I configured Arch Linux on the new Thinkpad X1 Carbon (4th generation) with dual booting to the pre-installed Windows 10 (for games I occasionally play). I got close to the 100% of laptop functionality working on the Arch Linux, confirming the rumor that Thinkpads work well with Linux. Setup should be very similar on modern laptops with GPT/UEFI.
Even if Arch wiki is very comprehensive, it needs a bit of reading to decide what is right for the particular hardware. Dual booting with windows and UEFI/GPT are not as well documented as the plain old linux installations.
To see my thoughts after a few months of usage you can jump to Conclusion.
This post was written in and is readable in the Emacs org mode format.
This section is for informative purposes only. If you are only interested in the installation you can skip to Base installation of Arch Linux.
When some people hear that Arch starts without a GIU they think that using it is “masochistic”. Firstly, you probably don’t need majority of packages bundled with distributions like ubuntu.
Secondly, while Ubuntu may take you “75%” there, you don’t understand how different things got there and treat your OS like magical box, so you can’t improve it. While Arch starts from “20%”, by going “20%->75%” the learning experience allows you to eventually reach “100%” faster than users who want to go from “75% -> 100%”. Therefore, majority of users of distributions like Ubuntu are stuck around “80%”.
Other “minimalist” distributions like Gentoo or Slackware did not adapt the systemd yet. You may not like systemd, but you can’t deny it’s winning.
What’s the benefit of waiting a week until all packages compile for your OS? On Arch you can choose between pre-installing packages via pacman and building them with makepkg. If I want to just check out some program, or use it once per month (e.g. gimp) I wouldn’t want to compile it.
Understanding dependencies of your packages is good.
You can simply run pacman -Si gtk3 to see dependencies of a package.
Resolving each package manually is too time consuming to be worth it.
If you need to run the same Linux version on 100s of machines in the large organization I get why you wouldn’t want rolling release schedule.
- I was much more frequently hit by missing this “new cool flag” in old distributions, rather than I am hit by the bleeding edge packages in Arch Linux.
- If something goes wrong, you can always open a bug and downgrade to older version.
- In the new containerised world servers have less “intervined” dependencies, so it’s easier to just run the latest software from Arch.
- Bugs caused by upgrades in distributions with huge releases are harder to debug. Since everything changes at once it’s harder to isolate the failure.
Even when I was using different Linux distributions I was using Arch wiki as my primary source of Linux knowledge. Any other distribution is not nearly as well documented as Arch. If you end up getting majority of your info about Linux from Arch wiki, why not switch to Arch?
This section is for informative purposes only. If you are only interested in the installation you can skip to Base installation of Arch Linux.
sudo cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/product_serialR90KNV08
Extracted from:
sudo dmidecodeSystem Information
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 20FBCTO1WW
Version: ThinkPad X1 Carbon 4th
Serial Number: R90KNV08
UUID: 8648D14C-33F4-11B2-A85C-EDB510BB0156
Wake-up Type: Power Switch
SKU Number: LENOVO_MT_20FB_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad X1 Carbon 4th
Family: ThinkPad X1 Carbon 4th
Handle 0x0007, DMI type 4, 48 bytes
Processor Information
Socket Designation: U3E1
Type: Central Processor
Family: Core i7
Manufacturer: Intel(R) Corporation
ID: E3 06 04 00 FF FB EB BF
Signature: Type 0, Family 6, Model 78, Stepping 3
Flags:
FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
VME (Virtual mode extension)
DE (Debugging extension)
PSE (Page size extension)
TSC (Time stamp counter)
MSR (Model specific registers)
PAE (Physical address extension)
MCE (Machine check exception)
CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
SEP (Fast system call)
MTRR (Memory type range registers)
PGE (Page global enable)
MCA (Machine check architecture)
CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
PAT (Page attribute table)
PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
DS (Debug store)
ACPI (ACPI supported)
MMX (MMX technology supported)
FXSR (FXSAVE and FXSTOR instructions supported)
SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
SS (Self-snoop)
HTT (Multi-threading)
TM (Thermal monitor supported)
PBE (Pending break enabled)
Version: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6500U CPU @ 2.50GHz
Voltage: 1.0 V
External Clock: 100 MHz
Max Speed: 8300 MHz
Current Speed: 2500 MHz
Status: Populated, Enabled
Upgrade: Other
L1 Cache Handle: 0x0004
L2 Cache Handle: 0x0005
L3 Cache Handle: 0x0006
Serial Number: None
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: None
Core Count: 2
Core Enabled: 2
Thread Count: 4
Characteristics:
64-bit capable
Multi-Core
Hardware Thread
Execute Protection
Enhanced Virtualization
Power/Performance Control
8gb in total, 2x of following:
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x0008
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4096 MB
Form Factor: Chip
Set: None
Locator: ChannelB-DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK 2
Type: LPDDR3
Type Detail: Synchronous
Speed: 1867 MHz
Manufacturer: Samsung
Serial Number: None
Asset Tag: None
Part Number: K4E6E304EE-EGCF
Rank: 2
Configured Clock Speed: 1867 MHz
Minimum Voltage: Unknown
Maximum Voltage: Unknown
Configured Voltage: 1.2 V
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 20FBCTO1WW
Version: SDK0J40697 WIN
Serial Number: W1KS65P10SY
Asset Tag: Not Available
- HDMI
- 3 USB (no type C)
- Mini DisplayPort
- Mini jack
- OneLink
Portable Battery
Location: Front
Manufacturer: SMP
Name: 00HW029
Design Capacity: 52060 mWh
Design Voltage: 15200 mV
SBDS Version: 03.01
Maximum Error: Unknown
SBDS Serial Number: 057C
SBDS Manufacture Date: 2016-05-24
SBDS Chemistry: LiP
OEM-specific Information: 0x00000000
Handle 0x0021, DMI type 9, 17 bytes
System Slot Information
Designation: Media Card Slot
Type: Other
Current Usage: Available
Length: Other
Characteristics:
Hot-plug devices are supported
Bus Address: 0000:00:00.0
Handle 0x0022, DMI type 9, 17 bytes
System Slot Information
Designation: SmartCard Slot
Type: Other
Current Usage: Available
Length: Other
Characteristics:
Hot-plug devices are supported
Bus Address: 0000:00:00.0
Handle 0x0023, DMI type 9, 17 bytes
System Slot Information
Designation: SimCard Slot
Type: Other
Current Usage: Available
Length: Other
Characteristics: None
Bus Address: 0000:00:00.0
BIOS Information
Vendor: LENOVO
Version: N1FET38W (1.12 )
Release Date: 03/30/2016
Address: 0xE0000
Runtime Size: 128 kB
ROM Size: 16384 kB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
PNP is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
EDD is supported
3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
Serial services are supported (int 14h)
Printer services are supported (int 17h)
CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported
UEFI is supported
BIOS Revision: 1.12
Firmware Revision: 1.8
OneLink to ethernet converter have been provided. I didn’t test it on Arch.
Handle 0x0019, DMI type 8, 9 bytes
Port Connector Information
Internal Reference Designator: Not Available
Internal Connector Type: None
External Reference Designator: Ethernet
External Connector Type: RJ-45
Port Type: Network Port
Handle 0x0003, DMI type 7, 19 bytes
Cache Information
Socket Designation: L1 Cache
Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 1
Operational Mode: Write Back
Location: Internal
Installed Size: 64 kB
Maximum Size: 64 kB
Supported SRAM Types:
Synchronous
Installed SRAM Type: Synchronous
Speed: Unknown
Error Correction Type: Parity
System Type: Data
Associativity: 8-way Set-associative
Handle 0x0004, DMI type 7, 19 bytes
Cache Information
Socket Designation: L1 Cache
Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 1
Operational Mode: Write Back
Location: Internal
Installed Size: 64 kB
Maximum Size: 64 kB
Supported SRAM Types:
Synchronous
Installed SRAM Type: Synchronous
Speed: Unknown
Error Correction Type: Parity
System Type: Instruction
Associativity: 8-way Set-associative
Handle 0x0005, DMI type 7, 19 bytes
Cache Information
Socket Designation: L2 Cache
Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 2
Operational Mode: Write Back
Location: Internal
Installed Size: 512 kB
Maximum Size: 512 kB
Supported SRAM Types:
Synchronous
Installed SRAM Type: Synchronous
Speed: Unknown
Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC
System Type: Unified
Associativity: 4-way Set-associative
Handle 0x0006, DMI type 7, 19 bytes
Cache Information
Socket Designation: L3 Cache
Configuration: Enabled, Not Socketed, Level 3
Operational Mode: Write Back
Location: Internal
Installed Size: 4096 kB
Maximum Size: 4096 kB
Supported SRAM Types:
Synchronous
Installed SRAM Type: Synchronous
Speed: Unknown
Error Correction Type: Multi-bit ECC
System Type: Unified
Associativity: 16-way Set-associative
Handle 0x0034, DMI type 21, 7 bytes
Built-in Pointing Device
Type: Track Point
Interface: PS/2
Buttons: 3
Handle 0x0035, DMI type 21, 7 bytes
Built-in Pointing Device
Type: Touch Pad
Interface: PS/2
Buttons: 2
I mostly followed steps from https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/beginners’_guide with customization for Windows dual booting, uefi, gpt and HiDPI screen.
