Lenovo Thinkpads great for Linux

[mangizmo]

I am a big fan of Lenovo Thinkpads, never had any issues with installing Linux on x200 x220 T610 T640 to name those I can remember, I currently use a T420 with 8gb ram bought on 3bay with a warranty for £91, that's an i5 processor and with the added excellent feature that you can swap out the cd caddyy for a hard drive caddy (under £5) and have dual boot windows, works great. Hundreds of ex corporate thinkpads on eBay for very little money and all the parts are easy to replace if you get a problem, really good laptops

[Hoser Rob]

Business type laptops are great for Linux, they usually have loads of Intel guts. Intel components are a bit vanilla (their gpus are not gaming cards) but in Linux vanilla is perfect. Plus they have the best Linux support. Business class Dells and HPs are also excellent.

[half-word]

I have had several ThinkPads and all of them have worked perfectly with Linux.

The UltraBay disk caddy is a great thing; those can be found dirt cheap from China. I used one to upgrade the storage on my elderly but sturdy T400: I've installed an SSD as the main drive and a 1TB mecha HDD into the UltraBay caddy. Works just great; with that setup (and RAM maxed out to 8GB) I still find it quite usable although it's a lowly C2D!

Well... if it's good enough for Richard Stallman, who am I to complain!
(Or is he using a T500? Never mind, the only difference is the screen size. BTW he uses that elderly machine because its chipset doesn't yet contain the infamous Intel ME technology.)

[AndyMH]

Been a thinkpad user for over 20 years, all bought second hand. Having worked my way through a T410, T420, currently have 4 x T430. Can't imagine buying any other manufacturer. I like the way you can mod the T430, all mine have HDDs in the ultrabay for backup, have changed the i5 for an i7 in a couple.
https://medium.com/@n4ru/the-definitive ... ff3f6a8e2e
I've done most of them.

[rickNS]

and all the parts are easy to replace if you get a problem, really good laptops

Yes, I really like how the older ones (well starting to get older anyway) make it so easy to access the HDD, and RAM, on my T420's it's one screw each, and ultrabay is nifty, you could have 3 hard drives if you like, with an mSATA added as I have in one.

My T450 is not quite as "work on" friendly, having to remove the whole back, to access RAM, or add a drive, which I did to add an m.2 drive. PS if anyone has one of these "newer" thinkpads, do not disable the internal battery in BIOS, like most guides recommend to do before taking the back off, believe me, just disconnect it when you get the back off. Despite that one thing it is a good machine too, and it will soon take over as being the main used system with it's 16 GB RAM, truthfully I very rarely use all of 8 GB. Pretty much only when Virtual machines are running.

[rickNS]

I have a question, as the topic of hibernation does seem to come up every so often. And many hardware DO have hibernation problems. though NOT only on Linux, the other OS also has it's problems in that regard.

Do Thinkpad users have success with hibernation on Linux ?

I have never tried to hibernate, and don't even care to do it, not even interested enough to test it myself as my personal opinion is it just another useless "thing". I basically leave my main machine running 24/7, I am just curious if it works out-of-the-box on our beloved Thinkpads ? Which would make it another plus for these machines. (for some people)

[mangizmo]

Do Thinkpad users have success with hibernation on Linux ?

Personally I just close the lid and allow the machine to sleep (green moon symbol on), I imagine its using very very little power in this state and comes back on really quickly when I lift the lid, I seem to remember that I had some issues with hibernation and like you I havent bothered with it since

[Hoser Rob]

... Do Thinkpad users have success with hibernation on Linux ?...

no, there's no magic brand out there. Hibernation continues to be unreliable in Linux as a whole. I disable the option if possible.

[Dan_Sykes]

Another post I'm glad I stumbled on. I've recently been given a Lenovo Thinkpad E530, i5 8GB and was wondering if it would be good for Linux. Another Windows installation bites the dust

Thanks!

[Pierre]

any Lenovo Thinkpad E530, i5 8GB
should be okay for an Linux conversion.

YMMV of course.

try it & see.

[sideband]

The "ThinkWiki - Linux ThinkPad Wiki" website carries the hardware specification and Linux advice for Thinkpad models

I can recommend the ThinkPad E540 purchased new many years ago - 4th generation Intel Core i3 processor and 8 GB RAM, with Linux Mint pre-installed

It is very straightforward to add an M2 drive and replace the DVD drive with a SSD caddy, increasing the solid state drive count from the original one to three.

[Swampthing]

My main Mint-machine is a Lenovo L520 and its working perfectly with SSD's and 16 GB RAM.
Although 8 GB is enough, I have never seen it use more than maximum 2,5 GB RAM.

[Ow That Hurts]

QUESTION 1: Is there a thinkpad model that is somewhat light weight / smallish that still has a 1080p display?

Probably will be used mostly for youtube, netflix, gaming, google docs, but possibly as a Point of Sale system (although highly unlikely).

QUESTION 2: Which is the lowest CPU that will run LM 20 with Cinnamon comfortably? I see older i7-based systems with two cores / four threads, and newer i5-based systems (again, with two cores / four threads), and according to Passmark, the i5 performance is a bit better, but for single thread rating, the i7s are a bit better).

Thanks in advance.

[AndyMH]

Have a couple of T430 with i5-3320M, passmark 2652, 1617 single thread. They comfortably run cinnamon, don't have anything of lower performance.

[Ow That Hurts]

Have a couple of T430 with i5-3320M, passmark 2652, 1617 single thread. They comfortably run cinnamon, don't have anything of lower performance.

Thank you, that's good to know.

[Ow That Hurts]

There is someone selling a Thinkpad T470s locally. He says:

"Windows: This computer has a license for Windows 10 Professional embedded in the UEFI firmware. There is no physical license sticker or product key attached."

will that be a problem if I want to Run LM20.3 on it???

Also, since it apparently is a touchscreen, does cinnamon support touchscreen features? Or will I have to use something with Gnome desktop to be able to use touchscreen? I see it has some touchscreen support but might be buggy???

[AndyMH]

no, can't comment on the touchscreen.

[Portreve]

I have a company-issued Thinkpad T14, so I can't fool around with it, but it booted a USB live image and worked fully.

[Ow That Hurts]

I have a company-issued Thinkpad T14, so I can't fool around with it, but it booted a USB live image and worked fully.

Thank you. It seems to be running well on the T470s I picked up.

Just need to get the fingerprint reader working. I know there are instructions in this forum and will search them up again soone.

[MurphCID]

The only Lenovo I am intrigued about is the X1 Carbon, since it is so light and has reasonable specs.