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I'm honestly thinking of switching to Thinkpad X1 Carbon now, but I HATE windows. And from what I've heard, Linux doesn't bode well with it. Anybody here Linux

I'm honestly thinking of switching to Thinkpad X1 Carbon now, but I HATE windows. And from what I've heard, Linux doesn't bode well with it. Anybody here Linux running on X1 Carbon?

sofaofthedamned 8y ago
I am, it's awesome with Fedora 28. There a couple of things to twiddle, mainly regarding sleep, but after that it's flawless. I can detail it a bit more if you like once I'm not on a phone.
- kahlonel 8y ago
  Would love to hear it. I'm mainly concerned about the trackpad, wifi performance and power consumption.
  - sofaofthedamned 8y ago
    Apologies for the delay: Power consumption - pretty much the same as Windows. I did enable tlp and put `powertop --auto-tune` in the startup. Trackpad is fine but it suffers from the same issue my XPS 13 (2016) has under Linux - occasionally tap-to-click stops working. A couple of clicks and it comes back but it is annoying. Wifi performance is awesome, i'll max out my 300mbit internet on it, it's a league above the 'killer wifi' that Dell persist with. The biggest issue and one that's apparently shared with the new XPS models is that Microsoft decreed their 'connected standby' sleep modes can't coincide with s3 (normal sleep). As Linux doesn't seem to support the new mode you have to patch the initrd line to insert a new ACPI table. It's a pain in the arse but you only need to run it once on each BIOS update. It's detailed here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_6)#S0i3_support https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carb... Once that's done Fedora 28 is awesome on this, and the keyboard is leagues above the XPS or the latest Macbooks. Highly recommended.
sfifs 8y ago
Not X1 Carbon but on new T480. Runs flawlessly.
- bproven 8y ago
  Yep - Fedora 27 on (older) T470 ... perfect. No issues with sleep or anything. -Batt life --> TLP + powertop; I consume 5-6 watts idle with this setup
nvarsj 8y ago
Yup I have the X1 Carbon 5th gen (2017) with 1080p screen. If you have a recent enough kernel everything is supported out of the box (except thumbprint reader). It's probably my favorite Thinkpad since the IBM era. Perfect weight, dual USB-C ports, excellent battery life, great display, great touchpad and amazing keyboard (I prefer it to even the IBM era ones). I feel like Lenovo finally got it right.
anon1253 8y ago
It doesn’t work on the 2018 model. No reliable deep sleep state, no trackpad or track point on the model with NFC. Lenovo refuses to acknowledge both, so it will probably not get fixed. Also, the sound and webcam are aweful (think tin can and potato) … not something I expected from a 2750$ machine; but Netflix and conference calls will be painful at best. I also tried the Carbon X1 in 2015 I think (the one with the touch bar) but back then it only got 1,5 hours of battery, and I ended up returning it. This time it’s collecting dust in a drawer, probably indefinitely.
- kahlonel 8y ago
  That's depressing.

I'm honestly thinking of switching to Thinkpad X1 Carbon now, but I HATE windows. And from what I've heard, Linux doesn't bode well with it. Anybody here Linux running on X1 Carbon?

sofaofthedamned 8y ago

I am, it's awesome with Fedora 28. There a couple of things to twiddle, mainly regarding sleep, but after that it's flawless. I can detail it a bit more if you like once I'm not on a phone.

kahlonel 8y ago
Would love to hear it. I'm mainly concerned about the trackpad, wifi performance and power consumption.
- sofaofthedamned 8y ago
  Apologies for the delay: Power consumption - pretty much the same as Windows. I did enable tlp and put `powertop --auto-tune` in the startup. Trackpad is fine but it suffers from the same issue my XPS 13 (2016) has under Linux - occasionally tap-to-click stops working. A couple of clicks and it comes back but it is annoying. Wifi performance is awesome, i'll max out my 300mbit internet on it, it's a league above the 'killer wifi' that Dell persist with. The biggest issue and one that's apparently shared with the new XPS models is that Microsoft decreed their 'connected standby' sleep modes can't coincide with s3 (normal sleep). As Linux doesn't seem to support the new mode you have to patch the initrd line to insert a new ACPI table. It's a pain in the arse but you only need to run it once on each BIOS update. It's detailed here https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_6)#S0i3_support https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carb... Once that's done Fedora 28 is awesome on this, and the keyboard is leagues above the XPS or the latest Macbooks. Highly recommended.

sfifs 8y ago

Not X1 Carbon but on new T480. Runs flawlessly.

bproven 8y ago
Yep - Fedora 27 on (older) T470 ... perfect. No issues with sleep or anything. -Batt life --> TLP + powertop; I consume 5-6 watts idle with this setup

nvarsj 8y ago

Yup I have the X1 Carbon 5th gen (2017) with 1080p screen. If you have a recent enough kernel everything is supported out of the box (except thumbprint reader). It's probably my favorite Thinkpad since the IBM era. Perfect weight, dual USB-C ports, excellent battery life, great display, great touchpad and amazing keyboard (I prefer it to even the IBM era ones). I feel like Lenovo finally got it right.

anon1253 8y ago

It doesn’t work on the 2018 model. No reliable deep sleep state, no trackpad or track point on the model with NFC. Lenovo refuses to acknowledge both, so it will probably not get fixed. Also, the sound and webcam are aweful (think tin can and potato) … not something I expected from a 2750$ machine; but Netflix and conference calls will be painful at best. I also tried the Carbon X1 in 2015 I think (the one with the touch bar) but back then it only got 1,5 hours of battery, and I ended up returning it. This time it’s collecting dust in a drawer, probably indefinitely.

kahlonel 8y ago
That's depressing.