Last updated: 2008-04-28
General Hardware Specifications of Lenovo ThinkPad R61i:
|
Hardware Components |
Status under Linux |
Notes |
|
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5250 @ 1.50GHz |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation. |
|
15.4" WXGA Display |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation. |
|
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator, integrated in GM965, no DVI pass-through |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation. |
|
4GB (4GB max) PC2-5300 667MHz DDR2, Non-parity Memory |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation |
|
120GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 RPM Hard Drive |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation |
|
EIDE DVD/RW Drive |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation |
|
Integrated Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation |
|
Integrated Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection |
Works |
ipw3945 driver not included in CentOS 5 is needed. |
|
Integrated 4-in-1 reader (MultiMediaCard, Mem Stick PRO, Secure Digital, xD-Picture Card) |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation |
|
6-Cell Lithium Ion Battery |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation |
|
Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation |
|
Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 (Firewire) Controller |
Works |
No special procedure required during installation |
|
Integrated 56K V.90 (V.92-designed) modem, Conexant CX20548 |
Unkown |
Never attempted to do anything with it |
This laptop is operating under Kernel version 2.6.18-53.1.14.el5PAE.
Basic Installation of CentOS 5:
CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
To download CentOS, go to http://www.centos.org/
Normal GUI-based installation procedure from a DVD works fine.
In order to get the wireless network controller to work, I installed the ipw3945 driver from Dag's repository (http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/).
Unresolved issues
Attempting to change display brightness using the Fn keys while running X Windows will cause the display to go black (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace successfully clears the problem by restarting the X Windows server). Changing brightness in text mode works fine.
More Specific Information
Output of lspci:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c) 00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Contoller #4 (rev 03) 00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03) 00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03) 00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03) 00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03) 03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) 04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02) 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 Class 0805: 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)
Contact Information
Marko Jennings (m a r k o b i z @ b l u e g a r g o y l e . c o m)
Links:
CentOS Site: http://www.centos.org/
Dag's Repository: http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/
Overall, ThinkPad R61i performs really well under CentOS 5, definitely much better than under Vista Home Premium that it came with.