Recently, I had a chance to setup Linux to Lenovo Ideapad laptop. While the machine itself is of great value there are few difficulties when it comes to actually enabling its every function. The Ideapad I got my hands on did not have any switches, which would enable or disable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. When Linux was installed it also came to be that the left mouse button was disabled (not working at all). All these problems were easy to fix and in this post I will walk you through the whole process, which helped me to get the most of the great Ideapad laptop. The steps below are done as root user (su root) or as a sudo user (sudo su). Use sudo or root depending on your system’s setup (meaning: root might be disabled and sudo might be enabled or vice versa. To complete the steps below, you can use any terminal client of your choice (xterm. terminator, gnome-terminal…)

Problem 1: Left/right mouse button is not working

Solution: Open terminal and as a sudo or a root type: modprobe -r psmouse

The modprobe -r unloads the psmouse module. Next, we are going to reload it with a different protocol.

modprobe psmouse proto=bare

Now the mouse should be working. If this is not the case you can also try to use:

modrobe psmouse proto=ipms

Remember unload the psmouse module before trying a different modprobe command.

If you got your mouse working write the changes to configuration file (as a root or a sudo) so that the correct mouse settings will be loaded automatically. For example:

echo “options psmouse proto=bare” >> /etc/modprobe.d/mouse.conf

Problem 2: Wi-Fi (wireless network) is not working

Solution: You need to unload the ideapad-laptop module, which collides with the modules in Linux kernel and as a result blocks wireless.

Solution: Open terminal and as a sudo or a root type: modprobe -r ideapad-laptop

Do note that you will also (and more than likely) need a specific non-free firmware for your wireless card in order to get it work. Read your computer’s manual or Google around to find out what is your Wi-Fi card. After the previous step search the specific firmware from your distribution’s database using package managers or command line tools.

Problem 3: Bluetooth is not working

Solution: Install rfkill. Rfkill is a small and nice tool, which you can use to activate/deactivate your wireless devices. As Bluetooth is also a wireless device we are going to use rfkill to enable our still disabled Bluetooth.

Once rfkill is installed (for example: sudo apt-get install rfkill) go and open a terminal and as a sudo or a root type: rfkill unblock all

Bluetooth should be enabled now. You can verify it by typing (still as a root or a sudo):

rfkill list all

The command should show that Bluetooth is indeed activated and well.

You still need to make sure that the fixes undertaken to eliminate problems 2 and 3 will remain active and automatically loaded even after a state of reboot or shutdown. To do this you will need to write some lines to a file called rc.local, which will run commands during boot.

Open terminal and as a sudo or a root type:

echo “modprobe -r ideapad-laptop” >> /etc/rc.local

echo “rfkill unblock all” >> /etc/rc.local

Now all should be done. Have a nice Lenovo Linux experience.