Lenovo ThinkPad SL500

The support for this laptop is not as bad as it first seems. In fact, pretty much everything works fine. I am very happy with this machine!

Installation

Your BIOS clock is probably set to local time.

Wireless

Getting the wireless to work on Linux was easier than getting it to work on Windows :P

The driver we need is included in the kernel. Add iwlagn to your MODULES array in rc.conf

Following the rest of the wireless setup guide to suit my needs worked for me.

Sound

Installing ALSA using the guide on the wiki worked for me.

Add snd-intel-8x0 and snd-pcm-oss to the modules array in rc.conf.

If you don't want that annoying system beep, add !pcspkr to your modules array in rc.conf.

lenovo-sl-laptop

This amazingly generous driver is provided to us to control bluetooth, hotkeys and screen brightness.

Download the C and Makefile from here and install the module.

make
sudo install -m=644 -D lenovo-sl-laptop.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/lenovo_sl_laptop/lenovo-sl-laptop.ko
depmod -a
modprobe lenovo-sl-laptop control_backlight=1

You may want to add this parameter to /etc/modprobe.d/lenovo-sl-laptop.conf:

options lenovo-sl-laptop control_backlight=1

The bluetooth light on the front of your laptop should turn on.

Finally, add lenovo-sl-laptop to your MODULES array in your rc.conf.

Other notes

The SD card reader seems a bit buggy.

Untested

Fingerprint reader, Microphone, Bluetooth, Modem.