6 ms·

As soon as they support Linux...

by vzaliva 6y ago

apetresc 6y ago
Huh? Who, Lenovo or AMD? They both have fine Linux support.
- vzaliva 6y ago
  What about problems people mention here? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22969469 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22969469 I love ThinkPad and planning to buy one soon, but reporters of problems with sound and WiFi drivers concerning.
  - dgzl 6y ago
    I've been running Arch on X1Y2 no problem
  - eropple 6y ago
    The newer Carbons and the X1 Extreme have had a rougher time than most Lenovo laptops. My T480 and T580 were pretty much perfect from the jump, but my X1 Extreme remains disappointing.
    - petschge 6y ago
      Recently bought T490 worked with Debian stable out of the box.
    - noisy_boy 6y ago
      I installed Ubuntu 19.04 on X1 Extreme Gen 2 and didn't have any issues. Upgrades to 19.10 and 20.04 have been painless as well. Everything basically works.
      - eropple 6y ago
        I have an X1 Extreme Gen 1 and it's had power/battery issues since I got it.
        specto 6y ago
        Yep same on the Gen 1, it's an awful machine.
      - nullobject 6y ago
        Running 20.04 on X1E G2 without issues here.
  - petepete 6y ago
    Providing you pick one with intel wifi you'll have no problem. As far as I can see, that's the only real disadvantage of these AMD models.
    - tssva 6y ago
      Having an AMD cpu doesn't prevent having an Intel wifi chipset. My AMD based Thinkpad T495 has an Intel wifi chipset.
      - petepete 6y ago
        I didn't know that, thanks.
  - chmln 6y ago
    I mean, buying a brand-new device and using Ubuntu 19.04 with the 5.0 kernel from a year ago and outdated packages is begging for trouble. Since linux drivers live mostly in kernel space, for new devices I would imagine a lot of issues would be fixed by running the latest kernel or mainline for even newer hardware.
- ldng 6y ago
  Not all Lenovo laptop work that well ... A485 support has been shitty for a long time.
- grumpopotamus 6y ago
  The last AMD laptop I bought froze randomly every few hours on Ubuntu, and there is no way to turn on my keyboard backlight on my Thinkpad T480 on Ubuntu. I gave up trying to fix these problems a while ago, and last time I checked nobody had found a fix for either issue for my specific laptop models. I'd be very hesitant to buy AMD or Lenovo before I had strong evidence that there are no serious issues on Linux.
  - sam_lowry_ 6y ago
    Sounds like the famous AMD Ryzen soft lockup bug. Adding something like processor.mac_cstate=5 rcu_nocbs=0-7 to the boot options solved it for me. See for instance this: https://community.amd.com/thread/225795 https://community.amd.com/thread/225795
  - martin8412 6y ago
    Granted I had to do a firmware update(supported through Linux), but I have Linux running on a X395 without any problems.
- akvadrako 6y ago
  No they don't. The newest X1 Carbon didn't have a working microphone in the Linux kernel at release. It didn't work in Ubuntu until about a year after it started shipping.
  - ngngngng 6y ago
    I have that X1 Carbon and you're correct, it doesn't work. But I can't help but see that as a feature, no a bug. I can plug in my headphones with a mic when I need to, but having the hardware cover over the camera and no working microphone is nice.
    - socceroos 6y ago
      "it's a feature"
- nominated1 6y ago
  AMD GPU drivers are still suspect. I LOL’d at this commit [1] before reverting it in my local branch and thinking glad I went with Intel. [1] https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/commit/6385a5fd1b8a67c051b82d48c993a6591e8f93c6 https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/commit/6385a5fd1b8a67c051b...
ngngngng 6y ago
Fedora works great on a clean install with no tweaks on my new thinkpad.
- m4rtink 6y ago
  Yeah, running Fedora on T520, x230 & T460p - all fine. :)
  - snazz 6y ago
    To be fair, all of those are pretty old (the T520 is from 2011), so it's expected that they would work flawlessly---it's the very new X1 Extremes and a couple of other models that are problematic. For the most part, staying one generation back is enough to get very good hardware support.
    - tssva 6y ago
      My current generation T495 works perfectly with the latest Fedora and Ubuntu. The last revisions of Fedora and Ubuntu work perfectly except for the fingerprint sensor.
      - flatiron 6y ago
        Even on my old ass w540 that finger print sensor doesn’t really work all that great.
randlet 6y ago
I've been running Ubuntu 18.04 on my X1 Carbon for the last couple of years and it has been delightful.
- vzaliva 6y ago
  Maybe it was older model? I've seen multiple complaints from people on this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22969469 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22969469
mixedCase 6y ago
They're going to be shipping Fedora on some of their laptops, although I think not these ones unfortunately.
isodude 6y ago
You can actually buy one with Ubuntu pre-installed. Check this out https://lenovo.com/linux https://lenovo.com/linux
- nix0n 6y ago
  For me that just redirects to https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/ https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/
  - isodude 6y ago
    Well that's great. It should be www.lenovo.com/linux which redirects to https://support.lenovo.com/se/en/solutions/pd031426 https://support.lenovo.com/se/en/solutions/pd031426 which I planned to write first.
    - skrtskrt 6y ago
      I see the support list, but where can I actually order one with preinstall from?
      - isodude 6y ago
        Here I thought at least some should be available with Linux and it turns out that only Thinkstations P series and one desktop have Linux as an option.
        isodude 6y ago
        The new IdeaPad 5 15 was(!) possible to order with DOS! I checked it yesterday and today it's bot possible anymore.
derekp7 6y ago
Their list of Linux vendor certifications is here: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd031426 https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd031426

