ThinkPad

I got this L14 refurbished to use as a backup, Linux-only, laptop. But it’s quickly become the first thing I reach for, over my MacBook.

Plus, cutting an eye hole out of a sticker is the closest I will ever come to being crafty, but I think it looks cool.

Only got it a little over a year ago but barely used it to be honest. As much as I like ThinkPads I just didn't like using it.

I think it's 100% down to how I use laptops; I watch and create content. The ThinkPad has a gorgeous screen but its speakers are more of an afterthought, they truly are awful; I know it's a business laptop so I can't even complain that much.

As for what I'm using instead... well, forgive me but I kinda fell in love with my M1 Pro MacBook.

If you're interested in a barely used P14s Gen5, here's an eBay link (I asked the sole mod of this sub if it's ok for me to post it here and they didn't respond so...).

Still keeping all my classic ThinkPads, though.

Thinkpad T14 Gen2 it has touch screen so good for me cuz im a student i hope this is much more durable than my old ideapad (520)

:^)

Here I am considering to purchase a newer used Thinkpad than my latest (X1 Carbon G7) and suddenly they release the most repairable laptop of the decade?

Not sure what has happened, whether it's physically broken or something went wrong with the software. So the machine overheats fairly quickly now. This is running Debian 11 (bullseye) and /proc/acpi/ibm/fan says:

status:		enabled
speed:		0
level:		auto

so I don't know if the heat is being recognized. The CPU does clock down as it gets hotter. I'm not getting any type of overtemperature alerts though, and I haven't found any place in the acpi tree to read the temperature. That's annoying since there must be some sensors in there.

It looks like there is a program called "thinkfan" in trixie so I might try to upgrade the machine tomorrow. I can only do so much at a time before the box gets too hot.

Any help? Thanks.

By "modern" I mean every model made after the T480 and T580 (which is what I have!). The reason why I'm asking is because I'm thinking about buying a laptop for my younger brother for his birthday in a couple of months. The idea is that he'll use it for school work and browsing. He'll be entering high school soon so I want to buy him a laptop that last him a good while. I feel the newer models suit this criteria a bit better since I don't expect to tinker around with it though I do intend to introduce him to Linux with it.

From what I've observed is that the newer Thinkpads are still well regarded from a general consumer perspective but disregarded by enthusiasts. What do you guys think of the newer models?

From what i've searched the ThinkCentre M700 SFF or some ThinkStations might have 3x 2.5" SATA bays for HDDs/SSDs, but it's hard to find documentation.
Basically i need a reliable box, small form factor (as possible), to shove 3 drives in and use as remote backup.
Does anyone have experience on any suitable models?

1st, USB emulation, since it's more interesting of a use case, IMO.

A while back you may've stumbled upon the article Unlocking secret ThinkPad functionality for emulating USB devices where a dude patches nvram to enable xdci. I've been reminded of that recently and decided to find a way to achieve that with coreboot. After some time looking here and there, here's the solution: just add device ref south_xdci on end after device domain 0 on in coreboot's src/mainboard/lenovo/sklkbl_thinkpad/variants/t480/overridetree.cb. Yap, that simple; have fun!

Now on edk2: as one dude on reddit suggested, libreboot can be used to get the proprietary binaries and patched ME semi-automatically (although I've experienced some instability here and ended up feeding it blobs from an earlier build). As for the .config, I ended up following MrChromebox' advice and leaving most of the default choices be. Here's a minimal defconfig that generates working builds (fully flashable, not just the bios region):

# board choice
CONFIG_VENDOR_LENOVO=y
CONFIG_BOARD_LENOVO_T480=y
CONFIG_PAYLOAD_EDK2=y

# proprietary blobs
CONFIG_HAVE_IFD_BIN=y
CONFIG_IFD_BIN_PATH="../../../config/ifd/t480/ifd_16"
CONFIG_HAVE_ME_BIN=y
CONFIG_ME_BIN_PATH="../../../vendorfiles/t480/me.bin"
CONFIG_HAVE_GBE_BIN=y
CONFIG_GBE_BIN_PATH="../../../config/ifd/t480/gbe"
CONFIG_ADD_FSP_BINARIES=y
CONFIG_FSP_USE_REPO=n
CONFIG_FSP_M_FILE="../../../vendorfiles/kabylake/Fsp_M.fd"
CONFIG_FSP_S_FILE="../../../vendorfiles/kabylake/Fsp_S.fd"

# nice-to-haves
CONFIG_EDK2_FULL_SCREEN_SETUP=y
CONFIG_MEC1653_ENABLE_UART=y

You can walk around the menuconfig after making olddefconfig and see what other options you may like. However DO NOT TOGGLE the "allow pcie resource allocation over 4g" or whatever it was called (it's in the bottom of the device section), as on my machine that resulted in coreboot and systemd-boot displaying nothing, though there finally was image after Linux started booting. So, not fatal, but may end up requiring reflashing externally, depending on your setup.

