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 MB 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, and I put it 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 (it's easy) flash disk here.

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 here. This machine gets an index of 8.4, which is appropriately between the values for the P133 and P166.

4. Manual

The hardware maintenance manual is available here or just google for vol4hmm.pdf.

5. Links related to the 560e

Lenovo's 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.