I downloaded the 2016.06.01 image via torrent from https://www.archlinux.org/download/.
Since the laptop don’t have the CD, USB is the best booting option. More detailed description is at Arch wiki article about USB flash installation media.
lsblk | grep mediadmesg -wHumount /dev/sdb1cd ~/Downloads
sudo dd bs=4M if=archlinux-2016.06.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdb && syncRe-plug the usb and:
ls /media/kozikow/ARCH*arch EFI isolinux loader
You may want to take a look at Dual boot with Windows wiki entry.
Even if partition resizing is also supported from Linux, I feel like it’s safer to do it from Windows.
- Press start button
- Search for “Create and format hard disk partitions”
- Right click C:/ and “Shrink Volume”
Windows only lets me to reclaim 233 gb out of 474 gb. I tried defragmentation or cleaning up some unnecessary files with no luck. I think it’s not that bad, since I can mount the NTFS partition from arch. Therefore, I can keep the most space hungry files like movies on this partition.
You can check it on Windows in System Information->BIOS mode You may consider reading about UEFI and GPT. If we want to dual boot with the existing Windows we need to use UEFI for Arch as well.
If you don’t, Linux NTFS driver may damage the NTFS disk. Windows 10 instructions.
It prevents Arch from booting.
- Restart computer
- Press Enter
- F1->Security->Secure Boot
- Change to disabled
- Save and restart
- Press Enter
- F12
- Choose usb stick
- Arch
Default tty font size if very small due to the HiDPI resolution. You can adjust it with:
cd /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts
ls | grep -P "[2-9]\d+\.ps" # Find big fonts.
setfont latarcyrheb-sun32 # The biggest one I found.It’s a good idea to persist the font. Add it later to /etc/vconsole.conf, after you install a new OS:
KEYMAP=us
FONT=latarcyrheb-sun32I thought that swap may not be necessary, but 8gb is not that much of ram nowadays.
I created a swap file afterwards. I followed instructions at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?title=Swap&redirect=no#Swap_file .
fallocate -l 8192M /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfileYou may also need to create systemd service to do it automatically.
Create /etc/systemd/system/swap.service:
[Unit] Description=Enable swap file [Service] Type=oneshot TimeoutStartSec=300 User=root ExecStart=/usr/bin/swapon /swapfile ExecStop=/usr/bin/swapoff /swapfile RemainAfterExit=yes [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
sudo systemctl enable swap.service
EFI system partition already exists
Since laptop came with the UEFI support, the EFI system partition already exists. You can check it by
gdisk /dev/sdap to list partition table. See that the first entry (/dev/sda1) is the “EFI system partition”
Create partition for Arch with gdisk
I decided I’ll go with a single Linux partition, since my movies and music will be stored on the NTFS partition. I used gdisk to create a new partition. gdisk is installed by default on the usb stick.
gdisk /dev/sdap to list all partition tables. Based on this I found that my new partition should be placed between sectors 507793408 and 998166527. n to create a new partition. All default options were reasonable. w to save
lsblkYou may want to read an arch wiki about SSDs.
Since the laptop have the SSD, I was contemplating trying out the F2FS. It’s only slightly faster according to some benchmarks. ext4 have additional features and is more standard so it seems like safer bet.
I have been thinking that maybe F2FS would result in less “SSD tear”. I have been reading than in “desktop” usage SSD tear is almost never an issue and other components in laptop would fail first, so we don’t have to worry about it.
There exist some drivers that let windows read and copy files from ext filesystem. Even if support for using ext4 from Windows is worse than ext3, I won’t be using Windows often. If you plan to frequently boot to Windows you may consider ext3 for better Windows compatibility.
lsblk /dev/sda
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda5
mount /dev/sda5 /mntSection about EFISTUB may be a bit confusing. Note that most EFI boot loaders are EFISTUBs themselves (they both create EFI entries). In particular, systemd-boot will create EFISTUB entries for itself. Bootling Linux using the kernel EFISTUB means you just skip the bootloader. In almost all cases you want to go for bootloader like systemd-boot.
Since I don’t plan to use EFISTUB as a bootloader and use systemd-boot, I just need to mount our EFI system partition at /mnt/boot.
mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/bootsystemd-boot will be installed on top of existing Windows boot loader. It will detect the existing windows boot loader and set up the dual booting.
iw dev # Find an interfrace
wifi-menu -o wlp4s0 # pass an interface from the previous commandpacstrap -i /mnt base base-develgenfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstabcp -R /etc/netctl /mnt/etc/netctlarch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash# Uncomment en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8 in /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo "LANG=en_GB.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
tzselect
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc --utcI must admit that I had some issues with GB locale after the installation. I switched to US locale and I did not have problems with it yet. IMO, even if you are in the UK, more things will work as you expect when you go with the US locale.
Also, if you install gnome, it stores it’s own locale settings and you need to set them later.
To set it, I recommend installing gnome-initial-setup and restarting the X server.
Run:
mkinitcpio -p linuxInitially I have been getting an error:
ERROR: specified kernel image does not exist; /boot/vmlinuz-linux
The problem was that I mounted the /mnt/boot after running the pacstrap. Pacstrap writes the vmlinuz-linux to /mnt/boot.
I also got some warnings about some missing firmware.
Warning: Possibly missing firmware wd719x Possibly missing firmware aic94xx
Strangely the problem somehow resolved itself. Some installation must have pulled the package. As this post mentions, missing firmware can be found in AUR.
After it is installed:
modinfo wd719x | grep description
modinfo aic94xx | grep descriptiondescription: Western Digital WD7193/7197/7296 SCSI driver description: Adaptec aic94xx SAS/SATA driver
After brief investigation, I decided that I prefer the systemd-boot as an x86_64 UEFI bootloader.
I previously mounted EFI system partition to /boot. This partition has a pre-existing Windows boot loader. systemd-boot will be installed on top of that and it will auto-detect and properly handle the previously installed boot loader.
bootctl installtimeout 4 default arch editor 0
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=c0181663-6019-4a2c-b45a-ab6c112f1aa0 rwPARTUUID is a GUID of your new partition. Beware that GUID is case sensitive in this case. You can find it using:
blkid -s PARTUUID -o value /dev/sdb5systemd-boot auto-detects Windows, so there is no need for the windows entry.
My /boot/loader/entries/ directory only contains arch.conf and I can dual boot to Windows.
I heard stories that in such setup Windows does not like to play along and messes up the EFI system partition.
I did not experience it. I am running “bleeding edge” Windows 10 develop preview, so it may have been fixed at some point.
At some point later I noticed a suspcious device when running “iw dev”:
Unnamed/non-netdev interface wdev 0x3 addr ... type P2P-device
There is a post about it. It’s probably harmless.
Just in case, I disabled the p2p interface:
sudo echo "p2p_disabled=1" >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.confpasswdAt this point I am able to dual boot to Arch/Windows. A few more things after rebooting:
useradd -m kozikow
passwd kozikow
visudo # in this file configure your user as a sudoer
rebootThere are two alternative input libraries x86-input-evdev and x86-input-libinput.
