Revision 15 as of 2009-05-23 00:02:08

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Introduction

This page covers the additional hardware setup required after installing Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty to make the Thinkpad X61 Tablet Fully Functional. All directions are given in the HAL, fdi, and acpi thus avoiding the xorg.conf file completely.

What Works

Forward / Back Buttons, Audio Buttons, Brightness Fn Buttons, Radio Fn Button, Suspend Fn Button, Power Fn Button, Lock Fn Button, Hibernate Fn Button, Tablet L/R/U/D Buttons, Tablet Enter Button, Tablet Esc Button, Media Fn Buttons NumberLock Fn Button, Tablet Pen, Wireless Radio, Bluetooth Radio,

What Almost Works

Tablet Toolbox Button - causes lock or suspend, Tablet Touch – Requires Calibration,

What Does Not Work

Tablet Control-Alt-Delete Button, Tablet Rotate Button, Middle Mouse Button, ThinkVantage Button, Magnify Fn Button, Fingerprint Reader, Automatic Screen Rotation, ThinkVantage ActiveProtection,

Fixing Touch

Works out of the box, just needs some calibration.

Wacomcpl

The Wacom Tablet in the X61t is a serial Wacom tablet. It can be configured by using wacomcpl. Wacomcpl is part of the wacom-tools package and can be retrieved in apt: 

sudo apt-get install wacom-tools

After this wacomcpl can be run by typing: wacomcpl in Terminal.

Helping wacomcpl

Unfortunately HAL assigns names to wacom devices in a way that the recent wacomcpl from jaunty cant find them, to help wacomcpl to find them:

Open a terminal and type : 

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/wacomtohal

and paste this code in: 

## find any wacom devices
for udi in `hal-find-by-property --key input.x11_driver --string wacom`
do
type=`hal-get-property --udi $udi --key input.x11_options.Type`
## rewrite the names that the Xserver will use
hal-set-property --udi $udi --key info.product --string $type
done

then run : 

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/wacomtohal
sudo update-rc.d wacomtohal defaults 27

now reboot and launch wacomcpl

Making Wacomcpl Settings Restore on Reboot

If you lose your calibration after reboot:

In terminal: 

sudo gedit ~/.xinitrc

Find the line that says: 

. /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

and change it to 

#. /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Save and exit.

Go to System>Preferences>Startup Applications and create a new entry named whatever you want.

The command should be: 

sh /home/yourusername/.xinitrc

Your wacomcpl settings will now restore on reboot

Making Wacomcpl Settings Restore on Resume

If you lose your configuration after resume from standby or hibernate follow these instructions to create a binary daemon that will restore your settings:

In Terminal 

gedit monitor_wacom.c

Enter the following code: 

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <assert.h>

char method_line[1024];

int main(int argc, char **argv) {

        if (argc != 2) {
                printf("Usage: %s [script to run]\n", argv[0]);
                return 1;
        }

        FILE* in = popen("dbus-monitor --session type='signal',interface='org.gnome.ScreenSaver',member='ActiveChanged'", "r");

        while (1) {
                char buf[1024];
                assert(fgets(buf, 1023, in));
                
                if (buf[0] == 's' /* early exit optimization */ && strstr(buf, "ActiveChanged") != NULL) {
                        assert(fgets(buf, 1023, in));
                        if (strstr(buf, "false") != NULL) {
                                /* resumed */
                                assert(system(argv[1]) == 0);
                        } else {
                                /* put to sleep */
                        }
                } 
        }
}

Save and Close

In Terminal: 

gcc -O2 monitor_wacom.c -o .monitor_wacom

Go to System>Preferences>Startup Applications and create a new entry named whatever you want.

Its command should be: 

/home/yourusername/.monitor_wacom /home/yourusername/.xinitrc

Reboot.

Fixing the Tablet Toolbox Button

No Solution Yet.

Setup the Tablet Control-Alt-Delete Button

No Solution Yet.

Setup the Tablet Rotate Button

No Solution Yet.

Setup the Middle Button Scrolling

Create a new file called /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi typing: 

sudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi

And fill it with this code: 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 

<match key="info.product" string="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint">
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheel" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelButton" type="string">2</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.XAxisMapping" type="string">6 7</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.YAxisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.ZAxsisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">true</merge>
</match>

Reboot

Setup ThinkVantage Button

The ThinkVantage button does not work only in that it is not bound to anything. To bind it go to System>Preferences>Keyboard Shortcuts and set it to perform any command.

