Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430

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Hardware
PCI/USB ID
Working?
GPU
Yes
Ethernet
Yes
Wi-Fi
Yes
Bluetooth
Yes
Audio
Yes
Webcam
Yes
Fingerprint reader
147e:1002
Yes
Card Reader
Yes
The following is regarding the Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E430 with 3rd Generation Ivy Bridge Intel processor, released in mid 2012. The E430 is intended to be an affordable, yet still entirely capable business machine. This article is meant to suppliment the current
Installation guide
.
Ethernet
The Realtek RTL8111/8168B ethernet controller may be relatively unreliable with the r8169 module. Better Ethernet connectivity can be achieved with the
r8168
AUR
module. See
Network configuration/Ethernet#Realtek RTL8111/8168B
for instructions.
Wireless
If the Thinkpad in question has the Thinkpad branded Wi-Fi adapter, it semi-works out of the box. There may be a delay preceding any attempted network activity, which can be resolved by disabling the power saving feature. The usual
# ip link
interface
power off
is not a feature of this particular card. Instead, the over aggressive power saving feature may be turned off upon loading the module on boot.
This may be achieved with the following
kernel module parameter
:
rtl8192ce.fwlps=0
This will turn off the
f
irm
w
are
l
ow
p
ower
s
tate or fwlps.
Because Lenovo is one of a few companies that whitelist wireless cards, replacing/upgarding can be challenging, costly, or just downright impossible. To find what FRU (Field Replaceable Unit) this machine accepts, go to the Lenovo support site where you should be able to find the necessary documentation.
If you failed to realize that the wireless card was a horribly supported Realtek, and you are now kicking yourself because of the above mentioned whitelist, you do have an option to change it without ordering a Lenovo specific card. Some kind souls are willing to help others modify their BIOS' in various ways, one of which is removal of the whitelist. See
thread
[
dead link
2021-05-13—HTTP 404]
where Serg008 was able to remove the whitelist for the E430. If you go this route, proceed with caution, as upgrading the BIOS (and messing up) can render your machine a brick. Also, there are legitimate warranty concerns with unauthorized BIOS modifications.
Fingerprint reader
Typically with older hardware, one can get the fingerprint reader to function by using one of two open-source fingerprint reader projects. They are
ThinkFinger
and
fprint
. Alternatively, Ubuntu has put together a system that includes drivers included in these previous projects, as well as including proprietary drivers for the newest models. In typical Ubuntu fashion, it is gui driven and appropriately named
fingerprint-gui
AUR
.
The fingerprint reader included on the newest generation of Thinkpad E430 is a Upek. To verify the model of the device in a given machine, one may use
lsusb
.
Trackpoint
See
TrackPoint
.
Fans
Thinkfan may be used to control the fan speed. This is probably not necessary as the BIOS seems to typically handle the fan speed just fine.
Note
Thinkfan has been
reported
to not work on this model currently.
The
thinkpad_acpi
kernel module needs to be configured so user space programs can control the fan speed.
/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf
options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1
The thinkfan configuration file also needs to know how to set the fan speed. Replace the default sensor settings with the following.
/etc/thinkfan.conf
sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input
Direct fan control can be achieved by using "echo" to apply the desired level. Set the speed as shown in the following examples:
# echo engage > /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
# echo level auto > /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
# echo level 1 > /proc/etc/ibm/fan
Once thinkpad_acpi has been loaded with
fan_control=1
, available settings can be displayed like so:
$ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan