Today's phlog entry is about how to

set up a ThinkPad L440 running Debian

LXDE. The tutorial deals with the

following issues:

• screen brightness keys
• touchpad setup
• window snapping
• sharp fonts

The information here should be

relevant to all *40 ThinkPads.

I'm posting this here for my own

future reference, but I know that

there are other ThinkPad users around

gopherspace, so I might as well share

the details.

NETINSTALL / WIFI SETUP

=> =====================

The net install iso is great for

installing LXDE. It presents you with

a choice of desktops at some

point in the installation

procedure.

During installation, the wifi works

and the wifi hardware is identified

for you. Write down the name of the

hardware. Mine was:

rtlwifi/rtl8192eefw.bin

After reboot, the wifi will no longer

work properly, because it depends on

non-free firmware. You'll need to plug

in your ethernet, add the contrib and

non-free repos to the

/etc/apt/sources.list lines, and

install the wifi firmware.

I found the correct driver by typing:

apt-get update

apt-cache search rtlwifi

Then just install the firmware. For

me, this involved the following

installation:

apt-get install firmware-realtek

Use synaptic to do this part if you

prefer the GUI.

SCREEN BRIGHTNESS KEY SETUP

=> =========================

The sound buttons on the L440 work

with LXDE out of the box. The screen

brightness buttons do not. In order to

get them working, install the

xbacklight and xbindkeys packages.

Then follow these instructions[1]:

Check your /sys/class/backlight

folder. If you can see an

intel_backlight folder there ... then

creating a /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

with the below configuration should

work for you.

Section "Device"

    Identifier  "Intel Graphics" 

    Driver      "intel"

    Option      "Backlight"  "intel_backlight"

EndSection

You might need to log out and back in

before you conduct the next test.

Open a terminal and type "xbacklight

-10" without the quotation marks. The

screen should dim a little. You can

bump up the brightness by typing

"xbacklight +10".

Now that you've verified that

xbacklight works, create a file in

your home directory called

.xbindkeysrc with the leading period.

Enter the following in the file:

BrightnessUp

"xbacklight +10"

XF86MonBrightnessUp

BrightnessDown

"xbacklight -10"

XF86MonBrightnessDown

Save the file. Now the brightness keys

(F5 and F6) should work to raise and

lower your screen brightness. If they

don't, try logging out and logging

back in.

TOUCHPAD SETUP

=> ============

This one drove me crazy. I must have

spent three or four hours on it. It

turns out that it's really easy. I

have the original clunkpad in my L440.

Since no ThinkPad in the *40 series

has proper bottom buttons, regardless

of whether you switch to the *50

series trackpad or not, I wanted to

set up the clickpad sensibly, like a

mac, where a one-finger click anywhere

is a 'left click' and a two-finger

click is a 'right click'.

All that's required to make the change

is to add one line to the file

/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-libinput.conf

Find the section that looks like this:

Section "InputClass"

    Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"

    MatchIsTouchpad "on"

    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

    Driver "libinput"

EndSection

Add this line after Driver "libinput":

    Option "ClickMethod" "clickfinger"

So in the end, the section will look

like this:

Section "InputClass"

    Identifier "libinput touchpad catchall"

    MatchIsTouchpad "on"

    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"

    Driver "libinput"

    Option "ClickMethod" "clickfinger"

EndSection

That's it.

See the following link for more

libinput configuration details:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Libinput#Button_re-mapping

WINDOW SNAPPING

=> =============

I like to be able to "snap" my windows

to half-screen (left or right),

full-screen, or minimized state by

holding down the Windows Key and

pressing the arrow keys.

You can achieve this behaviour by

editing ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml

Add the following text[2] just prior

to the line that says "<!--

Keybindings for window switching -->"

<!-- Aero Snap for Openbox Begin Code-->

<keybind key="W-Left">        # HalfLeftScreen

  <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>

  <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>0</y><height>100%</height><width>50%</width></action>

</keybind>

<keybind key="W-Right">        # HalfRightScreen

  <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>

  <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>-0</x><y>0</y><height>100%</height><width>50%</width></action>

</keybind>

<keybind key="W-Up">

  <action name="MaximizeFull"/>

</keybind>

<keybind key="W-Down">

  <action name="Iconify"/>

</keybind>

<!-- Aero Snap for Openbox End Code-->

Once you set up window snapping like

this, you'll wonder how you got along

without it.

SHARPFONTS

=> ========

Linux fonts are a lot better than they

used to be, but they're still not

great, and they're not hard to fix. A

long time ago, there was a website

dedicated to installing sharper

fonts[3] on Linux. It's gone, but you

can still get fonts and the scripts.

If you like the old, very crisp fonts

from the Windows XP era, you'll want

to make these mods.

First login as root and install the

microsoft true type fonts, as follows:

apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Then get the following file:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130501222012/http://www.osresources.com/files/centos-windows-fonts/fontconfig.tbz

Navigate into the directory with the

fontsconfig.tbz file, and execute the

following command:

tar xvjpf fontconfig.tbz -C /etc/fonts/

Log out and log back in. You can fine

tune the fonts by going to the LXDE

Menu > Preferences > Customize Look

and Feel > Fonts Tab.

If you don't like the change, just

navigate into fontconfig.tbz, note the

names of the four files within the

folder, and then remove them from

/etc/fonts.

But I think you're going to like it.

COMPTON

=> ======

To install compton (for terminal transparency)

apt-get install compton compton-conf

nano ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE/autostart

Add to the end of the file:

@/usr/bin/compton

BLUETOOTH

=> ========

apt-get install blueman

Then log out / log in

FILE MANAGER ACCESS TO SERVERS

=> ============================

To allow PCmanFM and Nautilus ("Files") to mount FTP, SMB, etc.

apt-get install gvfs-backends

[1] https://superuser.com/questions/1279727/xfce-change-brightness-steps-and-or-change-brightness-key-behavior

[2] I believe this is the source for the original scripting: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2076433

[3] www.sharpfonts.com