The most useful thing in edk2 for me with that was the working platform setup menu, where one can disable the annoying fnlock on boot/wake and increase the memory limits for igpu. Although, nvramtool should work for that now, too.

A T495s to replace my aging T430. The T430 is still quite usable, but the original battery with 34% health isn't great, though it gets through a 2 hour lecture no problem.

I do miss the trackpoint buttons and smaller trackpad, I tend to move the mouse with my palm while using the trackpoint, but otherwise the new one is better in every way.

Do you have any recommendations for keyboard stickers to mark a second layout?

For programming I really like to use the UK ISO layout, so I am looking for small stickers to mark all the keys that diverge from the built in german layout.

Thanks in advance!

TL;DR you can install Libreboot on a T470 with a 7th-gen Intel processor as you would any T480.

Everything below is relevant to T470 units with a 7th-gen Intel CPU. I don't have a 6th-gen Intel unit to test and those may have a different chipset.

The T470 and T480 have very similar hardware, with Intel 7th-gen CPU options available for both models. So out of curiosity, I decided to try flashing the T480 build of Libreboot 25.06 to my T470.

If you are new to Libreboot or Coreboot, I'd suggest going through the documentation first, i.e. https://libreboot.org/docs/install/t480.html. A good video guide is also available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGKhsjvlSBQ. As for BIOS and Thunderbolt firmware, I just updated to the latest versions of each for the T470.

An external BIOS chip programmer is necessary for installing Libreboot itself. I chose to use the CH341a. If you choose to do so as well, be aware that

• without an adapter, the CH341a will push 3.3 volts to the BIOS chip, even though the actual chip in the T470 is rated for 1.8 V
• the chip did survive many previous me_cleaner tests and the final Libreboot flashing despite using an unmodified CH341a. YMMV, use at your own risk.
• Pins 1,2,3,4 are along the same side of the socket as the lever. Use the 25xx section.
• it is always a good idea to back up and double-check the original BIOS chip contents before flashing Libreboot

Libreboot starts up normally and Linux boots with no issue. While I have not exhaustively tested every feature of the T470, I can go about my daily tasks as usual and write this post on my Librebooted T470. Caveats found on the T480 seem to apply to the T470 as well, most notably with the audio jack and internal microphone. Neither of these components are working, although the documentation suggests USB sound cards as a workaround for now. Internal speakers and webcam do work, however.

EDIT: USB-C charging works, but data transfer does not. I'm not terribly surprised though since that section of the board did go from having a dedicated charging port and single USB-C connector on the T470 to having two USB-C connectors and a mini dock connector on the T480.

Additionally,

• No noticeable difference in performance or battery life (I had previously disabled hyperthreading, but Libreboot prebuilt images have it disabled as well).
• TrackPoint felt somewhat harder to use, but that was alleviated by switching from libinput to evdev (note evdev is not supported in Wayland sessions).
• Expected in hindsight since I just used the T480 build as-is, but the laptop will now identify itself as a T480 in various hardware info utilities.
• Intel ME has been neutered.

If you are looking to buy a laptop for Libreboot, I would suggest you skip the T470 since it is only dual core and instead go for the T480 since it comes with a much more performant quad core if the CPU is 8th-gen. But for those of us who already have a T470 or for any reason are limited to buying a T470, Libreboot is an option for us too!

Recently I bought a used ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen.4 that seems to be in very good condition overall but one thing: the graphical performance is well under the expectation. And that's shit, because that was actually the main reason I decided to buy this laptop now.

The graphics card is a Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti laptop, and it is performing consistently and slightly below the GTX 950M I've been using up until now. This last card is in an Ideapad that's identical in specs and configuration to the new one, but with a 4 gens older GPU and a 5 gens older CPU. Both also have Intel integrated chips, that I also benchmarked (with Furmark), and I've been getting the same consistent distribution: older iGPU < newer iGPU < 3050 < 950, in which the 3050 makes no sense. This damn laptop has a 2K screen (16:10) but struggles even slightly more than the other one to run at decent 1080p FPS, while everything else runs faster because of the better CPU.

