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I got a Lenovo ThinkPad W510 from 2010 with empty HDD. Here I describe how I got Debian GNU/Linux (stable) to run on it. Thank you very much Christophe Troestler for your superb installation guide Debian GNU/Linux on the Thinkpad W510. Meanwhile some issues mentioned by Christophe are resolved and work “out of the box”.

Get files

download Debian Netinst
download Universal USB Installer aka UUI
run UUI and put the Debian ISO on an USB flash memory
network hardware is well recognized but firmware file iwlwifi-6000-4.ucode is missing; I found firmware-iwlwifi_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb at packages.debian.org and put it on the USB flash memory, too.

Install Debian

boot W510 with USB flash memory
choose install
choose LVM
… get coffee… (and press ENTER a few times)

After first boot

Make user sudoer

su
adduser <user> sudo
exec su -l $USER

SSH

Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config
from PermitRootLogin yes
to PermitRootLogin no

Sound out

Sound & sound keys work out of the box but the speaker mute key LED does not work.

Sound in

Microphone mute button and its LED do not work. Documented in many bug reports. No solution available as of today.

Fingerprint sensor

ThinkWIKI:

sudo apt-get install -y libpam-fprintd && fprintd-enroll

TrackPoint

Middle key for scrolling ThinkWIKI:

sudo apt-get install xinput
gedit ~/.xsessionrc

    # START TrackPoint
    # http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_configure_the_TrackPoint
    # try:  xinput list-props "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint"
    # To enable vertical scrolling
    xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation" 1
    xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Button" 2
    xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Timeout" 200
    # To enable horizontal scrolling in addition to vertical scrolling
    xinput set-prop "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint" "Evdev Wheel Emulation Axes" 6 7 4 5
    # END TrackPoint

Graphics driver

Everything seemed ok until I tried Genymotions Android-VM. The system freezed; only mouse moved. So the Nvidia drivers have to be installed.
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11900
http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=31925

sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-glx nvidia-xconfig nvidia-settings nvidia-vdpau-driver vdpau-va-driver
sudo nvidia-xconfig
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

    # Disables Nvidia logo
    Option    "NoLogo" "true"
    # Fix Large fonts
    Option    "DPI" "96 x 96"
    # Power saving setting for Nvidia drivers
    Option    "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "1"
    # Enables overclocking gui
    Option    "Coolbits" "1"
    # Enable brightness keys
    Option    "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"

sudo shutdown -r now

After changing graphics driver the boot console resolution is at 600x480 (I think) resulting in huge letters and less information per screen.
Edit /etc/default/grub
from #GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
to GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080

Edit /etc/grub.d/00_header
from set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE}
to set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE}
set gfxpayload=keep

Fix this with

sudo update-grub

Bluetooth

Turn off bluetooth right at start up:

edit /etc/rc.local
and insert before the ending exit 0:

    # turn of bluetooth
    echo disable > /proc/acpi/ibm/bluetooth

Protect the HDD

Install Hard Disk Active Protection System (HDAPS) (depends on tp-smapi-dkms)

sudo apt-get install hdapsd

I use a SSD as sda and the HDD is sdb. So I edit /etc/default/hdapsd
from DISK="sda"
to DISK="sdb"

I install

sudo apt-get install smartmontools

in order to get a little insight what is happening with the drives.

Software

sudo apt-get install ntp
sudo apt-get install p7zip p7zip-rar
sudo apt-get install iotop iftop

Back in time (German article at heise)

sudo apt-get install backintime-gnome

Does not work with network shares. I want backups go to a shared folder on an allways on Win7 machine. The following is inspired from the UbuntuUsers Wiki.

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils
sudo mkdir /mnt/backup
echo username=<Win7UserName> >> ~/.smbcredentials_W510Backup
echo password=<Win7Password> >> ~/.smbcredentials_W510Backup
chmod 600 ~/.smbcredentials_W510Backup

Mounting share might give error mount error(12): Cannot allocate memory. Solution is discribed at Samba/Troubleshooting. Set registry keys on the Win7 machine as follows:

    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache (set to 1)
    HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Size (set to 3)

Mount share when in local network

sudo mount -t cifs //server/share /mnt/backup --verbose -o rw,uid=<UID>,gid=<GID>,credentials=/home/<USER>/.smbcredentials_W510Backup

Hardware update

The above was done on the machine with * 8 GB RAM * 512 GB HDD

I updated the hardware a little and repeated the installation on the same machine with * 32 GB RAM * 480 GB SSD

Installing network printer with CUPS

My printer is connected to a Win7 USB port

LPD print server has to be installed on the Win7 machine
the printer has to have an spaces free name

Open CUPS (http://localhost:631/) and add new printer at lpd://Win7MachineName/PrinterName

Reactivating the old main 512 GB HDD

… in a Serial Ultrabay Enhanced second Hard Disk Caddy

What is the name of the HDD?

sudo fdisk -l

=> /dev/sdb

Delete all partitions (if there were any)

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

d(elete) 1(st partition) ENTER
d(elete) 2(nd partition) ENTER
etc.

Create one new partition

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

n(ew) p(rimary) 1(st partition) ENTER(=default first sector) ENTER(=default last sector)

Format partition

sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdb1

Create mount point

sudo mkdir /media/ultrabay

Automatic mount at boot

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

    /dev/sdb1       /media/ultrabay     ext4    defaults  0       2

sudo mount -a

Give me access

sudo chown -R USERNAME:USERNAME /media/ultrabay

Accessing Win7 with SSH

(see http://blogs.bu.edu/mhirsch/2013/10/making-cygwin-ssh-server-for-windows/)

Install Cygwin and required packages cygrunsrv, openssh.
Add exception to windows firewall for C:\cygwin\usr\sbin\sshd.exe

Wi-Pi

After over six months without any problems the Wi-Fi starts to make problems now and then. As a quick workaround I now use a Wi-Pi (FCC ID: OYR-COMFAST88). Because this Wi-Fi dongle runs out-of-the-box on a RapberryPi it took a little to realize that I had to install the firmware in order to use it.

sudo apt-get install firmware-ralink

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