After reading two articles I decided to go with x86-input-libinput.
Some user mentioned: “With xf86-input-libinput, the trackpoint(and middle button scrolling) works out of the box on my ThinkPad, while xf86-input-evdev requires some additional settings”.
Indeed, with libinput everything reasonably worked after the installation.
Almost all keyboard “hardware” buttons work as expected, including sound and brightness. There are two minor problems:
It sucesfully turns on the airplane mode, but turning it off doesn’t work well. After turning the airplane mode off I have to run:
sudo systemctl restart netctl-auto@wlp4s0.serviceI don’t know what these buttons supposed to do, but pressing them currently have no effect.
The only annoyance was too slow trackpoint. Methods from arch wiki didn’t work for me, probably since they were meant for the old evdev.
pacman -S xorg-xinput
xinput list | grep TrackPoint # Find an id of tracpoint. 12 in my case.
xinput --set-prop 12 'libinput Accel Speed' 1.0Persisting this method requires adding the set-prop command to the .xinitrc (before exec gnome-session).
/usr/local/bin/my_init.sh:
echo 180 > /sys/bus/serio/devices/serio2/sensitivityEven if there are multiple devices in sys/bus/serio/devices, only the touchpad have a sensitivity file present. Also see this post.
I tried to persist it using systemd, but it’s a wrong way to go in this case. You need udev rule. See https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=165213.
You can see existing udev description using udevadm info -a -p /sys/bus/serio/devices/serio2.
My /etc/udev/rules.d/10-trackpoint.rules:
ACTION=="add",SUBSYSTEM=="input",ATTR{name}=="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint",ATTR{device/sensitivity}="180",ATTR{device/speed}="180"
xinput method ranges between -1.0 and 1.0. I went for 1.0. sensitivity ranges between 128 and 250. I went for 180. It is quite speedy and it took me a few days to adjust, but now it’s much more efficient.
Almost everything worked as expected after installing xorg and gnome.
I had to choose a libgl library when install xorg. There were 4 alternative libgl implementations. I went for mesa-libgl, since alternatives were from nvidia and this thinkpad has an integrated intel graphics card.
To verify that you are running the best resolution, WQHD (2560x1440), run:
xrandr 1 ↵Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1440, maximum 8192 x 8192 eDP-1 connected primary 2560x1440+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 310mm x 174mm 2560x1440 60.00*+ ...
You make take a look first at the Arch Wiki HiDPI section.
Majority of applications, including chromium, emacs and termite correctly handled the HiDPI. Some apps, like xscreensaver or xterm were displaying too small windows, not aware of the HiDPI screen. It seems that HiDPI is correctly handled system wide (xdpyinfo reports correct dpi and resolution), but just some old apps did not adapt yet. I tried messing with ~/.Xresources. After no success, I decided that it’s not worth it, since the only affect app I use is xscreensaver.
I didn’t add & when adding this line to xrdb.
Sound and microphone worked without any special setup.
The laptop comes with built in HDMI port.
When I plug the HDMI it “just works”. Resolution is not auto detected and by default I only see “part” of the screen. In gnome, I had to go to Settings->Displays and change the resolution of the secondary screen. 4K resolution (4096x2160) is supported. Mirroring displays works as expected on the TV, although I had some issues with mirroring using a projector.
By default, sound plays from the laptop speaker. In gnome, I can choose to play it over HDMI in Settings->Sound.
- For init scripts that apply system wide you need to create a systemd service (Type=oneshot for just init scripts)
- For init scripts that interact with devices you need to create a udev rule.
