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Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

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Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#371

Post by gabereiser »

jason0597 wrote: post #325
gabereiser wrote: post #45

I find it rather peculiar that tech folks think a plastic laptop is good build quality considering what we have from Apple and others. I wish more linux laptops had the build quality and support of macbooks. This isn't a rant from an Apple fan, this is a rant from a laptop fan. ThinkPad's aren't good laptops despite what the guy with the pocket protector says. They are flimsy and feel cheap. They still have 20th cent…

If you've ever taken apart a ThinkPad, you would notice that inside is a metal frame to support the entire laptop body. It's not plastic. Plus, this ThinkPad (and the newer ThinkPads in general) have a metal exterior

All plastic laptop bodies have a metal frame which tells you how much they have faith in their body construction.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#372

Post by panda88888 »

vially wrote: post #347
neither_color wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>you can use two 4k monitors at the same time -which is impossible with the M1 MacBook Pro I have two 4K monitors hooked up to a 14" macbook pro currently. I believe it's the air that only connects to one external display.

According to the official documentation [1], the 13" M1 MacBook Pro also has this limitation: > If you're using a Mac with the M1 chip: > > On iMac, Mac mini, MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro, you can connect one external display using either of the Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports. [1] - https://support.apple.com/en-afri/HT202351

Well, the 13” M1 MacBook Pro is basically the Air with a fan and more ports?

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#373

Post by howinteresting »

awill wrote: post #364

It's weird to me that now, when Apple is firing on all cylinders with their best ever hardware (both the M1, and the new MBP with improved keyboard, ports and removal of the touchbar), someone would switch away from Apple. I've used Linux for 20 years on desktops, but laptops, where hardware/software integration is crucial, I've never found something trouble free. Wireless and video drivers tend to be good only if yo…

Everyday I use my macbook for work I'm reminded of how janky and terrible macOS is compared to my lovely Linux setup.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#374

Post by tommiegannert »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #334
tommiegannert wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a bit like asking "who still uses keyboard shortcuts?" No, it was a good-faith question of who finds it useful (for what type of work) these days. I think it's a fair question since every other manufacturer has settled on trackpads. As context, I added that I, personally, find it ruins my screen on an otherwise good laptop. Why the rant about keyboard shortcuts? The only answer you gave to my question was e…

It does not appear to be a good-faith question or at least there does not appear to be a true effort to understand it. FWIW, I use pointing stick and the poster's analogy is the one I wish I could've used for decade - it is friendly and detailed and perfectly represents my use case and feelings (and is much better explanation than my own sibling comment, which was admittedly more of a "over my dead body" :). Like key…

Thank you for providing a useful answer, despite not believing it was posted in good faith. You might be right about other producers still making sticks. I haven't been in the market for a few years.

What should I have done differently to make it appear as a true effort to understand?

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#375

Post by dhbsdfgv »

sudosysgen wrote: post #361
csdvrx wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Besides the lack of OLED display, the limited RAM on AMD laptops is another showstopper then. I want a minimum of 64GB ECC, which I can get on a Thinkpad with an Intel Xeon CPU.

The Alienware M15 r5 Ryzen édition (amongst others) does support 64GB of RAM, but not ECC.

It also isn't an all-amd system, so your external displays and prime offloading all become way more awkward.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#376

Post by howinteresting »

gabereiser wrote: post #45

I find it rather peculiar that tech folks think a plastic laptop is good build quality considering what we have from Apple and others. I wish more linux laptops had the build quality and support of macbooks. This isn't a rant from an Apple fan, this is a rant from a laptop fan. ThinkPad's aren't good laptops despite what the guy with the pocket protector says. They are flimsy and feel cheap. They still have 20th cent…

Aluminum sucks if you're on AC power that isn't properly grounded, as others have pointed out. I personally prefer laptops with carbon fiber for that reason.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#377

Post by beached_whale »

awill wrote: post #364

It's weird to me that now, when Apple is firing on all cylinders with their best ever hardware (both the M1, and the new MBP with improved keyboard, ports and removal of the touchbar), someone would switch away from Apple. I've used Linux for 20 years on desktops, but laptops, where hardware/software integration is crucial, I've never found something trouble free. Wireless and video drivers tend to be good only if yo…

I am just waiting for Asahi to become more stable and support a bit more before I get a new one. But at the price of Apple HW and getting perf/battery life it's hard to compare. The Lenovo's are in or above Macbook Pro prices.

I want to not be tethered to a desk while working and not lose perf to get ok battery life. These P1's are the closest I have seen though.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#378

Post by nine_k »

LeonM wrote: post #312
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But this is a $3000 professional laptop, which is supposed to have good Linux support. // That's a big fail by Lenovo then, so why didn't you return it? When the support guys logged in to your computer to fix it, what did they do -- just go "yeah, or product is crap" and usher you away?

> so why didn't you return it? Mostly because I had more important things to do at the time. Though not perfect, the computer does work, it does get the job done. And also, I wouldn't know which other brand/model to get. I made my decision to buy the X1E based on the HN community recommending Lenovo as having one of the best support for Linux. So if I switch to a different brand, I might end up with an even worse Lin…

It's not that everything branded Lenovo runs linux flawlessly.

There are know models and model lines that do so (like the T line). Usually they were / are even offered in variants with Linux preinstalled from Lenovo web site.

Other models may have and do have problems, unsupported hardware, etc.

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#379

Post by csdvrx »

xfs wrote: post #273
orangepurple wrote: post #221

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. 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…

I have used EFISTUB for 10 years but I wouldn't recommend it for the next install. The bootloader is the one arcane place that you don't want to be clever with and get reminded of its presence daily, because once it fails for some reason, it wastes much more time to find and read docs and diagnose than the time saved in boot speedup, because the knowledge to debug it is not something you would remember everyday. And…

> The parameters are encoded in UEFI NVRAM.

You can embed the parameters in the EFISTUB, this is explained in the arch wiki.

I use that to test different parameters with the same kernel packaged in different EFI payload, which I can select from the F12 boot menu if I don't want to use the commands to specify "use this payload only for the next boot"

Re: Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen3 Review – with Linux

#380

Post by csdvrx »

Sakos wrote: post #274
smoldesu wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, that's not entirely true. You can chroot into your box and change your kernel if something goes horrifically wrong, the situation isn't as unsalvageable as you paint it out to be.

It's possible but it's more inconvenient than it needs to be. I'd rather be able to select a previous kernel from a list instead of trying to remember how to change the kernel through chroot on a broken system.

You can totally select a different kernel if it's packaged in its own EFI payload.

You can even enroll this EFI payloads from within the BIOS by just selecting the file from the EFI partition if you forgot to add them into your UEFI (ie if they don't show in your F12 boot options)

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