Lenovo ThinkPad W520 - ArchWiki

# Lenovo ThinkPad W520

This article is a stub.

Notes: please use the first argument of the template to provide more detailed indications. (Discuss in Talk:Lenovo ThinkPad W520#)

This article or section needs language, wiki syntax or style improvements.

Reason: Notepad-like style (Discuss in Talk:Lenovo ThinkPad W520#)

## Note

I am also maintaining this content at GitHub and it may be more up to date.

## GPT / MBR Partition Table

I was unable to get the most recent version of the BIOS to boot from a GPT partition table. Everything worked fine once I tried an MBR ("msdos" in gparted) partition table.

## Wifi issues

- Update wireless drivers:
  - TODO
- Random Disconnection
  - check "dmesg | grep wlan0" will probably be complaining about "wlan0: deauthenticating from MAC by local choice (reason=3)"
  - Arch wiki hints at solution: Wicd#Random disconnecting
  - My Solution:
    - Disable power management of pci-express in BIOS
- Wicd cannot obtain IP address
  - Wicd#Failed to get IP address
  - Use dhclient instead of dhcpcd:
    - pacman -S dhclient
    - Set wicd to use dhclient:
    - in wicd-curse press 'P', select external sources, and then select dhclient

## Nvidia Optimus issues

- TODO

### Bumblebee Setup

nVidia Optimus works nicely with a standard [[bumblebee}} setup, using the proprietary NVIDIA drivers. For further information refer to the NVIDIA Optimus article.

### Multimonitor Setup

The digital video outputs are hardwired to the nVidia chip and are thus unvailable in a standard bumblebee setup, since the X Server is run by the Intel GPU. Unlike earlier Thinkpad W Models, the VGA-Output is not connected to the integrated chip. There are several workarounds available.

- Using `intel-virtual-output`
  - Works really well with little tweaking necessary

    $ intel-virtual-output -f

Note: -f prevents it from becoming a daemon (thus easier to stop)

- for the nvidia card to recognize external monitors, some lines have to be commented out of the default config file at `/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia`

    xorg.conf.nvidia

    ...
     #   Option "UseEDID" "false"
     #   Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"
    ...

- see:
  - Phoronix
  - Nvidia Forums

## Sound

- Worked out of the box, but was choppy. This helped:
  - PulseAudio#Choppy sound

## Ultranav - Trackpoint and Touchpad

This article or section is a candidate for merging with TrackPoint.

Notes: Merge into the main article, then just link to it instead of duplicating content. (Discuss in Talk:Lenovo ThinkPad W520#)

Trackpoint and Touchpad will work out of the box, but some tweaking is required for further configuration.

- Set up trackpoint scrolling by adding a new config in `xorg.conf.d`.

    20-trackpoint.conf

    Section "InputClass"
             Identifier      "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
             MatchProduct    "TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint|DualPoint Stick|Synaptics Inc. Composite TouchPad /
             MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
             Option          "EmulateWheel"                "true"
             Option          "EmulateWheelButton"  "2"
             Option          "Emulate3Buttons"     "false"
             Option          "XAxisMapping"                "6 7"
             Option          "YAxisMapping"                "4 5"
    EndSection

- Trackpoint sensitivity and speed can be set up using an udev rule in `/etc/udev/rules.d/` (the add-rule will work around the configuration not being applied when the trackpoint hasnt been loaded, alternatively a wait-for can be used, which comes with the added drawback of added unresponsiveness of the trackpoint some time after boot)

    82-trackpoint.rules

    # Set the trackpoint speed and sensitivity
    ACTION=="add",SUBSYSTEM=="input",ATTR{name}=="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint",ATTR{device/sensitivity}="240"

- Touchpad can be used after installing xf86-input-synaptics
  - other Xorg Drivers can conflict with the synaptics driver causing an synclient error and unresponsiveness to Gnome Settings, this should be resolved by removing xf86-input-mouse

## Other

- Boot up issue with UDEV timeout
  - cat /var/log/boot | grep -i pci reveals udevd[169]: seq 1352 '/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0' killed
    - Found similar issue here Arch Bugs Report
- Disable annoying system beep
  - Insert "blacklist pcspkr" into /etc/modprobe.d/pcspkr_blacklist.confor
  - Reboot or rmmod pcspkr
- Screen brightness setting doesnt work after linux 3.16
  - since 3.16 video.use_native_backlight has been enabled by default, unfortunately this setting does not work well for the W520, disabling it should solve the issue

    video.use_native_backlight=0

Category:

- Lenovo