- For user specific configuration that applies to graphical interface, add it to
~/.xinitrc. - For you shell configuration add it to
~/.bashrc(or~/.zshrcin my case). - To auto start gnome apps:
mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
cp /usr/share/applications/emacs.desktop ~/.config/autostart # Some apps may also be in ~/.local/share/applicationsIt’s nice to automatially connect to wifi when you boot, rather than run wifi-menu every time.
sudo pacman -S wpa_actiond
# find an interface name with iv dev
sudo systemctl enable netctl-auto@wlp4s0.serviceAlso see: Netctl wiki entry Wireless network configuration wiki entry To disable the service and add a new wifi entry I simply use this bash alias:
wifi() {
sudo systemctl disable netctl-auto@wlp4s0.service
sudo wifi-menu
sudo systemctl enable netctl-auto@wlp4s0.service
}Mass installing “gnome” package is against the arch philosophy, as it pulls many unnecessary things with it. If you have extra time you should pick invididual gnome packages or go for lighter WM. If you want an easy way out you can just:
pacman -S gnome gnome-initial-setup xorg-xinit xterm xorg-utils
echo "exec gnome-session" >> ~/.xinitrc
startxGnome pulls lots of stuff that I never used. You may want to uninstall some packages that you don’t use from gnome:
pacman -Q | grep gnome # See how much things you have just installed.
pacman -Rc gnome-keyring gnome-contacts gnome-calculator empathy gnome-terminalgnome-terminal worked initially, but then it refused to start. I much more prefer termite as an terminal and it didn’t experience the same issue. My ~/.config/termite/config.
Personally, I just spend 99% of my time in 3 programs: emacs, chromium and termite+tmux. I do the tiling and workspace management inside Emacs or tmux. I would get minimal additional benefit out of a tiling wm. The only things I need from the window manager are supplied by plain gnome:
- Switch focus to emacs/chromium/termite with wmctrl.
- Move window one monitor left (
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-monitor-left) and right (move-to-monitor-right) - Auto maximize windows and remove decorations with https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/maximus/.
gnome-screensaver was buggy when I tried to use it and I decided to use xscreensaver instead.
If you want a xscreensaver with an image as a screensaver:
sudo pacman -S xscreensaver
sudo pacman -S libgnome # Required if you use gnome. Pacman do not pick it by default.
# See http://askubuntu.com/questions/74200/how-do-i-use-a-photos-directory-as-my-screensaver
xscreensaver-demo # Opens a GUI to configure
echo "xscreensaver -no-splash &" >> ~/.xinitrc # Make sure it's before any exec entry.
xscreensaver-command -lock # Command to lock screenAlso see XScreenSaver wiki entry.
You can bind it to a key in gnome settings->keyboard->custom shortcuts.
You may also bind it using gsettings set command.
I didn’t like the default gnome nautilus file manager and I installed thunar instead.
vlc is the most reasonable choice in this category.
TODO Verify that SSD trims are aplied. Optimize for SSDs
Basic mount works. I did not configure auto mounting yet. I’ve also heard that alternative ntfs impelementation, NTFS-3G, is better than kernel version.
- SimCard
- SmartCard
- Media Card
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/disk_encryption
Althought it seems to last pretty long.
Currently I just use some settings from xscreensaver https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Power_management#Power_management_with_systemd
After a few months of usage my thoughts about the laptop are: WQHD screen:
- Almost all apps I use regularly handle it well, including chromium, emacs, termite (terminal), thunar and transmission
- The only two apps that don’t handle WQHD well are xscreensaver and gimp. I feel that there would be a way of making them work if I really wanted.
Keyboard: After few months of I use I must say that keyboard does not feel “as good”. I may be overly snobish regarding keyboards, as I bought over 5 mechanical keyboards. I never expected laptop keys to feel as good as mechanical keyboard, but I slightly preferred feeling of the mac book keyboard.
Others:
- As I got used to trackpoint I find it more efficient than trackpad or mouse
- I didn’t try the sim card of fingerprint readers yet
- I didn’t have any other problems with anything hardware related
- battery life seems to be ok, but I didn’t measure it
- I believe accidental damage coverage to be a good deal. For 10% of the laptop cost I bought a 4 year coverage that will cover fixing my laptop in any scenario, even if I drop it or spill water on it.
I like the choice of Arch as the operating system. In addition to my laptop I also run arch in docker on all my servers and it’s beneficial to use the same OS at home and at work.
I didn’t have any big problems with running random software packages I needed at some point, including things like connecting to the vpn or watching movies.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_2) https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_3) https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1_Carbon_(Gen_4)
Many links on http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki are interesting, for example: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/X1_Linux_Tweaks