Last month, when Lenovo announced that it was going to certify its ThinkPad line for use with Linux operating systems, I thought of one device, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2.
Late last year, I described my device issues, and while at the time it was a fair criticism that my use of Fedora might not have been the best, with the news that Lenovo would offer to preload Ubuntu, Red Hat, and distributions. From Fedora, that choice was more relevant than I could have imagined at the time.
Since its announcement, a surprising number of firmware updates have appeared for the X1 Extreme.
It wasn’t mentioned last year, but the Synaptics fingerprint reader on the laptop was completely useless until about two weeks ago. That brand of readers had long been a pain point when paired with Linux, so it’s good to see that there is finally some support.
As usual with new Linux support, there are a couple of caveats. You can log in with your fingerprint, but GNOME 3 won’t unlock your keychain until you enter a password, so it’s best to enter a password when you log in and use the fingerprint to unlock the lock screen thereafter. At the other extreme, once a fingerprint is registered, sudo will require a fingerprint instead of a password. It’s really hard to have your cake and eat it too when it comes to desktop Linux.
But the biggest problem with the X1 Extreme was the hybrid graphics setup, which at the time seemed to be a choice between using only the Nvidia GPU or Intel’s integrated graphics.
After browsing the web for almost six months, I am happy to report that a solution was found: the xorg.conf lines are pretty much what is in the documentation, but I needed a BusID line for both the Nvidia device and the Intel device blocks
I have been using it like this for a couple of months. However, the screen sometimes freezes for a few microseconds, and each time it appears that the X server has crashed until the cursor moves thankfully when it catches up. So even when it works it’s not the best experience on offer.
If it wasn’t for the external display connection issues I discussed last year, it would be better to use the discrete or integrated GPU full-time, rather than messing with the Nvidia Prime output and X server settings.
It will be very intriguing how a certified ThinkPad laptop with hybrid graphics works when Lenovo starts launching them, but correctly configuring X server settings would have saved many hours of searching for solutions and trial and error testing.
This leaves only a big problem with the device. An entirely known but still to be addressed amount: battery life.
Part of the problem is that due to running hybrid graphics, and having no way in the Nvidia control panel or the BIOS to completely shut down the discrete GPU, it’s always sucking up an amount of power, even if it’s small.
Head over to the Lenovo site and it will claim that this device provides up to 14 hours. That’s at least double, if not triple, what you’ll get in the real world.
I once saw the remaining power widget say 16 hours in the first minute after 100% charging and removing the power cord, and I suspect a Lenovo engineer did it once too, I captured it as I did and wrote it in a sheet specification. However, a minute later, the fleeting fantasy ended and the laptop reported that there were less than 6 hours of battery left.
Seeing a number like this is similar to finding a unicorn at the bottom of the garden.
Screenshot: Chris Duckett / ZDNet
After months of use, every time the laptop says more than 4 hours of battery life is a good time. Lurk in the Lenovo forums and you will see that regardless of whether it is Linux or Windows, this type of number is normal for the course.
However, there were several things I did to get that number as high as I could.
The main one is to install Powertop to monitor energy use and get an idea of what’s going on. One thing I would recommend is allowing the powertop service to automatically set a number of options to maximize power usage.
One thing Powertop showed was that nine watts was going to the virbr0 network device. This virtual appliance provides connectivity to hypervisors, something I don’t run frequently here, so I turned it off. For similar reasoning, the ethernet port was disabled in the BIOS. Powertop also confirmed that Wi-Fi was drawing a lot of energy, and turning it off makes a real difference.
Bottom line, if you disable all networks, lower the screen as low as you can read without getting tired of your eyes instantly, and cross your fingers and toes, it could have a battery life of five and a half hours. . This still means that if the conferences ever return, you will head to a power outlet at lunchtime.
You are reading that correctly, an unused Ethernet port is absorbing more juice than a laptop screen.
Screenshot: Chris Duckett / ZDNet
In the past hour, I’ve seen more than 20% of the battery dissipate, and that’s roughly the standard discharge rate now. At least now it is below 30% per hour.
I point this out because I’m a person who doesn’t mind putting on rubber boots and making minor tweaks to Linux plumbing. After six months of this, I feel like I’ve taken it to a point where there is little potential performance left to squeeze out of the laptop.
Lenovo needs to ensure that it can provide a suitable, workable, and optimized Linux configuration from day one. Not months later, when users scour forum posts looking for a problem that closely resembles their current one.
Doing so for the Intel exclusive machine, like the regular X1 Carbon, should be a piece of cake, but since the company said it was going to certify its entire ThinkPad range, it will have to deal with troublesome kids like the X1 Extreme sooner or later. .
ZDNET MONDAY MORNING OPENER
The Monday Morning Opener is our opening salvo for the tech week. Since we have a global site, this editorial publishes Monday at 8:00 a.m. M. AEST in Sydney, Australia, which is at 6:00 p.m. M. Eastern Sunday Time in the US Written by a member of the ZDNet Global Editorial Board, which is comprised of our top editors in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.
