My Thinkpad T450 Ubuntu set up

evdev.conf

# Configure the Thinkpad T450 track point buttons properly
Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "Touchpad/TrackPoint"
  MatchProduct "PS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"
  MatchDriver "evdev"
  Option "EmulateWheel" "1"
  Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
  Option "Emulate3Buttons" "0"
  Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
  Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

# Configure my Evoluent Vertical Mouse (You can ignore this section)
Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "Evoluent VertialMouse"
  MatchProduct "Kingsis Peripherals  Evoluent VerticalMouse 3 "
  Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 2 4 5 0 0 3 9"
EndSection

Instructions.md

Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid) has now been released and it fixes mostly all of the issues I had with my Thinkpad T450. I recommend doing a clean install of Ubuntu 15.04 and mostly avoiding all of the steps bellow!

My process for getting Ubuntu running really nicely on a Thinkpad T450 with all the hardware working. (I have my track pad disabled in the bios and only want to use the track point.)

Basic steps to get Ubuntu running nicely on the Thinkpad T450:

• Install Ubuntu 14.10
• Install latest stable mainline kernel (3.19.3 vivid at time of writing)
  • Install headers_all package
  • then headers_amd64 package
  • and then the image package.
• Install latest Intel Graphics Installer (1.0.8 at time on writing)
• Create directory /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d and put the attached evdev.conf file in it.
• Download latest iwlwifi drivers and extract files into /lib/firmware. (If you're not sure which WiFi card you have type lspci -nn | grep Wireless to find out.)
• Edit /etc/default/grub and change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT to "quiet splash psmouse.proto=imps".
• Run sudo update-grub
• Reboot the machine.
• Run the "Intel Graphics Installer for Linux" application from the application launcher to install the latest graphics driver.
• Run wget https://download.01.org/gfx/RPM-GPG-KEY-ilg-2 -O - | sudo apt-key add - and wget https://download.01.org/gfx/RPM-GPG-KEY-ilg -O - | sudo apt-key add - to trust the Intel graphics driver apt repos.
• Run apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to upgrade everything.
• Reboot the machine again.

Other configuration I do:

• Run sudo hp-plugin to install the proprietary HP printer driver plugin.
• gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-key-theme "Emacs" to enable Emacs hot keys for applications.
• Add fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1000000 to the end of my /etc/sysctl.conf file so that Dropbox syncs properly.
• Add the Emacs Snapshot PPA to avoid being stuck on 24.3!
• Install OpenVPN support for the network manager network-manager-openvpn
• Enable the "Intel Virtualization Technology" options under Security -> Virtualization in the BIOS, otherwise some virtual machines won't boot.

Useful links:

• http://vimtips.org/2015/02/20/ubuntu-1410-and-lenovo-thinkpad-x250/
• http://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/
• https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=66903&p=317110#p317190

Do you still have your T450? If so, what are you running on it now? I'm thinking about getting a secondhand T450 to run Linux and was wondering if it works okay with modern Linux distros.

Do you still have your T450? If so, what are you running on it now? I'm thinking about getting a secondhand T450 to run Linux and was wondering if it works okay with modern Linux distros.

Sorry, just noticed this comment!

I run Debian on a Thinkpad T470 (and desktop computer) these days. Setting up Debian was a bit more faff, but I found some aspects of Ubuntu irksome.

I think running Ubuntu on a T450 should serve you well though, it's would be a solid place to start IMO. You can pick up a second hand T450 for a reasonable price and they're decent machines. I don't think you'll need to customise Ubuntu much to get it working properly.