Slackware Linux on the IBM Thinkpad 560E

0. System Profile

This system has no USB port and no optical drive. The PCMCIA is 16-bit only.

Item	Description	Status
CPU	Intel Pentium MMX @ 150 MHz L2=256 kB	Works
Memory	32 MB 60ns EDO expandable to 80 MB Runs at 50 MHz.	Works
Hard drive & controller	(I'm using PCMCIA flash as my hard drive.) Controller is Intel 430MX PCI I/O IDE Xcelerator.	Not tested.
Display & Video Chip	11.3" DSTN 800x600 & Trident TGUI 9660/938x/998x with 2MB VRAM.	Works in text mode, X Windows, and framebuffer VGA mode (but not VESA nor Trident).
PCI	Intel 430MX - 82437MX mobile system controller (MTSC) and 82438MX data path (MTDP).	Linux's attempt to call the PCI BIOS during start-up results in an "Error 81 when fetching IRQ routing table".
Sound	ESS 1688 chip	Works great with ALSA driver. (kernel 2.6.20.21)
PCMCIA 16-bit	Cirrus Logic CL6729	Work fine.
Trackpoint		Works well.
Floppy drive		Works.

1. Installation

The installation procedure that I used may not apply to your situation, but may be interesting nevertheless. I am installing Slackware 12 on a 560e that lacks a hard drive. Instead, it has a CompactFlash card inside a 16-bit PCMCIA adapter that is in the PCMCIA slot. It turns out that the 560e can boot flash that is in the PCMCIA slot, much as more recent computers can boot a USB flash drive.

I wrote up the procedure that I used to create the bootable live Linux flash drive, which I describe as a list of clear steps, which is here.

This was not my only option. I could have bought a hard drive for $50 or so, or more interestingly Addonics makes a CompactFlash-to-IDE adapter for $20 (+$10 shipping) that lets you use a CF card as if it were a hard drive in the hard drive slot.

2. Drivers

2.1. Video

The 560E has a Trident TGUI graphics chip.

2.1.1. X Windows

X Windows works and is accelerated. You need to use the Trident X11 driver. It works for the most part, although I've noticed a drawing glitch.

2.1.2. Framebuffer

This is a work in progress.

Trident framebuffer driver: not 100% working yet
VESA framebuffer driver: not 100% working yet
VGA framebuffer driver: does work.

VGA framebuffer and console are fully functional, however VGA mode is the least useful since it's 640x480 and 16 colors, and doesn't seem to accept fonts that don't have a width of 8 pixels.

2.2. Sound

The sound chip is the ESS 1688 chip on the ISA bus. It works with ALSA. I suggest creating a new kernel to support the 1688 rather than to mess with modules.

Be sure to run alsamixer and to save your settings with "alsactl store".

2.3. Power management

APM works. If you need a new battery, there is a company that can create a new one for the 560e: BatteryRefill.com.

The 560E is surely too old to support ACPI, but I haven't tried it either.

2.4. Hard drive

When I obtained my system it lacked a hard drive, so I put a bootable CompactFlash disk that I had prepared into an adapter in the PCMCIA slot and booted that. I've posted instructions on how to create such a bootable live Linux flash disk.

2.5. USB

There is no USB port on this system.

2.6. Printing via lp0

Not tested yet.

3. Performance

3.1. Video

3.1.1. X Windows

Works fine. It's accelerated, luckily.

3.1.2. Framebuffer

Not compatible.

3.1.3. Movies

Not tested yet, but the DSTN display will make watching any movie tedious. Such is the nature of passive-matrix screens.

3.2. Hard drive

My hard drive is a flash disk in a 16-bit PCMCIA adapter.

 
/dev/hdc:
 Timing buffered disk reads:    4 MB in  4.93 seconds = 831.43 kB/sec
root@darkstar:~# hdparm -T /dev/hdc

/dev/hdc:
 Timing cached reads:    74 MB in  2.05 seconds =  36.15 MB/sec

It's always good to put these in your /etc/rc.d/rc.0 :

 
/usr/sbin/hdparm -f /dev/hdc     [flush the hard drive cache]
/usr/sbin/hdparm -S 1 /dev/hdc   [get it to spin down ASAP]

3.3. Processor

Running the BYTE drystone 2 without register variables, which is at anime.net/~goemon. This machine gets an index of 8.4, which is, as expected, midway between the values for the P133 and P166 processors.

4. Manual

The hardware maintenance manual is available at ibm.com or just google for vol4hmm.pdf.

5. Links related to the 560e

Lenovo 560e software page.
If you need a new main battery, there is a company that can provide a new one: BatteryRefill.com.
If you need a new lithium CMOS battery, try BatteriesPlus.
The perfect case for the 560e. Just add foam.

Links

Software
- FBUI: My in-kernel windowing system for Linux.
- FWE: my userspace windowing system.
- Bandwidth: My C-based benchmark to measure memory bandwidth.
- Foodist: My C++-based nutrition management program for Windows Mobile.
- Wanderlust: My C++/MFC based outline editor for Windows.
- Maxilla: My OpenGL-based VRML viewer for Windows.
- Anglify: my other-to-English translation program.
- My other stuff.
Documentation
- My nicely formatted overview of Intel 8088, 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486 (x86) instruction set
- A clear step-by-step explanation of how to set up a bootable live Linux flash drive.
- What is polymorphism?
- Notes on using Visual C++
- List of Windows (Win32) messages
- Notes on Linux programming
- Notes on Linux administration
- Notes on using OpenGL
- Notes on C++
- My nascent compiler project called C@
- FAQs about the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)
- Argumentation on Linux and FOSS
- My Linux installation guides.
- Two sites offering big listings of pages on installing Linux on virtually every type of laptop:
  - TuxMobil
  - Linux on Laptops