As soon as they support Linux...

apetresc 6y ago

Huh? Who, Lenovo or AMD? They both have fine Linux support.

vzaliva 6y ago
What about problems people mention here? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22969469 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22969469 I love ThinkPad and planning to buy one soon, but reporters of problems with sound and WiFi drivers concerning.
- dgzl 6y ago
  I've been running Arch on X1Y2 no problem
- eropple 6y ago
  The newer Carbons and the X1 Extreme have had a rougher time than most Lenovo laptops. My T480 and T580 were pretty much perfect from the jump, but my X1 Extreme remains disappointing.
  - petschge 6y ago
    Recently bought T490 worked with Debian stable out of the box.
  - noisy_boy 6y ago
    I installed Ubuntu 19.04 on X1 Extreme Gen 2 and didn't have any issues. Upgrades to 19.10 and 20.04 have been painless as well. Everything basically works.
    - eropple 6y ago
      I have an X1 Extreme Gen 1 and it's had power/battery issues since I got it.
      - specto 6y ago
        Yep same on the Gen 1, it's an awful machine.
    - nullobject 6y ago
      Running 20.04 on X1E G2 without issues here.
- petepete 6y ago
  Providing you pick one with intel wifi you'll have no problem. As far as I can see, that's the only real disadvantage of these AMD models.
  - tssva 6y ago
    Having an AMD cpu doesn't prevent having an Intel wifi chipset. My AMD based Thinkpad T495 has an Intel wifi chipset.
    - petepete 6y ago
      I didn't know that, thanks.
- chmln 6y ago
  I mean, buying a brand-new device and using Ubuntu 19.04 with the 5.0 kernel from a year ago and outdated packages is begging for trouble. Since linux drivers live mostly in kernel space, for new devices I would imagine a lot of issues would be fixed by running the latest kernel or mainline for even newer hardware.
ldng 6y ago
Not all Lenovo laptop work that well ... A485 support has been shitty for a long time.
grumpopotamus 6y ago
The last AMD laptop I bought froze randomly every few hours on Ubuntu, and there is no way to turn on my keyboard backlight on my Thinkpad T480 on Ubuntu. I gave up trying to fix these problems a while ago, and last time I checked nobody had found a fix for either issue for my specific laptop models. I'd be very hesitant to buy AMD or Lenovo before I had strong evidence that there are no serious issues on Linux.
- sam_lowry_ 6y ago
  Sounds like the famous AMD Ryzen soft lockup bug. Adding something like processor.mac_cstate=5 rcu_nocbs=0-7 to the boot options solved it for me. See for instance this: https://community.amd.com/thread/225795 https://community.amd.com/thread/225795
- martin8412 6y ago
  Granted I had to do a firmware update(supported through Linux), but I have Linux running on a X395 without any problems.
akvadrako 6y ago
No they don't. The newest X1 Carbon didn't have a working microphone in the Linux kernel at release. It didn't work in Ubuntu until about a year after it started shipping.
- ngngngng 6y ago
  I have that X1 Carbon and you're correct, it doesn't work. But I can't help but see that as a feature, no a bug. I can plug in my headphones with a mic when I need to, but having the hardware cover over the camera and no working microphone is nice.
  - socceroos 6y ago
    "it's a feature"
nominated1 6y ago
AMD GPU drivers are still suspect. I LOL’d at this commit [1] before reverting it in my local branch and thinking glad I went with Intel. [1] https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/commit/6385a5fd1b8a67c051b82d48c993a6591e8f93c6 https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/commit/6385a5fd1b8a67c051b...

ngngngng 6y ago

Fedora works great on a clean install with no tweaks on my new thinkpad.

m4rtink 6y ago
Yeah, running Fedora on T520, x230 & T460p - all fine. :)
- snazz 6y ago
  To be fair, all of those are pretty old (the T520 is from 2011), so it's expected that they would work flawlessly---it's the very new X1 Extremes and a couple of other models that are problematic. For the most part, staying one generation back is enough to get very good hardware support.
  - tssva 6y ago
    My current generation T495 works perfectly with the latest Fedora and Ubuntu. The last revisions of Fedora and Ubuntu work perfectly except for the fingerprint sensor.
    - flatiron 6y ago
      Even on my old ass w540 that finger print sensor doesn’t really work all that great.

randlet 6y ago

I've been running Ubuntu 18.04 on my X1 Carbon for the last couple of years and it has been delightful.

vzaliva 6y ago
Maybe it was older model? I've seen multiple complaints from people on this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22969469 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22969469

mixedCase 6y ago

They're going to be shipping Fedora on some of their laptops, although I think not these ones unfortunately.

isodude 6y ago

You can actually buy one with Ubuntu pre-installed. Check this out https://lenovo.com/linux https://lenovo.com/linux

nix0n 6y ago
For me that just redirects to https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/ https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/
- isodude 6y ago
  Well that's great. It should be www.lenovo.com/linux which redirects to https://support.lenovo.com/se/en/solutions/pd031426 https://support.lenovo.com/se/en/solutions/pd031426 which I planned to write first.
  - skrtskrt 6y ago
    I see the support list, but where can I actually order one with preinstall from?
    - isodude 6y ago
      Here I thought at least some should be available with Linux and it turns out that only Thinkstations P series and one desktop have Linux as an option.
      - isodude 6y ago
        The new IdeaPad 5 15 was(!) possible to order with DOS! I checked it yesterday and today it's bot possible anymore.

derekp7 6y ago

Their list of Linux vendor certifications is here: https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd031426 https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/pd031426