I finally tried out both CachyOS and KDE (I love Plasma!) with the new laptop. I expected an effortless install with Cachy but ended up spending hours trying to debug the bad performance, so I decided to install Windows to test it out and confirm if I was properly utilizing the card. I got the same results.

I've tried the discrete card drivers from the Lenovo website, and I now have running the one from Nvidia's. I've got no problem report from anywhere, but the system information in Nvidia control panel displays some unexpected values, like "Graphics boost clock" at 1035 MHz when it should be 1485 MHz, "Memory bandwith" at 176.03 GB/s when it should be 195 GB/s and "Bus" with PCIe x8 Gen4 when it should be PCIe x16 Gen4. I took the reference values from here and here for the bus spec.

It's the 60W variant (as displayed in the Nvidia CP) and I didn't know there were several - so something I can't change in this card? Anyway, this one is close to the best (35~80W range)

Could it have been undervolted/underclocked previously? Is that something that persists between operating systems? Could you do that on this Thinkpad?

The BIOS only lets me force the use of the discrete card and has some power setting for performance that was already on with AC power.

I have MSI Afterburner installed, can I learn something with it? I think the card is fucked somehow, but would really love to find out exactly what's wrong, since it's still performing and also because I might wanna pass it on to someone who would be conscious of the limitations, and get another one just like it! The thing is I love this laptop, it's exactly what I wanted, but without a decent performance in some graphic intense games.

Ultimately I supose I might eventually have to get the board schematics and start measuring currents, but is there something I can try before that?

Anyway, long post already but I would apreciate if someone could help me with these matters. I know Thinkpads usually don't even have discrete graphic cards but I thought some one here coukd help me. Thanks!

Hi guys, I couldn't think of a more qualified community for this question.

My trustworthy T470s' USB C port (front right) is failing - only connecting to a charging cable when at a particular angle.

Is there an effective way to swap out that peripheral? I have replaced so many things in it and would not mind one more to keep her alive :)

Currently running via dock and regular charging port but that doesn't fit my lifestyle the same.

TL;DR: On the xx30 series, the 4MB "top" chip is easily recoverable, even if you fail to make a backup. If you install the 1vyrain BIOS or use 1vyrain to install Coreboot, only the 4MB chip is affected. However, if you apply me_cleaner to the 8MB "bottom" chip and lose the backup, you cannot return to the stock BIOS!

A few years ago, I had wanted to try out Coreboot (using pre-built "Skulls" images), but didn't want to bother with buying and learning how to use a hardware chip programmer. So I used 1vyrain, as mentioned here: https://lemmy.ml/post/23117122

1vyrain just overwrites the 4MB chip with the supplied image. The 8MB chip is unaffected. Nothing on the 4MB chip is machine-specific. So if you can still boot into Linux but no longer want Coreboot, the recovery is trivial:

1. Boot Linux with the kernel parameter iomem=relaxed
2. Install flashrom if needed
3. Get a copy of the stock 4MB image (I'd recommend v2.60): https://github.com/xy-tech/x330-bios/tree/main/stock/original
4. Flash the image: sudo flashrom -p internal -i bios --ifd -w /path/to/v2.60.bin --noverify-all
5. Wait for it to finish and reboot

If it doesn't POST, you can do the same, but with a hardware programmer.

If you made a mistake with your Coreboot config, but can still boot, and just want to flash a new build of Coreboot, no need to restore stock BIOS and do 1vyrain again, just flash your coreboot.rom like so: sudo flashrom -p internal -i bios --ifd -w path/to/coreboot.rom --noverify-all

That's all that is relevant if you don't have a hardware programmer like the CH341a.

Now the mistake that made me write this post: I had extracted the bottom 8MB chip from one of my X230 and applied me_cleaner to it. Seeing it had worked so well, I jumped to the conclusion that a backup for one X230 would work for another X230. So I flashed my second X230 with the cleaned 8MB image without making a backup. Coreboot worked fine, but then I realized I forgot to apply the keyboard EC patch.

Turns out, the contents of the bottom chip are machine-specific and the stock BIOS will not boot if it has been tampered with or swapped with a backup from another machine. And without the stock BIOS, the EC cannot be flashed.

If I do find a way to make the stock BIOS boot again, I will post an update here.

Device: Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen 8

i noticed that my thinkpad runs at a noticably lower but largely stable framerate aber waking up from sleep (after opening the lid and logging in).

