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Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

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Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#251

Post by ge96 »

kodah wrote: post #237
fps_doug wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, people who tell you that you can blindly buy any Lenovo laptop for Linux are lying. You have to do some googling first. Or check the inofficial Thinkpad Wiki. But other than that, if you pick a device that's recommended for use with Linux, it's as good as it gets regarding Linux on laptops if you ask me. Saying that your next Laptop isn't a Lenovo because your random purchase sucked is a little :rolleyes: Oh and…

> Yes, people who tell you that you can blindly buy any Lenovo laptop for Linux are lying. I wouldn't say they're lying, per se, just that it's not 100% true. If you use PopOS with an X1 Extreme then almost all of those features work out of the box. On another OS they may not though. A good portion of what OP is describing require some applications present (and configured) in the userland, just having drivers isn't e…

Ubuntu for me just works. I use it on an X1 Gen 5. Also used on XPS13.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#252

Post by mixedCase »

bhaak wrote: post #245

> Lenovo is famous for their TrackPoint (that little red thing on the keyboard), but I am not sure if I’ll take the time to learn using it. Some say it’s far more precise and comfortable as you don’t have to lift your fingers from the keyboard. I might give it a shot sometime. Why buy a ThinkPad if you don't use its most important selling point?

The rest of the laptop, is the obvious, but clear answer.

I bought a couple of ThinkPads because they're well tested on Linux, have the best non-mechanical keyboard on a laptop that I know of (even after Lenovo), and have a decent build.

I can't stand using the TrackPoint despite having tried a few times, but my workflow relies more on a keyboard and any decent scrolling device, for which two-finger scroll on the touchpad more than suffices.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#253

Post by CharlesW »

hackyhacky wrote: post #241
uxcolumbo wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been a Thinkpad user for the last 15 years. The body is extremely sturdy along with the hinges. It's not plastic - it's magnesium alloy. They are not flimsy or cheap. Have you ever used a trackpoint? It's extremely ergonomic and much better than a trackpad. It requires a bit of time to get used to it - but it's totally worth the time investment. And please don't make comments like 'Grandfather's laptop'. Just be…

TrackPoints are a fantastic feature and are one of the most important criteria keeping me on ThinkPads. The casual dismissal of TrackPoints in the grandparent comment shows that the author has never tried one.

> The casual dismissal of TrackPoints in the grandparent comment shows that the author has never tried one.

They're a great and innovative "backup" pointing device when one doesn't have access to a mouse or touchpad. They really don't compare to either of those more expressive and efficient options, though.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#254

Post by ptsneves »

orangepurple wrote: post #221
LeonM wrote: post #193

Based on all the comments on HN about how great Thinkpads are supposed to be with Linux, I bought an X1-Extreme some time ago. From my experience, Linux support for Lenovo devices is terrible. ACPI, power management, and UEFI are consistently causing problems. Grub has an issue with the 4K display, causing it to render at about 1 FPS. The dual-GPU (Intel and nVidia) situation is unworkable under Linux. Suspend on lid…

Don't use Grub or any bootloader if you can avoid it. I haven't used Grub in 10 years. Load Linux directly as an EFI executable via the EFISTUB approach. You almost certainly only need to run two or three efibootmgr commands to accomplish this. For most people that means only the "Using UEFI directly" section is relevant. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFISTUB S3 suspend was removed as a default option by many hard…

By not using Grub you lose the ability to fallback on a safe kernel. That may be quite dangerous depending on how reliable kernel update is for you. I have been saved by kernel fallbacks before. Double that for laptops whose ACPI drivers randomly break from version to version, as evidenced by your note on 5.17.x kernels.

Regardless I sympathize, as I recently had a good deal of trouble updating from BIOS to UEFI. The 4K issue seems to also affect Dell XPS15 and leads to a kernel panic on the latest Canonical Live CD [1]

[1] https://cenains.blog/2022/05/01/converting-boot-mode-from-bi...

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#255

Post by rr808 »

adamors wrote: post #10

> 7-9 hours of typing, browsing and some programming. > 3-4 hours of video/audio conferencing or other CPU intensive tasks. This is one of the primary reasons I can't even consider moving away from an M1 Mac. I used to love ThinkPads but not being able to use the machine for 10+ hours without charger is a dealbreaker in 2022.

I have a XPS 15 with a 10th gen processor. Its absolutely perfect, linux support is great. Except it gets hot an battery life in 2-3 hours max. M1 stats seem a dream, just too expensive and screens are too small I can't justify it.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#256

Post by jotm »

lvl102 wrote: post #227

I still wonder what could have been if IBM just kept the Thinkpad lines. Those IBM-designed Thinkpads were built like tanks. Industrial. Legendary keyboards. I really miss those machines. I had some of the best coding sessions on them and can’t help but think Thinkpads played a role in creating that experience.

I don't know, I think they would've gone with cheaper and cheaper materials and ended up with pretty much what Lenovo has nowadays.