Setup Magnify Fn Button

No Solution Yet.

Setup Fingerprint Reader

No Solution Yet.

Setup Automatic Screen Rotation

The following instructions will allow you to set up automatic screen rotation on the X61t. It only defines the positions of standard laptop and right-hand tablet. Feel free to edit the script to make it more versatile. It should be noted that rotation is not as simple as changing the output orientation of the screen, the pen and tablet navigation buttons need adjustment as well.

Edit rc.local: 

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Add the following before the "exit 0" line: 

setkeycodes 6f 108 
setkeycodes 71 103 
setkeycodes 6e 105 
setkeycodes 6d 106

Create a file rotate in /usr/local/bin: 

sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/rotate

with the following content: 

import os, sys, re

  # All allowed rotations
rotations = ['normal', 'right', 'inverted', 'left']

  # Keyboard scan codes for arrow keys
scanCodes = {'up': 0x71, 'dn': 0x6f, 'lt': 0x6e, 'rt': 0x6d}

  # Keycodes to use for each rotation
  # 104 = pgup, 109 = pgdn, 105 = left, 106 = right, 103 = up, 108 = down
keyCodes = {
            'normal':   {'up': 103, 'dn': 108, 'lt': 105, 'rt': 106},
            'right':    {'up': 105, 'dn': 106, 'lt': 108, 'rt': 103},
            'inverted': {'up': 108, 'dn': 103, 'lt': 106, 'rt': 105},
            'left':     {'up': 106, 'dn': 105, 'lt': 103, 'rt': 108}
          }

  # Rotations to pick from when no specific rotation is given
preferredRotations = rotations

  # Rotation to use when switched to tablet mode
tabletMode = "right"
  
  # Tells the program to stay open when in tablet mode and 
  # rotate using the orientation sensor
tabletAutoRotate = True
  
  # Rotation to use when switched to normal laptop mode
laptopMode = "normal"


## If a local xsetwacom is installed, it should probably take precedent (?)
if os.path.isfile('/usr/local/bin/xsetwacom'):
  xsetwacom = '/usr/local/bin/xsetwacom'
elif os.path.isfile('/usr/bin/xsetwacom'):
  xsetwacom = '/usr/bin/xsetwacom'
else:
  ## If it's not one of those two, just hope it's in the path somewhere.
  xsetwacom = 'xsetwacom'

xrandr = '/usr/bin/xrandr'



def main():
  setEnv()
  
    # list of wacom devices to be rotated
  devices = listDevices()
  
  if len(sys.argv) < 2:     # No rotation specified, just go to the next one in the preferred list
    cr = getCurrentRotation()
    if cr in preferredRotations:
      nextIndex = (preferredRotations.index(cr) + 1) % len(preferredRotations)
    else:
      nextIndex = 0
    next = preferredRotations[nextIndex]
  else:
    next = sys.argv[1]
    if not next in rotations:
      if next == "tablet":
        next = tabletMode
      elif next == "laptop":
        next = laptopMode
      else:
        sys.stderr.write("Rotation \"%s\" not allowed (pick from %s, tablet, laptop)\n" % (next, ', '.join(rotations)))
        sys.exit(-1)
  setRotation(next, devices)



def runCmd(cmd):
  f = os.popen(cmd)
  l = f.readlines()
  f.close()
  return l

def getCurrentRotation():
  #setEnv()
  try:
    rrv = randrVersion()
    if rrv < '1.2':
      l = [s for s in runCmd(xrandr) if re.match('Current rotation', s)]
      r = re.sub('Current rotation - ', '', l[0])
      return r.strip()
    elif rrv >= '1.2':
      l = runCmd(xrandr) #"%s | grep 'LVDS connected' | gawk '{print $4}' | sed -e 's/(//'" % xrandr)
      l = [x for x in l if re.search(r'(LVDS|default) connected', x)][0]
      l = l.split(' ')[3]
      l = re.sub(r'\(', '', l)
      
      return l.strip()
  except:
    sys.stderr.write("Can not determine current rotation, bailing out :(")
    sys.exit(-1)

def setRotation(o, devices):
  #setEnv()
  runCmd("%s --output LVDS --rotate %s" % (xrandr, o))
  wacomRots = {'normal': '0', 'left': '2', 'right': '1', 'inverted': '3'}
  for d in devices:
    runCmd("%s set %s Rotate %s" % (xsetwacom, d, wacomRots[o]))
  setKeymap(o)

def setEnv():
  if os.environ.has_key('DISPLAY'):
    return  # DISPLAY is already set, don't mess with it.
  