Playing some audio also reveald crackeling noises about twice a second, which werent there before.

cpu usage remains low at 3%

actual cpu performance seems to be as good as before sleep.

ive had some issues with sleep on my desktop before (same config) but they were never so severe...

does someone here have similar issues or found a solution for this yet?

Device: Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen 8

i noticed that my thinkpad runs at a noticably lower but largely stable framerate aber waking up from sleep (after opening the lid and logging in).

Playing some audio also reveald crackeling noises about twice a second, which werent there before.

cpu usage remains low at 3%

actual cpu performance seems to be as good as before sleep.

ive had some issues with sleep on my desktop before (same config) but they were never so severe...

does someone here have similar issues or found a solution for this yet?

soooo - i got a... thinkpad x1 ... yoga gen 8 - and its great!

works flawlessly, i love the trackpoint - great navigation.

however! i have found that this middle trackpad button isnt really a middle mouse button at all! its great for scrolling with the trackpoint and it works great for a middle-mouse-button click when just clicked once, but when held, the laptop seems to expect a scroll from the trackpoint.

i need the middle-mouse-button-dragging for navigation within the godot game engine and blender.

sooo - i tried finding a way to emulate middle click using both left - and right trackpad buttons, but to no avail.

the closest i have gotten is by cloning and running this repo here, which made it so that, when left and right buttons are pressed, they emulate the physical middle trackpad button pres... which lets me scroll using the trackpoint, but doesnt actually emulate the real middle mouse button press (so still no middle-mouse-buton drag ;( )

(yes, i tried the gsettings command they provide in the - that didnt work either, seemingly nothing changed)

does someone have a solution for this?

Hi, I have tried undervolting my t480 before, but ran into several issues, I wonder if that was because I was just not doing it correctly? never found a proper guide or tips for it really, anyone have any idea how to properly do it? reading other people's stuff, seems it is indeed worth it to try at least.

For those interested in some numbers on how much a quad-core mod might affect your power usage and battery life. This post only covers power consumption of the CPU as measured by RAPL to eliminate other factors such as LCD panel type, attached USB devices, or number of SSDs installed.

Averages for dual-core i5-3210M, 35W TDP:

• Idle: 2.87 W
• Moderate load: 13.79 W

Averages for quad-core i7-3612QE, 35W TDP:

• Idle: 3.84 W
• Moderate load: 13.03 W

Since I have been unable to source a ULV-modded board, I am looking for justification to do the mod myself. As part of this, I tested a S230U with the dual-core i5-3317U, 17W TDP:

• Idle: 2.49 W
• Moderate load: 9.51 W

Will come back with more numbers if I succeed in putting the ULV chip in an X230. Don't hold your breath since it's a complicated operation with many potential issues. You are also welcome to DM me if you want to sell a ULV-equipped board.

Experiment setup:

• Command: sudo powerstat -R 10 10
• Idle: Debian 13 TTY, X session logged out
• Moderate load: Xfce desktop, Librewolf with uBlock Origin, playing a 720p Youtube video
• I am not sure how much this affects the numbers, but the S230U is on the stock BIOS while the two X230's are on Coreboot with me_cleaner.

Hi everyone,

I’ve had my E580 since 2018 and it’s been flawless, a true workhorse. I’m planning to pass it to my son and upgrade to a more powerful laptop, ideally staying in the ThinkPad E series for cost reasons. However, I’m overwhelmed by the available configurations. My target is 32 GB RAM and a good 16" panel (preferably 100% sRGB), though since I’ll use the laptop almost exclusively at home with an external monitor and keyboard, a 14" could also work. I run Linux but often use a Windows VM. My questions are:

• AMD or Intel and which specific model should I consider? Is a “Ryzen 7 250” a reasonable choice?
• AMD-based models sometimes don’t list the Wi‑Fi chipset. Any idea on whether those will work reliably under Linux?

Any general tips or things to avoid would also be appreciated.

For instance, what about this: https://imgur.com/a/43LpduT? Or this? https://imgur.com/a/y9IW4mK (image in Spanish, but the name of the components are in english)

The intel one is almost 50% more in price.

Thanks a lot in advance!

E.N.

According to https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht510809-how-to-reinstall-the-operating-system-linux, the only Lenovo "addition" to a Fedora installation is the /opt/lenovo directory. Could anyone list the contents of this folder? Does it only contain the xcclogger application? Thanks!