Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

genneko.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 245 posts

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#81

Post by abhijat »

protanopia wrote: post #33
revicon wrote: post #7

I also have a t480, mines running Ubuntu but unfortunately I’m giving it up for a new MacBook Air. The touchpads on the thinkpads are beyond horrible after using macs for many years, it’s finally too annoying for me to keep going :(

Try disabling the trackpad and then just use the trackpoint.

I've been using the trackpoint for so long that the trackpad seems hard to use to me.

I always disable the trackpad but I fear someday thinkpads might drop the trackpoint altogether as I don't see many people using them.

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#82

Post by na85 »

xxpor wrote: post #2

>Ethernet and WiFi work, although WiFi is a bit slow (only up to 802.11a?) compared to 802.11n/802.11ac capable OSes. And stuff like this is why I've never stuck with FreeBSD when I've tried it. I screw around with debugging issues all day at work. Why would I want to try to figure out why something as fundamental as wifi isn't working in my spare time?

>Suspend/resume works almost fine as the same level as Windows (they sometimes get weird anyway).

Don't forget this, which translated means suspend/resume doesn't work.

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#83

Post by abhijat »

zelly wrote: post #75
namirez wrote: post #3

The other good development with Thinkpads is the introduction of AMD processors in their mainstream offerings (T495, T495s, X395, etc.). Unfortunately their screens suck though.

I have a T495. I highly recommend it. Be warned, the keyboard is a chiclet keyboard, not the traditional Thinkpad keyboard. But having an AMD GPU and an AMD CPU automatically makes this my choice after having dealt with the horrors of NVIDIA on Linux.

I think the old ThinkPad keyboards are gone forever now. All models are chiclet.

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#85

Post by asveikau »

na85 wrote: post #82
xxpor wrote: post #2

>Ethernet and WiFi work, although WiFi is a bit slow (only up to 802.11a?) compared to 802.11n/802.11ac capable OSes. And stuff like this is why I've never stuck with FreeBSD when I've tried it. I screw around with debugging issues all day at work. Why would I want to try to figure out why something as fundamental as wifi isn't working in my spare time?

>Suspend/resume works almost fine as the same level as Windows (they sometimes get weird anyway). Don't forget this, which translated means suspend/resume doesn't work.

Can't speak for TFA's hardware but suspend/resume works fine on my lenovo x1 6th gen running freebsd, with the only caveat being that I had to load some drivers that were not loaded by default. (I think it was called acpi_ibm. Manpage says that's for the Fn key combos, maybe it was something else.)

FWIW, suspend/resume is probably the worst, fiddliest thing about free OSs on a laptop.

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#86

Post by revicon »

ahnick wrote: post #66
orisho wrote: post #45

I use a Thinkpad T490s and it works great with Ubuntu out of the box. Only thing that doesn't work is clicking the touchpad for right click, but since the Thinkpad comes with physical left and right buttons that was a non-issue.

On my T480 I can use two fingers to trigger a right-click. The only issue I ran into with the mouse was where both right-click and two finger scrolling don't work after I have resume the laptop from sleep. To workaround this issue I just reload the mouse driver. It doesn't really bother my workflow much, but if it does then I'll run this rmouse command in the terminal. (I probably should script this to run on resume…

Wow, this is something that's been bugging me constantly. Thanks for the tip.

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#87

Post by na85 »

asveikau wrote: post #85
na85 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Suspend/resume works almost fine as the same level as Windows (they sometimes get weird anyway). Don't forget this, which translated means suspend/resume doesn't work.

Can't speak for TFA's hardware but suspend/resume works fine on my lenovo x1 6th gen running freebsd, with the only caveat being that I had to load some drivers that were not loaded by default. (I think it was called acpi_ibm. Manpage says that's for the Fn key combos, maybe it was something else.) FWIW, suspend/resume is probably the worst, fiddliest thing about free OSs on a laptop.

>FWIW, suspend/resume is probably the worst, fiddliest thing about free OSs on a laptop.

Sadly I agree.

My requirements for a laptop are:

1. Working suspend resume

2. Good touch pad with working palm rejection

3. Good battery life

Sadly the only laptop that meets these requirements to my satisfaction is my macbook.

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#88

Post by morpheuskafka »

zelly wrote: post #75
namirez wrote: post #3

The other good development with Thinkpads is the introduction of AMD processors in their mainstream offerings (T495, T495s, X395, etc.). Unfortunately their screens suck though.

I have a T495. I highly recommend it. Be warned, the keyboard is a chiclet keyboard, not the traditional Thinkpad keyboard. But having an AMD GPU and an AMD CPU automatically makes this my choice after having dealt with the horrors of NVIDIA on Linux.

The traditional ThinkPad keyboards are long gone (save for the T25 anniversary model). That said, they are still better than most other laptop keyboards I've tried.

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#89

Post by adtac »

namirez wrote: post #3

The other good development with Thinkpads is the introduction of AMD processors in their mainstream offerings (T495, T495s, X395, etc.). Unfortunately their screens suck though.

I use a T495s with the 400-nit low power display and it is by far the best screen I've ever seen on a laptop. I have no idea what you're talking about; of course, if you go with the 1366x768 screen that Lenovo seems to continue to offer inexplicably, you're shafted, but the 1920x1080 400-nit screen is incredible. It's matte, thin, extremely low power (powertop tells me it's under 1W right now at 30% brightness, which is already too bright for a well-lit root), and is easily replaceable. And it's not touch either, which is an advantage in my book.

Re: ThinkPad T480 is my new main laptop which runs FreeBSD

#90

Post by ptcampbell »

Mac user here. Still use a desktop Mac mini daily, but have replaced my 13" Macbook Pro for a 14" Thinkpad running Ubuntu.

So far so good. Haven't had nearly the amount of hardware issues reported in this thread. Only the fingerprint scanner does not work, despite best efforts to install its drivers.

The hardest thing for me so far has been customising it to behave like macOS. The muscle memory of keyboard shortcuts is too hard to shake. But I've changed most of them.

Another thing to point out. The display scaling sucks. I have found anything between 100% and 200% unstable.

Edit: mine is a budget L380 model. Pretty good value for under $500 (current clearance price).

Post reply on HN