Dell and HP also had great business machines. I'm particularly fond of the Elitebook 8530/8730 - built like tanks, easy to repair, good keyboards, and still so thin for the time (even today, they look and feel good).

Quality went downhill ever since - newer models are still pretty good, but not as good as older ones. More plastic, fewer screws, trash keyboards, just kind of average for the price.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#257

Post by tempest_ »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #223
LeonM wrote: post #193

Based on all the comments on HN about how great Thinkpads are supposed to be with Linux, I bought an X1-Extreme some time ago. From my experience, Linux support for Lenovo devices is terrible. ACPI, power management, and UEFI are consistently causing problems. Grub has an issue with the 4K display, causing it to render at about 1 FPS. The dual-GPU (Intel and nVidia) situation is unworkable under Linux. Suspend on lid…

Thank you for sharing; these comments make me pause. At work, RHEL on Thinkpad is one of the standard offerings, and has continued to be across many generations. EVERYTHING works. I've had a work-provided RHEL Thinkpad (T450) which was smooth and seamless, as have my colleagues (most of them chose X1 variations, some T480, some with the newer T14). I have a large number of Thinkpads at home and I want to install Linu…

The largest stumbling block is typically when the machine has 2 GPUs.

If it is just a normal Intel with integrated graphics / ultra-book it will work out of the box with distros like Ubuntu.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#258

Post by ben-schaaf »

sigzero wrote: post #232
LeonM wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't use Grub or any bootloader if you can avoid it. I haven't used Grub in 10 years. Load Linux directly as an EFI executable via the EFISTUB approach. I run Windows dual boot, since I need (native) Windows for certain work related tasks. > S3 suspend was removed as a default option by many hardware manufacturers. You will likely need to enter the BIOS to change this. It's on, S3 is not the problem > There is a b…

Yeah for the most part it's a "Linux on laptops works if you ...". At least that has been my experience. Although I have not run Linux on a laptop in years so maybe it's time to revisit that.

It's highly dependent on the specific hardware. On some everything works out of the box, others you're stuck with very little working (think Apple M1). Just like any OS you always need to ensure hardware compatibility before purchase.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#259

Post by IE6 »

macco wrote: post #2

Why they have this bad touchpads is beyond me. Then it would be better to ditch them completely and position the keyboard nearer to the user. Like tho good Linux support though.

> Why they have this bad touchpads is beyond me. Then it would be better to ditch them completely and position the keyboard nearer to the user.

I think some brands have tried this (like ones that include a mechanical keyboard or a screen) and the feedback about having the keyboard closer to the user and not having a "shelf" you can wrest your wrists on is almost always negative. YMMV.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#260

Post by belter »

pooper wrote: post #212
belter wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the person you asked to, but heavy Fedora and Thinkpad user here. I know that already as of Fedora 33, for many users, the fingerprint reader worked out of the box with the T490. It seems the T490 can have different models of fingerprint reader and maybe not all are supported. You should start by identifying your model with something like this sudo lsusb or # lsusb then look for the details of the line correspond…

Is this how I do that? $ sudo lsusb -s 004 --verbose Bus 001 Device 004: ID 06cb:00bd Synaptics, Inc. Prometheus MIS Touch Fingerprint Reader Device Descriptor: bLength 18 bDescriptorType 1 bcdUSB 2.00 bDeviceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class bDeviceSubClass 16 bDeviceProtocol 255 bMaxPacketSize0 8 idVendor 0x06cb Synaptics, Inc. idProduct 0x00bd Prometheus MIS Touch Fingerprint Reader bcdDevice 0.00 iManufacturer 0 iP…

Yes like this.

Looking at your idVendor and idProduct it does look like it's supported: https://fprint.freedesktop.org/supported-devices.html

Also looking a little bit on what others tried.

First page: http://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:06cb-00bd&page=1#status

Last page: http://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:06cb-00bd&page=25#status

I see it working with T490 and Fedora 34: http://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:06cb-00bd&hwid=b31796679ad...

I see it working with T490 and Ubuntu 20.04: http://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:06cb-00bd&hwid=fdd063171e2...

For Fedora 35 but a X1: http://linux-hardware.org/?id=usb:06cb-00bd&hwid=c740d7ae4be...

So the recommendation here would be to make sure you have the drivers ( although this would not normally be required post install)

https://github.com/freedesktop/libfprint meaning https://fprint.freedesktop.org/ ( page I also linked above)

Also make sure you have all the latest bios updates for the Thinkpad.

If this would be a fresh install, even when wanting to use Fedora 35 :-) I normally try with previous versions of Fedora or another Linux, like Ubuntu just to confirm it's not a hardware issue before anything else. :-)

While still on Fedora 35 you should also check, and taking on the suggestion from @JustFinishedBSG

fwupdmgr refresh

followed by

fwupdmgr update

and check if succeeds.

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