computer while using the catalyst drivers.

Wireless

The Thinkpad x120e is available with one of two wireless cards.

• The Realtek BGN Wifi card is currently supported out of the box by the rtl8192ce driver, which was integrated into the Linux kernel as of version 3.2. This card, however, suffers from access point association and connection stability problems, especially in meshed wireless networks due to poor wireless radius detection. Since driver development by Realtek effectively stopped as of January 2012, the general consensus among many owners online has been to swap out this wireless card for a different better supported half-mini PCI card such as the Intel 6230. This however requires a BIOS patch to remove Lenovo's hardware restriction on which wireless cards can be used in the computer. More information in regards to that can be found in this thread.

• The Broadcom ABGN Wifi card is currently supported by the b43 driver. This driver is recommended over the broadcom-wl.

Audio

The kernel modules work, but the HDMI audio is the primary device (not the speaker). You can swap that:

$ vim ~/.asoundrc

defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.ctl.card 1

Note: Alternatively, you can accomplish the same thing by configuring the snd-hda-intel module:

$ grep snd-hda-intel /etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.conf

options snd-hda-intel index=1

By specifying index you should no longer specify the default in ~/.asoundrc.

Input

TrackPoint scrolling (wheel emulation)

To enable scrolling with the TrackPoint while holding down the middle mouse button, create a new file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf with the following content:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier	"Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
    MatchProduct	"TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad / TrackPoint|ThinkPad USB Keyboard with TrackPoint|USB Trackpoint pointing device"
    MatchDevicePath	"/dev/input/event*"
    Option		"EmulateWheel"		"true"
    Option		"EmulateWheelButton"	"2"
    Option		"Emulate3Buttons"	"false"
    Option		"XAxisMapping"		"6 7"
    Option		"YAxisMapping"		"4 5"
EndSection

There are more details about how this works on the Xorg page.

Disabling the TrackPad

If you try to use your x120e lying down you will notice its very easy to hit the TrackPad buttons and invert the functionality of the other inputs(fun).

Install xf86-input-synaptics from the official repositories.

You can now toggle the TrackPads functionality using the synclient utility:

$ synclient TouchpadOff=0 ; enables
$ synclient TouchpadOff=1 ; disables

If you want this to be permanent add the option to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf:

        Option          "TouchpadOff"             "1"

Also, you can use this script for change touchpad status:

 #!/bin/sh
 tstat=$(xinput list-props "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" | awk '/Synaptics Off/ { print $NF }')
 if [ $tstat = 0 ]; then
     synclient TouchpadOff=1
 else
     synclient TouchpadOff=0
 fi

TrackPoint speed and sensitivity

You can up your trackpoint speed with next command:

$ xinput --set-prop 13 'Device Accel Profile' 6

If you want this to be permanent speed up add the option to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-thinkpad.conf (if this is your X11 trackpoint config, of course):

Option		"AccelerationProfile"   "6"

To more acceleration profile read man "xorf.conf.d"

Power saving

See power saving.

Disable Bluetooth

Note: You must first have the thinkpad_acpi kernel module loaded.

To save some power you can disable Bluetooth:

# tee <<< disable /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth

If you want to disable Bluetooth at every boot just add that line to /etc/rc.local

ATI video card powersaving

Under the opensource ATI video card driver you can control the clockspeed of the GPU. The recommended setting is:

echo dynpm > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method

This enables dynamic frequency switching based off of GPU load. Further information on this topic can be found in ATI#Powersaving.

CPU undervolting

Warning: Undervolting can lead to instability and consequently data loss, only you are responsible if you break something

Using PHC

The Fusion Processor can be undervolted with the PHC-K8 tool. See PHC for usage information. For the AMD Fusion you'll want to download phc-k8^AUR from the AUR.

Note: In order to lower CPU power usage you must actually raise the PHC values. (somewhat counter-intuitive)

"24 26 52" is what I have my E-350 set to. The three numbers represent 1600mhz, 1200mhz and 800mhz.

Warning: The three values listed above are stable on MY processor. Due to variables during production, you're chip may be able to be undervolted more or LESS. Feel free to post the stable values that you reach to this wiki.

Using tpc

Another method for undervolting is tpc^AUR. It is more intuitive then PHC tool and needs Kernelmodule cpuid and msr.

Information output available cores and current frequencies and voltage:

# tpc -l

Example how to use:

Warning: DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!! DON'T USE THIS VALUES!!! Approach yourself to values whitch are working for you! This is just an example how to use tpc

# tpc -set core all pstate 2 frequency 825 vcore 0.825   
# tpc -set core all pstate 1 frequency 1320 vcore 1.2250
# tpc -set core all pstate 0 frequency 1650 vcore 1.3000

Fan control

The X120e's fan spins constantly but luckily can be controlled by the user.

Warning: Modify fan settings at your own risk, only you are responsible if you toast your laptop or your lap.

Note: Even with undervolting the APU produces enough heat to have to occasionally run the fan even at idle.

To enable manual fan control place the following into /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf:

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

Now you have to reload thinkpad_acpi module or reboot your netbook.

# rmmod thinkpad_acpi && modprobe thinkpad_acpi

Now it should look like that:

# cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan 
status:		disabled
speed:		0
level:		0
commands:	level <level> (<level> is 0-7, auto, disengaged, full-speed)
commands:	enable, disable
commands:	watchdog <timeout> (<timeout> is 0 (off), 1-120 (seconds))

At this point the fan will still be safely under the system's control. You can either directly modify the values in /proc/acpi/ibm (NOT RECOMMENDED. e.g. 'echo level 1 > /proc/acpi/ibm/fan') or install a fan control daemon such as thinkfan^AUR from the AUR.

Suspend and hibernation

Suspend works out of the box, but hibernate may fail - the system usually hangs with a black screen and a blinking power button led. To fix this we need to modify the hibernation mode; using pm-utils is just a matter of creaing a file /etc/pm/config.d/hibernate_mode containing a single line:

HIBERNATE_MODE="shutdown"

See also

X120e on ThinkWiki Undervolting the AMD Fusion with PHC-tool