Lenovo3000N100_FPG

This is the LaptopTestingTeam page for the Lenovo 3000 N100 FPG. The Lenovo website lists laptops which are compatible with various Linux distros (Suse, Novell, Red Hat, Turbolinux). The N100 has only been tested on the last two.

This laptop worked out of the box under feisty - except for fixing the screen resolution, updating the sound drivers and turning on the microphone capture.

Screen

If you're using Feisty you can use the xserver-xorg-video-intel (universe) package to make this work: 

sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg-video-intel

Ohterwise, you must install the package 915resolution (universe) in order to get the native 1280x800 resolution. Nothing else to configure, just install it and restart the X server (logout/login or Ctrl-Alt-Backspace). 

sudo aptitude install 915resolution

However, using both solutions I keep having a slow refresh rate which is sometimes visible in the background as wobbly lines (it especially shows on the orange standard background). Actually - Vista (which comes with this laptop) has the same problem out of the box, though their driver may autoupdate (not verified). I actually think this could be the driver update: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-67320 --KlaasVanSchelven

Sound

Under Feisty, sound does not work out of the box, and still does not work including updates until the 3rd July 2007. In fact, when I ran an update on 10 sept 2007 my system that had been made working with the instructions below stopped producing sound (some kernel update). Updating to the latest kernel *and* replaying the scenario below restored sound.

I used the LaptopTestingTeam/Lenovo3000C200_89224MG page to get sound working. This section is basically a rip-off from that page. As of the 4th of July 2007 this page is more recent, however.

Note: If you would rather not recompile ALSA yourself, however, none of the internet provided packages like provided on the LaptopTestingTeam/Lenovo3000C200_89224MG page worked on my machine.

So, you'll need to install a few necessary build tools. Summary: Download the latest alsa-rc driver,lib and utils source, compile and install the alsa packages, insert the new module et voila!

This is intended as a copy & paste howto. You have to use Shift+Insert to paste into the Terminal.

To start install some required build tools, open up a terminal (Accessories>Terminal) and: 

sudo apt-get install build-essential ncurses-dev gettext

and then: 

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

Now we need to download the alsa packages. Make a temporary directory in your home directory: 

cd ~
mkdir alsa-src
cd alsa-src
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.14.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.14.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.0.14.tar.bz2

Extract the tars: 

tar xvf alsa-driver-1.0.14.tar.bz2
tar xvf alsa-lib-1.0.14.tar.bz2
tar xvf alsa-utils-1.0.14.tar.bz2

It's best to stop alsa at this point.: 

sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop

Or 

sudo /etc/init.d/alsasound stop

Now we can compile the alsa packages: 

cd alsa-driver-1.0.14
./configure --with-cards=hda-intel
make
sudo make install

cd ../alsa-lib-1.0.14
./configure
sudo make install

cd ../alsa-utils-1.0.14
./configure
sudo make install

Now we remove the old and insert the new alsa module: 

sudo modprobe -r snd-hda-intel && sudo modprobe snd-hda-intel

Note: If you get a message saying "FATAL: Module snd-hda-intel in use" be sure that the Alsa driver has been stopped (see above).

You should now have working speakers!

One final tweak I had to do to get recording working as expected was to open up the gnome volume control/mixer. Go to edit>preferences and tick the input source track to be visible. This gives a new tab called options on the mixer where it is possible to choose the record source. Frontmic is for the internal mic, Mic for the external input, Line isn't used (will be removed in next patch) and CD is for...thats right cd.

Microphone Capture

However, after fixing the sound, the microphone capture does not work. (neither front nor plugged in one). Both can be heard when turning on Unmute but cannot be used for recording.

Start alsamixer from prompt: alsamixer Use tab and arrow keys to end up at capture and then hit spacebar to turn capturing on.

(microphone solution copied from): https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/701

Other Sources

If this does not solve your problems, you might find more information here: LaptopTestingTeam/Lenovo3000N100_0768 or http://www.linlap.com/wiki/Lenovo+3000+N100 or http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1975260#post1975260 or http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2954994#post2954994

CategoryLaptop

LaptopTestingTeam/Lenovo3000N100_FPG (last edited 2010-03-01 22:37:53 by 94)