Ubuntu on Thinkpad Edge 11/13/14/15 [closed]
To expand on lasseespeholt's reply on the Wireless chipset above, on my Thinkpad Edge 13 the wireless card is listed somewhat uniformatively as "Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 8176 (rev 01)".
Here's a step-by-step explanation of how to install the Realtek driver:
- Download the driver from this page. The relevant section is "RTL8192CE-VA4"
sudo apt-get install build-essentials linux-sourcecd /usr/src && sudo tar xfjv linux-source-2.6.35.tar.bz2- unpack the driver source and change to the directory contained
makesudo sumake install
Against expectations, the last two steps cannot be replaced by a simple sudo make install because that fails with reference to a missing kernel/bounds.c.
The driver work well enough for me on Ubuntu 10.10.
UPDATE: Now there is a PPA (of which many thanks to the creator) which makes this much easier. It also has the important advantage that the driver persists through kernel upgrades. This works for maverick. Instead of the above, type:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lexical/hwe-wireless
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rtl8192ce-dkms
The FN Keys stop working
After working fine for a few months, the special "FN" keys on my Thinkpad Edge 13 - brightness, volume control, mute - suddenly stopped working. The problems seems to occur in Windows as well as in Linux. As it appears, this is a defect that can be resolved by installing a BIOS update. This thread shows you how to do it. Be sure to download the right boot CD image. As to why such a problem makes its appearance after working fine for months, only Lenovo engineers will know. On the plus side, the upgrade is quite easy, provided that you own a USB CD drive/writer.
This defect is reported to occur on Edge 13, Edge 14 and Edge 15 machines.
UPDATE: For many the trouble reappears some time after the BIOS update. The difficulty also seems to affect the lid close event. As a temporary fix, disconnect the A/C and remove the battery for a minute. The problem appears to be one of hardware/firmware rather than Linux. See this thread for more information.