Karmic on the X200s
January 3, 2010 – 12:10 pmSince I was a good boy this year, Santa gave me a new Thinkpad X200s.
Here are the part numbers:
44C7625 SBB I.C2DPSU9400(1.4GHZ3MB L2
45M3093 VBB GENWIN7HOMEPREM32
45M3511 SBB G.WI.7HM.PR.US ENGLISH
45M3027 ** SBB 12.1WXGA2X3ULTCONN.IIANT.
42X6308 VBB 3GBPC3-8500 1067MHZ2DIMM
44C5216 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH
43Y5868 SBB TRACKPOINT
43Y5879 SBB 250 GB HDD, 5400RPM
44C5184 VBB SD CARD READER
42X6325 SBB INT.WIFI LINK5300
44C5196 SBB THINKPADX200SER.6CELLENH.
41W1787 SBB CPK NORTH AMERICA
45M4162 SBB LANG PK US ENGLISH
Installation
The install was smooth as can be. I created a bootable usb key using unetbootn, and once I remembered that you press F12 at boot to select an alternative boot device, things went swimmingly. Out of the box the following worked:
Wireless
Suspend/Hibernation
Sound
Blue keys (display brightness, external display, thinklight, etc)
It is currently set up to dual boot with Windows 7 which came pre-installed. As this doesn’t have a burner on board, I used an external usb dvd/cd drive to create the restore disks that are on the hard drive.
Post-install I set up the trackpad to use the middle button for scrolling by following these instructions. To vertically scroll you hold the middle button down while pushing the trackpoint up or down. Very slick.
External Monitor
I tested the external monitor by plugging a vga cable into our home tv. Worked just fine. I’m looking forward to using this machine for presentations/lectures and not having to remember, but invariably forgetting, to carry around an additional cable as I have had to do with the Macbooks (pro and air).
Summary
This is easily the best Linux setup I’ve had on a laptop, and likely the best laptop I’ve had (out of many).
Battery life is great. With the 6-cell battery I’m getting roughly 5:15 on regular usage – meaning wifi browsing, screen at medium brightness, general computing work.
I have always really liked the Thinkpad keyboards and the X200s has, once again, reminded me of this. I’m even thinking about replacing my desktop keyboards with one of these as it basically has a fantastic feel for typing plus it does away with the need for a mouse.










