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I have two of these machines. They are very nice. Actually, one is an X1 Extreme Gen 3, and the other is a P1 Gen 3. Same machine with different GPUs. My work
by Stratoscope 5y ago
I have two of these machines. They are very nice.
Actually, one is an X1 Extreme Gen 3, and the other is a P1 Gen 3. Same machine with different GPUs.
My work provided me with the X1E with Ubuntu preinstalled (that is our standard dev environment). But I found the hardware support very unsatisfactory.
I use a specific display configuration. Three monitors in total: the ThinkPad's 4K display, with a 24" 4K display above it, and a second 24" 4K display to the left in portrait mode.
With Linux on the ThinkPad, I never got that to work. The best I could do was a single external monitor, not both of my external monitors plus the internal.
And I never got any of my Bluetooth headsets to work at all: Apple AirPods, Plantronics, and a couple of no-name brands. They all paired fine as headphones, but the microphones never worked.
I noticed that this work ThinkPad had a Windows license sticker on the bottom, so I figured what the heck, let's see what happens if I reinstall Windows.
The triple monitor config worked with no hitches. The AirPods worked fine.
So I set up a VMware virtual machine and run our dev environment inside that. Now everything works great! (I also tried VirtualBox but found the display responsiveness much better in VMware.)
Once this was sorted out, I was so happy with the machine that I bought a matching P1 for my new personal machine. (Regarding P1 vs. X1 Extreme, I just went with availability: Lenovo was out of stock on the X1E's but had a nicely configured P1 ready to ship.)
- yulaow 5y agoFor the screens the problem could be related to the dp(via usbc)/hdmi ports. Most of the times if the port is directly connected to the dgpu it doesn't work under linux (this is, for what I understand, a problem with nvidia and their closed source optimus technology driver that is very hard to solve) That's why I always made sure to buy Linux laptops with only the intel or amd igpu, and without any dgpu. Yeah, it sucks
- hef19898 5y agoGetting multiple screens on a docking station to work was a pain with my X1E Gen 2 as well. Under Windows. Since I used it for work (office, not development) and gaming, I resorted to turn of the Intel GPU permanently. Reduced battery life, but not in any way it hamper it's use. Since I switched to Ubuntu I have yet to see any difference in battery life. And multiple screens work just fine under both OS.
- noisy_boy 5y agoI have a similar setup - X1E Gen 2 with two Dell monitors - the secondary one on the right rotated to portrait mode. The primary monitor connects directly to the laptop via USB-C (and it is able to charge the laptop too over the same cable so thats a bonus). The secondary connects over HDMI via a hub[0] that connects to the laptop over USB-C. These two + my laptop screen work fine though I usually keep my laptop closed (though I have noticed that the GDM login screen appears sideways on the secondary but once I login, everything is fine). The main issue with this setup is that both my USB-C ports are taken up but since most of my peripherals are wireless, it is not a problem for me. Another issue is that if I try to use the Intel graphics to drive this setup, everything basically crawls and is unusable so I can only use NVIDIA graphics with this (switching to Intel graphics is fine when I'm away from my desk). [0]: https://www.amazon.sg/dp/B083RQHF3Y/ref=pe_12283492_381322642_TE_SCE_3p_dp_1 https://www.amazon.sg/dp/B083RQHF3Y/ref=pe_12283492_38132264...
- danhor 5y ago> They all paired fine as headphones, but the microphones never worked. To me that doesn't sound like a hardware problem. I need to switch the codec & profile[0] in pavucontrol to use the microphones, which is not done automatically. That might be the issue here. [0]: Damm you, bluetooth SIG
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]