  if os.system('pidof kdm > /dev/null') == 0:
    kdmsts = '/var/lib/kdm/kdmsts'
    if os.access(kdmsts, os.R_OK):
      kdmdata = open(kdmsts).readlines()
      userline = [s for s in kdmdata if re.match(r':0=', s)][0]
      user = re.sub(r':0=', '', userline).strip()
      os.environ['DISPLAY'] = ':0.0'
      os.environ['XAUTHORITY'] = '/home/%s/.Xauthority' % user
  elif os.system('pidof gdm > /dev/null') == 0:
    os.environ['DISPLAY'] = ':0.0'
    os.environ['XAUTHORITY'] = '/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth'
  
def setKeymap(o):
  for sc in scanCodes.keys():
    os.system('sudo setkeycodes %x %d' % (scanCodes[sc], keyCodes[o][sc]))


def randrVersion():
  #setEnv()
  xrv = runCmd('%s -v' % xrandr)[0]
  xrv = re.sub(r'.*version ', '', xrv)
  return xrv.strip()

def listDevices():
  #setEnv()
  dev = runCmd("%s list dev | awk {'print $1'}" % xsetwacom)
  dev = map(lambda s: s.strip(), dev)
  return dev
   
main()

Change the files permissions to 755: {{( sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/rotate }}}

Run visudo and add the following line to the bottom: 

%admin ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/setkeycodes

This allows the setkeycodes command to be run from within the script.

You should now be able to type "rotate tablet" and "rotate laptop" from a command prompt to turn the screen at will. This script also adjust the arrow keypad on the side of the tablet so that the directions correspond to screen directions and sets the tablet pen to move correctly.

The Automatic Part

Create a directory autorotate in /etc: 

sudo mkdir /etc/autorotate

Add a file lastrotation to it: 

sudo gedit /etc/autorotate/lastrotation

Fill it with: 

laptop

Change its permissions to 666: 

sudo chmod 666 /etc/autorotate/lastrotation

Create a new file: sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/autorotate Fill it with: 

/usr/local/bin/rotate `cat /etc/autorotate/lastrotation`

Change its permissions to 755: 

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/autorotate

Create another file: 

sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/setrotation

Fill it with: 

echo $1 > /etc/autorotate/lastrotation
/usr/local/bin/autorotate

Set Permissions to 755: 

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/setrotation

Create a file: 

sudo gedit /etc/acpi/events/swivel-up
{{{
Fill it with:
{{{
# called when tablet screen swivels up (into laptop mode)
event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 0000500a
action=/usr/local/bin/setrotation laptop

Create a file: 

sudo gedit /etc/acpi/events/swivel-down

Fill it with: 

# called when tablet screen swivels down (into tablet mode)
event=ibm/hotkey HKEY 00000080 00005009
action=/usr/local/bin/setrotation tablet

Reboot your system.

Setup ThinkVantage ActiveProtection

No Solution Yet.

Useful Task: Disable Bluetooth on Startup

These instructions will disable the bluetooth radio being activated during the boot. The radio can then be activated at the users discretion using Fn F5 (Radio Fn Button).

edit /etc/rc.local and add: 

chmod 666 /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth 
echo "disable" > /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth

before the exit0 line

*note chmod 666 makes this file editable by everyone, this may compromise security, try different settings to find the one that suits your needs (655 may work)

*note proc is depreciated and may not work in future releases

Useful Task: Enable Laptop Mode

Laptop mode is a power saving tool that allows the hard drive to spin down to conserve battery power. This is disabled by default as it has been known to cause problems on some computers, but it appears to work on the X61t.

*Warning: Laptop mode stores data in ram teporarily until it needs to write to disk. Power Loss in laptop mode could lead to significant data loss.

*Warning: Excessive spin-up spin-down cycles will wear out your hard drive much more quickly than normal use. Be careful when configuring laptop mode settings.

*Warning: Do Not Use Laptop Mode if you have a SSD. It is for platter drives only.

Edit /etc/default/acpi-support 

sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support

Set: "ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true"

Configure Laptop Mode 

sudo gedit /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf

More

Feel free to add more to this page. Some solutions may exist on thinkwiki.org

See Also