Compatibility with Lenovo Ideapad 720S?

[sinderel]

Hi minters,

I would like to buy a new laptop, and the best I could find in terms of gpu and light weight is Lenovo Ideapad 720S ( https://www3.lenovo.com/es/es/laptops/i ... 8IP70S0833 ). And of course I would like to install linux mint (in a separate partition from the windows it comes with).

However, I didn't manage to find any testimonies of installing any linux on this machine. I've read about the many problems of Lenovo Yoga and I got a bit worried that maybe Lenovo is not the best way to go for linux. I don't mind if some occasional quirk doesn't work (some function key etc) but I don't want to be stuck with serious issues.

As far as I understand, the big problem with Yoga was the hybrid SSD/HDD, and fortunately the Ideapad 720S is full SSD. But I still feel very insecure at buying it without finding any report on how well the installation worked.

Anyone around here has installed linux mint (or similar) on this model (or similar )? Do you have any general advice regarding buying a Lenovo laptop for linux?

Thanks!

[catweazel]

The best way to find out is to create a live USB and take it to a store. Simply tell the sales rep you'll buy one if the live USB runs without issue.

[sinderel]

The best way to find out is to create a live USB and take it to a store. Simply tell the sales rep you'll buy one if the live USB runs without issue.

Sounds like a great idea for booting and trying it out but couldn't there be additional installation issues, or this would be mostly it?

[catweazel]

but couldn't there be additional installation issues

You won't know about that until you install. There's very good help available from the forum regs.

[sinderel]

but couldn't there be additional installation issues

You won't know about that until you install. There's very good help available from the forum regs.

Could you be more specific? I haven't found this specific model in the forums. Did I miss something?

[Moem]

Sounds like a great idea for booting and trying it out but couldn't there be additional installation issues, or this would be mostly it?

The way that a certain piece of hardware runs from a OS on a live medium is a pretty good indicator for the way it will run from the installed OS. The big exception is that it will generally run faster once it's installed.

[sinderel]

Will try tomorrow on a similar model and report my findings here in case it's relevant for somebody else. Thanks!

[michael louwe]

Hi minters,

I would like to buy a new laptop, and the best I could find in terms of gpu and light weight is Lenovo Ideapad 720S ( https://www3.lenovo.com/es/es/laptops/i ... 8IP70S0833 ). And of course I would like to install linux mint (in a separate partition from the windows it comes with).

However, I didn't manage to find any testimonies of installing any linux on this machine. I've read about the many problems of Lenovo Yoga and I got a bit worried that maybe Lenovo is not the best way to go for linux. I don't mind if some occasional quirk doesn't work (some function key etc) but I don't want to be stuck with serious issues.

As far as I understand, the big problem with Yoga was the hybrid SSD/HDD, and fortunately the Ideapad 720S is full SSD. But I still feel very insecure at buying it without finding any report on how well the installation worked.

Anyone around here has installed linux mint (or similar) on this model (or similar )? Do you have any general advice regarding buying a Lenovo laptop for linux?

Thanks!

.
The laptop is not very compatible with Linux, as per this link ... https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Disc ... -p/3633251

[JerryF]

.
The laptop is not very compatible with Linux, as per this link ... https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Disc ... -p/3633251

That's a different model---Yoga, not the Ideapad.

[michael louwe]

.
The laptop is not very compatible with Linux, as per this link ... https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Disc ... -p/3633251

That's a different model---Yoga, not the Ideapad.

.
Oops, sorry.

But the specifications for Ideapad 720S and Yoga 720 are quite similar, eg both using Intel Kabylake processors.

Try referring to this link ... https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Linux-Disc ... -p/3791474 or
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/co ... ze_my_ssd/

[sinderel]

Thanks for the links. Let me see if I get this straight:

- One of the links says "My computer was using RAID for some reason so I switched it." I understand then that I can change the configuration form the BIOS and thus I shouldn't worry.

- From the other link I get that I just need to choose a Linux distribution that supports either NVMe or SATA (possibly NVMe since otherwise the user would not have had trouble installing). The information about the particular SSD of the Ideapad 720S doesn't seem to in the specs. Is it common or rather difficult to find NVMe support? Does linux mint have it?

[michael louwe]

Thanks for the links. Let me see if I get this straight:

- One of the links says "My computer was using RAID for some reason so I switched it." I understand then that I can change the configuration form the BIOS and thus I shouldn't worry.

- From the other link I get that I just need to choose a Linux distribution that supports either NVMe or SATA (possibly NVMe since otherwise the user would not have had trouble installing). The information about the particular SSD of the Ideapad 720S doesn't seem to in the specs. Is it common or rather difficult to find NVMe support? Does linux mint have it?

.
In the Yoga 720 and likely also the Ideapad 720S, Win 10 has been preinstalled by Lenovo in RAID-disk mode = Linux cannot be installed alongside Win 10. So, to dual-boot Linux, this problem needs to be fixed, ie by referring to my 1st link, eg change the SATA disk mode from RAID to AHCI in BIOS setup, reinstall Win 10, then install Linux alongside Win 10 - the alternate fix is to use Safe mode.

I think the latest LM 18.x support NVMe SSDs, but not fully-support 7th-gen Intel Kabylake processors which require Linux kernel 4.10 or above(LM 18.2 only comes with kernel 4.8 ) and Hyperthreading disabled in BIOS setup.
... NVidia graphics cards require this fix ... https://linuxmint.com/rel_sonya_cinnamon.php

[sinderel]

In the end I decided to buy an HP Envy instead, which btw works great with Linux Mint (except for an issue with the default resolution, for which I will open a different thread).

[achaw]

I was able to install Mint on the ideapad with no problem. You have to disable secure boot and put the disk in AHCI mode. Of course, this will wipe your pre-installed win10 but i don't really care, because i'm not dual booting. As far i see all is working fine, probably the fan is working more as expected in certain task (but i don't really know, it's a noisy fan) and you can't control it by software. Graphics works perfect, and you cant swicht between integrated and dedicated card.
Sound lack of quality, compared with Windows, probably related to som props drivers or the lack of DD, but is not that bad. And i think that the cpu is not fully scaling to 3,1 (turbo) even using 4.10 kernel. But i need more tests on this....