Installing Debian Lenny on a Thinkpad T500 turned out to be less than trivial.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Cantiga Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cantiga PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 07)
00:03.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Cantiga MEI Controller (rev 07)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M-E LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobilitiy Radeon HD 3650
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Device 4236
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II (rev ba)
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 04)
15:00.2 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 21)
15:00.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 11)
15:00.4 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 11)
15:00.5 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 11)

Bus 008 Device 002: ID 0bdb:1900 Ericsson Business Mobile Networks BV 
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0a5c:2145 Broadcom Corp. 
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 08ff:2810 AuthenTec, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

The cd wasnt detected by the net install, and neither was the wired network card, so I used a hd-media netboot disk image and booted over tftp. I got a really slim system from that, and used an old pccard 3com card to get network access and update the system from there.

The internal wired card doesnt work right away, but downloading and configuring drivers from intels homepage works excellent: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/filter_results.aspx?strTypes=all&ProductID=3003&OSFullName=Linux*&lang=eng&strOSs=39&submit=Go!

This is most likely to work for the internal hdsp-card. http://georgia.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?p=5898599

I guess this one is the big problem. I’ve read several forum discussions, altough on other laptop brands, which sounds like some progress, but a few also suggests that the included wlancard is a cheap version of the 4965AGN and just plain sucks and shouldnt be used. However, thats a tad drastic, dont you think?

I also find that kernels >2.6.27 should include a working driver, so I installed a snapshot debian kernel from http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/debian-kernel/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/linux-image-2.6.27-rc6-686-bigmem_2.6.27~rc6-1~experimental.1~snapshot.12226_i386.deb

It works to some degree, I get this in syslog: Sep 23 21:16:10 box kernel: [ 3713.079453] iwlagn 0000:03:00.0: PCI INT A → GSI 17 (level, low) → IRQ 17 Sep 23 21:16:10 box kernel: [ 3713.079721] firmware: requesting iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode

So, I need the iwlwifi-5000-1.ucode the firmware from intel. Its available from: http://intellinuxwireless.org/?n=downloads&f=ucode

Following the instructions, the driver loads the firmware. I can also use iwlist wlan0 scanning to list available networks, however setting a few keys and ssid doesnt ever associate with the network. Once this is done iwconfig shows.

box:~# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.
 
eth0      no wireless extensions.
 
wmaster0  no wireless extensions.
 
wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:"ep"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated   
          Tx-Power=15 dBm   
          Retry min limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr=2352 B   
          Encryption key: <enckey removed>   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

Although set the appropriate keys, the Access point never associates.

Using the latest available kernel in Lenny, 2.6.26-1-686, I used the compat-wireless-old available from http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download#Archiveofcompat-wireless-2.6tarballs

According to theburningor at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=879134&page=7#62 you should set

CONFIG_IWL5000=y

in config.mk, but this was already set in the package I downloaded.

Loading the drivers after install makes the wlan0 interface appear again. But trying to configure it gives:

box:~# lsmod |grep iwl
iwlagn                 60932  0 
iwlcore                79936  1 iwlagn
rfkill                  5652  2 iwlcore
firmware_class          6816  2 pcmcia,iwlagn
mac80211              140224  2 iwlagn,iwlcore
cfg80211               23176  3 iwlagn,iwlcore,mac80211
led_class               3908  2 iwlcore,thinkpad_acpi
 
box:~# iwconfig wlan0 essid ep enc 860A9A5680D4A8BBFC523B0DBF ap 00:18:F8:71:27:7A
Error for wireless request "Set ESSID" (8B1A) :
    SET failed on device wlan0 ; Resource temporarily unavailable.

meanwhile, I get the following in syslog,

wlan0: Failed to config new SSID to the low-level driver

If you really want the lates kernel, kcheck is the _perfect_ tool. It makes it so simple, well, its not even a bother. Try it: http://kcheck.sourceforge.net/

Since the machine has two graphics adapters, I read that it works best to set it to use just one of them, so I set it to discrete mode in the bios, which means the ati one. I tried the fglrx driver included in lenny, but got much better responsiveness with the ati one. Not sure if its optimal though.

This wooooould be so nice, just close the lid and go… not there yet..

Interesting links are https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/272307 http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Install_Ubuntu_8.10_(Intrepid_Ibex)_on_a_Thinkpad_T400

So, you got hints or ideas? Send me an email at eric [at] persson [dot] tm